Time Rocks

  *

  At the hospital, medical staff and police fussed about me. Everyone was nice and I could tell they were all genuinely concerned about me. I learned the café owner had been badly hurt. They said the poor woman would be lucky to keep her sight. Her body had screened me from most of the flying debris. I escaped with a lacerated calf, bruised ribs and some scratches on my left cheek and ear. After the doctor gave me the all clear I tried to visit the woman on the ward, but they would not let me in. She was sleeping they said, and her family were waiting to see her.

  I was soon allowed to get off the observation trolley and taken for tea and biscuits in the doctor’s room while I waited for my father to arrive. By the time he did, he had learned as much about the explosion as I knew myself. Local radio was reporting every development and speculation, and the police had given him their version of events. Sweating and breathless, he eventually bustled into the room. I saw his frown quickly fall away when he saw me sitting in the doctor's chair chatting with a very young police officer.

  ‘Are you hurt? They said you were there – you saw it. Are you alright?’

  ‘Yes dad, I’m fine. I just got a few scratches.’ He peered at the little dressings stuck over the cuts and bruises on my face and hands. I showed him my bandaged leg with some pride. ‘The doctor says I can go, but the cops want to talk to me.’

  ‘Thank God you’re alright.’ He released a sigh, and pressed speed dial on his mobile. ‘I’d better tell your mother. She’s been ringing me every two minutes.’

  While he was on the phone to mum, a police sergeant appeared and signalled to me that he had a car to take us to the police station. I stood up gingerly from the doctor’s chair, thanked a nurse - I couldn’t see the doctor – and followed the police officers to the exit. My dad extricated himself from his call to mom, and tagged on behind us. I was thinking about what I would tell them. I would definitely not say anything about Jack's binoculars until I’d put out my blog on as many websites as I could think of.