The Knight. Intro

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.