Title: The Many Uses of a Walking Stick
Fandom: Sherlock Holmes (ACD)
Rating: G
Length: 440 words
Summary: In retirement Watson reflects on his use of his walking stick

In my youth I had deemed all those who resorted to using a walking stick as ancient and of very little relevance – an attitude I suspect the younger inhabitants of our village now have towards me.  Even when I was first invalided out of the army and forced to rely upon a stick I resented it, as a sign of how I had lost my usefulness and was destined for a life of drabness without fulfilment.  There I was most certainly mistaken.

Now, I have no problem in using a stick.  It is true I do not need it all the time and can safely potter round our cottage and the garden without its aid, and indeed have attempted to leave the Red Lion without it on more than one occasion.  The last time, we were pursued by the landlord, who was carrying three such sticks and simply told us to sort them out between ourselves.

However, a stick has far more uses than simply as an aid to walking.  At blackberry time I can employ it to lower the branches which are out of my reach and therefore have all the best blackberries on them.  It is very effective at retrieving Wordsworth’s ball when it has disappeared under the sideboard, a position even Holmes, with his longer arms, has difficult reaching.  On the last occasion, our housekeeper, Mrs Maiden, had remarked, ‘Really, Mr Holmes, if you have decided to breath your last in the sitting room, could you avoid lying across the doorway, as it will be difficult for the undertaker to remove your body if you do.’  (She is as scathing as Mrs Hudson ever was.)

Inverted my stick makes an admirable bat when playing ball with young James Hopkins.  He is very happy still to simply chase a ball if I will knock one around for him which leaves Annie time to do some of her household chores without the assistance of a toddler.

And today it proved most useful in apprehending a young man who had sought to steal the cash from the bakery.  It appeared he had pushed his way past the two women in the queue and threatened the baker's wife with a carving knife, before running out of the shop again.  The two women had shouted ‘stop thief’ and as he ran past Holmes and myself, (no doubt assuming our age meant we were no threat to him), I swung my stick and tripped him up.

I may be getting older, and in need of a walking stick, but it does not indicate my usefulness is passed, or that life is now unexciting.