《The Small Sealmen of Sharpy Island》Chapter 23: DOCTOR FIGHT!

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William had been mourning privately in the master bedroom when the sounds of raised voices came from downstairs. Though hardly in a good state of mind, he felt obligated to see what the fuss was about; he threw on the nearby striped gray and blue robe and descended the main staircase in a hurry.

"I HEAR FOOTSTEPS!" Dr. Fossey, stil worked up, exclaimed to Augusta and Albert, "IS THAT THE MAN? DOES HE APPROACH?"

The mother and son looked to one another not sure how to respond. As William peeked around the corner, the rage in the doctor's face seemed to briefly switch to confusion.

"That's not the man," he said with a slight hint of bewilderment.

" 'Not the man'?" William repeated, looking the new visitor over, "What this is about? Who exactly are you?"

"William, this is Dr. Fossey," stated Augusta, not sure how her brother-in-law was holding up with all the strange and tragic happenings.

William's eyes lit up. "Oh! Dr. Fossey! Oh, thank goodness you're here!" His heart then sank. "Oh, doctor, what took you so long? So much time has passed, and so many terrible things have occurred..."

"I TRIED to come as soon as I was summoned," Fossey insisted, the red returning to his face, "but as I just told your help-"

"-We're family," interjected Augusta, wanting to make clear the doctor knew. The doctor, however, paid her no mind.

"-I was assaulted and delayed by the man at the docks! By a pure fluke I am freed and here for justice!"

William looked to Augusta and Albert.

"Dr. Gramheist," Augusta said dryly.

" 'Dr. Gramheist' ?" William replied, confusion to his tone. "But why on earth would Dr. Gramheist..."

There was the sounds of heavier footsteps now coming from the direction of the main staircase. Almost as if speaking his name summoned him, a groggy-looking Dr. Gramheist popped around the corner. He too was wrapped in a bathrobe, and his hair was in disarray, almost as if it had been licked by an elephant.

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"You know, some of us are still trying to sleep," he muttered rudely, unaware of who stood in the hallway. However, as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, the form of Dr. Fossey suddenly became clear to him.

"YOU!" Fossey furiously exclaimed, instantly recognizing his accused attacker, "YOU'RE THE MAN FROM THE DOCKS!"

Gramheist tensed up at the voice.

"Who...what...who is this?" he stuttered, trying to play innocent.

"This is Dr. Fossey," Augusta said again. No sooner had she introduced the fellow than Dr. Fossey was leaping across the room, arms out-stretched.

"I'LL SHOW YOU WHAT HAPPENS TO MEN WHO ASSAULT ME!" Dr. Fossey wailed, wringing his hands around Dr. Gramheist's neck and knocking the portly man to the floor. The two began to roll back and forth in a struggle; William, aghast at the behavior, stared wide-eyed with his jaw agape. Augusta and Albert, however, merely put their arms behind their backs and watched the fight with fascination.

"You- hey! Stop! What are you doing?!" William cried out but was ignored.

"Albert, darling," Augusta looked to her son, "if I were a betting woman, my money would be on Dr. Fossey."

"If I were a gambling man, my money would also be on Dr. Fossey," Albert replied.

"Of course it would be. I didn't raise a fool."

Dr. Gramheist and Dr. Fossey, as they grappled with each other, had rolled from the hallway into the sitting room. Behind them was the large window with a fine view of waves crashing on the shore below. Perhaps because he had had a chance to become somewhat familiar with the house from his arrival yesterday, Dr. Gramheist knew that nearby was an end table with a decorative wooden ship figurine. He quickly kicked Dr. Fossey off of him and rush over, grabbing the statue and chucking it in Dr. Fossey's direction. The ship barely missed its target, shattered into many pieces on the floor.

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"You coward!" Dr. Fossey hissed, "come back over here and fight me in hand-to-hand combat like a real man!"

"I'd be careful," Dr. Gramheist replied, rushing to the wall and ripping one of the golden painted decorative startfish from it, "I may not miss the next time!"

"ENOUGH!" William called as he rushed into the room, the two men finally hearing his protests. "This is my house! I have had the most dreadful twenty four hours of my life! I demand to know what's going on!"

The two doctors looked at one another, each with disgust.

"As I said," Dr. Fossey repeated, "this man waylaid me at the docks as I was trying to come out here yesterday!"

"And?" William turned to Dr. Gramheist, "Is that true? Did you assault this man at the docks?"

There was a pause but finally Gramheist nodded his head. "I did, yes."

Augusta rolled her eyes. "You did? How surprising. You struck me as an individual of such noble character before this."

"Why would you do that?" William pressed.

"Because he waylaid me last summer at the train station!" Dr. Gramheist insisted, pointing an accusatory finger at Dr. Fossey. Fossey, now suddenly on the defensive, took a step back.

"-Me? Waylaid you?" he protested, "I don't even know who you are!"

Dr. Gramheist took a step forward. "Are you sure? Look at my face, and imagine me twenty pounds lighter!"

Dr. Fossey scrunched his nose as he squinted to examined Dr. Gramheist. His eyes then grew large.

"Thurmank Bucyrus?" he gasped, "Is...is that you?"

"It is, Reginald!"

"I thought you were Vesuvius Gramheist," cut in Augusta.

"What? Why are you going by that name now?" Dr. Fossey looked to the large man before him. "Isn't Vesuvius a volcano? What sort of person is named after a volcano?"

Dr. Gramheist did not flinch. "You are avoiding the fact that you assaulted ME first!"

"Why did anyone get assaulted?" Augusta asked, suddenly having a craving for a bowl of popcorn and to sit down and watch the drama unfold. It was an odd sensation for someone in 1909 to have.

"Yes, Reginald," pushed Dr. Gramheist a.k.a. Thurmank Bucyrus, "why did anyone get assaulted?"

"My wife, Minnie, is upstairs," William remarked, hoping to be heard, "I really think she needs to be looked at, Dr. Fossey, before we get too far astray..."

But Dr. Fossey seemed more focused on wording his response to the question just posed to him than tending to the injured woman he had come to the island to examine.

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