Just Joshua Read Online Free PDF

through a door and paused when she saw them. ‘What are you two scamps doing here?’ she scolded. ‘Are you sick?’
    Joshua stopped in mid-whirl and grinned at her. ‘No,’ he said. ‘We’ve come to see the mountain man.’
    ‘Have you indeed?’
    ‘We want to visit him,’ Joshua said stubbornly. ‘He wants us to.’
    She opened a drawer in the desk near the door and took out a file. ‘Are you family?’
    They shook their heads. ‘He’s very ill,’ she told them gently. ‘Only family can visit him, it’s the rules.’ She opened the file and began to study it.
    ‘Off you go then,’ she said firmly, seeing them still standing there.
    ‘Is he dying?’ Joshua asked.
    She stared at him. ‘Didn’t you hear me?’ she said. This time she sounded cross.
    ‘Yes. But is he? Dying?’ Joshua stood his ground.
    ‘Of course not. Now out, both of you. Scram!’
    Joshua looked at Robert and they turned.
    ‘Do you think she was telling the truth?’ he asked Robert as they went slowly down the steps.
    Robert shrugged. ‘Not really. Do you?’
    ‘I do,’ Joshua said, but even as he spoke, he wondered.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Longboats were coming through the breakers. The boatmen jumped into the surf to steady them while other fishermen waded in from the beach to help pull them in. Joshua and Robert watched with the villagers, Joshua still clutching Oliver’s bag of pastries. The fishermen jammed rollers under the boats, wrapped ropes around their shoulders and hauled them high up the beach to where a small crowd waited.
    Joshua turned away, and, with a wave to Robert, he headed home.
    His father was still thatching the shop roof, laying palm leaves across wooden beams and tying them, making sure they overlapped so that rainwater would run off and not come seeping through.
    ‘Oliver gave me some pastries. Look.’ Joshua held up the paper bag, crumpled and soggy from being carried around all afternoon.
    His father was concentrating on tying one long leaf to another and didn’t look down at Joshua till he’d finished.
    ‘Marvellous. Put them in the food tin and we’ll havethem with supper. What about the pig? Can he let us have one?’
    ‘Yes, but not tomorrow. The day after. Usual arrangement, he says.’
    His father nodded. ‘Fine. That gives us another day to work on the shop. Perhaps that’s better. Now, I want you to make me a new fly swat, all right? The old one’s falling apart.’
    Joshua went into the house and stowed the pastries in the tin, pushing the lid down hard to make sure it was sealed. When he came back outside he picked up one of the palm leaves from the ground. He cut a length of stalk and stripped off some side leaves. Then he sat on the new stone bench they had built outside the shop and began plaiting. He worked on the fly swat until the sounds of thatching stopped and he heard his father whistling as he began to cook their evening meal in the yard behind.
    After supper he scoured the pan with sand. He rinsed the pan and the dirty plates under the standing tap at the door before bringing his father hot tea. He watched his father take out a small knife and begin to mark a piece of wood with it. The paraffin lamp behind him threw his shadow on the yard. Joshua waited for his father to start to whittle. Once he began carving he seemed to retreat into a world of his own. Joshua slipped away. He knew this was the moment to go.
    When he got to the hospital he hesitated, then began to climb the steps. Another nun might be on duty and might let him through, he reckoned.
    The entrance hall was empty. He pushed open the door and almost collided with the nun he had met yesterday . She recognised him.
    ‘You again? What are you doing here?’
    ‘I wanted to see if the mountain man wears his hat in bed,’ he made up quickly.
    ‘Did you now? Well, out.’
    ‘Oh, please.’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ve told you already, only family can visit. Who are you anyway?’
    ‘Joshua,’ he answered,