Taken in by Talbot

Taken in by Talbot
No, I didn’t make up a fake illness so I could get an appointment with the delicious young doctor. Nothing would have been more embarrassing. No, the first time I met Talbot properly was after I fainted at school and Miss Evans, our school nurse, drove me round there in the car.
It was so embarrassing. Then. It wouldn’t bother me now. I don’t have that sort of cycle any more anyway. So, I didn’t have proper periods, but boy, when they came did they hurt! The pain had been so bad I’d keeled over in the middle of a chemistry lesson. I’d smashed a test tube on the way and I’d got a nasty gash on my arm. When he first saw that, Talbot pulled a face and then sent for the nurse. He stayed out of the room whilst she cleaned it up and put a dressing on it.
“Well, well, Miss Fyonah McBride, what’s been happening to you?” he asked, when he came back in. “So much blood. Cutting your arm at the same time as you have your period. Careless! Careless!”
Now, of course, I understand how he knew all of that. And why he licked his lips and why his eyes grew round and his pupils big and then why he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. But then I was really surprised about how he could know about my period – I was such a shy little thing back then.
He sent Miss Evans away.
“We could put you on the pill,” he said.
I blushed and looked away.
“My mummy and my daddy would not be very happy about that,” I said.
“Oh, yes, the Pope,” said Talbot.
When I looked up again, he was grinning.
“Oh, Miss McBride,” he said. “There are other solutions, but you’re really too young for me to suggest those seriously.”
Something happened in that moment. I wasn’t sure then exactly what at the time. Now, I know it was a Talbot trick. But I was well and truly taken in. Then, in that moment as his eyes became silver and he looked at me with half smile on his lips, I knew why the other girls had wanted to go and see him.
My heart rate quickened.
“I’d better examine you,” he said.
A few moments later, I was lying on his couch with just my panties on and covered with a light blanket. He called the nurse in.
“You need a chaperone,” he said. “And don’t worry. I won’t be doing an internal exam today.”
He pulled the blanket down gently and started prodding at my tummy. “I’m sorry my hands are so cold,” he said.
I could hardly breathe. Yet I was able to notice that his nostrils were flaring slightly and that he seemed not to breathe. And at the same time it was incredibly soothing having his cool hands glide across my skin.
“It all seems normal,” he said. “It will all regularise in time. I’ll give you something for the pain.”
“What was the other thing you said I could do?” I asked as he gave me the prescription a few moments later.
“I didn’t,” he said. “I said there wasn’t anything else suitable for someone as young as you.”
“I am nearly sixteen,” I said.
He smiled and this time his eyes seemed to glow gold. “Too young,” he said. “A pity.”
My heart really began to race now. I wanted to see him again. I wanted him to touch me again. I wanted the silkiness of him. I was almost thirsty for him. Even then.
He looked away. “Do come back, Miss McBride, if you have any more problems.” He said, his voice sounding like satin. He looked back at me.
I could not breathe at all now. I thought my heart would stop completely.
If Miss Evans had not come back in and whisked me away, I swear I would have never moved again.

Talbot’s Story : 1 a new doctor at the health centre

I saw him the first time when I’d just got off the school bus. It was his first day. He got out of his low-slung sports car and took a box off the back seat. Some of the papers from the top of the box blew away and I caught them for him.

I blushed when I gave them back to him. He winked at me. He’s got really sparkly eyes and he’s quite young. He’s tall and dark. Slim. Every girl’s romantic dream?  

Well, that’s what it seemed like when I got back to St Catherine’s. They’d all heard about the new doctor at St Kilda’s health Centre.

“I’m getting my mummy to make an appointment with him,” said Deborah McShay. “About the pain I keep getting in my back. In my lower back, so that I’ll have to take a lot of my clothes off.”  

“Pain in the arse, more like,” said Kitty McGivern. “I wonder if he’s into plastic surgery. You could ask him for a boob job.”

“I don’t need that,” replied Deborah. “But maybe young Fyonnah here….”

She was right. Flat-chested or what? I’d watched all the other girls in my class spread and bloom and if it wasn’t for my long hair and the St Catherine’s floor-length skirt…. I could be taken for a bloke. I wore a bra but I didn’t really need it. I did have periods but they were light and irregular.   

Then.

It’s different now.

After Talbot.

It makes me laugh to think of the way they all trooped in to see him, with excuse after excuse.

I was too shy to do that, back then.

And it was so bizarre the way I did eventually get to be treated by him.   

It’s funny. None of them know the truth about Talbot. It is I, shy Fyonnah McBride, who knows the whole story.              

I’m not shy now, though. Not after Talbot.

         

  

Talbot

You need to steer clear of Talbot. I didn’t. And that’s why I’m the way I am now. It hasn’t worked out too badly for me. I have Patrick now. We have this difficult monthly cycle, though.

It’s a shame I didn’t meet Patrick before I saw Talbot that time in that dark alley.

I shouldn’t have been on my own.

I shouldn’t have been out that late.

And I shouldn’t have turned when he called me.

No, you need to keep away from Talbot.

He is no good.

Steer clear of him.

Keep right away.

He is very bad news.       

Still, maybe I couldn’t cope with Patrick’s strange ways if it wasn’t for what Talbot did to me.

Maybe I should be grateful.

But you should be afraid. Very afraid.   

Talbot is … Talbot.