Chapter Fifteen in “Decades with the Squad,” by my late father, William Palmer Jervey, Jr.

In this day of modern surgery, the reattachment of severed members has become quite commonplace. This being the case, much attention is given to retrieving the severed part and its proper care on the way to the hospital. In all cases the first rule is “find the part.” Sometime there is more than one reason to “find the part.” Such was the case in this episode.

The call came as “an accident at a nearby butcher shop.”

When we arrived, the butcher sat with his left hand wrapped in a bloody cloth and informed us that he had cut off half of his forefinger.

“Where is it?” I asked.

With a wave of his hand he indicated a pile of debris in the corner of the room. Apparently when it was snipped off it flew across the room. My companion, a local housewife, got a haunted look in her eyes.

“I buy all my meat here,” she exclaimed desperately. “We’ve got to find that finger!”

She dressed his injured hand while I rummaged around, found the finger, placed it in a plastic bag, placed the bag in a container of ice water and we transported it and the butcher to the hospital. The finger was successfully re-attached and soon the butcher was as good as new.

As of this writing, my companion still buys her meat from him. Briefly, her loyalty hung in the balance.