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I wake up.

It’s night time but it’s not dark, just cosy.

In the hospital, there’s always a soft glow of night lights.

I can see the huge Christmas tree in the corridor outside my little room.

It’s really pretty.

The lights look extra twinkly through the plastic tent that surrounds my bed,

Like I am camping with my teddy bear.

My hands are bandaged to stop me pulling out the tubes from my neck.

Father Christmas visited. It was very exciting.

So he knows I’m here. I’ll still get a present.

*

My hand bandages are off, but I’ve a new one around my neck.

They say I am well enough to be in the main ward, now.

It’s a huge oblong room with rows of beds.

There’s Winnie the Pooh and friends painted on the walls

And footprints to follow on the floor.

I get to sleep in a big bed.

It has bars around it to stop me falling out at night.

During the day, they hang down like ladders

To help me climb up on the big bed on my own.

Next to me is a boy with a broken leg that has its own tent.

In the middle of the room there’s a table where we eat or do colouring in.

Through the double doors is the playroom with lots of old toys and a big bay window.

I had fun tidying it up.

My Mummy is around.

She just wouldn’t go.

They let her stay in an unused room.

One morning she asked who was the nurse in the old-fashioned grey uniform

Who checked in on her last night.

The nurses didn’t say anything, only looked at each other

And changed the subject.

*

I feel like I live here now

But when it is time to go,

We say our thank-yous and goodbyes.

I am given a toy giraffe from the play room to keep,

And a Christmas card that everyone signed.

We walk down the long corridor. It goes on for miles.

Outside, I look up. It’s the biggest building I have ever seen.

*

Whenever I see the clock tower from afar,

I remember how they saved my life

And then I live it.