It’s true I had been putting off going to the doctor for my annual check-up. In fact I had skipped two years in a row so I figured it was high time to do something about it. I called the clinic, made an appointment and showed up on the agreed upon date and hour.

As usual I was too hurried and short of time that day to prepare myself properly. Oh sure, I washed, showered, put on clean clothes and underwear, even hurriedly shaved an extra time before leaving around noon. But as I sat leafing through the medical journals in the waiting area, I couldn’t help but notice that my nails needed trimming. Looking lower I saw that my shoes could have used a shine as well. I just hoped that the doctor wasn’t one of those persons my mother had always been warning me about since my earliest childhood : someone who judged others by the condition of their footwear.

I had never known the doctor to stare at my shoes as I came in for my check-ups. It was just my body she was interested in. And then unfortunately only in certain parts, none of them particularly naughty or interesting. Well, once or twice she had probed rather deep to assess for the presence of glandular swelling in the groin, but she was so prim and proper that she just fumbled around under my briefs without asking me to take them off or even lower them. While doing so she must have noticed the lacked absence of pubic hair on my part, but aside from giving me a funny look, she neither said nor indicated anything. (more…)