Crossroad

Y was admitted to the hospital, and soon diagnosed to have severe hepatitis.

He was abstained from work for a long time. In fact, his physician warned him against doing surgery again because his health wouldn't stand. (Alas, those were the days before evidence-based medicine !)

Unwillingly he complied.

But there remained a problem for him: What should he do (to say the least, earn a living) ?

At that very moment, the professor of microbiology of his mother medical school rang him up. (Another improbable happening nowadays. How often does our professor know the phone number of a student who graduated for some years ?) To cut the long story short, the professor was looking for someone to fill up a junior lecturer post. Hearing the story of Y, wouldn't that be a win-win situation ?

Y hesitated - microbiology was not his cup of tea.

PS. I could understand Y's feeling. To a practising surgeon, microbiologists are merely inferior existence living in the basement.