anything.
While she was ranting, Jim shoved an injector against hera tranquilliser, Thorazine,
I think, or something about as powerful. We got her imo my car and ovar to the
hospital. Bell Memorial used the bed-first-paperwork-later check-in method, so jim
got her treatment started at orce. That done, he ordered a barbiturate for 9.o p:m,
and authorised a wet pack if she failed to quiet down.
I signed all sorts of papers, showed my American Express card, and we left – back to
Jim’s office, where he took a sample of my blood and a vaginal smear. ‘Maureen,
where was it you sent the boy?’
‘I don’t think he had anything to do with it, Jim.’
‘Don’t talk like your daughter, you stupid little broad – We don’t guess; we find
out.’
Jim dug into a reference listing, called a doctor in Grinnell. ‘Doctor, we’ll find
the lad and send him to you. Are you equipped to do the Morgan test? Do you have
fresh reagents and a polariser at hand?’
‘In a college town, Doctor? You can bet your last dollar I do!’
‘Good. We’ll track him down and chase him right over to your office, then I’ll wait
at this telecode for you to call me back.’
We were lucky; Donald was in his dormitory. ‘Donald I want you to go straight to Dr
Ingram. His office is downtown, across from Stewart Library. I want you to go right
now, this instant.’
`Mama, what is this all about?’ He looked and sounded upset.
‘Call me at home, tonight, from a secure phone, and I’ll tell you. I won’t discuss
it over a screen in the hallway of a dormitory. Go straight to Dr Ingram and do what
he tens you to. Hurry’
I waited in Jim’s private office for Dr Ingram’s call. While I was waiting Jim’s
nurse finished my tests. ‘Good news,’ she said. ‘You can go to the Sunday school
picnic after all.’
‘Thanks, Olga.’
`Too bad about your youngster. But with the drugs we use nowadays she’ll be home in
a couple of days, as healthy as you are.’
‘We cure ’em too fast,’ Jim said gruffly. ‘Catching something nasty used to teach
’em a lesson. Now they figure it’s no worse than a hangnail, so why worry?’
‘Doctor, you’re a cynic,’ Olga countered. ‘You’ll come to a bad end.’
After an agonising wait, Dr Ingram called back. ‘Doctor, did you have reason to
suspect that this patient was infected?’
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‘No. But he had to be eliminated, under a VD trace required by Missouri state law.’
‘Well, he’s negative on both of those and on two or three other things I checked
while I was at it. He doesn’t even have dandruff. I don’t see why he would be
included in a VD search; I think he’s still a virgin. How shall I bill this?’
‘To my office.’
They switched off. I asked, ‘Jim, what was that about Missouri state law?’
He sighed. ‘Clap and pox are among the many diseases I must report but for venereal
diseases I not only have to report them but also I must co-operate in an effort to
find out where the patient contracted the disease. Then public health officers try
to follow each infection back to its source – impossible, since the original source
is somewhere centuries back in history. But it does serve to thin it out. I know of
one case here in town where spotting one dose of clap turned up thirty-seven other
cases before it ran off the map, to other cities or states. When the track does
that, our public health officers pass along the data to those other jurisdictions
and we drop that search.
‘But locating and curing thirty-seven cases of gonorrhoea is worth while in itself,
Maureen. The venereal diseases are ones we stand a chance of stamping out, the way
we did smallpox, because – do you know the definition of a venereal disease?’
(Yes, I do, but go ahead, Jim.) ‘No.’
‘A venereal disease is one that is so terribly difficult to catch that only
intercourse or deep kissing is likely to pass it on. That’s why we stand a chance of