I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

she graces me with her contagious smile, and even if it is
bittersweet, it will be that smile I cling to when she is gone.
“Yes,” Hikari breathes. Her palms slip from my face till all they hold is
the shape of wind. “I’ll come back to you.”
The body I created decades ago fades till it is nothing but an idea
resting in peace. I spread through my greater home, my soul
tethered to the place it was born in.
The parting hurts. It feels like a part of me is severing as I bleed out
onto the stone, and when Hikari leaves, I know she will cry for me as
I cry for her.
But she knows.
She knows that when she returns decades from now, I will hold her
in my arms and keep her close as the shadows close in and death
takes her gently into another realm. And if time is willing, it will give
her and me one more than just goodbye.
“I promise.”
hikari
Two centuries ago, a hospital was born. Men built it of stone, lumber,
and faith that could move mountains. Within it, something came to
life past the realm of understanding. A creature of sorts, a soul made
of the dreams the people who built the hospital held onto. That soul
gave me this story, and now I pass it onto you.
The hospital’s infancy was long. It was difficult to care for, to upkeep.
As it grew and evolved, it became a place everyone knew. It became
a place people came to be saved.
Mine workers and tailors with cuts and broken fingers arrived,
patched up within an hour’s time. They left, sore, but grateful.
Though it was but a bit of space with no human body of its own, that