would bring him toys from

A middle aged woman reflects on the time when her son, Nicky, was hospitalized for a while as a child. She used to bring him Chinese food from their favorite local take-out place to eat dinner with him, alongside the other families with their sick children. Nicky was one of the few kids who remained at the hospital for a longer time. While other kids had bone fractures from accidents, Nicky had a strange growth on his spine that needed more time and research to cure. His parents would bring him toys from the outside world, little bits to remind him of reality outside the hospital walls. Nicky became enamored with D&D, playing alone with characters he would create rather than making friends with the other kids. One day, a much older teenager moves into the room. It’s the only open bed in the hospital. He pulls out cigarettes and book matches, lighting them in the other kids’ faces and leaving them around the room. Nicky’s mom tells the head nurse, who informs her that the teenager is a mental patient. That night, the teenager, Joseph, rises repeatedly to talk to Nicky until he is sedated by the nurses. Nicky becomes friends with Joseph, who he finds out has spent all his life in a hospital and will most likely continue to do so forever. Nicky asks his mom to buy some food for Joseph since no one visits to bring him dinner. She begins doing so. Joseph somehow obtains access to more cigarettes and matches and threatens to burn one of the other children. The hospital finally moves him out of the room, but, on the way out, Joseph goes to kiss Nicky’s mom on the head. They never see him again. Nicky claims later in life that he cannot remember anything about his childhood besides Joseph.