1. An ill knight
I could’ve never even begun to imagine
just how much my life was going to change as Christopher entered it.
I still remember when he sat there the very
first time. It was almost Christmas. I know that, because Christmas
is not long after my birthday the 28th of October, and my birthday
had just passed. I turned five that year.
The young man sat in the kitchen with my
father and uncle an hour or so after I came hom from kindergarten
that day. He looked a little bit uneasy. Almost like I do when I’m
about to go on a rollercoaster, but I get very happy and excited at
the same time. Christopher wasn’t happy.
He was tall and handsome and he had red
curly hair. It struck me straight away he looked just like a knight.
I’m not sure if all the knights have red hair, though. Probably
not. I’ve only ever seen two knights before in my life; one on TV
and one toy knight at kindergarten. Neither of them had hair like
his, but he looked very nice and noble and so I decided that red
curly hair is very suitable for knights.
My uncle Oscar sat next to the young man
and dad just across him. They all seemed slightly upset for some
reason.
“Hi,” I said just to let them know I
was there.
I had been trying to do some drawing in my
room, but I thought I heard voices coming from downstairs and I just
had to find out what was going on.
Dad turned around and looked at me standing
in the kitchen doorway. He smiled a friendly smile but he didn’t
answer.
“Hi, kiddie!” Oscar greeted me. He
appeared to be the happiest one of the men sitting by the table.
“Who’s that?” I asked pointing at the
knight. Had I not been so excited to see him I would’ve remembered
it’s actually very rude to point at people.
Oscar went quiet for a little while.
“Well…” he began. “It’s…
Christopher.”
The boy nodded silently to agree and then
closed his eyes and made a face. He looked funny and I couldn’t
help but laughing a little at him. Being the only child in the family
had bored me for years, so I instantly thought of Christopher as a
brother and found myself wishing I could play with him. He seemed
very pleasant.
“Hey, Michael,” dad said, keeping very
calm. “Oscar and Christopher are going to stay here for a while.”
I didn’t know what to say. I felt really
happy to hear that but at the same time I suddenly felt very shy, so
instead of saying anything I just nodded. I gazed at the three men
for another bit.
”Why are they going to stay here?” I
then asked.
“Christopher is very ill and Oscar is
responsible for him, so we need you to take it easy around him,”
dad said as if he could read my mind when it came to playing with the
newcomer. “Do you understand that, Mike?”
I nodded again, even though it disappointed
me a lot to hear that. Most of all I wanted to play with Christopher
straight away, but if he was sick he had to rest. I knew that.
Because when you’re sick you have to. And that’s just the way it
is.
I didn’t see Christopher anymore that
entire evening. Oscar brought him to the guest room upstairs and poor
Christopher must’ve fallen asleep straight away.
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