Below is a story called 'Stairway to Hospital. You can download here.
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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.”