Rainbow Boy

A Beginning

The doctor flipped through his notes absentmindedly, feeling the ink blotted paper between his chalky fingers. For a new doctor, his fingers were steady, looking like they had the experience of an entire lifetime. Yet he had only started working here for a few weeks.

A small breeze whispered through the cracked window, tickling the sheets of the hospital bed in front of him. On which laid a frail looking woman, with almost white blonde hair that sprawled around her head like a halo. A ray of sunlight followed the gust of wind, illuminating the halo. It would have been quite the wondrous sight, had it not been for the cause of the angel’s visit to this hospital on earth.

       The pacer screamed a flat note, alerting the doctor. His eyes widened with fear, the icy gray taking over most of his iris as the black pupil shrank in terror. Clacks of shoes could be heard in the hallway, from passerby and other doctors attending their own angels visiting. The sounds blurred out the machine’s cry for help, ignoring the woman’s heavy breathing growing ragged and shaky. The doctor ran beside her, holding her wrist and using his other hand to rapidly click buttons on the console. As the beep consisted, his eyes watered, lips baring against his teeth. His hand curled tighter around the woman’s wrist, feeling the flexible plastic tube on her arm that had kept her going for so long.

       “Ian…” A sweet voice called out, as soft as the whisper of the breeze. It was the voice of a kind person, a tone that one would often associate with their mother or a close friend. It had the warmth of a summer day, a voice that could penetrate even the coldest hearts and stubborn minds. It nearly brought the doctor to his knees, hearing that voice for perhaps the last time. He turned his head slowly, gazing down upon the pale face of his sick love. She in return looked up at him, her peach colored lips parted in a sad smile that held the knowledge of what was inevitable.

       “Tiana…” He choked out, his steel eyes melting into tears that welled. As he spoke her name, her lips lifted up in a happier smile. Below her mouth, sections her veins were visible in her neck, a burgundy color softly pressing against her pale skin. Her illness had brought her skin tone to a ghostly color, frightening Ian. The disease that had erupted last April. A sickness that might have spread like an epidemic if Ian had not pulled her into the hospital so quickly.

       “Ian, will you take care of him? Will you take care of Gryffin?” She faintly asked him. Her voice was slowly fading, growing delicate. It sounded as if a single misguided touch would shatter it. Her velvety hand moved across Ian’s rough arm, lightly gripping it. He watched her thin fingers wrap around his forearm, only bringing back memories and dragging tears out of his liquescent eyes. Pulling his own rugged fingers across her fragile arm, they created a link.

       “I promise…for you.”

       “Good…good…”       

       Beep.

       Beep.

       Beep.

       Beep.

       Beep.

       Beep.

       Silence.