The Truth About Leo by David Yelland

Author:David Yelland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141947273
Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
Published: 2010-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Lost Property

Leo had been drifting in and out of sleep, and in his dream he could see the sea’s ebb and flow, shifting shingle on the beach.

Once he woke sleepily to harsh hospital lights; another time, to a nurse’s smile. Later he heard cries of pain from elsewhere. Another’s pain, not his own. Then, as he dreamed, he was back in his bedroom, the lights raging and Dad yelling.

He felt the grip of the fireman, felt his overpowering strength pulling Leo away from the balcony. He saw the Memory Box tip into the night, felt his heart breaking as it fell.

Then he dreamed of something else. He dreamed of the letter. The letter from Mum. The one he’d rescued from the fire and pushed into his trouser pocket.

Leo woke suddenly and sat up so fast he felt giddy as the blood rushed to his head.

‘MUM’S LETTER!’

Footsteps approached, rapid tip-tapped heels on lino floors. He realized with a start that he must have shouted out loud.

Leo looked up, examining his surroundings, knowing he was in hospital but not knowing where or how he was.

A curtain seemed to be drawn around his bed. Two figures burst through it, crowding into view.

One was a nurse, the other a doctor, his white coat hanging loosely off him as if it was for a bigger man. The nurse began checking his pulse, and speaking to him with a comforting softness.

‘Well, well, Leo. You sleep for a whole day and then wake us all up with a healthy shout.’

He noticed the name on her lapel badge. Nurse Celeste Best. She had wrapped a kind of black band so tightly around his arm it pinched. She began to pump it up with a small black balloon, squeezing it to make it work.

‘Don’t worry, Leo,’ she soothed again, ‘I’m just taking your blood pressure, that’s all. You have been in the wars, haven’t you?’

Leo grabbed her arm, trying to make himself heard. But he was weaker than he thought.

‘Mum’s letter!’ he said breathlessly. ‘Do you know where it is?’

It was as if he was speaking underwater. The words he said didn’t seem to make any sense.

He tried again. Trying a different question.

‘Where did you put my clothes?’

But the nurse wasn’t listening. She was looking over his shoulder. Leo turned to look in the same direction and saw she was reading the screens of the machines by the side of the bed.

‘Try to lie still, Leo,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing to worry about, as I’m sure the doctor will tell you. You’ve been a very lucky young man.’

Leo gazed up at the doctor, who was reading notes taken from a file at the end of his bed. He recognized him. He had seen him before. It was one of Dad’s friends. One of his doctor friends. Surely he would help him?

He could even remember his name.

‘It’s Dr Balfour, isn’t it?’ Leo said, lifting his head from his pillow.

This time they did seem to hear him. Nurse Best smiled broadly; the doctor seemed impressed.

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