Читать книгу Bad Dad - David Walliams, Quentin Blake, Tony Ross - Страница 10

Frank held his father’s hand as the ambulance raced to the hospital. The man’s right leg had been completely crushed in the crash, and he was losing a lot of blood.

“Mr Goodie,” began the doctor as soon as Dad had been rushed into the Accident and Emergency department at the hospital. “I have some very bad news. We have to amputate your leg.”

“Which one?” replied Dad, not losing his sense of humour at this dark time.

“The right one, of course. If we don’t operate straight away, there is a very real chance you will die.”

“I don’t want you to die, Dad!” said Frank.

“It’s all right, mate. I’m good at hopping.”

As Dad was immediately taken down to the operating theatre, Frank tried and tried to call his mother, but the line was engaged for hours. The operation took all night. Frank paced up and down the waiting area, unable to sleep. When his father came to from the anaesthetic in the morning, his son was the first person he saw when he opened his eyes.

“Mate, you’re the best,” whispered Dad. It was clear he was in a lot of pain.

“I am so pleased you made it, Dad,” replied Frank.

“Of course. I didn’t want to miss seeing you grow up. Where’s your mother?”

“I don’t know, Dad. I called and called her last night, but I couldn’t get through.”

“She’ll come.”

It was a couple of hours until she did.

“Oh, Gilbert!” she said upon seeing him, and burst into tears.

The family reunion was brief, though, as she didn’t stay that long. Gilbert was in hospital for months, but his wife’s visits to his bedside became less and less frequent, and shorter and shorter. However, the nurses set up a little camp bed for Frank, and the boy slept by his father’s side every single night.

One day the doctors came in with a wooden leg for Gilbert.

It fitted him perfectly. Within days he learned to walk again, and insisted on walking all the way back to their block of flats from the hospital.

“I can still do everything!” said Dad proudly.

He walked with a limp, and Frank held his hand the whole way, but they got home eventually.

When they arrived back at the flat, Mum wasn’t there. She had left a note on the kitchen table. It read: