“The
House Call” is a story from Germany that basically concentrates upon the
mysterious arrival of the spirit of a young girl to make a call to the doctor
for the treatment of her mother who was suffering from pneumonia for several
days. Dr. Brawn, the protagonist of this story, is identified as the famous
surgeon in his locality. The day after the Christmas of 1903, he was sitting
alone in his dining room in about 9:30 p.m. he was quite tired even unable to
take his evening meal due to hard surgery, which he performed on his particular
day. He was preparing report about his surgical works and putting his head down
the table and dozing. He suddenly woke up when he heard the doorbell. After
sometime, he came to know that he had a patient to see. In fact it was a young
girl who had come to call the doctor for her mother. Despite his exertion,
Braun decided to follow her up to her home and see her mother. The doctor tried
to catch her up on the way so that he could have asked many questions related
to her mother and about herself. The doctor was old enough to walk on the speed
as the girl was making a rush towards her home. Anyway the doctor managed to
follow her till he reached at her old apartment where a woman seemed to be
lying on the bed.
The
doctor checked her up and found that she was suffering from pneumonia. He
provided her some medicine that comforted the woman because she was the same
woman who once worked in the same hospital as the maintenance staff. The doctor
knew that Elda had gone to stay at her brother’s house in the village. The
woman further added that she came back just three months ago after her only
child Adelheid died. Dr. Braun was very surprised because the very child had
been to the doctor to make a call. The woman further showed some of her
belongings to revive her memory in her old and least furnished apartment. The
ragged shawl and tattered shoes shown to doctor by her mother made him more
confused and serious because he had seen the girl in the same dress. When he looked
at Elda he found her asleep and returned with his black bag on his hand.
