In The Fields By My House:

Part 2

Jesse and Basti and me went to see Daddy just after they put the new kidney in. He had a private room with his own telly. The telly was white and had a remote control. Daddy looked okay, but he was plugged into a load of machines and had to stay in bed all the time. Mummy was sitting on the bed, looking at us all and smiling. We were all saying bits from funny films. Daddy was laughing. He didn’t look right though, he was looking at the metal bars of the bed and rubbing them with his fingers. I wanted to give him a big hug. Everyone else was still laughing, so I looked at the telly instead.

The second time I was there was just with Basti. Mummy met us outside the room. She said there was something she had to tell us. The corridor was big and cold. I wanted to go back to the car. She straightened our clothes and said, "Daddy’s not feeling very well. The doctors have given him medicine that makes his head go a bit funny. But it just means that he’ll be much better soon. Ok?"

Daddy looked really skinny. He was laughing a lot and talking fast. None of it made sense. I sat by the bed and switched the telly on with the remote control. He was quiet for a minute, then he put his hand on the back of my head. I thought that the medicine had worked and he was better. Then he said, "Whose is this dog in here?" and he messed up my hair. I nearly laughed. Mummy said, "Darling, it’s Oli. Oli and Basti have come to see you." He looked at us like he hadn’t noticed us there before. I wondered where Daddy had gone.

The last time I went to see Daddy it was just me on my own. He had moved to a different room. It was in a noisier part of the hospital and there were more nurses running round the place. He was in a tiny room that was all yellow inside. I was standing in the doorway. Mummy was wiping Daddy’s chin and shirt. He was pointing feet first towards me. One of Jesse’s friends once told me that if your feet point towards the door in bed it means you’ll die in your sleep. I couldn’t tell if he was sleeping or not. His eyes were open but he wasn’t looking at anything. There was no telly in this room.

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