I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

animated by little things. He is mischievous, strolling into places he
doesn’t belong and speaking without care for his volume or who is
around.
He leaps, he shrieks, he exists freely.
He questions so much about his world, yet he doesn’t question me.
In his eyes, I am just another child. A playmate.
Sam teaches me a great many things. He teaches me about toys,
wooden figures we assign voices, and story roles. Of tiles, we jump
in patterns for hopscotch, of nooks and closets where hiding from
each other is a great game of suspense. I’m not very good at games,
but Sam says it’s okay.
He puts aside his routine, and he shows me his world. There are
patients he knows and likes. An older woman who gives him bread,
a mother is waiting for her baby to be born, and so many more. He
greets them through the doors with a wave, and only once he makes
them smile does he move on to the next.
“Are you hungry?” Sam asks as the dark draws over the hospital.
“Do you want to eat in your room?” I ask.
“No.” He smiles with that twinkle of mischief. “Let’s go eat outside.”
“Are we allowed outside?”
“Knights are allowed everywhere in their castle,” Sam says.
“Knights?”
“Yes. I’m a knight. I’m the castle’s protector. Like in fairy tales,” he
whispers, his face dropping when he realizes I don’t understand.
“You’ve never heard of fairy tales?”
I shake my head.