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Chapter six

In Hospital

The ambulance arrives at the hospital. Mr and Mrs Anderson are already there. They watch anxiously as the paramedics pull the stretcher out of the ambulance.

“Oh Ricki! Are you all right?” asks his mother. She runs to her son’s side. “Yes, I think I’m all right, Mom,” replies Ricki. “Don’t worry.”

“What happened, son?” asks his father.

“You can tell your parents the story later,” says one of the paramedics. “You must rest now. Then the doctor is coming to see you.”

They take Ricki to the Accident and Emergency department and put him to bed. When they move him from the stretcher his leg hurts very much. His parents are worried when they see the pain on his face. What’s the matter with Ricki’s leg?

“The doctor is coming soon,” the paramedic tells them and leaves the family alone in the room.

Ricki starts to tell his mother and father the story. “We were all walking out of the school gates. One minute Tony and I were talking about the basketball team, and the next minute a car knocked me down. I don’t remember anything after that,” he says.

“Basketball team?” asks Mrs Anderson.

“Oh yeah, Mom. I made the team! Our names are on Coach Bergman’s list,” says Ricki. He smiles and then he groans in pain as his leg starts to hurt again. His mom takes his hand.

“Don’t worry, honey, the doctor is coming now,” she says.

At that moment, Trish, Tony and Stacy arrive.

“Ricki, how are you?” asks Stacy. She comes over to the bed. She takes his other hand.

“I’m all right, Stacy Thanks,” Ricki says smiling.

“The doctor is coming to examine him now, Stacy,” Mrs Anderson tells her.

“We know about the accident,” says Mr Anderson to Tony. “Do you know who the driver of the car could be?”

“No, I’m sorry, Mr Anderson, I don’t. I didn’t recognize the car,” replies Tony.

“The car has dark windows,” adds Trish. “But Charlie Bell thinks there were two people inside.”

“It must be someone who hates Ricki,” says Stacy sadly.

“Hates Ricki? Who could hate him?” asks Mrs Anderson, surprised.

Tony frowns at Stacy. He doesn’t want her to tell Ricki’s parents about the mysterious messages.

A nurse comes in then and introduces himself.

“Hello. I’m Drew Carlson. I’m your nurse. Ricki, please put this thermometer under your arm. I’m going to give you an injection to stop the pain, then the doctor wants to do some tests on your leg.” He turns to the others, “I’m sorry, but you must all wait outside for a few minutes.”

“Hello, Ricki, I’m Dr. Brown. How are you feeling?” she asks kindly.

“Not too bad, Doctor, but my leg hurts a lot,” replies Ricki.

“Hmmm. Let’s have a look,” she says. She feels Ricki’s left leg. Ricki cries in pain.

“I want some X-rays of that leg,” says the doctor to Nurse Carlson.

“Please take Ricki to the X-ray room. I think your left leg might be fractured, Ricki. But don’t worry, it’s not too serious. We can fix it.”

“Can I still play basketball, Doctor? I made the school team today and I want to play in the championship this year,” says Ricki.

“Congratulations” replies Dr. Brown. “But I don’t think you can play basketball for some time. We must put a plaster cast on your leg and you need to rest it for a few weeks.”

“But we start basketball practice on Monday” says Ricki, desperately.

“Sorry, Ricki,” says Dr. Brown. “Now I want to talk to your parents,” and she leaves him alone.

Ricki’s friends come back in.

“Ricki, we were talking about the notes you and Tony received at school. The notes were right. something bad did happen,” says Stacy.

“But who is behind all these threats?” asks Trish.

“I don’t know,” says Tony. “What about ‘Caper’? That’s the name on the e-mails.”

“I think we have to find the driver of the car,” says Trish. “Who has a red car in our school?”

“That’s going to be impossible, Trish. I think it was a Subaru, but there are a lot of red Subaru’s in town and the car could be stolen.”

“Wait a minute, I remember something,” says Stacy slowly. “The car has an unusual wheel! The back wheel on the right was different from the others.”

“That’s a good clue,” says Tony. “I’m sure ‘Caper’ and the red car are connected. When we find Caper, we find the mystery driver!”

“Don’t worry, Ricki, we’re going to find out who is doing all this,” says Trish to her friend, and Stacy and Tony nod in agreement.

“You bet!”