Karma

I do believe in Karma.  This tale of Karma runs from when I was about four to when I met the father of the child of my loins.  It started when I jammed my thumb in the big heavy front gate at the house where Mum was working.  Over night she spend hours with me while I cried in pain.  She wrapped up ice cubes in a cloth and held them around my thumb.  In the morning, my whole nail was black and incredibly painful.  It was decided to take me to the dentist.  This does sound odd I suppose, but the dentist drilled a small hole in my nail to let the blood out.  I remember crying and the dentist telling me it wouldn't hurt.  He ran the side of the drill against my hand so I could see what it would be like.  The blood was released and I felt better straight away.  Months later the nail fell off and there was a lovely new nail waiting underneath. 

Now ok I hear you say but where does karma come in to it.  Well here it is.  When I was working at Customs and Excise one of the girls slammed her finger in her Mum's car door.  She came in to the lunch room crying so I took her across the road to the Casualty and they gave her something for the pain.  She was so thankful that someone cared enough to help her.  I of course knew how painful it could be and I just couldn't leave her in agony.

Soooooo a few years later I ran in to her in Rundle Street.  I was waiting for the bus and there she was.  She asked me what I was doing so I explained that I had separated from my husband and was doing a switchboard course in town.  She was working at Naval Headquarters in Birkenhead at the time and they just so happened to need a new switchboard operater.  She arranged an interview and I got the job.

The switchboard operater ordered the sailors lunches and their evening paper as well as doing the switch.  One of the little sailors used to come in and talk to me every evening while he picked up his paper.  I thought he was about eighteen but he was twenty and I was so much older I thought.  I was twenty-four.  I thought he was just coming in for a chat and didn't really notice him but he was persistent and finally we got together, married and I had the child of my loins. 

So there you have it.  If I hadn't slammed my thumb in the gate, then I wouldn't have helped the girl, and the girl wouldn't have helped me and I wouldn't have met the sailor, and we wouldn't have made a lovely baby.  See it was Karma!