Josh

As I've said before, Josh was the only person in my family that seemed to actually like me. He would always try to get me involved in family activities, and he was probably the only reason that mam and Rhyd put up with me living with them. He was my only brother, but by this time I had a half-sister called Gemma. As she grew older, she shared mam and Rhyd's opinion of me. She always said that she was better than me, and I think that mam and Rhyd probably preferred her to Josh because of it.

When I was eleven, Josh had something wrong with his hand. No one knew what it was, but his fingertips on his right hand were going slowly black. Over the course of the year, it spread down the rest of his hand. Mam and Rhyd took him to hundreds of doctor's, but they couldn't diagnose what was wrong with him, just that his hand was dying. They said that it was important that it didn't spread to the rest of his body, or it might affect his internal organs.

Josh didn't seem very worried about it. He still came out with me Liam and Frank and he still took part in all of the activities that he loved doing. That was one of the good things about Josh; even when things were going badly, he always saw the bright side. He said that the bright side to his hand was that he could scare away people that he didn't want to talk to by saying it was infectious. As a result, Gemma refused to go anywhere near him.

Even though he didn't care about it, I did. I wanted them to find a cure, because I hated the idea of Josh being in pain all the time, and being unable to do stuff with him. Mam blamed me, and although I knew that was impossible, I was petrified that it was true. I loved Josh more than anything else in the world, and I didn't want to cause his discomfort.

One day, we got a letter through. It was from the hospital, saying that they needed to talk to Josh and mama and Rhyd. Everyone was nervous. The letter didn't say why we needed to see the doctor, but they had an appointment for the next day, so they didn't have to wait long. When they came back, Josh seemed deflated, and went to his room.

Mam and Rhyd refused to tell me what was going on, and Josh didn't want to see anyone, so I waited outside the door of the living room, and eavesdropped as they were telling Gemma what was happening. I was mortified by what I heard.

The doctor had said that he had analysed the samples that he had taken from Josh's hand, and said that it wouldn't stop spreading. He had told them that if ti was allowed to continue, it would affect Josh's entire body within time. The only way to stop it was to amputate his hand. I went to my bedroom and cried. I didn't want Josh to be crippled, and I didn't want him to have an operation. I needed to talk to someone, but there was no one at home who I could talk to.

Josh took the next day off school. I sought out Liam, and arranged to meet up with him later on. When I saw him, I broke down in tears and I told him everything that was going on. I don't usually cry, and so Liam could tell that this was really bothering me. I loved Josh, and I didn't want him to be permanently affected. My feelings didn't matter.

The day of the operation came and everyone was terrified. The surgery was only going to last an hour because it wasn't difficult, and the doctor said that there were no dangers and he was going to be fine. It was scheduled for 10 O'clock. At 9:30 the nurse came in to give him his injection. He was allergic to most anaesthetics, so they couldn't put him to sleep, so they were going to numb the area and make him turn away. It seemed like a horrible idea to me, but apparently it was the only way.

We were sat in the waiting room 10 minutes after the nurse had come in, me on one side of the room and mam, Rhyd and Gemma on the other. No one would have guessed that we were meant to be a family. The doctor came into the room and I looked up. He went over to mam and he sat down and started talking to her. She started crying. I was confused, and scared. Had something bad happened? Could they not do the operation?

I saw Rhyd crying too, and that was when I knew something was serious. He pointed at me, and the doctor started walking towards me. I think that was the scariest moment in my life; watching the doctor walk towards me.

He sat down next to me and he looked into my eyes. He told me that he had just been speaking to my parents and that he was very sorry for what he was about to tell me. He said that the nurse hadn't known what kind of injection she was giving Josh, and that she injected it into the wrong place. He said that the numbing agent had been transported around his body in his bloodstream. He told me that it had reached his heart.

I felt as if my heart had stopped. I looked up and saw that the rest of the family had gone. I couldn't hear what the doctor was saying. My mind was panicked and I felt sick. I couldn't stay there, I needed to leave. I stood up and I ran. I ran home and I sat in his room. In his chair. He had been there just the night before. My brother that I loved had sat exactly where I was sat less than twenty four hours ago. Now my brother that I loved was dead before he even got to the operating table.

Author's Note: Sorry, that was a bit depressing... :( Please leave comments and be nice ;)