I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

“He’s been a ripe old pain in the arse,” Nurse Ella says. “You two
haven’t been causing much trouble now that I think about it. What
happened?”
“I upset him,” I tell her.
“Whatever for?”
“I didn’t mean to upset him.”
Nurse Ella grunts, displeased. “Sam is becoming a man. You should
learn while you’re young, men are an emotional lot. God knows who
let them be in charge of things. Is this why you’ve been sulking like a
hound?”
“Hound?” I ask, unfamiliar with the term.
“Stupid child,” Nurse Ella throws her papers down and wipes off her
apron. “Come along.”
“Where are we going?”
Nurse Ella never answers my questions.
She merely leads and I follow.
Sam’s room is dark. He has a single lamp in the far corner, his blinds
drawn. The potted plants on his windowsill that have grown into
vines and shrubbery for the past decade wither away in the blue
overglow.
Nurse Ella marches in without so much as a knock or a greeting.
Sam looks up from the lesson work propped on his knees, brows
knitted.
“Nurse Ella?”
“Get up,” she says, rounding his bed and snapping her fingers.