My Friend Walter by Michael Morpurgo Page A

overcame me. ‘Honest I didn’t. Come back, please come back.’
    But he never came. I had banished my best friend, my only friend, and I had only myself to blame.

CHAPTER 5
    DOCTOR RODERICK CAME FIRST THING THE NEXT morning, an old man with more hair growing out of his ears than on his head.
    â€˜Remarkable,’ he said shaking his head as he came downstairs into the kitchen. ‘She’s as bright as a button. Quite remarkable.’ And he patted me on the head as he passed by. ‘You got her to take a cup of tea, your Mother tells me, Bess.’ I nodded. ‘Must’ve been something you put in it,’ he said, and everyone laughed except me. Little Jim squawked in his chair and bit harder on the edge of his bowl. ‘Still teething is he, Mrs Throckmorton?’ the doctor asked.
    â€˜He’s got six now,’ said Mother proudly.
    â€˜Six of his very own,’ said the doctor. ‘Well, that’ssplendid. Splendid. That’s more than I have now, you know. A fine-looking boy you’ve got there Mr Throckmorton. Make a good farmer by the look of him.’
    Father nodded. ‘That’s if there’s anything left to farm, doctor,’ he said.
    â€˜Hard times, eh?’ said the doctor.
    â€˜Could be better,’ said Father.
    â€˜Still, you’ve got your health,’ the doctor said. ‘And that’s the main thing. Without your health you can’t do anything.’
    â€˜I suppose so, Doctor,’ said Father, but he did not sound convinced. The doctor sat down at the table beside me and wrote out a prescription. ‘She’s to take this four times a day, and she’s to stay in bed,’ he said. ‘And lots more of your tea, Bess. She needs lots of liquids.’ I smiled weakly.
    â€˜Bess has got a bit of a cough, Doctor,’ said Mother. ‘Been coming on for some time. She was coughing all night last night, weren’t you dear?’
    â€˜Better have a look at it then, whilst I’m here,’ said the doctor. And he got me to say ‘aaah’, and put a lolly stick on my tongue and peered deep into my mouth. He had lots of little purple veins all over his nose. ‘Looks healthy enough to me,’ he said after a momentor two. ‘Need some of your own medicine perhaps, Bess. The dust from the hay I shouldn’t wonder. A good cup of tea will help.’ He smiled at me. And sure enough his teeth were far too white and too even to be real. I’d never noticed before. Still, I thought, there’s not many people who admit to having false teeth. Gran would die if you even mentioned hers.
    Father accompanied the doctor to the door. ‘I’ve got to go to the bank this afternoon,’ he said, ‘so I’ll pick up the prescription when I’m in town.’
    â€˜Soon as you can,’ said the doctor, and he was gone. Mother sent me upstairs a few minutes later with Gran’s breakfast tray. As I went past my room I noticed the door was open. I always shut it to keep Humph off my bed. Someone must be in there. I could see a shadow on the floor by the bed. Someone was sitting on my bed. Walter had come back after all! I put the tray down on the floor of the passage and rushed in.
    But it wasn’t Walter. It was Will. He was sitting cross-legged on my bed and he was reading Walter’s letter. Humph was on the bed beside him.
    â€˜Well, little sister,’ he said, waving it at me. ‘What have you been up to, then? And who is this W.R. who wrote this letter?’ I’d forgotten to hide it away. What afool I’d been! What an idiot! He picked up the bottle and opened it. ‘Smells of mint,’ he said. ‘And it’s one of my bottles from my lab. So it
was
you messing about down there, wasn’t it?’ I said nothing because there was nothing I could say. ‘I thought so. But why, that’s what I want to know? You’ve never showed any