Jenny woke up a few hours later with the sound of her name. She felt as though she was dreaming but then she heard it again and gradually woke from her sleep. Eileen was there and a male doctor, a woman and another man. Eileen helped prop her up in the bed. The doctor held out his hand and Jenny, unsure of what she was supposed to do, awkwardly placed hers into it. He told her that he was very happy with her progress and that they were going to do more tests to check that everything was as it should be but that she should make a full recovery. He joked that her side had won the game anyhow, but when she asked the final score, he wasn’t quite as sure. He said a few more things and looked at the other two strangers a few times and then told Jenny he would be back later and that she was to rest and eat as much jelly and ice-cream as she could. He was the doctor, so she certainly wasn’t going to argue with that. When he was gone, Eileen asked her if she would like some dinner. Although she didn’t answer at first, it seemed that she took from her expression that she would. Jenny asked her what it was and nearly fell out of the bed with her reply – “Shepards Pie” such luck!

Jenny had now been in hospital a few days and was feeling a lot better. She was getting breakfast in bed every morning, cornflakes and toast with jam and butter. Then dinner, which ranged from her favourite to lasagne and jelly and ice-cream by the lorry load. It was like she had stepped out of her own body and into some rich kids, she thought. She reckoned this must have been how the royalty lived. ‘Would you like your pillow puffed young lady? If it’s not too much trouble, and a chocolate mint for the tooth fairy in case she gets hungry?’ She figured even they couldn’t have it this good.

At this stage she was up and about. She would get up for a few hours each day and go into a bigger room that was filled with lots of toys. There were lots of other kids in there. Some of the kids were really sick and weren’t able to play much. Jenny got a game of chess and used to play that by herself. She would make a move, then Billy, who was her right hand would make a move and then she would make another move and Billy would make another. Jenny won a lot of those games although she let Billy win a few too. Jenny always moved the horse first because she knew there were rules to playing it but she wasn’t quite sure what they were so she pretended she was a princess and Billy was the pauper who had come to rescue her, that’s why he didn’t win that much. Why would she want to go from princess to pauper, she thought. That would have been a silly move. Like that Beatles guy marrying the one with the wooden leg and then she dropped him like a hot coal as soon as she popped the sprog. There was a lesson to be learned there Jenny reckoned – that’s what her mother said anyhow. But the, if he beat the crap out of her, she would have said the same thing. You’ve made your bed…bla, bla, bla. Jenny thought she was right to go when she wasn’t happy but she should have had two and she would have gotten a lot more! Anyhow, it was great to be able to sit down and play, she thought. One day she was playing and a girl with orange hair came over and asked her what she was doing. Jenny explained that she was playing chess and she said she didn’t know how to play. Jenny wasn’t sure about her. Her hair was funny and she needed to blow her nose. Then she asked Jenny if she could play so Jenny told her that she and Billy were just in the middle of a game and as soon as they were done she could play then. Her name was Maria. She was okay. Jenny never had a friend before and she didn’t seem to think there was any smell. She was good fun after a while and Jenny enjoyed playing chess with her. She let her into her secret world of royalty too so they were two princesses from two different kingdoms. Jenny’s men could move in every direction but hers could only go forward or back. But she soon told Jenny that her men had elected a new king and that they could move in every direction too. After that Jenny realised that she had to let her or her new friend might have given her another knock on the head and while she liked it in here, one blow was enough for her.

Maria liked it in hospital too but not as much as Jenny did. She often had big people coming in to visit her and she smelled of perfume. Her mother was always in, asking her if she was okay and things like that. Jenny’s didn’t appear at all and she wasn’t sure if they had told them at home. She wondered if they had noticed that she wasn’t around.

Log on tomorrow for Chapter 2 – Part 2