Welcome to the last week of our seven writer, four Tandem Post blog series. This week’s tricky title was audience-sourced and provided by Tim Van de Venter.
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JUST ONE OF THOSE PARADOXICAL OBSERVATIONS
“I’m the Doctor.”
“Doctor… who?”
“If you like. And tell me good sir, who might you be?”
“The name’s Watson. But you can call me John. I’m a medical doctor, formerly in the British army. What kind of a doctor are you?”
“I’m the Doctor.”
“Yes, you mentioned that. Going to keep it a little vague for the time being, huh?”
“Vague. Vogue. Vogon. Nice ring to those words, don’t you think?”
“Is there? I couldn’t say. I do however have quite a bit to get to, so was there anything I could help you with? In fact, I guess a further and rather more pressing question I might ask of you is how in the name of her good majesty did you manage to find yourself inside our apartment when I happen to possess one of the two keys and you are not the person who possesses the other?”
“Ah, you have me there. Bit of a mystery, really. Do you like mysteries, John?”
“I’m not sure that ‘like’ is the word I would go to. But they do seem to follow me around quite a bit.”
“Well, only reason that I bring it up really, is because in the few moments that I was in your room before you returned, I spotted a rather strange and unusual thing. Well, strange and unusual to me, that is, but I am not from around here so maybe you see this kind of thing all of the time.”
“To what might you be referring.”
“Oh, not what, Watson, this particularly strange and unusual would be firmly classified as a who.”
He motioned to the bedroom and without waiting for a response jump skipped his way through the door and stopped next to the bed. As Doctor Watson entered the room, he noticed a strange leg. Strange in that it was jutting out from under the bed. It didn’t take Watson long to ascertain that it had most definitely not been there when he had left earlier this morning. This indeed was a mystery and he started to wonder when the other one would be back. And what he would make of this strange doctor who had seemingly materialised in their living room.
“Well, doctor…? …um, doctor. It certainly does appear that you were correct. That is indeed a rather strange and unusual occurrence and even more interestingly, did you notice the sock?”
The Doctor had not noticed the sock, a missed detail which he hoped to put right instantly.
“It appears to be… um… of the sock variety… You know… sockish. Socky-wocky so to speak.”
He had run out of adjectives a lot more quickly than he had hoped in an unsuccessful bid to buy some time, for the mere fact that the sock in question seemed to be rather normal and a little boring and he was not quite sure what had excited Mister Watson.
“Doctor!”
“Ah yes, Doctor Watson. The sock. Well why don’t you tell me what you see and I can let you know if it’s the same thing I saw.”
“Gentlemen?”
Watson spun round to see that he had returned. He had done that on purpose, he thought. He was always about making an entrance.
“Doctors!” they both squawked, almost simultaneously, and a lot louder than at least John had intended.
“This is the doctor,” Watson stammered, realising the ridiculousness of the sound of that statement travelling over his lips.
“Doctor Who?”
“Yes, that’s right. And you must be… him!”
“Quite. I find this all quite amusing you must know.”
John didn’t know. And the Doctor seemed more delighted that he was finally having this encounter that he seemed giddy.
“You don’t find it amusing, John?”
“What ARE you talking about?”
“You know. I arrive home after a brisk morning walk at the park to find not one, but two doctors, in my house. A pair of you. A Who and in some ways a What. You have discovered what might quite possibly be a dead body under the bed, and instead of letting that minor detail get in your way, you seem to be more mesmerised by the man’s sock.
I must warn you that this is going to hurt quite a bit, Watson, but bear with me. Two doctors – a pair of docs. Staring at, or more correctly observing, a single sock covering a possibly dead man’s shin…”
He let his words trail and then fade in the air.
Watson did not get it, and he was now starting to get rather annoyed as he did whenever he realised Holmes was in silly game mode.
“Well John… Doctor… it would appear that this would all be nothing more than just one of those paradoxical observations. You get that John? A pair of docs observe a shin. Priceless.”
Watson sighed a long sigh and trudged off to go and put on a pot of tea. Which he couldn’t do. Because for some reason, completely blocking the stove in the kitchen was a full-sized blue police public call box.
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MAKE SURE you check out Megan’s piece which you can do by clicking here.
This was the fourth and final week of our Tandem Blog Post series in which seven writers receive a title every week and then produce whatever the title inspires in them. Please try and read as many of them as you can. Each one links to the next…
We would LOVE it if you have a moment to write an impression/thought/response/encouragement in the comments section below the post you read… This has been a four week series and we all hope that you have enjoyed it very much – if there is a story/piece you particularly enjoy, feel free to SHARE it across your social media platforms…
If you missed any of my previous three posts in this series, please check them out:
![The Road to the Catan World Champs in Malta 2022! [Part II]](https://brettfish.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_9944-scaled-e1669831201283-500x383.jpg)
![The Road to the Catan World Champs in Malta 2022! [Part I]](https://brettfish.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/catanchampionships-500x383.jpg)
That is so completely, entirely you, Brett. Too funny.
And so we come full circle and immerse ourselves completely in the fun and silly irreverence of your blogs! Well played again, sir!