Fic: Gladstone Bag: Gen

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Title: Gladstone Bag
Length: 500
Rating: Gen
Notes: Historial AU. Sherlock Holmes meets Doctor Joesph Bell and Doctor Henry Duncan Littlejohn.
Summary: Holmes explains how he comes to have a Gladstone bag
Author's Notes: For the monthly prompt: the way we weren't. The deduction is one of Bell's from The Strange Case of Doctor Doyle (Friedman, 2015).


I had left school. I drained, as you did, Watson, to the cesspool of London. At the very first, I had no laboratory or library and would often find myself in train stations, observing people and contemplating my future.

One day, I found myself seated on a bench near a platform of an Edinburgh-bound train. Two well-dressed gentlemen joined me. I judged them to be medical men as the one had in hand a small fine leather portmanteau typical of that profession. The bag was just purchased it for it was empty and shined to gleaming.

Nothing extraordinary in that, no, it was the words the man with the bag was saying, his conversation with his colleague. It was my whole philosophy of reasoning phrased succinctly, eloquently, and, most remarkably, aloud.

Overwhelmed, I rudely interjected. “I could not agree more!”

The two men stared. The one with the bag, a man of forty, red-faced and with wild hair barely tamed, said,

“You are a student.” He studied me. “Or were, until recently.”

“I am an artist,” I replied with youth’s haughtiness, “a practitioner of the art of deduction.”

The men laughed.

“One of ours, Littlejohn,” said the man with the bag. “Care to give an improvised performance, young artist?”

“That man,” I said, indicating a short, muscular older man on the platform, “has a tiny blue D branded to the left side of his chest.”

Their eyes widened.

“I will confirm, and if correct, you shall be the new owner of this.” The man patted his bag.

“Bell!” exclaimed his companion.

The man waved a hand. “If this young man is what I suspect, then he should not be wasting his time, loitering in train stations. He needs to get on with his studies and make his mark, but first.”

He stood and walked over to the man I’d indicated. They spoke for a few minutes, at the end of which the man shook his head vehemently.

“Too bad,” said the man still seated on the bench.

But when his colleague returned, he grinned. “Give the boy the bag, Littlejohn.”

“What?” asked his colleague, but he passed it to me without hesitation.

“A look at his fingers, lips, a whiff of his breath told me he had probably been a bandsman in a Highland Regiment, but he swears that he’s been a shoemaker his whole life. If he’d deserted during the Crimean days or later, judging by his age, he’d had the D that the young man claims, but I shan’t strip a stranger in public to prove it. I’m won. Doctor Joseph Bell, at your service, and this is my colleague Doctor Henry Duncan Littlejohn.”

“Sherlock Holmes,” I said. “At yours.”

And so, my dear Watson, I have had a bag all these years with no use for it. But now I have a friend, a medical man keen to restart his practice, to whom I gift it willingly, eagerly, knowing it has found its rightful owner at last. 

Comments

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

And now the Gladstone bag - you were inspired!

A great ficlet too.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Yup, done and done. Thanks!

[debriswoman]

Wonderful work!!
Such an elegant meeting of great minds:-)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And thanks for the second prompt :)

[debriswoman]

Any time:-)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

What a great idea to have Holmes meeting Bell ^__^ And what a lovely idea to have Holmes winning the Gladstone bag, so he can give it to Watson all those years later.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Very nice - and a lovely gesture when Holmes passes the bag on to Watson.

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Thank you!