My First Kiss

A Memory of Harefield.

When I was about nine I spent a year in Harefield Hospital. When I arrived I was put into isolation for two weeks. The treatment included a penicillin injection twice a day. After isolation I was moved into a double room, and then allowed out of bed for two hours a day. This progressed until I was allowed out of bed most of the time. The ward was laid out in a kind of half circle with the office in the middle of the curve. The boys were on the left and the girl to the right of the office. The dinning room come TV room was at the rear of the office. Pictures of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs hung on the walls. To the front of the ward was a grass area and beyond that a school house. These building were joined together with a wall and walk way. I assumed this was there to stop us getting out. I must admit I did think of running away, especially when the fair came to the village. You could see the fun fair light on the village green through the trees. There was so much fun going on just a few yards away and we were stuck in hospital. Like the prisoners on Alcatraz hearing and smelling the night life of San Francisco.
The boys all wore hospital clothes, this was gray shirt and navy blue short trousers. The trousers were washed with so much starch that it was difficult to separate the legs when you put your feet in. There was a boy named Nicholas, I don't think I ever sore him out of a machine called an iron lung. He spent his life laying on his back viewing the world through a small mirror positioned above him. He drank liquid through a kind of tea pot. He was a difficult boy , but he had a right ti be.
I became friends with another boy that taught me how to play chess. He also told me the universe went on for ever. I said it can't do it must stop somewhere. He said if so whats at the end of it? I don't know ,a brick wall maybe. He replied “what's behind the brick wall? Clever sod wasn't he.
I was eventually moved to the big six. This room was for older boys, the eldest being fourteen. I was the youngest at nine. On the girls ward was also a big six and the boys started pairing up with the girls. This was the idea of the older boy I presume. We were not allowed on the girls ward and only met in the TV room. The problem was the girls were older than us. The eldest being sixteen, I was assigned Margaret a quiet plump eleven year old. We sat next to each other watching the television. When it was time for bed the older ones started to kiss good night. We stood up, She was taller than me. Margaret or me didn't want to do this, but we puckered up and moved in. My first thought was how soft and wet her lips felt, not like my mothers kiss at all. My next thought was, what's she in for I hope it's not catching. This was our first and last kiss as the pairing up thing seemed to fall apart after that night. But I will always remember Margaret.
Although I lived in Harefield for a year the only part I saw was the Village Green through the trees if I looked over the wall. I do wish I'd climbed over and made a dash for freedom.