Rating: 4/5
** spoiler alert ** Joe Grant has lived in a private hospital ward since he was two months old. Due to his serious problem of super SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency disease), which means he was born without an immune system, he has never been allowed to leave the room. All he has seen of the outside world is the road-work site and where the planes take off at Heathrow, which is all outside his window waiting for him to explore.
But it looks like Joe will never have that opportunity. Now, at the age of eleven and a half, the only people he knows are the doctors, nurses, “TV men” and a boy called Henry, also with SCID, who he can only Skype. Plus Henry lives in Philadelphia, so there’s no way they would ever be able to see each other even if they were cured.
And there is, and never will be, a complete and formal cure.
One day, a new nurse visits Joe. He is Indian, and he is called Amir—and he is very strange. He believes in aliens, for a start, and goes on holiday to look for crop circles. He is adamant that the landing strip the builders are making is the spot that the aliens are going to land on. ‘Sunday night,’ he tells Joe. ‘Look out for dem, Sunday night.’
Amir then gets his brother, Rashid, to install Sky TV in Joe’s room. He buys 12 TVs and screws them into the wall while Joe is asleep. He’s funny and nice enough, but Joe can’t help being a little scared of him.
On the 12 TVs, Amir downloads CCTV, so that Joe can watch everyone in the hospital on the cameras. But the crazy, alien-believing lunatic does this against the hospital rules, so that whenever Greg or one of the other nurses and doctors comes in, Joe has to turn it off and pretend to be watching The Avengers.
One day, Henry messages Joe to tell him that NASA have made him an air-tight space-suit that he’s allowed to wear to the end of the corridor. Henry is four years older than Joe, and is extremely excited when he hears this information. When the miniature walk goes well, he is allowed to roam the car park and the rest of the hospital. And when that is also successful, he is delighted to tell Joe that he will be walking round the shopping mall!
Joe watches him on television in his funny-looking space-suit, walking round the centre. He’s everywhere in the headlines, and the crowds are cheering like crazy. Henry looks so pleased, like he’s having so much fun. Joe can only hope that NASA can make him a space-suit, too.
But then it all goes wrong.
While watching Henry, Joe has a crash. This means that he can be unconscious for hours, while blood transfusions, bone marrow transplants and other operations are performed on him to try and wake him up. Most of the time it’s his white blood cells being too low that causes Joe’s crash. And when he wakes up, the only thing he can think about is Henry.
‘What happened? Where’s Henry?’ he asks. ‘Take it easy, mate,’ Greg tells him.
Joe later learns that the oxygen tank in Henry’s space-suit split while he had his crash. The suit shrivelled and Henry collapsed. The reporters don’t say anything for a while, but an hour later Henry was declared dead.
Joe is traumatised. He cries and screams and shouts. But he knows that nothing that bring Henry back to life. His only friend, gone. And he was having such a lovely time! Joe has a sister, but Henry had a whole family. A little brother, Matt, and a mum and dad. Joe hates to think about how they must be feeling.
Then, one night, he receives a text from Amir. He tells him that his space-suit is ready, and to expect the air conditioning to go lower. ‘Don’t worry,’ he says. ‘It stop at 11 degrees. I tell it to.’ Joe texts back, asking him what on earth he is talking about. Amir comes up with the least expected response.
Do wanted to go outside, didn’t do, Joe?
Joe couldn’t believe his ears. What was happening? Was he going outside?
Amir. Tell me what you’re on about.
I no beat about bush. Do going outdoors. Oh, but don’t tell anyone.