**The Matchmaker**
Martha Wilson felt a twinge in her heart and called for a doctor to visit her at home. It wasnt that she was terribly unwelljust that she had no one to talk to. The doctor who arrived was new, someone Martha had never seen beforea young, slender woman with tear-stained eyes. Sticking out of her bag was a long cucumber.
«Come in,» Martha invited the doctor inside.
Flustered, the young doctor left the bag with the cucumber in the hallway, kicked off her boots, and stepped into the living room. Martha had never seen a doctor remove their shoes in a patients home before, which immediately made her warm to the woman.
«Heart trouble?» the doctor asked gently, sitting beside the bed where Martha had settled.
«That wretched thing,» Martha confirmed. «It wont stop pounding. First in my heels, then my knees, then my earsand sometimes in places Im too embarrassed to mention!»
The doctor pressed her delicate fingers around her stethoscope, listening to Marthas back and chest, frowning as she did.
«My knees,» Martha hinted. «Its really hammering theremaybe have a listen?»
The doctor shook her head firmly, making it clear knees were beyond her professional interest.
«Arrhythmia,» she declaredthen suddenly burst into tears so violently Martha panicked.
«Is it really that bad?» Martha gasped, feeling her heart thud like a jackhammer.
«No, not yoursmine!» the doctor sobbed. «Youll be fine with some pills, but me oh, me»
Martha brightened instantly. The prospect of a proper conversation made her heart settle right away.
«Husband trouble?» she asked briskly, fastening her dress.
«I dont have a husband! Thats the whole problem!»
«Ah, a boyfriend dumped you,» Martha deduced.
«Ill write you a prescription,» the doctor sniffled, wiping her face with her sleeve and pulling out a crumpled notepad.
«Pills can wait,» Martha interrupted. «Lets have some tea first.»
«But Im on duty,» the doctor protested, scribbling something illegible.
«So am I,» Martha said firmly, heading to the kitchen to brew some chamomile.
The doctor slumped after her, miserable, and for some reason kept the stethoscope in her ears.
«Take that thing out!» Martha scolded, pulling jam, biscuits, and chocolate-coated marshmallows from the cupboard.
The doctor yanked the stethoscope free and burst into tears again.
Now Martha really looked at hershe was practically a child. Freckles on her nose, chapped hands, and eyes full of despair.
«Out with it,» Martha ordered, settling at the table.
«I wrote you good pills,» the girl in the white coat wailed. «Really good ones!»
«I dont need pillsI need to know why youre crying!»
«Allergies to the cold,» the girl lied unconvincingly, sipping the scalding tea.
Martha checked the thermometer outside.
«Bit late for that, love. Its springten degrees out there!»
«Late?!» The girl burst into fresh tears. «Then it must be nerves!»
She stuffed a marshmallow into her mouth whole.
Seizing her chance, Martha blurted,
«Let me diagnose you. Youre crying because your man left you for someone else, right?»
«Mmm-hmm!» The girl nodded violently, tears plopping into her tea.
«And the other womanyour best friend?»
«My sister!» She swallowed the marshmallow and plugged her ears again.
«Your own sister?!» Martha clutched her chestthough her heart was fine now, eager for the drama.
«Stepsister,» the doctor sniffed. «But close enough.» She listened to her own heartbeat with the stethoscope, then pulled it out. «Ive got arrhythmia too. Got any valerian?»
«Plenty!»
Martha jumped up and fetched a homemade tincturea recipe known only to her, her grandmother, and a Welsh druid. It loosened tongues, lifted moods, and made women suddenly desperate to marry.
She poured the doctor a shot.
The girl downed it, brightened, and spilled everything without prompting.
«I loved Dave, Dave loved methree whole years! He was finishing his PhD, we were going to get married once he got his grant kids, a mortgage, all of it. Dave studies nuclear fusion. No metal can withstand his reactor! He was pinning his hopes on tungsten, but even that melted. If it hadnt, hed have graduated by now. We did everything rightcinema dates, kisses in stairwells, cafés. I treated patients between shifts; he hunted for metals that wouldnt melt. Thenout of nowheremy little sister shows up. Gorgeous! Trained at a performing arts school. Dave takes one look and forgets fusion exists. Starts babbling about how he sings like Ed Sheeran. I knew right then. Love at first sightreckless, blinding, shameless. My sister loved that he was academic. Dropped out, moved in under his reliable nuclear fusion roof. I shouldve foughtfor my future, my mortgagebut I was always on call!
Then yesterday, Dave proposed. She said yes. I nearly hanged myself. As physicists sayI almost fried the vacuum pump with heavy plasma! Now Im the third wheel in this showbiz-nuclear circus.»
She jammed the stethoscope back in her ears and devoured a jar of raspberry jam.
Martha rubbed her hands, fetched her laptop.
«Wow.» The doctor gaped at the tech-savvy granny. «Whats that for?»
«Were finding you a husband!» Martha typed like a hacker.
«No, please!» The girl shot up. «I cantI dont believe in computer love!»
«Loves love, however you find it,» Martha muttered, scanning profiles. «Here42, divorced, no kids, works in finance, loves travel, pork pies, and dogs.»
«He can keep the dogsIm terrified of them! Cant bake, hate travelling. And 42? Hes practically pensioned!»
«Fine, next. Thirty-three, single, corporate manager. Loves brunettes, blondes, redheads. Hobbies: intimacy. Tired of flings, wants one steady partner. Hmm, no, not him either.»
«Are you a matchmaker?!» the girl spluttered. «Whered you get these candidates?!»
«Professional matchmaker. Two weeks without workthats why my hearts acting up. Global crisis. People wont commiteven dumping mistresses to save money. Then you show upheartbroken, arrhythmic, allergic, stethoscope in ears! God sent you to me!»
«I dont need»
«Whats your name?»
«Emily. Well, Emma.»
«Emily-Emma, you must forget that physicist! Here25, son of a millionaire! Own villa, yacht! Handsome!»
«Ugh! He looks like an orangutan!»
«But hes rich! Villa! Yacht! Handsome! Better than watching metals melt!»
«I dont want a millionaires son! What if Dad croaks? I dont speak Italianhowll I work in Portofino?!»
Martha peered over her glasses.
«Never had such a picky client. Youd think millionaires grew on trees!»
Flushing, the doctor poured herself another shot.
«Can I choose my own?»
«Not how it works,» Martha frowned. «Thats my job.»
«Please? Youre better at tea and chatter.»
Grudgingly, Martha slid the laptop over.
Five minutes later»Him!»
«Youre joking!» Martha gasped. «That profiles a prank!»
«Perfect! Thirty, single, reindeer herder. Names Mike.»
«Reindeer herder?! Hes Sami! Lives in Lapland!»
«Exactly! Its him or no one.»
Martha sighed, grabbed a shawl.
«Where are you going?!»
«To fetch your herder.»
«Lapland?!»
«No, next door. Hes my neighbour!»
«WaitI was joking!»
But Martha locked her in and returned ten minutes later with Mike, flowers, and champagne.
The doctor was weeping by the window, listening to her own heart.
«Mike,» he introduced himselfthen gave her a Sami diamond.
«Emma well, Emily. Or mouse. Whatever,» she stammered, inspecting it.
«Mouse,» he mumbled. «I love white mice.»
«I cant accept this!»
«Take it. Ive got more.»
Martha slipped out.
Outside, she sat on a bench, listening to laughter through her open window.
Of course Mike could fix this. Cheerful, skilledhe mended what couldnt be mended, healed what couldnt be healed.
Neighbour Agnes walked her poodle over.
«Mikes not such a bachelor after all! And that physicist dumped our doctor! Mike gave her a diamond! And shecalling herself mouse! Talking of throwing herself out windows!»
Agnes gasped, spat sunflower seeds into a napkin.
Martha spilled everythingthe fusion, the millionaire, the doctors stubborn choice.
«Theyre drinking champagne now.»
«Theyve stopped. Theyre jumping out your window!»
Martha bolted up»I locked them in!»
«Sit! They squeezed through the bars. Skinny things!»
Sure enough, the doctor wriggled out, cucumber in hand.
«Come on, Sami-Mike! Its not high!»
Mike slithered down, knocking her over. They rolled in the grass, laughing, punching each other like kids.
«Well, thats that,» Agnes sighed. «Whats your cut, Martha?»
«Let them marry first,» Martha muttered. «What if he goes back to his reindeer?»
Suddenly, the doctor jumped up.
«My shift! An old man next doors ill!»
«Lets go together,» Mike said. «I can heal anything.»
«You cant fix hypertension!»
«Theres no such thing!»
«There is!»
«Not for reindeer herders. Your mans lonelythats cured with tea, vodka, dominoes, and talking. Youll need help.»
Arm in arm, they left.
Martha called old Tom next door»Dont let them in! Hell spoil their fun with his rambling!»
«You marry Tom,» Agnes said. «Save the doctors some trouble.»
«Me? He hates dogs! And youre six months older!»
«I wont marry himhes not Sami!»
A week later, the doctor called.
«How are you, Martha?»
«Fine,» Martha said cautiously.
«My physicist and stepsister split,» Emma chirped. «Dave crawled backsaid hed found the one metal that withstands fusion: himself! Claims he never loved heronly me!»
Martha braced for disaster.
«But I told him to get lost! Mike and I are moving to Lapland next month!»
«Lapland?! Its freezing!»
«Its boiling! Youve no idea!»
«I offered you Portofino.»
«Portofinos for the old and boring. Whats your fee?»
«A couple of little Sami,» Martha laughed. «Ill love them like my own!»
**Life Lesson:** Love often arrives in the most unexpected wayssometimes through a locked door, a shared laugh, or even a misplaced stethoscope. And when it does, no amount of logic or planning can stand in its way. The heart, much like a reindeer herders diamond, is priceless in its own right.
