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Below is a story called 'Stairway to
Hospital. You
can download here.
Submit pictures for the stories
If you would like to submit some of your drawings and paintings
to be included in the poem below, please send them to the address
below or scan them in and email them to us at enquiries@prestoncaps.co.uk
Submit your picture to: Preston CAPS, Ribbleton Clinic, Langden
Drive, Ribbleton, Preston, PR2 6HT
Leroy and Dover - Stairway to Hospital
Leroy the frog was having a toy day.
There were days when he felt like going for a swim (no surprise
there).
There were days when he felt like playing out in the garden.
There were days when he felt like playing football (he made a good
goalkeeper).
There were days when he felt like playing hide and seek.
There were days when he felt like doing nothing at all (he was very
good at that too).
And there were days when he felt like playing with his toys, and
this was one of them.
Leroy was playing with his toy cars and had made
a big traffic jam. All his cars were in one big line, nose to tail.
They snaked around his bedroom and out onto the upstairs landing
and down the stairs. He moved them on very slowly, starting with
the car at the front and going back, car by car, until he had moved
each one.
Then he started all over again.
“When are you going to get bored with this?”
asked his friend, Dover the Mouse, as he was very bored with it
himself.
“I don’t know,” Leroy said, trying to think of
an answer. “Tomorrow?”
“I was hoping it would be a bit sooner than that,” Dover
replied. “More like…um..five minutes.”
Dover, who was named after the white cliffs of you know where, was
eager to play with his new set of Dyno-Mouse action figures.
“I suppose I could get bored in five minutes time, if you
want me too,” Leroy said.
“That would be great.”
It was less than two minutes later when Leroy suddenly
jumped into the living room (he did a lot of that) and said he was
bored already.
“What shall we do now?” he asked.
Before Dover could answer him Leroy’s Mum shouted from the
kitchen to tell them lunch was ready.
“Oh, good, I’m hungry!” Leroy said, which was
often the case. “I hope it’s fly pie. That’s my
favourite.”
“Well it’s not mine,” Dover said as Leroy jumped
out of the room again.
“Aren’t you going to put your cars away?”
“No, I’ll do it later,” Leroy said, bounding into
the kitchen.
Dover shook his head. Leroy left a mess everywhere he went.
Dover went upstairs to wash his hands in the bathroom, carefully
stepping over the cars as he did so. When he got to the kitchen
Leroy was sat at the table waiting impatiently for his food to arrive.
“Have you washed your hands, Leroy?”
his Mum asked.
Leroy waited a moment, looking at the food and tempted to say yes
when the answer was no.
“No,” he said.
“I didn’t think so. Go upstairs and wash them.”
“I’ll wash them here,” he said, and leapt towards
the sink.
“No you won’t! You’ll do it upstairs.”
“But why? There’s soap here,” Leroy argued. “What’s
the point of going all the way upstairs?”
“Don’t argue with me, Leroy. You know you always wash
your hands upstairs. I’ve got food and dishes here. Upstairs
now or you won’t have any lunch.”
“What about Dover?” Leroy said, as his last defence.
“I know Dover will already have washed his hands,” his
Mum said. “Now go!”
Dover smiled sweetly at Leroy as he bound out of
the room, muttering to himself.
Dover could hear Leroy as he went up the stairs and into the bathroom.
He heard the water running into the sink as Leroy washed his hands.
The water stopped and a few moments later they could hear him heading
back down again.
Suddenly they heard a shout and several loud thumps
and bangs as Leroy tumbled down the stairs.
“What was that?” Leroy’s Mum said in alarm, even
though she knew exactly what it must be.
“I think Leroy’s fallen down the stairs,” Dover
said helpfully.
“What on earth……?”
Leroy’s Mum hopped out of the kitchen, with Dover close behind.
They found Leroy at the bottom of the stairs holding his head and
moaning.
“Are you alright, Leroy?” his Mum asked.
Leroy moaned even louder. “Do I look alright?” he said
rudely.
“How did it happen?”
His Mum looked up the stairs and saw immediately how it happened.
“That’s a silly place to leave your toys!” she
said crossly.
“I’m bleeding!” Leroy said in response, hoping
for more sympathy and less telling-off.
Leroy’s Mum looked at him and saw blood dripping from his
head.
“I’m taking you to hospital,” she said. “You’d
better come too, Dover.”
Leroy. Who did not like the sight of blood, especially his own,
was more than happy to be taken to hospital. As they set off he
was quiet for the first time that day.
Three hours later Leroy was sat on the settee
in the living room with a bandage on his head and a big ache inside
it.
Dover had just put away all his toy cars for him, but Leroy was
feeling too sorry for himself to thank him for his kindness.
“My head hurts,” Leroy said sorrowfully.
His Mum sniffed.
“At least we know you’re going to be alright.”
Leroy had had an investigation, an X-ray (which he quite enjoyed)
and some stitches in his head (which he didn’t).
“In future, Leroy, put things away when you’ve finished
with them. And never, never leave your toys on the stairs. You know
why now, don’t you?”
Leroy looked glum.
“Don’t you Leroy?”
“Yes,” Leroy said.
“It could have been a lot worse, you know,” his Mum
said.
“I know. I could have been killed,” Leroy said, thinking
about what the doctor at the hospital had said to him.
“No, I don’t mean that,” his Mum said, and smiled.
“It could have been me.”
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