Me and My Tapeworm Isobel

I once knew a pair of older colleagues; he was a surgeon and she was a GP. We were all invited along with some other friends to a party. I saw him try at least a dozen times to tell a simple joke or a funny story, something, but somehow, she did interrupt him every time he opened his mouth and it was obvious she was doing it on purpose. After about half an hour, he was almost on the edge of doing it, when she suddenly turned and asked him in a harsh voice to stop. “Why?” was the question on everybody’s lips? “I can say it better” she continued and then she leaned against him ‘you know it, don’t you!!!!”. She took over saying his joke but nobody laughed. Meanwhile, he was pretending to eat and apparently paid no attention, chewing vigorously on his stake, when she recovered from the spell of the story – teller and questioned him with a sweet but penetrating voice, you could depict from the noise of a building site: “Why are you stuffing yourself like this? Take a break, a deep breath and drink something before you suffocate! Like you never saw better food!” And seconds later: “Trust you to grab the wine, first? Water is not good enough for you? The alcohol will kill you!” Then he took a deep breath and confronted her: “Not while you are around darling, but you know what they say – it is true that water helps me live, but not forever, either”. Some of the men at the table – caught off guard, of course – took the liberty of a short laugh which ended in sudden embarrassed coughs.