Chapter 4: Feeling It Empty

The dock area at Salford has been turned into an area called ‘The Quays’ and is now a major tourist attraction. It even houses the Imperial War Museum North. Austin and Anette got a bus to the Quays and wandered round exploring before having a light lunch in one of the cafes.

In the café they saw an advert for a cruise to Liverpool on a Mersey Ferryboat, so they got tickets and joined the boat after lunch. The two-and-a-half-hour voyage took them the full length of the ship canal, out into the River Mersey and over to Liverpool.

They had a brief sightsee in Liverpool, before a coach returned them to Salford. They both found the leisurely voyage through all the changing scenery fascinating. Then once they were back in their hometown, they finished their day with a meal in the Chinese restaurant near to Anettes flat.

Afterwards, they returned to the flat for Austin to pick up his bag. Following a very long hug and kiss Austin left. They had arranged that they would do something similar the following weekend. Austin reached the hostel and told them he was back, then went to his room.

He knew right away someone had been rooting through his stuff. His diary, which he usually kept under his pillow was out open on the table and some other things had been moved about. There was also a small amount of cash missing.

He was glad he usually avoided cash as much as he could. Nothing else seemed to be missing, so he tidied up and promptly forgot about it. Then he went down to the communal lounge. He listened to some of the others chatting and was delighted to discover that Jimmy and Wally, two of the residents had been locked up whilst he was away.

They were the two who had constantly picked on him. ‘My life is definitely improving.’ he thought to himself. In bed that night he dreamt about his weekend with Anette and was soon firing himself again. As he fell asleep, he had another exciting memory of his time away with Geoff.

GLYNN AT ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY

The day after he lost his ball, Glynn woke up with a terrible pain in his bum, plus a fearsome stinging inside. He thought about what the man on the phone had said about his ball. He had looked at it afterwards and it did look odd.

But then, as he had no idea what it should look like anyway, he had nothing to compare it with. Thinking about all the difficulties he had had over the years getting erect and with firing, it seemed possible that there had been something wrong with him for a long time.

Then the man had said the hospital might give him something to take the pain away from his bum. ‘But how will I explain it all?’ he puzzled. By mid-day, he had suffered all morning with the pain, so he put his removed ball, still in its bag, in his pocket and went out.

As he walked along in pain, Glynn was surprised to find that the idea that Garth was dead didn’t seem to bother him at all. He shared a room with Taffy who was still asleep when he left. He had seen a glass by his bed and smelt it. The aroma of whiskey was unmistakable.

He wondered if Taffy really had had both his balls removed. He shuddered at the idea of having that pole put up his bum twice. No doubt that had been why Taffy had hit the bottle of whisky.

Walking down to the hospital was very painful. At accident and Emergency, he had to queue for the reception desk. He was asked his name and address and then why he was there. He’d already decided what he would say.

‘I was attacked last night,’ he said. ‘I have terrible pains in my bum, and I have one of my testicles in my pocket.’ The receptionist did a double take, then told him to wait there. She disappeared, but a few minutes later she returned with a nursing sister.

She took him into a side room and asked him to tell her what happened. ‘Last night I had a pole with sandpaper on pushed up my bum hard, then pulled out again,’ he told her. ‘I’ve been in agony with the pain ever since.

‘Then when I came round, I was told that I had had one testicle removed. I was left naked in a field with my clothes in a bag besides me. I found what I assume is my testicle in a plastic bag with my clothes. They told me I should bring it here because it looked odd.’

‘Have you reported this to the police?’ Sister asked him. ‘No, I don’t want any publicity.’ Glynn said. ‘I think we might have to report it to them ourselves.’ she said. ‘You’ll only waste their time,’ Glynn told her, ‘I will refuse to tell them anything.’

‘Can I take your testicle,’ she asked. ‘I’ve never ever asked anyone that before.’ she told him as she managed to hide a smile with difficulty. She looked at it in its bag. ‘I’ll go and show this to the Doctor?’ she told him.

‘Get undressed and put this gown on,’ she instructed. ‘Then lie on the bed.’ Ten minutes later she returned with a doctor. Glynn had to repeat his story. ‘This is very strange.’ he said. He examined his scrotum. ‘Well, there’s certainly a cut big enough to remove a testicle.’ he said.

‘It’s very neatly sewn up and I can only feel one ball inside your scrotum. ‘Do you have any idea why someone would do this to you?’ ‘Yes.’ Glynn said. As the Doctor looked at him expectantly, Glynn added, ‘I’m not going to say any more.’

‘He refuses to report it to the police.’ Sister said. ‘Describe this pole that went up your bum.’ The Doctor asked. When Glynn had done so, he said, ‘You must have really upset someone.’ he gave Sister some instructions, then left.

‘We’re going to take you into our theatre on the unit here.’ She told him. ‘We’ll put you to sleep and put a camera up your bum to see what damage has been done. The Doctor also wants to open up your scrotum and make sure everything is ok in there.’

‘Can you put my ball back in?’ Glynn asked. ‘No, sorry,’ she told him, ‘It’s had no blood supply for too long now, it’s completely dead.’ He was taken into theatre. The next thing he knew he was waking up and finding a young nurse sitting looking at him.

‘I’ll just tell the Doctor you’re awake.’ she said as she went out. The Doctor returned alone and sat down at Glynn’s side. ‘I’ve had a look up your bum,’ he told him. ‘The first nine inches are very badly scratched. It also looks as if it has been stretched considerably.’

‘That ties in with your description of the pole. I’ve sprayed the inside with an antiseptic, so the pain should have eased. It will all heal up and return to normal within a week. I’ll give you something to stop it getting infected.’

‘Your testicle is definitely missing. The tubes connecting to it have been tied off properly and I haven’t needed to do anything to them. Whilst I had it open, one of my colleagues, who is an expert on the reproductive system, has had a look at both of your testicles.’

‘He says the removed one has been slowly dying for years. If it hadn’t been removed now, it would have eventually made the other testicle go the same way. After that it might have killed you. He says your remaining one should be ok now the bad one has gone.’

‘So at least something good has come from whatever has been happening to you. Keep your scrotum clean, and the cut will soon heal up. My colleague asks if he can keep your ball to dissect and try to find out more about what happened to it.’

‘Yes, sure.’ Glynn told him. ‘I was only going to throw it away anyway.’ ‘What happened to you sounds to me like you were being punished for something,’ The Doctor said, ‘Can you tell me anything more?’ ‘No, sorry.’ Glynn told him, ‘But I will admit I deserved it.’

A week later, everything had healed up and Glynn felt back to normal. Taffy had been out when he returned from the hospital and hadn’t been seen for two days. Then when he returned, he was a completely different person.

Garth had always been the hard man and Glynn the weak one. Taffy was somewhere in between but nearer Garth than Glynn. Although the two of them had always got on ok. Now it was like they had swopped places.

Taffy was now definitely the weakest and behaved like a younger brother who needed looking after. Glynn quite liked it. Glynn hadn’t played with himself much when on his own in bed for years. It had always taken too long for him to stiffen up.