The Complete Adventures of Curious George (32 page)

"Now let's see ... There is something there that should not be," said the doctor when they were looking at the X-rays.

"Why, that looks like ... I think that must be the piece that was missing in our jigsaw puzzle yesterday!" said the man. "Well, well, well," said the doctor, "at least we know now what is wrong with our little patient. I'll tell Doctor Baker right away. George will have to stay at the hospital for a few days. They'll put a tube down his throat to get the piece out. It's only a small operation. I'll call a nurse and have her take you to the admitting office."

Many people were waiting outside the office. George had to wait too.

"Look, Betsy," the woman next to him said to her little girl, "there is Curious George!" Betsy looked up for a moment, but she did not even smile. Betsy had never been to a hospital before. She was scared.

Finally it was George's turn.

A pretty young nurse took him to the next room—my, how many rooms and how many nurses there were! One nurse wrote down a lot of things about George: his name and his address and what was wrong with him. Another nurse put a bracelet around his wrist. "It has your name on it, George," she said, "so that everybody knows who you are."

Then the pretty young nurse came back. "My name is Carol," she said. "I am going to take you to your room now—we call it the children's ward—and put you to bed. There will be lots of children to keep you company."

And so it was. There were a lot of children in the room. Some were up and around; others were in their beds, with a doctor or a nurse looking after them.

Dave was having a blood transfusion. Steve had his leg bandaged and was sitting in a go-cart. Betsy was in bed looking sad. George got the bed next to Betsy.

George was glad when he was in his bed at last. His tummy was hurting again.

The man sat with him for a while. "Now I have to leave you, George," he finally said. "I'll be back first thing in the morning before they take you to the operating room. Nurse Carol will tuck you in when it's time to sleep."

Then he left. George just sat there and cried.

As he had promised, the man was back early next morning. The nurses were keeping George very busy. One nurse was taking his temperature; one was taking his blood pressure; one was giving him a pill ("To make you sleepy, George," she said), and one was getting ready to give him a shot.

"It's going to hurt, George," she said, "but only for a moment."

She took his arm, and George let out a scream.

"But the needle hasn't touched you yet," said the nurse, laughing. "There—now it's done. That wasn't so bad, was it?" No, it really was not. And anyway, it was over now.

By the time the attendant came with the stretcher to wheel him to the operating room, George was getting sleepy. He tried hard to stay awake. He was curious to see what would happen next.