I could tell from the sound of the cough this time that it was going to be quite a bad attack. It was a very loud barky cough, and it went on and on and on. Mum slept in his room but in the early hours of the morning I heard her call to Dad in an urgent voice, and I crept to the door to listen at the crack.

‘What is it, Dorcas?’ Ruthy asked from behind me. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Nothing, Ruthy. Just Caleb wheezing. Go back to sleep,’ I said, and she turned over and resumed her little poppy snoring noises.

I heard a lot of moving around, and I knew Mum must have dressed because I could hear her heels clattering on the kitchen floor. I heard her talking to Dad, and although I couldn’t hear what they were saying, I could tell from the sound of their voices they were worried about Caleb. I decided it would be best not to go outside my room, in case Mum pointed out that it was my fault Caleb had had another attack because of the car incident the day before. I was feeling worried about him because I had good radar for when he was a bit sick and when he was very sick, and I could tell he was quite unwell this time.

Then I heard the back door bang shut and the car pull out of the drive. I ran to the lounge room window and watched Mum and Dad and Caleb drive away. Mum was sitting in the back seat with Caleb. I couldn’t see him but I knew she would have him propped up with a pillow on her shoulder. I went into the kitchen and there was a note on the table from Dad that said we should make breakfast and stay in the house until he rang us from the hospital. At the end it said: DORCAS. Please don’t cause any trouble today. Just do as we ask and stay in the house and don’t make a mess.

Ruthy was still asleep, so I made some toast and marmalade, took it into the lounge room and switched on the TV. I felt a thrill as I turned on the tellie. It was Sunday morning and I had no idea what would be on the tube because we were not allowed to watch on Sundays.

This made me think of Aunty Maisie, who said we only had the tellie because Mum was too lenient and worldly. I asked her how come she had a television then, and she got very cross and said it was for Grandpa because he was a boxing fan, and had to have some small comforts at his age, but I know for a fact she watched tellie too because I heard her discussing a show called Bellbird with her best friend, Sister Thatchman.

When Ruthy got out of bed and I told her that Mum and Dad had taken Caleb to hospital, she followed me into the lounge and said, ‘Um, Dorcas. You’ll get into trouble for putting the tellie on.’