Free Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman

went back to staring at the doctor in awe.
    The doctor picked up the hand of the patient in the bed, patted it, put it back down and moved on to the next bed.
    Now’s my chance, thought Colin, blood pounding in his ears.
    He pushed through the student doctors, got a stethoscope hooked round his arm, pulled himself free, and found himself in front of the doctor.
    The doctor stared down at him.
    Words rushed around in Colin’s head. He opened his mouth and let them out.
    â€˜I know you’re real busy here and everything but you’ve got to come to Australia and fix up Luke. They reckon he’s gunna die but I just reckon they’re being slack and you can do it, I know you can.’
    The doctor frowned.
    â€˜Who is this?’ he boomed.
    â€˜Luke,’ said Colin, ‘my brother.’
    The doctor pointed to Colin.
    â€˜I mean who is this boy?’ he thundered.
    The student doctors looked at each other in alarm. A couple looked at their notepads.
    â€˜We’ll pay your fare,’ said Colin, ‘or if you’ve got a Lear jet we’ll pay the petrol.’
    A couple of the student doctors tittered. Several patients grinned.
    â€˜Matron,’ roared the doctor, and turned and swept along to the next bed.
    Colin tried to follow, but a large matron hurried across and grabbed his arm.
    He stamped on her foot, pulled himself free and went after the doctor.
    â€˜Please,’ yelled Colin, ‘you’ve got to do it, it’ll only take a few days, you’ve got to.’
    The doctor turned and glared at the nurses who were standing all around, frozen.
    â€˜I am trying to do my rounds,’ he roared, his face flushing red. with anger. ‘Will somebody please remove this child.’
    Colin felt panic stabbing him in the guts.
    It wasn’t working.
    The Best Doctor In The World hadn’t put his hand on his shoulder and smiled down and said, ‘Leave it to me, son.’
    â€˜He’s got cancer,’ pleaded Colin. ‘He could die.’
    â€˜Everyone here has got cancer,’ thundered the doctor, sweeping his arm around the ward. ‘They could all die.’
    Suddenly none of the patients were grinning.
    â€˜If your brother needs treatment, there are proper channels. I will not have my ward round disrupted like this.’
    â€˜Please,’ said Colin.
    The Worst Doctor In The World thumped his hand onto Colin’s shoulder and glared down and roared, ‘Go away!’
    â€˜No!’ screamed Colin, throwing himself at the doctor. But before he could land a punch he was grabbed from behind by several pairs of hands and suddenly he was upside down and the doctor, also upside down, was getting smaller and smaller and then was gone.
    Colin saw the corridor walls blurring past him. He kicked and struggled, but the two male nurses and the uniformed attendant had him in a bone-crusher grip.
    They took him into an office and held him down in a chair while a supervisor gave him some forms that the patient’s parent or guardian could fill out if the patient’s doctor and/or senior medical administrator agreed.
    Then the uniformed attendant marched Colin out of the hospital.

Chapter Ten
    Colin sat on the kerb and felt a hot pricking in his eyes that meant either Arnie Strachan had just blown cigarette smoke in his face or he was going to cry.
    Arnie Strachan was twelve thousand miles away, so it must be that he was going to cry.
    Colin decided he wasn’t going to cry.
    He closed his eyes and thought of Dad. Dad never cried, not even the time Colin bowled a Malcolm Marshall special off an extra long run-up and it bounced crooked off a cow-pat and slammed Dad in the privates.
    It’s not a disaster, thought Colin.
    He’d gone for the wrong doctor, that’s all. He’d gone for the doctor who looked like The World’s Best Doctor. He’d been fooled by a Dynasty haircut. The real World’s Best Doctor was probably