Ken McClure - The Anvil

‘Good,’ said Coulson. ‘First, perhaps I should warn you… ‘

Tansy had started to get up from her chair; she sank back down again.

‘You may find this distressing. Skin burns can be… unpleasant.’

Tansy had gone rigid. Her knuckles were showing white as she listened to Coulson, her eyes filled with trepidation. MacLean reached over and put his hand on hers.

‘I’m ready,’ said Tansy, her voice almost a croak.

Coulson said, ‘Carol is heavily sedated. There is no need to put on a brave face for her sake.’

Coulson led the way along a long corridor with glass on one side, which allowed them to look out at lawns in the sunshine.

‘First we go in here.’

They entered a room where two nurses took their outdoor clothes and helped them into surgical gowns and masks. MacLean wished that there could have been more contact with the nurses for Tansy’s sake. She needed womanly comradeship.

‘Carol’s in here,’ said Coulson opening an adjoining door and leading them into a small side-ward with half-closed Venetian blinds. Carrie was a small bundle on the bed, swathed in white bandage and flanked by two nurses who were arranging an instrument tray. MacLean’s heart went out to her. She seemed so small and vulnerable. He nudged Tansy to move along a bit, pretending that he needed more room but he was really trying to ensure that she saw more of Carrie’s good right side.

The nurses went to work with scissors. Periodically they would stop and apply saline soaked swabs to deal with any stickiness in the dressings. MacLean looked at Tansy out of the corner of his eye and saw that her eyes were like saucers above her mask. He tried to take her hand but she drew away.

The preparatory work was done. Coulson took over and started to unwind strand after strand of gauze. He dropped them silently into a steel dish. There was now nothing left to remove save for the two dressing pads. Coulson removed the right one and MacLean felt emotion well up in him at the first sight of the familiar little face. He saw Tansy’s eyes start to moisten.

Coulson had more trouble with the other pad. It was sticking. It took several applications of saline before it was freed and he lifted it clear. The left side of Carrie’s face was in partial shadow but MacLean could see the damage. It was horrific. The tissue from just under her left eye to well below her jawline had been utterly destroyed. As he had feared, Carrie’s mouth had been badly affected. She would probably not be able to speak.

Tansy was transfixed with horror. Coulson started to say something but she turned on her heel and flew out the door.

‘Nurse!’ said Coulson.

‘I’ll go,’ said MacLean.

Tansy was running blindly back along the corridor; she sent two nurses spinning. MacLean saw her burst out of the door at the end of the corridor. He followed and found her clinging to a cherry blossom tree in full bloom. She had both hands on the trunk but she was not weeping or making any sound at all. MacLean moved up slowly behind her and placed his hands gently on her shoulders

Tansy spun round on him like a gun turret. ‘You did that!’ she hissed. ‘You did that to Carrie! It’s your fault!’

The words tore through MacLean. He offered no defence. What Tansy said was true. She was now hysterical. She thumped her fists on MacLean’s chest while he stood there with tears running down his face while the sun filtered through the blossom above him.

Quite suddenly, Tansy’s blind anger was spent. She collapsed in floods of tears on to MacLean’s chest, begging him to forgive her. He held her close and ran his fingers through her hair telling her there was nothing to forgive. He knew well enough that what she’d said was true and said so.

‘No, no, no,’ cried Tansy. ‘I asked you to stay. I practically begged you to stay.’

The nurses had now caught up with them and were coming across the lawn. MacLean signalled with his hand that they should stay back. He wrapped his arm round Tansy’s shoulder and led her further away from the building so that they were completely alone.

‘I didn’t know what I was saying,’ sobbed Tansy. ‘When I saw Carrie’s face… ‘

‘I know,’ soothed MacLean. ‘I know.’

‘Oh Sean, what are we going to do?’ asked Tansy. She looked up at MacLean with eyes filled with pain and hopelessness.

‘I am going to make you a promise,’ said MacLean.

Tansy’s eyes asked the question.

‘I am going to give you Carrie back just the way she was. I can do it but I will need your help.’

Tansy’s eyes grew wide and confused. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘You saw her face, her mouth… ‘

‘I can repair the damage with Cytogerm,’ said MacLean.

‘But that’s all in the past,’ said Tansy.

‘I’ll get some,’ said MacLean.

The first flicker of hope appeared in Tansy’s eyes but she said, ‘Even if you could, Carrie’s face is so bad… ‘

‘I’ve seen worse. I can do it.’

‘But how will you get it?’

‘I’m going back to Geneva. I’m going to steal it from Lehman Steiner.’

‘You’re crazy!’ exclaimed Tansy. ‘They’ll kill you!’

‘They think I’m dead,’ said MacLean. ‘And even if they didn’t they wouldn’t think of looking for me right on their own doorstep.’

‘But how d’you know that it still exists?’

‘I don’t,’ admitted MacLean. ‘That’s one of three gambles we must take.’

‘Three?’

‘First we have to presume that Lehman Steiner will still have supplies of Cytogerm; second we have to gamble that Carrie will have no dormant cancer cells in her body at the time of surgery and thirdly, this venture may cost a lot of money.’

‘I’ll have the insurance settlement on the bungalow.’

‘We may need that.’

Tansy sobbed. ‘Every penny, every last penny.’

Tansy and MacLean rejoined Coulson in his office where Tansy apologised for her outburst.

‘I was afraid your daughter’s appearance would be quite a shock to you,’ said Coulson, gathering the papers in front of him and opening his desk drawer. ‘But it’s amazing what we can do these days.’

Coulson outlined the procedures he had in mind for Carrie while continuing to clear his desk. He spoke of a series of skin grafts.

MacLean listened with a heavy heart; Tansy hung on to every word. ‘What period of time are we talking about?’ she asked.

‘Several years I’m afraid,’ replied Coulson.

Tansy felt her heart sink but her expression didn’t change. She knew she had to consider what would happen if MacLean could not get hold of Cytogerm but she was asking questions like an automaton. ‘Where would you get the tissue to rebuild Carrie’s face?’ she asked.

‘Basically, from other parts of her body,’ said Coulson, ‘Thighs, buttocks etcetera. We’ll use this.’ He picked up what looked like a deflated balloon from his desk. ‘We insert one of these under the patient’s skin and inflate it gradually over a period of time. New skin is forced to grow over the device providing a surplus supply for grafting.’

Tansy nodded but she was thinking about something MacLean had once said when he was telling her about the magic of Cytogerm. The thing she remembered was that, ‘grafting backsides on to faces was never that effective’.

MacLean was remembering the same comment and wishing he’d never made it.

Coulson looked at his watch and sat upright in his chair as a signal that the meeting was at an end. ‘Are there any more questions?’ he asked.

‘I don’t think so,’ said Tansy. She turned to MacLean.

‘Presumably the first operation is still some way off?’ said MacLean.