#SANITATCM. 003

[frser]

his wife had the same need for healing , a want to do better for mankind ; that no one was truly lost - that through medicine , hands could bring one back from the brink of death. it was a beautiful thing , a thing done out of love for mankind. loving claire seems tangible - as if it were only a day away but , with the memories come the realization that indeed time had passed. she still hadn't made her way back to him yet ? he cannot help but allow a slow smile to accent features and show the aged lines of a life truly lived.

' i think you will find mr. enys that not everyone has such progressive thinking as you do ... ' humor skirts , his name now chopped and exchanged for alexander malcom - a printer now it seems, ' though , new world medicine it seems is here to stay , tell me - do you find most of your patients fight you on your treatment ? ' the words ache with memory ; of times before he found himself torn from a land that he loved with all his heart.

hiraeth - a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return , perhaps a home that never was. he feels such a noun so acutely.

his hands stained by ink as he starts anew ; no , he didn't mind starting over - his heart so lodged within another's. it seemed as if he always belonged to someone else. / s. @sanitatcm

[frser]

there is a turn , of course perhaps melancholic but ? in truth , he had always known that nothing in this life was promised - let alone each day. he has mourned claire , a part of himself dying within that process but ? when years turned to decades ... one finds that one's belief wavers. he would wish this upon no living man. there is of course , the idea that mr enys had his own heartache to shoulder. that they were bonded over a loss that took root in the idea that man does not forget ... that love has a way of anchoring one to another so uniquely.

' she is no longer with me ... ' the words said with a sort of honestly , and truth that is all but subdued in it's admittance. ' ah you flatter me , for i would be more than interested in your work ... the wars taught me to have a great respect for those who could work miracles , my wife was of course among those - it's a comfort to me perhaps to know that the good work is still being carried out ' a half smile forms ,

' hmm ... printing work is met with the idea that you walk a fine line everyday , do we honor those who have a unique way of thinking ? do i risk my neck ' the smile growing wider in formation , ' i must say i like nothing better than to give a voice to those who do not have one , that for me ? there is no better work ... though there are those who are keen to drive me out of such a profession '

he then looks at the other , ' you strike me as a forward thinking man , tell me , do you enjoy any other indulgences perhaps some gaming , chess ? '

dwight glances down to hide his smile. it seems so often that a woman is at the root of things. but he has no wish to judge the other - has no right to judge - for he himself has certainly not been immune... the recollection of a particular entanglement cause the smile to falter. he could pretend caroline's departure had played no part in his decision to accept his friend's invitation, but it would be a lie - one he could not even convince himself of. all the same, it means the look of softness - or is it wistfulness? - that creeps into the other man's eyes is more than familiar.

the description of her work, though, piques his interest in other ways. his first - albeit uncharitable - thought is that it sounds rather like that of some of the charlatans who play upon the superstitions and desperation of people who know no better. precisely the sort of ignorance he'd been slowly combating since he'd first begun his practice.

but... there is something in the way mr. malcolm speaks of her that quashes his silent doubts. the printer seems too sensible a man to be fooled by unscientific hocus-pocus - so she must have possessed some true skill. " it sounds as though she was remarkable indeed. a mark of any good healer is to have earned trust - and been able to keep it. " the next words are out of his mouth before he can think better of them. " is she -? " he'd been about to say 'dead' but he checks himself in time, following instead the printer's lead onto new subjects.

the smile that greets the question is genuine - and more than a little relieved to be putting darker notions aside. " it is everything i had hoped, " he says, the eagerness in his voice impossible to disguise. " i am convinced the latest developments are happening here far more quickly than in london, but... i have no wish to bore you with such talk, " he adds, suddenly too conscious of his own enthusiasm. " not when you surely have your own intriguing work to pursue... "