Heartbeat Away by Laura Summers Read Free Book Online Page A

stillquite red,’ I add quickly, so she knows I’m not just gawping for the sake of it.
    â€˜Don’t worry. If it doesn’t fade, ask for your money back,’ she says with a grin.
    I start flicking through the magazine she’s given me, secretly wanting to carry on chatting but not quite knowing what to say.
    â€˜Want to get a drink from the vending machine?’ she asks a few minutes later.
    â€˜Yeah, OK.’ I glance at Mum who nods. The previous patient, a little boy about six years old, has only just gone in with his parents. They’ll be at least twenty minutes, if not more.
    We stroll down to the battered old vending machine at the other end of the corridor.
    â€˜OK, you need to know this,’ says the girl turning to me with a serious expression on her face. ‘The coffee tastes like tea and the tea tastes of coffee. Both look like dishwater and both smell of old socks. But, as far as I know, there’ve been no fatalities from the hot chocolate.’
    â€˜Sounds delicious,’ I say with a smile.
    As we feed our coins into the machine and wait for our drinks the girl tells me her name’s Alice, and she’s here for her yearly check-up. She’s nearly eighteen and had her transplant when she was eight.
    â€˜I was born with a broken heart – literally – so when I had my transplant it was the best day of my life. It meant that I finally had a chance of living.’
    â€˜So was it all OK?’
    â€˜I’m here, aren’t I? Drinking this poison?’ she says with a laugh. ‘Don’t remember the operation, obviously, but it must have worked. I’d been really ill before so it took a while to build up my strength, but now the world is my lobster!’ She takes a sip of her hot chocolate and grimaces. ‘Errr yuck!’
    â€˜What do they put in this stuff?’ I ask, pulling at the top of my roll-neck jumper, yanking it up so it sits higher on my throat.
    â€˜Best not to know,’ she replies, glancing at me. She hesitates for a second or two then says, ‘I also had a bit of a thing about my scar at first. Didn’t want anyone to see it. Then I thought, stuff it! It’s a part of me, and what I’ve been through. Call it my battle scar now. If anyone asks or teases me I tell them I got it wrestling a bear. Actually, it’s a great conversation starter with boys.’
    I laugh. ‘So did you feel different after the transplant?’
    â€˜Too right I did! For the first time ever in my whole life, I could play sports, dance, ride a horse – do all the things I’d never been able to do before.’ She grins from ear to ear. ‘I’m going to train as a riding instructor next year. Can’t wait. I could never even have dreamt about doing that before my transplant.’ She looks at me inquisitively. ‘So how about you?’
    â€˜A virus attacked my heart a couple of years ago. They finally put me on the urgent list and I had my transplant last October. But since then . . . I’ve changed.’
    â€˜Who hasn’t?’ says Alice, nodding then taking a sip of her hot chocolate.
    â€˜Alice, after you got your new heart did you . . .’ I stop,unsure whether to continue or not. I take the plunge. ‘Did you . . . Do you ever . . . see stuff . . . or have memories of places or people that you don’t know and haven’t met?’
    â€˜Nope,’ she replies, ‘not at all. Why?’
    I start to explain what has been happening to me over the last couple of months since my operation.
    â€˜Wow,’ she says when I finish. ‘I’ve never heard of that before. And I’ve met tons of people who’ve also had transplants. They’ve never said anything either.’
    â€˜I wonder if I’m just imagining it all.’
    â€˜Well, having a heart transplant isn’t exactly like getting your hair cut. I guess it could mess your mind up