Emergency Sleepover (2 page)

“Can you come and fetch us from Rosie’s?” I sobbed. “There’s been a terrible accident and Rosie’s going to hospital and it’s all my fault!”

“You just stay there Kenny, I’m on my way,” he told me calmly.

Outside I could hear the screeching of a siren. I ran to the gate and started waving frantically so the ambulance would know where to stop. The paramedics were really calm. They grabbed their bag and asked me what had happened. I explained about Rosie falling and hitting her head.

“Now you just stay calm, she’s going to be fine!” they reassured me as I showed them where Rosie was lying. “There’s always a lot of blood in head injury cases. And they usually look a lot worse than they are.”

Everyone stood right back to let the paramedics through. One of them checked Rosie over and talked to her in a reassuring way, even though she was still unconscious. The other one dealt with her ankle. He had to cut it free. It was all swollen and twisted –
gross
!

When they were ready they lifted her on to a stretcher and put a mask over her face. It was dead frightening seeing her being wheeled away like that.

Just as they got to the front gate, Dad arrived. He put a comforting arm around Mrs Cartwright’s shoulders.

“She’ll have the best of care at Queen Mary’s Hospital,” he reassured her. “Try not to worry. Is there anything we can do to help? What about Tiff and Adam, will they be all right?”

Mrs Cartwright nodded. “Adam’s round at his father’s anyway, and Tiff’s going to go round there too, aren’t you?” She looked at Tiff, who raised her eyes then nodded sulkily.

“Give me a ring when you’ve got any news of Rosie,” Dad called to her as the ambulance doors closed.

Then the ambulance sped off with its siren blaring.

“Right you lot, look sharp and get your stuff together,” Dad said. “Kenny’s mum has called all your parents, so they’re expecting you back. Hey, come on now, cheer up! I know you’ve all had a shock, but I’m sure Rosie’s going to be fine. She’s going to the right place to be looked after.”

We all went up to Rosie’s bedroom to collect our sleepover stuff. It felt kind of weird being there without her. I guess we were all thinking the same thing because none of us spoke. It was only when we were in the car that Fliss broke the silence.

“I
knew
that something awful was going to happen!” she sobbed. “I tried to tell you Kenny, but you wouldn’t listen, as usual. Well Rosie’s dead and it’s
all your fault
!”

I felt just terrible. It didn’t matter how much Dad reassured everybody that Rosie most certainly wasn’t dead and would be just fine. I couldn’t help blaming myself for what had happened. And you could tell that the others blamed me too. They didn’t say anything, they just wouldn’t look at me when they got out of the car. Even Frankie, and she’s my best mate.

“Come on love, I’m sure everything’s going to be fine,” Dad tried to reassure me when we got home.

“But you didn’t see her, Dad!” I protested. “She was all white. And there was so much blood!”

“Well, that’s something you’re going to have to get used to if you’re going to become a doctor,” he said.

“But you don’t understand. It was all my fault! What if I’ve caused her some permanent damage?”

“It’s not like you to get so wound up. You must be very upset,” Dad said gently.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes again. I wiped them away angrily I hated crying, but somehow I just couldn’t help it. “Look love, there’s no point worrying,” Dad told me. “We’ll just have to wait for Rosie’s mum to ring.”

I swear to you that waiting for that phone to ring was the worst time in my life. I’ll tell you how bad I felt – I couldn’t even kick a football about, and that’s BAD. And it didn’t help that my horrible sister, Molly the Monster, kept winding me up.

“I knew your stupid wild ways would get you into trouble one day,” she said. “I’m just sorry it’s not you in hospital!”

“Why don’t you just shut your mouth before I put my fist down your throat?” I snarled.

“Oooh, temper temper!” she mocked. “I think one injury’s quite enough for one day, even for you!”

I think I would have thumped her anyway if the phone hadn’t rung. I ran to answer it, but Dad had got there first.

“Hello Karen. How’s the patient? Good… Oh, that is good news… Ooh dear, that will be painful… Well, yes, that’s very wise… Oh yes, I’m sure they would. Yes, yes – I’ll tell her. Send our best wishes to Rosie, won’t you? Bye.”

“Well?” I asked anxiously.

“She’s fine,” Dad smiled, “apart from a badly sprained ankle and a bit of a headache. They’re keeping her in hospital for observation because she was unconscious, but she should be back home in a couple of days’ time.”

“Can I…?”

“Yes, you can go and see her. Rosie’s been asking for you all.”

“Right then! What are we waiting for?” I rushed to the door.

“Not so fast, young lady,” Dad pulled me back. “It’s way past visiting time now. You can go tomorrow afternoon. But what you can do now is ring your friends. I’m sure they’re all anxious to know how Rosie is. But make it quick, OK?”

Frankie and Lyndz were both really relieved to hear that Rosie was all right and said that they’d come to the hospital with me the next day. But Fliss just couldn’t resist having a go at me again.

“Well that’s no thanks to you!” she spat when I told her the news. “Mum said that she was lucky not to be paralysed after your antics.”

Fliss’s mum is a real prophet of doom – like mother, like daughter… She didn’t even want Fliss to come to the hospital with the rest of us, in case she picked up some terrible disease! But I shamed Fliss into it by saying she’d look a real misery-guts if she didn’t come.

So three o’clock the next afternoon found us outside the main entrance of Queen Mary’s Hospital.

“I hate the way hospitals smell,” moaned Frankie. “Although I didn’t mind it so much when I went to visit Mum after she’d had Izzy.”

“I hate hospitals, full stop!” Fliss whimpered. “In fact I think I might just wait out here.”

I glared at her, and the others flapped until she agreed to come in with us.

“I’m going to go to the hospital shop to buy Rosie some sweets,” said Lyndz.

“I’ll come with you,” Frankie told her. “I’m going to buy her a magazine to read.”

I’d already bought her a puzzle book and Fliss had brought some nail varnish to cheer her up. But we went to the shop with the others anyway because we couldn’t bear the thought of just talking to each other.

I don’t know if you’ve been into many hospitals, but it seems to me that they make it as confusing as possible for you to find your way to the wards. There were hundreds of corridors to walk down. And just when we thought we’d found the Children’s Ward, we had to go up another flight of stairs.

“I’ll never find my way out of here!” grumbled Fliss.

Eventually we got to a huge set of double doors covered by a painting of a jungle scene. This just
had
to be the Children’s Ward. Unless they’d started treating gorillas on the quiet!

We burst through the doors – and who should be the first person we saw?
Rosie!
All trussed up like something out of a horror movie. She had a great big bandage covering the top of her head and her foot looked really swollen. That had a bandage round it too, and was raised up on a sort of pulley thing.

“You look terrible!” said Fliss, plonking herself down on the chair next to the bed.

“Charming!” laughed Rosie. “I thought I was looking pretty stylish actually!”

The rest of us cracked up and handed over our presents.

“You’re too kind, guys!” Rosie grinned. “I ought to get myself into hospital more often.”

“I’m sure it can be arranged!” I told her in a silly voice.

I looked up and saw Fliss looking at me accusingly. My good mood at seeing Rosie suddenly disappeared.

“All right!” I snapped. “I’m sorry, Rosie. I didn’t mean to make you fall.”

“That’s OK!” Rosie smiled. “It was an accident.”

“You’re honoured!” laughed Frankie. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard Kenny apologise before!”

“Give over!” I protested, and pushed her gently.

I couldn’t believe it when she fell off the edge of the bed and thudded on to the floor.

“Look what you’ve done now!” squealed Fliss. “You’re dangerous, Kenny!”

I went hot and cold.

“Oh my head,” Frankie moaned. “My head hurts!”

“Quick get a nurse!” Rosie suggested.

Lyndz was just about to go and find one when Frankie leapt up and started laughing.

“Fooled you!” she shrieked.

“That wasn’t funny,” I grumbled. “You nearly had
me
in hospital with a heart attack!”

“Well if you had one, you wouldn’t want to be in this ward,” said Rosie quietly.

“Why? What’s up with it?” we asked.

“Well, the nurses are great,” Rosie explained. “But the day-room hasn’t got much equipment. The TV’s broken and they’re still waiting for a replacement. There are hardly any books or toys. It must be really miserable if you have to stay in for a long time.”

“That’s terrible!” Lyndz sounded shocked. “Can’t the hospital do something?”

“Mum said that there probably wasn’t enough money,” Rosie continued. “But there is an appeal fund to raise money for the Children’s Ward. There’s a chart over there telling you how much they’ve collected.”

I went over to check it out. It was one of those charts shaped like a test-tube. So far they’d coloured in half of it, which meant they still had a long way to go to reach their target.

“It’ll need more than your pocket money to put this place right!” piped up a voice behind me. “Unless you’re Posh Spice in disguise – which I doubt!”

It was a really frail-looking boy, with skin so white you could almost see through it.

“Hi, I’m Jake,” he said.

“I’m Kenny,” I replied.

“Have you come to see the pretty one, then?” He jerked his head over towards Rosie’s bed.

“Yep, that’s right. What are you in for?”

Jake told me that there was something wrong with his blood and he was waiting for an operation. It sounded pretty serious, but he didn’t seem to want to talk about it so I didn’t push it. Apparently he spends a lot of time in Queen Mary’s and has lessons there and everything. I always thought that if you were in hospital, it was a good way of escaping school, but they have special teachers who come round.

“It’s a bit rough here with no telly and not many books or anything. You feel like you’re killing time a bit,” he told me sadly. Then he brightened up. “I’d rather be playing football. One day I’m going to play for the best team in the world!”

“Leicester City, right?” I pointed proudly to my shirt.

“Leicester City? Get real! I mean Manchester United, of course!”

Well, I wasn’t going to let him get away with that now, was I?! Half an hour later we were still discussing players and the best games we’d ever seen.

“I hate to break this up…” A big cheery nurse came over to us. “But it’s time for your medication, Jake.”

“I’d better go,” he shrugged. “Remember to hand in your pocket money for the appeal! See you around!”

He headed down to his bed at the other end of the ward shouting, “Up the Reds!”

I went back over to Rosie’s bed.

“Good of you to join us!” smirked Frankie.

“I was only chatting to Jake!” I said.

“Ooh, Jake!” the others giggled.

“Leave it out!” I grinned. “We were talking about football, actually.”

“I think Jake’s pretty ill, you know,” said Rosie seriously. “He told me he virtually
lives
here. It must be awful spending all your time here with nothing to do.”

I looked over at the appeal poster again.

“We could try to raise some money ourselves,” I suggested.

But before the others could reply, the nurse came over to take Rosie’s temperature. As soon as she saw her, Fliss flew out of her chair like a scalded cat.

“Right, we should go now!” she said, giving Rosie a quick hug. “It’s about time we left you in peace.”