Gangsta Granny by David Walliams

Author:David Walliams
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Kids
Publisher: [Côte d’Azur]
Published: 2010-12-31T23:00:00+00:00

∨ Gangsta Granny ∧

18

Visiting Hours

“You can’t stay with Granny tonight,” said Dad. It was four o’clock on Friday afternoon, and Ben had just got home from school. It was strange that Dad was home so early. He usually didn’t finish his shift at the supermarket until eight.

“Why not?” asked Ben, noticing his dad’s face was dark with worry.

“I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news, son.”

“What?” demanded Ben, his face darkening with worry too.

“Granny’s in hospital.”

A little while later, once they’d finally found a parking space, Ben and his parents went through the automatic doors of the hospital. Ben wondered if Mum and Dad were ever going to find Granny in here. The hospital was impossibly tall and wide, a great monument to illness.

There were lifts that took you to other lifts.

Mile-long corridors.

Signs everywhere that Ben couldn’t comprehend:

CORONARY CARE UNIT

RADIOLOGY

OBSTETRICS

CLINICAL DECISION UNIT

MRI SCANNING ROOM

Confused-looking patients on trolleys or in wheelchairs were being wheeled up and down by porters, as doctors and nurses who looked like they hadn’t been to bed for days, hurried past them.

When they finally found the wing Granny was in, right up on the nineteenth floor, Ben didn’t recognise her at first.

Her hair was flat on her head, she didn’t have her glasses on or her teeth in, and she was wearing not her own clothes, but a standard issue NHS nightgown. It was as if all of the things that made her Granny had been taken from her, and she was now just a shell.

Ben felt so sad to see her like this, but tried to hide it. He didn’t want to upset her.

“Hello, dears,” she said. Her voice was croaky, and her speech a little slurred. Ben had to take a deep breath to stop from bursting into tears.

“How are you feeling, Mum?” asked Ben’s dad.

“Not too clever,” she replied. “I had a fall.”

“A fall?” said Ben.

“Yes. I don’t remember much about it. One moment I was reaching in the larder for a tin of cabbage soup, the next thing I knew I was lying on the lino staring at the ceiling. My cousin Edna called me a number of times from her nursing home. When she couldn’t get an answer, she called an ambulance.”

“When did you fall over, Granny?” asked Ben.

“Let me think, I was lying on the kitchen floor for two days, so it must have been Wednesday morning. I couldn’t get up to reach the telephone.”

“I am so sorry, Mum,” said Dad quietly. Ben had never seen his father look so upset.

“It’s funny, because I meant to call you on Wednesday, you know just for a chat, to see how you are,” said Mum, lying. She had never called the old lady in her life, and if Granny ever called the house Mum couldn’t get off the phone quick enough.

“You weren’t to know, my dear,” said Granny. “They did all kinds of tests this morning to see what’s wrong with me; X-rays and scans and the like. I’ll get the results tomorrow. Hopefully I won’t be in here too long.

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