The Knight: chapter 4

4. Christopher who?

The next morning I was sad to see that Christopher didn’t attend breakfast with the rest of us, but as soon as mom told me we were going to visit grandma and grandpa I didn’t mind whether the knight was there for breakfast or not. I hadn’t been at my grandparent’s for weeks and weeks.

They live rather close by; all you have to do is to get in the car and travel a little less than an hour or so. North, I think, but it might be east also... Or possibly west. To be honest I’m not sure what direction it is, but I’m sure it’s one or another.

Mom and I got ourselves ready to leave immediately after we had brushed our teeth. Dad and Oscar were coming as well, but they didn’t seem to care about how they looked when meeting the old ones. Mom put on a red dress and she made me wear a shirt and a knitted vest. I like to look proper. However I’m not very fond of that vest, but I know mom is so I usually don’t fuss about having to put it on.

“There’s my handsome boy,” she said and smiled softly when I was done. “Are you ready to go, then?”

“Yes,” I replied confidently. “But…”
Mom sighed, but at the same time she couldn’t stop smiling:

“But what?”

“I’d like to say bye to Chris before we leave.”

“Michael, dearest…”

“Please, mom.”

Mom thought about it for a second. She wasn’t sure it was such a good idea, but at the same time she knew how fond I was of the young man.

“Alright,” she said. “Let’s do it quickly, then.”

She started to walk and I eagerly followed her to Christopher’s room. Strangely, that room never felt any special before he moved in there. It used to be just a room. But now I was feeling a bit nervous just to enter that very place. It was almost like entering somebody else’s property without permission.

Mom opened the door and we went in together. I kept just a few centimetres behind as I was walking as close to her as I could possibly get, shyly hiding behind her red skirting.

Finally I saw him. He was lying in bed, very still. I went up to him quietly and put my palm gently on his cheek.

“Good morning, Christopher,” I whispered.

His face was exceptionally warm. Slowly, slowly the young knight opened his eyes and looked at me. He had blue eyes. They were watery and he seemed a bit alarmed. Maybe I frightened him by waking him up.

“Sorry, I just wanted to say bye,” I explained. “We’re going to visit my grandparents, you see. But we’ll be back later.”

The knight was looking at me as if he was trying to wake up enough to be able to understand what I was telling him and why.

“Okay,” he then mumbled. “Bye.”

As I was getting up from his bedside, I accidentally touched his arm. It wasn’t on purpose ‘cause I didn’t even see his arm there. It was underneath the duvet. Christopher immediately groaned and tried to turn a little while a tear transfused from his right eye. I think he was in pain.

“Are you alright, Christopher?” I asked.

“His arm is sore,” mom answered rapidly before the young man got a chance to say anything at all. “It will be fine, but we have to leave now, Mike.”

“Okay. Bye, Chris. See you soon.”

“Bye.”

On the way out mom and I bumped in to Oscar as he was bringing the sick one some food.

“What have you been doing here?” he asked suspiciously.

“We were just saying goodbye,” mom said.

“I see.”

“Are you ready to leave as well?”

“Sure. I won’t be a minute. Christopher just has to have some food first,” uncle Oscar then looked at me and realized I was handsomely dressed up in a white shirt and a vest. Like a little gentleman, I was. “You look very smart today, Mike,” he said.

“Thank you.”

I smiled. It felt good to look smart and I knew without even looking at my mother that she had a proud smile on her face.

Not long after, we were all sitting in the car on the way to grandma and grandpa. I was occupied with a colouring book and didn’t really listen to the conversation my parents and uncle had. I was colouring a frog, making him deep blue and keeping busy with that. All I overheard was a few word of no special significance here and there. They didn’t even talk that much. There was some kind of tension going on in the car.

I could tell something was troubling dad, but it couldn’t be such a big issue as I heard mom and Oscar talk to him and easily managed to make him feel better. I think it was the fact that we’ve left poor Christopher all alone at home that bothered him.

I painted the frog’s t-shirt red and stopped listening to the others’ boring discussion. Apparently it would take us a little longer to get to granny than I first thought, but as soon as we got there granny and granddad met us at the door.

“Hi, Michael” granny cried cheerfully and hugged me very firmly. She usually does that and sometimes I’m actually afraid my eyes will pop out from all that squeezing, but I don’t think she realises how tight she’s hugging, she just gets so happy to see me.

After greeting and hugging them to say hello we all went to the living room where, of course, the adults started to talk. I don’t understand why grown-ups always want to talk all the time. It’s just so very boring. I stopped listening as per usual and silently played that the sofa we were sitting on was in fact a ship of which I was the captain. My grandparents were pirates on another sofa ship and dad was a sailor belonging to my crew.

Time went on surprisingly quickly. We’d had dinner and the adults had been talking a lot, even though that bored me silly I found my own things to do. They even gave me some blank papers and colouring pencils to keep me entertained. Generally I prefer colouring books, though, because then it’s already a nice picture in it that I get to colour. Sometimes I can’t come up with anything to draw when the pages are all blank, but today I knew. I made a painting of Christopher and a brown horse. It was a rather nice picture. I know I can’t always make them that nice.

“That’s a lovely drawing you’ve got there.” my grandmother said and woke me from my dreamy imagination as I coloured the horse properly. Without me knowing it, she’d been standing behind me for a little, looking at my artwork.

“Thanks.”

She looked at me curiously:
“Who’s the curly-haired boy?”

“It’s Christopher,” I replied. “And do you know, granny? Christopher is living with us now.”

She looked kindly at me, but there was still wonder in her eyes. She had no idea what I was talking about.

“He is, is he?” she said and I nodded proudly:

“And do you know what else, granny?”
”What?”

“He’s a knight,” I said, feeling very confident.

She smiled and showed me the big jar of cookies she had been holding slightly behind her back.

“That’s very nice indeed,” she said. “Have a biscuit, Michael.”

I looked into her eyes, thanked her and shyly took two of the cookies she offered me. They were my favourite ones.

I continued drawing while I nibbled on one of the biscuits and grandma went over to my mother. I saw that.

“Helen, sweetheart,” I heard her say to mom. “Who is Christopher?”