Stambie Run

I saw two women sobbing yesterday.

I was with my mates Paul and Jimmy; we'd gone to Stambie's, Saint Ambrose school yard, so we could do the 'Stambie run'. It's a game all the kids round here play. On
The other side of the road from the school is 'Chimney pot Park', that's not its real name but the park is built as high up as the chimney pots on the houses around it. My brother Alan invented the Stambie run. You stand on the side of the road by the school and then run straight across at the wall and try to run up it and grab the railings at the top, then over the railings and into the park. There's a proper gate round the corner but that's no fun. Alan's the best at the run and everyone tries to do it. I've almost done it twice! Once I touched the railing but I slipped. The second time one of my pumps fell off as I grabbed the railing and I had to drop back down to get it before the others could run off with it.

When we got to the school yard I saw loads of people by the road. There'd been an accident or something. There was a red car with its windscreen smashed to pieces and its bonnet all buckled. There was an ambulance and we could hear sirens coming from the direction of the big hospital down the road. There was a woman being helped into the ambulance, she had a blanket on her shoulders and she was sobbing so much her shoulders were shuddering. I turned to the others and shouted
"Come and look at this. There's been a massive accident!
I must have sounded happy or something because the woman turned and looked straight at me and shouted
"Shut up you stupid little boy! I felt bad and looked down at my feet; it felt like everyone was looking at me even though I couldn't see them.

When I looked up I saw a bundle of blankets on the road and sticking out from underneath was a leg with a familiar basketball boot on, only the leg was all twisted and there was loads of blood everywhere. I felt like I was going to shit myself and I was shaking. Then this bloke from our street came rushing over to me. I thought he was going to shout at me too but he just knelt down and put his huge hand on my head and said, really kindly
"Just go home now, eh son and he gently pushed me back the way I had come. I was dead scared and really confused. It wasn't my fault and I didn't know why they were all staring at me. So I ran. I ran and I ran and I ran as fast as I could all the way home. Just before I got to our street I slowed down and tried to catch my breath. Then I turned into the street trying to act calm but when I did I nearly shat myself again. There on our doorstep were two coppers talking to my mum.

She was the second woman I saw sobbing yesterday.