A New York Haunting: Pt. 12

"I ---" she began, then looked aside.

Dr. Mullenix had joined them, his face bearing a puzzled expression. "Mrs. Van der Veen, what happened?" he asked. "After I received your message this morning, I did not expect to see you here."

"I changed my mind," she said, looking up at Anders, her voice aching with emotion.

Befuddled, he looked from the girl to his mentor. "What are you talking about?"

The surgeon smiled. "There is one other piece of news I needed to tell you, but after I received Mrs. Van der Veen's message, it did not signify anymore. I was going to share it with you once at sea." He reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a small slip of paper which he passed to the younger man.

Unfolding it, Anders saw the heading THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY. It was addressed to Sherwood Mullenix and dated yesterday. The wind fluttered the corners of the paper as he read:

I remember Mr. Røkke perfectly. Admissions committee received transcript and references. Surgical residency position is his at Johns Hopkins. William Halsted

His stunned gaze flew to Dr. Mullenix. Dr. William Halsted --- Mullenix's own mentor --- the most preeminent surgeon in the country, if not the world! He had met the man two years ago when Mullenix had honored him with an invitation to dine with him and the visiting legend.

Mullenix nodded shrewdly. "After my eye-opening conversation with Mrs. Van der Veen at the dinner party, I took it upon myself to forward your application to Halsted. Thank God, the Cornelissens' reach does not extend to Baltimore."

He motioned towards the telegram. "Upon receiving his reply, I enlisted Ellen's assistance in telephoning the Cornelissen residence yesterday. Fortunately, Ondine was allowed to converse with a lady wishing to discuss an upcoming tea party. Ellen gave her my message: Anders' career is safe --- he has a position at Johns Hopkins --- join us tomorrow --- we are leaving for the continent on the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse."

The surgeon glanced at Ondine. "This morning on the sidewalk, the message I received was her heartbroken refusal."

"I was too frightened to contemplate leaving ... at first," she murmured, her hands grasping the sides of Anders' coat.

His pulse leapt. "You're coming with us?!" It was then he noticed the uniformed porter standing behind her with a trunk on a cart.

"Our surgery textbook needs illustrations, does it not?" Mullenix smiled, twirling the end of his mustache.

"And Johns Hopkins Medical School accepts women," Ondine said, her eyes alight.

Anders looked from one to the other, a lump forming in his throat. Overcome, he threw his arms around his mentor. "Thank you, sir --- thank you!"

"Whoa, big fella. That's a lot of emotion all at once. Take care, lest there be ill effects," he joked.

Anders abruptly twisted to Ondine and swept her gloriously corset-free form into his arms, lifting her off her feet as her hands clung to his neck. Heart swimming, he drank in her darling, rosy-cheeked face --- her big andalusite eyes, her rumpled rose petal lips. And heedless of the public surroundings, he tilted his head and pressed his mouth to hers --- warm lips meeting, cold noses touching, they kissed and kissed.

The sound of a throat clearing restored him to his senses, and he set Ondine's feet back to the ground.

Mullenix was grinning at them. "What? No kiss for me?"

As Anders and Ondine wordlessly gazed at each other, the surgeon spoke aside for a moment to his valet before turning back to them. "Okay, time to board, lovebirds."

The group headed for the gangplank, the porter following. The surgeon nudged Anders' arm. "Perhaps you two can discover if the myth of ships' captains having the power to officiate marriages is true."

"It's rather irregular, sir," the porter interjected. "I would suggest you wait until the ship is safely at sea to inquire about it."

Dr. Mullenix paused to let the porter go ahead of them. In a low voice he said, "I wager it will be at least a couple hours until then. No doubt you two can find some way to pass the time." He winked.

Anders and Ondine exchanged looks, the heat rising in his cheeks in concert with her blush. He grabbed her mittened hand and they ran up the gangplank.

*** The End ***

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Author's note:

The method of connecting blood vessels --- the subject of Anders' and Dr. Mullenix's article --- must in reality be credited to French surgeon Alexis Carrel.

In 1894, when Carrel was a medical student at the University of Lyon, French President Sadi Carnot fell victim to an assassin's knife that severed a major abdominal blood vessel, leading to his death by exsanguination. The event left a deep impression on Carrel, driving his subsequent development of vascular surgery techniques.

Inspired by needlework learned from a French embroideress, he developed the triangulation technique (referenced in the story) in which traction applied by three sutures allowed for continuous suturing and minimized damage to blood vessel walls. For this pioneering work, Dr. Carrel received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine in 1912. His innovations in vascular surgery paved the way for organ transplantation and heart surgery.

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CONTENTS

Pt. 01

1. A Dinner at Delmonico's

2. Long Ago and Faraway

3. A Mysterious New Patient

4. An Unorthodox Assignment

5. Improper Musings

Pt. 02

6. Fulton Fordyce

7. Ondine's Secret

8. The Rowing Club

9. Simone

Pt. 03

10. French Lessons

11. Caught in the Act

12. Ada

13. A Fine Pickle

14. A Chance Encounter

Pt. 04

15. The Green Fairy

16. A Troubling House Call

17. Bedside Observations

Pt. 05

18. The Dumbwaiter

19. The Ghost

20. Research

21. The Awkward Conversation

Pt. 06

22. A Clandestine Appointment

23. Wisdom Eyes

24. A Lucky Encounter

Pt. 07

25. Hypnosis

26. Peter Van der Veen

27. A Shocking Gift

28. The Problem Handled

Pt. 08

29. The Marriage Proposal

30. The Wedding Debacle

31. Investigation

32. Bellevue Morgue

33. The Specimen Jar

Pt. 09

34. Town Topics

35. A Rosy Future?

36. Eeny Meeny Miny Mo...

37. The Sailing Excursion

38. Hiding Out

Pt. 10

39. Madison Square Garden

40. Circe Invidiosa

41. The Reluctant Patient

42. Detective Donnelly

43. A Warning

Pt. 11

44. Thin Ice

45. An Experiment Proposed

46. The Laboratory

47. Testing the Hypothesis

Pt. 12

48. An Anatomy Lesson

49. The Fundamental Question

50. Unscripted

51. Tristan and Isolde

52. Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse