Billy sets out on a quest to find Hope to help his sick grandmother. He washes the feet of a homeless man, who then agrees to accompany Billy. They meet an old woman at a hospital who suddenly starts speaking, and she points them to a girl named Hope. Billy uses a telescope to show Hope that looking at life's big picture can make problems seem smaller. Hope then realizes Billy has already found Hope by giving it to her. Billy returns home to share his newfound Hope with his grandmother.

1. Hope
A Story

2. My name is Billy Pinkerton and I’m looking for Hope!
Gramma told me I needed to find it and that it would help
her! I sure would like it to, Gramma’s been very sick and
she said that finding Hope will make her all better! That’s
why I set out to find Hope.
I was ready to look everywhere! I had a Hope-finding kit
ready, with soap, rope, and a handy-dandy telescope (I
figured, if I could find things that rhymed with Hope, I’d be
closer to finding it).

3. As I walked along a street, there were a lot of people there
and none of them had shoes or socks! I’d thought that their
feet would probably be really dirty (Luckily, I also brought
along a pail of water, essential to any Hope-searching-for
kit).
“Mister, may I please wash your feet?” I asked one man.
“Huh? Well, okay, I guess,” he told me.

4. So, I got to washing. His feet were really gross, but they eventually got clean. As I
washed, he talked. He told me that he’d been homeless for the past four months and
had really missed his house. He said some people who visit him are nice, but there
have been times, he told me, when he’s been scared and worried.
“Thank ya kid. Ya know, that was real nice! Feel free to come back anytime!” said
the man.
I told him, “Would you join me? I’m on a quest for Hope!’
“Nah, I’m good here. You go ahead.”
“No please come! I really need you here.”
“I think it’s best I just stay sitting.”
I figured he was just shy, so I pulled him up. When he stood up, he was smiling and
said, “Kid, my foot’s been hurting me for 3 weeks so bad I haven’t been able to
move! And you washed my feet and now I’m better! I’ll be glad to join you!”

5. I resumed my quest, now
accompanied by a new friend. I
heard that there’s a Spirit of Hope
hospital nearby. I’d imagined that
there’s Hope there; it’s even in the
name! When we got there, we saw
an old lady sitting down, and I felt
tired after walking around this
morning, so the man I met earlier
and I sat down.
“Hello! How are you?” I asked the
lady.
She didn’t say anything. I asked
her, “Do you need something?”
She nodded her head. I looked
through my Hope-finding kit and
saw the rope.

6. I asked her if she would like some rope and she said,
suddenly,
“Randy Foster hauled rope for the Navy!”
The hospital staff, armed with stethoscopes and
thermometers, rushed to the old lady, muttering to one
another, “Check her vitals,” and, “Is she okay? This is the
first time she’s spoken since November.”

7. Since she could speak now, I
asked her a question, “Do you
know where Hope is?”
She pointed me in the direction of
a girl sitting in a chair. I walked
over to her while the man and the
lady from before stayed behind to
talk. I asked the girl, “Hope?”
“If you’re asking about my name,
yes, but I don’t feel too hopeful
now,” she replied.

8. I said back, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. Would you like to look through my
telescope?”
“Why?” she asked me.
“Well,” I said, “I have one in my Hope-finding kit and I always feel happy looking through
them. If you look at it through the skinny end,” I said as I held the skinny end of the telescope
up to her eye, “Everything looks really scary and big. Everything’s so close up; it’s hard to see
past even small things.”
“But,” I said, “If you hold up the big end to your eye, everything looks far away.”
She said, “That’s the wrong end isn’t it?”
“Not if you want to see far away,” I tell her, “When you look through the big end, you can see
everything. Things that looked really scary before look really little now.”

9. “Oh, that’s a metaphor!” she replied.
“Huh?” I ask her.
“You’re saying that I need to look at the big end of life, where things
aren’t so scary! You’ve given me so much Hope, thank you!” she said.
I said to her, “What? How did I help you find Hope if I haven’t found it
yet?”
“Oh, silly, you’ve found Hope already! You may not feel it, but by
giving Hope to me, you got Hope yourself!”

10. “Oh wow! Thanks! I’ve got to get going, I need to give
Gramma my Hope as soon as I can!”
I hugged everyone goodbye and ran home to see Gramma!
Now, she and I both have lots of Hope, and we work our
hardest to spread it to others! I may feel a bit low on Hope,
but I always have my new friends to keep me Hope-full!

11. The End!