Read Online Dropping In by Geoff Havel - Free Book Online Page B

swallow.‘Urgh!’ He squishes some out between his teeth like he’s been playing with us for years and we’re all laughing our faces off.

14
    James looks calm for someone being taken to the children’s hospital for an operation. I’m looking through the window when the paramedics wheel him out of the house in one of their chairs and I run out to say goodbye.
    James waves when he sees me coming and then the paramedics lift him into the back of the ambulance. I walk up to the door and when they finish strapping him in, and his mum and dad kiss him and hug him a hundred times, they let me hop in the back with him for a minute.
    Once I get in there all the things I want to say disappear or seem kind of cheesy. How do you tell a friend that he is about the bravest person you know or you’re going to miss having him around or that you’re scared for him? Instead I punch him on the shoulder and say, ‘Some people will do anything to get out of school.’
    James laughs which makes me feel better. Maybe itwas the right thing to say after all and he feels better too. We talk for a while and then the paramedics tell me James has to go so I climb out. Before they shut the door I lean back in and tell him I’ll come to visit him.
    He smiles and says, ‘See you there.’ But then he grows serious. ‘Tell Ranga I’m sorry I might miss his skateboard competition.’
    How can he be thinking of that when he is about to have an operation to implant something in his body?
    â€˜It’s okay,’ Ranga says from behind me. He’s puffing. He must have run up the hill. I step back out of the way and he looks at James for a moment. Then he says, ‘Have a good holiday.’
    We all crack up and then his mum hops in with him, the paramedics close the door and they take James away.
    Ranga and I stand on James’ driveway with James’ dad, waving even though we know James has no hope of seeing us.
    â€˜Thanks boys,’ James’ dad says.
    â€˜What for?’ Ranga says.
    â€˜For being good friends.’
    Ranga looks puzzled. He hasn’t thought about it at all. He’s just been doing what comes naturally to him. I wish I was like that too, but I can’t help thinking abouteverything. Sometimes I try not to think at all but then I realise that I’m thinking about not thinking. Doh!
    At recess Ranga and I sit on the benches at the canteen eating a slice of cheese on toast each, like we used to before James came, but it’s not the same. There’s something missing. It’s strange that nothing was missing before James came but now he’s not here there is: same bench, same school, same cheesies, Ranga and me, but there’s this hole in the air next to us where James should be.
    â€˜Do you reckon he’s in the operating theatre by now?’ Ranga says around a mouthful of toasted cheese.
    â€˜Maybe.’
    We’re quiet for a while and then Ranga says, ‘You know how it’s Big Rubbish Day next week?’
    â€˜Yeah?’ I say.
    â€˜Well there’s a couch out the front of a house around the corner from the roundabout.’
    â€˜So?’
    â€˜Well, you know how James wants to skateboard but it’s never going to happen?’
    I nod.
    â€˜Well, what if we put skateboard wheels on the couch, then James could sit in between us and we could goflogging down the hill from your place all the way to the park.’
    â€˜How would we steer?’
    â€˜I’ve got an idea for that,’ says Ranga.
    In the back of my mind I’m remembering the ramp he built on my driveway, but this idea seems so much better.
    Just after lunch the PA system calls me to Mr Sutton’s office again. I’m walking up there trying to think what I might have done. Nothing comes to mind. I’m up to date with assignments and homework, thanks to Mum’s hassling, and I haven’t broken any rules. Ranga