In Too Deep Read Online Free

policeman asked, returning to his side.
    Shakily, Josh raised his hand to point down the road.
    “I think he lives around the corner,” the old man said. “I’ve seen him on my walks.”
    “Is that right, Josh?” the policeman asked.
    “Yes,” he said as moved slowly to a sitting position. He grimaced at the pain. His eyesight was blurry, but he could make out the figure of the policeman crouched down beside him and the old man standing just behind him. He waited for the nausea to pass.
    “There’s an ambulance on its way. Is there anyone you want me to call?”
    “Mum.”
    “Is she at home?”
    “At work.”
    “Do you have her number? I can get comms to give her a ring.”
    Josh couldn’t remember the number. It was in his head somewhere, but it just wouldn’t come.
    “She’s a teacher. Meadowfields Primary.”
    “I’ll get them to look it up.”
    The policeman stood and spoke into his radio handset, but Josh couldn’t make out the words. He closed his eyes again and leant back against the fence. Time seemed to compact. He could hear voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying. The whooshing in his ears came and went, came back again. The policeman hovered nearby, a vague shape just out of his field of vision.
    Another vehicle pulled up. Its engine had a throatier sound. Josh opened his eyes. An ambulance was at the kerb. Two figures got out. One talked to the policeman briefly while the other went to the back of the van.
    “Hi, Josh,” said the ambulance man as he knelt beside him. “My name’s Stan. Can you tell me what happened?”
    “Beat up.”
    Josh felt the man’s hand on his head as he examined the cut on his cheek.
    “That might need stitches and your eye’s gonna swell up.”
    Josh grunted (he could have told him that!), then winced as the pain in his ribs stabbed through his chest.
    “Did you lose consciousness?”
    “No.”
    “Where does it hurt?”
    “Here and here,” Josh said moving his hand over his chest and stomach.
    Stan pulled up his school shirt and felt the ribs gently.
    “Could have a couple of broken ribs, but you’ll need an X-ray to make sure. We’ll get you to a hospital.”
    “No.”
    The other ambulance man was coming towards him with the stretcher from the back of the van.
    “You’re pretty banged up, mate,” Stan said.
    “I’m okay.”
    “No, you’re not.”
    A car screeched to an abrupt stop behind the ambulance and his mother launched herself out of the driver’s seat, hurtling towards him.
    “Josh, they said you’d been attacked!” she said breathlessly. “What happened? I thought you were at home.” She was on her knees beside him now, her hand on her chest, her face creased with worry.
    “I went to school,” he told her.
    “Is he all right?” she anxiously asked Stan.
    “He’s got some injuries I think should be looked at but nothing life threatening. We’re about to load him up and take him to the hospital to be checked out.”
    “I’ll follow you there.”
    Josh wanted to protest. Here were these adults making decisions for him and all he wanted to do was go home and lie down. He tried to say something, but his mother turned away to speak to the policeman and Stan was talking to his colleague who was standing next to him with the lowered stretcher bed.
    After cutting the straps to the backpack to remove it without causing him too much pain, they lifted him gently onto the stretcher and covered him with a blanket, which made him feel idiotic. Then they wheeled him to the back of the ambulance. His mother came round to watch him being loaded in, her face white. He wanted to tell her that he was all right, but being moved around had made him dizzy. He closed his eyes as the rear doors shut.
     
    They arrived back home in the late afternoon. Josh had a big white envelope containing his X-rays and his chest was strapped up tight because of the cracked rib they had found. They’d stitched the cut on his face and a dressing