“This Christmas,” Dr. Kurata suggested, “how about we, the pediatric department, put on an original storytelling session for the children?”

There was no objection.

The children were very excited when we told them. Like how we nurses and doctors organize storytelling sessions for them monthly, this year, on December twenty-fifth, we were going to give them a special session. The theme would be Christmas. Anyone could contribute ideas to the person holding the notebook. I am the notebook person today. We gathered so many ideas after just two days. Apparently, both Nurse Machi and Dr. Tsugumi wanted Santa Claus in our story.

Then, I ran into Dr. Kurata. “Remember that story we made in June,” he said, “about the sick dragon and the village kids who helped teach him how to care for himself? How about we use that as a base but change the dragon to Santa?”

Meanwhile, our job continued, and we were as busy as a pediatric ward could be.

Like today, Kazuto cried, saying Shiori hit him with her doll. Then, Shiori came running in tears, saying that Kazuto bullied her bunny doll first. Their fighting only stopped when one of them had a seizure. Also, Miyuki still couldn’t stop vomiting after every meal because she was too nervous about her upcoming surgery. Something needed to be done.

And more.

Still, no matter how stressful and what trials the children had to face, whenever we finished a story and the children sat down to listen, I felt like we had succeeded in giving our patients something precious—our story, which is medicine for their souls.

So, I hope this Christmas they will like our new story as well.