The Assistant
Incomparably orange.
There used to be an orangutan plush in Paediatrics A&E.
The HCAs called him King Louie, and he was the greatest assistant ever.
Crying children mortified by the sight of a man with a beard would start to grin, inflamed tonsils becoming visible as the orangutan held the stethoscopes to their chest, opening the door to the antibiotics that would heal them. Children who were so disturbed by the cough rising in their chest would settle at the absurdity of an orange-haired doctor with long old arms and a warm little smile.
I heard one day that they had thrown the orangutan out.
Infection Control had said he couldn’t be cleaned - though there were numerous uncleaned teddy bears littered about the place last time I checked - but in these viral times I suppose I can’t complain. Maybe those too have gone into storage or met their ends on a landfill. After all, anything that droplets might land on is a proto-petri dish in this day and age.
You did good while you were here my friend, way more so than others. So long.
You will not be forgotten.