A bright Monday morning in the health clinic. In your crisp white coat you are waiting for new patients to walk in. Then the door swings open. A newlywed groom, almost swimming in his cheap suit, steps inside. Clearly he hasn’t slept a wink the night before. He has no clue that one of his pant legs is caught in his sock. Beside him is a young woman clutching a “bride’s bag,” her hands adorned in henna. The people who have brought this couple in to see you so early in the morning are the old cobblers who work in the shop under the clinic. The old man’s problem is this issue of the “bloody sheet.” The whole family is up in arms. Since Saturday they haven’t got the desired results. The reason: vaginismus. And no one was patient enough to wait. First you should tell the young newlywed how to treat his wife, how to undress her, how to kiss her. Without causing any shame and carefully choosing your words. Then it’s the young bride’s turn. The strange thing is how you are forced to face your own attitudes on the matter when you describe this “ideal relationship” and you can’t help but feel a little ashamed.

A friend of yours who has spent many long years in prison is now trying to establish a new life for himself as a businessman. He has fallen in love with a married woman. Her husband is another loser who has had similar experiences. So she starts having an affair with your friend. Later the woman gets pregnant and gives birth. She tells your friend that he is the baby’s father. But your friend sets off on a bender of doubt, pitching back and forth between belief and disbelief. When you suggest a DNA test to free him of his doubts, the answer only seems to point to the many psychological trappings of the human soul:

“In a way this is much better doctor. I couldn’t bear living with DNA results. As the kid gets older and his face changes, I am always comparing him to me. It is as if every time I see him I am discovering him all over again, and myself, too. It’s the strangest feeling … So like I said, this way’s much better.”

Three

A family you know has been waiting a long time for a grandson; and now the wife of their only son is pregnant and you send her to a friend of yours, a woman birth specialist, for tests. Everything is on track. Ultrasound results, blood tests … And to top it all off it looks like she’s going to have a boy!