Read Hello God for Free Online Page B

their wards or curled up in bed.
    Steph looked at Matt and the balloons he was holding. She smiled shyly. She was really happy he cared. Matt tied the balloons to the bedrail and foran instant they fluttered like they wanted to break free and fly high into the sky.
    Adam talked to Steph then walked around, inspecting the kids’ drawings on the walls. He talked to the other kids in the ward. He was very comfortable. I remembered that he’d been in and out of hospital. They’d helped him no end since he first came in for treatment on his birthmark.
    Stephanie will be helped too, won’t she, God?
    Steph told me she couldn’t eat the Anzac biscuits. Her treatment gives her an upset stomach and everything tastes like sand. She said some of the other kids would eat them.
    Matt shifted from foot to foot and told Steph that she’d get better soon. We were all quiet for a minute then Steph told us that her hair was going to fall out soon. That she was going to be a baldie. It would grow back, and maybe look even nicer than it was now and she’d grow it all the way down to her waist.
    She laughed a really strange, false laugh. I blinked.
    I noticed two of the children in her ward wearing beanies and this may sound silly, God, but up until that moment I thought they had cold heads.
    Why does this have to happen to someone like Steph? Why do good people get sick when a lot of bad people don’t?
    Steph tried to cheer us up by telling us, seriously, she’d look like a boiled egg.
    ‘Soft or hard boiled?’ Adam asked her, and we fell around laughing. I told her I’d buy her the best-looking beanie in town.
    Adam offered to draw a face on her scalp. I wasn’t sure about that. There’s nothing funny about Steph losing her hair.
    I began to hiccup. Steph sighed and pointed to the water jug.
    We filled in Steph about everything that’s been happening at school, talked about the sportscarnival that’s coming up and the big ‘get well’ card the class was making for her.
    When Stephanie’s parents arrived, Matt and Adam introduced themselves and chatted for a while.
    Steph gestured to me to come closer and whispered in my ear how much she liked Matt. I whispered back how much he liked her.
    You may not understand these things, you being a spirit, but it was a very special moment, God.

Kate calling God. Kate calling God. Come in, God. Where are you?
    You’re needed. All this stuff about giving us the right to make up our own minds to do good stuff or bad stuff has nothing to do with Steph’s health.
    She’s really sick. Really, really sick.
    My mum’s tum is very big and she’s finished work at the library for now. She and Steph’s mum get into a huddle and drink tea at our house, and sometimes when I come home from school theydon’t even hear me drop my bag and walk into the kitchen.
    Mum and Dad look serious when I mention Stephanie.
    When I visit Steph, my heart feels like it has dropped all the way down to the pit of my stomach.
    She gets sick a lot now, vomits, doesn’t eat much, and her hair is coming out in big clumps. She’s as thin as a beanstalk. She has seven beanies and wears a different one every day. A different colour for each day of the week. Today’s was red.
    There is no need for this to happen.
    Hey, God, do something. I know there are starving children in Africa, and bad people doing wrong things in the world, but save a bit of your time for Stephanie.
    Please.
    Send a sign that you’ve heard me.

Still no word from you, God.
    Steph’s hair has dropped out completely, and everyone who visits has to be careful that they’re absolutely healthy. We wash our hands with special soap and water before we go into the ward, and if we even cough by mistake, a nurse will appear and tell us to get lost.
    Steph’s resistance is low. While she’s on this medication she can catch almost anything, so we have to think of her, and only visit if we’re one hundred per cent healthy.
    Most days Matt and Adam come