AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Keely glanced round at her colleagues in frustration. 'You're all hopeless!'
Rolling her eyes and shaking her head, she left the room and walked down the corridor, wincing as she heard the screams. Adam hadn't been exaggerating. The little girl was lying on the floor, ignoring all attempts to soothe and placate her.
Keely gave the A and E staff nurse a smile and walked casually over to the toy box. Then she sat down on the floor and started rummaging through it, careful not to look at the toddler.
'Oh, look at this, Zoe!' She pulled out a brightly coloured train and set it on the floor. 'Have we got any track?'
She rummaged again and managed to find some track.
'You start at that end of the room, Zoe, and I'll meet you in the middle.'
The staff nurse obligingly dropped to her knees and started to assemble the train track. As Keely had hoped, the screaming suddenly stopped and the toddler sat watching them, thumb jammed into her mouth.
'Any carriages?' Keely delved again and found a rather battered carriage. 'Perfect. Now I need someone to fix it to the engine.'
'Em's turn.' The child scrambled unevenly to her feet and tottered over. 'Em's turn.'
'Is that you?' Keely handed her the carriage. 'Are you Em?'
The toddler nodded, thumb still jammed in her mouth.
'Short for Emma—or Emily?'
'Emily,' the mother said quietly. 'But we tend to call her Em because that's what she calls herself.'
'And how old is she?'
'Two and a half.'
'Right.' Keely turned back to the toddler. 'What colour is this train, Em?'
'Wed. Wed and boo.'
'Clever girl.' Keely beamed at her. 'Red and blue. And can you fix it to the carriage for me?'
Em removed her thumb from her mouth and snapped the two toys together with ease.
'Brilliant. Now, can you put them on the track and push them to my friend Zoe?'
The toddler plopped onto the floor and pushed the train along to the nurse.
'Well, she seems quite lucid and she's playing happily,' Keely said, reaching for the notes Zoe had placed on the couch and quickly scanning them. 'What happened, Mrs Barrett?'
'She tripped and banged her head on the coffee-table.'
Was it her imagination or did the woman look nervous?
'And did she cry straight away?'
Mrs Barrett nodded and licked her lips. 'Oh, yes. She was hysterical.'
Keely gave her a sympathetic smile. 'Well, at least we know she wasn't knocked out. Has she been sick or drowsy?'
'No, nothing like that.'
'I just need to take a look in her eyes and examine the bump,' Keely explained, reaching for an ophthalmoscope and a teddy. 'OK, look at this, Em.'
She switched on the ophthalmoscope and pointed it at the teddy, pretending to examine its button eyes.
