I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

outside with her back against the wall. Upon sight of us, she tenses.
I don’t understand until I hear the shuffling of papers and the
cluttering of packing coming from inside the room.
“Hikari,” I say, standing in her way so that she can’t see. “Let’s go
see Sony or C, okay? I can carry you, come on–”
“What are they doing?” She squints, looking over my shoulder, trying
to make out the people moving things around in Neo’s room.
I don’t know who the other two men are. Perhaps his cousins,
perhaps some other extended family that was always so fond of
sending bouquets instead of showing up. In their midst, Neo’s father
neatly collects every single sheet of paper in the room, every
notebook, every novel, every pen, and he places them with all the
care in the world, into a cardboard box with a lighter right next to it.
“What–” Hikari is at a loss for words. She tries to walk into the room.
“What are you doing?”
Neo’s father hears her. He looks up, his eyes raw and red and
sensitive. He doesn’t acknowledge her or me. He wipes at his tears
and picks up the last of the papers: Neo’s manuscript. And an old
spiral notebook with the front torn off.
“Wait.” Hikari pushes against my front, but I block her path. “Wait.
Stop.”
“Hikari–”
“That isn’t yours. You can’t take it,” she says. Neo’s father throws the
lighter atop the stack and picks up the box.
“No, no please!” Hikari tries to grab him past me as he walks out of
the room. Like a child reaching for a book on a too high shelf, she
fights with what physical strength she has left.