Page 163 - My Home on the Earth

Steve was speaking to a young boy. ‘Please lie still, help is coming.’ He took off his jacket and covered the boy and wondered how much longer they’d have to wait. Sirens whirred and a paramedic jumped from his car to attend to the injured boy. Within thirty minutes, Jake was speeding in an ambulance to the hospital, but he couldn’t hear what was being said to him. Later he remembered the bumping sensation of being taken from the ambulance and wheeled into the hospital under bright lights. Then he was lifted and put down again. Mouths opened and closed in his face as if they were miming. He felt his clothes being removed and wanted to tell a nurse not to lose his coins. Then he fell asleep.
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The train into Rauston Quay was early and Alan Cooper wasted no time calling Mr Bannister. He told him who he
was and where he’d come from and was told to stay put. A car was coming to collect him.
When the taxi stopped outside The Terrence Foundation building, Alan couldn’t help wondering how much it cost to build. It was modern and outshone its neighbouring tired Victorian buildings, terraced housing and shops. He was shown to the third floor, and when the lift opened he was greeted by a well-dressed man in a grey suit. ‘Welcome, Mr Cooper. I’m Stuart. Please, come through. You must be worn out after such a long journey.’
Alan accepted a coffee and looked around the office. Family photographs adorned the room, and he admired a painting of a young man and a woman sitting with Stuart and an older woman he presumed to be his wife. An
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