Free Becky Bananas by Jean Ure

mum and her mum says she has probably strained it. “Doing all those ballet exercises.” Bryony thinks that maybe it was when she was doing
grands battements.
    But she thinks she will be able to work her way through it, because quite often that is what dancers do when they have aches and pains. So that afternoon when she goes to class she tries to pretend that everything is the same as usual and to forget about her leg and how it is hurting.
    But next day it is worse and when she goes for class her teacher notices and saysto her that she must rest for a while and not come to class until it is better. She says that she has probably pulled a muscle and it is best to rest it.
    Bryony really hates to miss class but her leg is so bad she can hardly bear to walk on it. Also she is feeling quite tired and people start to say how pale she is.
    At first her mum doesn’t worry because she has always been pale. Once at school some unkind girls made a nickname for her and the nickname was “Pasty”. But then one morning Bryony wakes up and she has a pain in her other leg as well, and now her mum starts to get a bit anxious and tells the au pair to take her to the doctor. Bryony’s mum cannot go to the doctor with her as she has to be at work. She is a big television star and they are doing some important filming, but the au pair, who is called Rosa-Maria, is quite nice. Bryony doesn’t mind going to the doctor with her.
    The doctor is also quite nice. He has been to see Bryony before, when she has had mumps and chickenpox. He says toRosa-Maria that she must take Bryony immediately to the hospital to have a blood test so that they can find out what is wrong.
    The blood test means having a needle stuck in her arm and a tube of blood sucked out, which is not very pleasant, but Bryony is eleven and so she is brave about it.
    When her mum comes home that day she cannot understand why Bryony has had to go to the hospital to have the blood sucked out. She says, “Why does she need to have blood sucked out for a pulled muscle?” Rosa-Maria says that the doctor thinks maybe Bryony might be anaemic. (Which is something else Uncle Eddy said I would have to explain.)
    Anaemic means not having enough red blood cells which carry the oxygen round your body and give you energy. If people don’t have enough red cells, then they get tired.
    At six o’clock that night the doctor rings up and speaks to Bryony’s mum. He says he has had the result of the blood test and would like to come round to discuss it.Bryony’s mum turns pale. She says, “l hope it isn’t anything serious?” But the doctor won’t tell her until he comes.
    When the doctor arrives, Bryony is told to go and watch television with Rosa-Maria and her little brother Joseph. She doesn’t hear what the doctor says, but afterwards, when he has gone, she sees that her mum has been crying. Her mum tells her that she is anaemic and that is why she has felt tired. She says that she has to go back to the hospital so that the doctors can find out what is causing it.
    When they go to the hospital a second time it is a different hospital, it is a hospital that deals only with children, and Bryony’s mum goes with her. Bryony is glad that it is her mum and not Rosa-Maria. She likes Rosa-Maria but it is not the same as being with her mum.
    At the hospital they are taken to a room with four beds in it. Two of the beds are empty but in one bed there is a girl of about Bryony’s age. She is sitting up against the pillows and listening to music throughheadphones. She is very pretty with blonde hair and a red nightdress with white dots. She smiles at Bryony but Bryony is too frightened to smile back. What has frightened her is that this girl has plastic tubes coming out of her nightdress. The tubes are stuck to the side of the bed and are attached to plastic bags that hang off a metal stand.

    You can see inside the plastic bags. One of them has something that looks like blood in it. Bryony