Last updated: 1 day ago
The man walked up next to him and with only that he woke up; he was almost fearful. Suddenly the man asked him if it was true that he liked it better in the hospital; if he liked to watch the people work and listen to the machines buzz. He nodded confusedly and then the man picked him up; picked him up as if he wasn’t worth anything anymore; as if he had failed at something. Then the man passed his gaunt body over to me, and when I held him in my arms I felt everything he had ever felt over the God-knows-how-long amount of time that he was in there. It made me tear up at first, and then I cried, and I couldn’t stop. It was like I was drowning and he had already drowned, he was silent in his aching. I carried him down the stairwells, past the concrete pillars and into the sunlight. It hit me so fast and shone so bright that I just stopped in my tracks and held him there. I couldn’t tell if it was hurting or healing him, but I knew he wanted to be in it.