IMAGES OF CONTENTMENT

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A car enters a residential area of London, a paradise of semi detached buildings. Most of the houses have gardens and one of them has an old man watering his own garden even when rain seems close at hand. A man steps out of the car. He is a blank faced, average looking man in his mid forties. He steps out in front of a house with a neat lawn that has a tree in its centre. A tree with thick, low hanging branches shedding its leaves in these first days of autumn. The man stops and looks at the oddity of a tree in the middle of a lawn, a tree double his size, darkening the pathway to the front door. He turns to look at the old man watering his garden, feels the first drops of rain, and then rings the bell of the semi-detached house. Almost instantly the door opens and a woman appears. She is clearly a housewife with children, one of those women perpetually frustrated at having given birth, and indeed, the frolic of children can be heard, high laughter, as well as the excited barks of a dog. The entire scene has the feel of absolute normality. 

Housewife: Doctor, come in. Thank you for coming, doctor, especially on such short notice. (Whispers) It was getting real messy. Just too messy for comfort, really. Come in, come in, please, doctor. 

The doctor enters. 

Doctor (pleasantly): I am at your beck and call, madame. Ready and servile. A man of service.

Housewife: Call me Emily, please. (hesitates but the reciprocity isn't forthcoming) Doctor, please, take your coat off, and hang it here. I'm sure you'll be here a while.

Doctor: Thank you Emily.

He takes his coat off and hangs it on the rack. He turns to find Emily's children standing next to her along with the dog. The children who look like twins stare curiously at the doctor. The dog, a black rottweiler, stands still for a moment too as if he was infected by the human manner of expressing curiosity, and stares at the doctor. He then reverts to his nature and sniffs the doctor. The doctor bends down and pets the dog. 

Doctor: The man of the hour. A big beast. The rottweiler is my favourite breed to come across and I'm fortunate to find many owners of rottweilers searching for my services. (Pause) How can something so menacing be so domesticated?

The dog shoots away from him into the adjacent room. Its alacrity passes to the children. They race after it with their high laughter.

Emily: He was easily domesticated too. We had him since he was a puppy. By three months he was house trained and doing tricks. He had been so obedient until…

Doctor: Nature called. 

Emily: That's right. Until nature called; and boy does she call…call and call. To tell you the truth, I didn't know it would get so messy. Come this way. Let me show you where I thought we could do this. 

Doctor: Gladly. I'm yours to lead. 

Emily leads the doctor to a little closet underneath the stairs. In the little closet are dark towels on top of dark blankets. 

Emily: So we don't have to move him afterwards. I'm sorry I'm not very familiar with these kinds of things. I've never owned a pet before. Considering the event, I thought darkness might be appropriate.

Doctor: You've accomplished things with expertise. 

The dog barks loudly several times.

A loud, virile bark. A timely encounter.

Emily: of course I would never even consider it if it wasn't for the messiness. 

Doctor: I understand. I'm pleased you have told the children to play with him. Before such a procedure, it's beneficial to tire the boy out. Nothing tires out boys more than little girls.

He chuckles at his joke.

Emily: Believe me, the girls are happy to oblige. They are rampant with energy.

Doctor: How old are they?

Emily: three. Both of them.

Doctor: Because they're twins?

Emily: That's right. 

A man comes down the staircase. He is dressed and looks fresh either from satisfying sleep or a morning wash or both. There is nothing but complete unconcern and excellent health exuding from him. The sound of rain lashing down on the house accompanies his entrance.

Emily: George, the doctor is here for Caleb.

Doctor: Is that the boy's name?

George (Grandly): Doctor, you come straight from the heavens like the rain to wash away the troubles. Did she... tell you about the…tribute to excitement?

Doctor: Indeed she did.

Emily: I sure did. Of course I did, that's the first thing I said. 

George: Now, now, I didn't mean anything by it. I just wanted to know if the doctor knew why. We have to justify ourselves at times, don't we, darling? Let's have some coffee. What's say you, doctor?

Doctor: I say, why not? But we have to be mindful that we don't miss our window of opportunity.

Emily: Don't worry. The alarm has been set, shall we say.

George: Splendid. On y va, as the French say.

All three went to the dining room, through the kitchen. The dining room had a table and a smoking kettle of coffee ready, with three empty cups waiting. 

Emily: Just in case.

Doctor: With such warm people, how can anyone refuse a cup of coffee.

George, standing on the Doctor's right side, lifts his right arm to place it on the Doctor's right shoulder. He starts to massage it.

George: And us, it's not everyday we have the privilege of a specialist such as yourself among us. An honour!

The doctor smiles humbly but makes no remark. Throughout the entire time that the three characters are in the dining room, the children and the dog flit in and out, seemingly inexhaustible with infinite energy, and every time they come in the trio stare at them with the warm smiles of adults watching children at play. There is never any sense of the magnitude of the event that is about to occur. George massages the doctor into a seat, and then takes his own next to him.

George: I always wanted to ask a specialist like yourself, Doctor. Do you do rats as well?

Doctor (surprised): Rats, did you say? What for?

George: It seems like a waste, this...extermination. Not a waste but rather illogical, I mean, when there are other measures that could be taken.

Doctor: What do you mean?

George: I saw a rat sniffing around our garden a few days ago around the time we called you for Caleb. My first thought, which was quickly executed, was to get the poison out and spread it on its trails, hoping it would come to find the death pellets on one of its return journeys. But then I thought of Caleb and his fortune. What if the same could be done for rats? Catch them I mean, and call in the specialist, like yourself. 

Doctor: You mean to allow the rat to live out its natural life in your house?