Chapter Six

That was the strangest encounter he had ever been faced with. The conversation was even weirder to say the least. When Ry finally walked through his front door he barely heard a word his mother said as she came at him with loads of congratulations and questions. He even barely felt the hug she had given him as she walked away chattering all the while. He slowly sat at the dinner table rehashing everything that was said between him and the strange girl.

“Are you hungry? I’ll make us some lunch; you were gone quite a while. Your father still won’t be home for a few more hours.” She was saying as she raided the fridge.

“Uh, sure.” He says absentmindedly. “Mom, do you know if we have a mental institution around here by any chance?” He asks pulling out his cell phone and pulling up the web.

She frowns at his question. “I’m not sure, but why do you ask, is it something to do with your new job?” She heads for the counter after taking out all the fixings for a sandwich.

“Um…maybe.” He mumbles as he types in for any mental hospitals that could be near their home he never knew about.

But when the closest one came up he knew there was absolutely no way she had traveled that far just to stalk someone like him. Maybe she was an escapee, and he was just an unlucky soul that had gotten her attention. The nearest hospital was three towns over with a seventy-five mile distance between them.

But what she was saying didn’t make any sense either. What was she going on about with the world shattering into a supernova catastrophe? She was definitely messed up in the head or she was messing with him. One thing he did know for sure was that she had been following him all day, that something about him had gotten her attention and he didn’t like that one bit.

“I’m heading to the hospital today.” He tells his mother after finishing the food she made for him.

“You don’t usually visit Kevin on Fridays.” She frowns after putting the last washed dish in the dishwasher.

“I know, but now that I have a job I’m not sure when I’ll get the time to visit him on the days I normally do. Besides, he told me to tell him as soon as possible whether I get it or not, but I would rather tell him in person.” Ry stands up to head for his room.

“Alright, car is good on gas, so you’re good to go. Will you be home by the time your father does?”

“Maybe, but don’t count on it. I should be back by dinner though. But I’ll take the bike, it’s not too far and I should be home before dark hits.” He places his bag on his bed, quickly changes his outfit to something more comfortable and grabs the brand new sweater he got for the kid.

“Ry…” She chastise but he shakes his head.

“I’ll be fine mom. I’m not going to take your car when I have a perfectly good bike to use. It’s good to get the exercise.” He points out.

Walking out he grabs his house keys just in case and calls out that he will be back later. Every week he goes to see Kevin Michels, a young boy of nine who was hospitalized due to Leukemia. Ry likes to volunteer at the hospital and chanced on the young boy who has no chance of surviving as he faces the last stages of his disease. It broke his heart to see him in the condition he was in. His family lived out of state, with only his mother as his company.

When Ry first met her she was exhausted and heartbroken. She looked like she kept skipping meals and had sleepless nights. He tries to remind her that Kevin needed her to be healthy and strong for his sake but every decline the boy took she ends up getting just as worse. He didn’t know what to do or to say at this point. She was losing her child, and no amount of medicine could stop it.

While riding he looked around can’t help shaking off the feeling that the strange girl was going to pop out of nowhere still following him. But with her on foot and him riding his bike he was sure there was no way she could keep up. Great, now every time he set a foot outside he was going to be conscious of her stalking him.

Once he locks up he heads through the double glass doors where dozens of people were walking in and out, most of them employees that worked in the hospital. He always hated the smell the building gave. The atmosphere it gave off knowing that people were sick and dying. Even with the look of cleanliness you could still feel the sickness that lingered on the walls and in the air.

Going to the floor where cancer patients were stationed he checked in, placed the name tag with the room number on his chest and headed for Kevin’s room. The sounds of beeping noises and feet quietly shuffling were the only sounds in this part of the ward. Lights were dimmed in some areas while others were so bright it hurt your eyes.

Coming upon the room he looks in to see that Kevin was alone this time. He was lying there in bed staring up at the television that was turned down low.

“Knock, knock.” Ry states quietly so not to disturb others in the hallway.

Kevin swings his head over and smiles when he sees who it was. As Ry came up to him he sees how much paler and thinner the kid has become since the last time he saw him. His heart weighs heavily in his chest as he takes the chair next to his bed.

“What are you doing here? Today isn’t your visiting day.” The small weak voice asks almost in a whisper.

He could tell today wasn’t a good day for the kid. He was in a lot of pain. With dark sunken eyes he could tell how tired he was, but the pain always gives him a hard time to get enough rest.

“Yeah, I know. But I wanted to see you in person to give the good news.” He whispers just as softly, taking his hand that felt way too cold to his liking.

“Good news? Is it about the job interview that you mentioned?” His eyes filled with hope and Ry couldn’t bring himself to feel the joy he had felt earlier that day.

Because seeing someone you come to care about wasting away of no fault of their own and not being able to grow up to even dream about one day having a job themselves was too much for him to feel happy anymore.

“Yeah. I got the job.” He gives a tiny smile in return.

Kevin’s face falls a bit. “You don’t seem like it’s good news. Don’t you want the job?”

“Of course I do. I want to help kids. I’m just being weird that’s all.” He tries to shake it off. “Where’s your mom?”

“She went down to the cafeteria. I forced her to go eat. Told her I would refuse my own food if she didn’t start eating right.” He says stubbornly.

“Kevin-” Ry starts off only to be cut off.

“I know I shouldn’t threaten my own health, of what little is left of it anyways. But it’s the only thing that seems to work with her. I hate seeing her like this because of me.”

He didn’t know what to say to that. “I brought you something.” He takes the sweater he bought and hands it to him.

The boy’s eyes light up when he takes it and unfolds it to see the image that was there. “You got me an Atlanta Braves sweater, not a knock off one either.” he says excitedly.

“Turn it around.” He urges him loving his reaction to his gift.

“Oh cool! It has my name! Fifteen?” He then questions.

“Yeah 2015. The year you were born.”

The beaming smile on his face said it all. “You customized it. This had to be pretty expensive, you didn’t have too.”

“No, but I wanted too. It’s your favorite team and now you can wear it every time a game comes on.”

“Thank you.” He whispers.

Tears well up in his eyes and Ry’s heart twisted at seeing them. He clears his throat as he stands up. “Here lets put it on right now, see if it fits.”

That’s how his mother finds them as they struggled to put the sweater over all the cords and wires that were hooked up to him. They were laughing as they attempted it horribly. Smiling she comes to help with the mess they were making causing his heart monitor to disconnect and the blaring sound of warning caused two nurses to rush in only to find them in an awkward position.

After carefully finishing the task the nurses reattached his monitor and left the room. Ry watches as Mrs. Michels fusses over her son, asking him repeatedly if he was comfortable, needed anything, how he was feeling, typical motherly worries for her sick and dying child.

“Mom, I’m fine. Ry is here right now, and I want to just talk to him, please.” He begs looking way more tired than he did when he first showed.

“Okay, okay. I’m going to step out and call your dad. I’ll be right back.”

After she leaves the room Ry sees the worry in his eyes. “I overheard her and the doctor talking this morning about my condition getting worse. I pretended I was asleep. I know she’s trying her best to hide it from me, but I could tell. I’m not afraid to die you know.”

“Kevin, it’s best not to talk about you dying.” He nearly pleads, not liking where the conversation is going.

“Why not? We all know its coming soon. I find it better to talk about, then maybe you all wouldn’t be so sad when it happens. I’m not worried. But I am worried about my mom. She’s trying so hard to be brave and strong. I know it’s going to break her after she has been praying all this time for something that can’t be fixed.”

The two of them go silent for a moment. “Can I tell you a secret?”

Ry nods his head, scooting closer to him as the boy shifts on his side to face him fully. “There’s this dream that I keep having. Same one every time I close my eyes. The first time I had it I thought nothing of it, you know. Dreams come and go. But this one, it’s the same, always the same. Nothing in it changes.”

Frowning, Ry listens patiently, trying to understand what the kid was getting at. “What’s the dream?”

A far way look shines in his bright green eyes. “I’m walking in a field of tall yellow grass that shines like gold in the sun. I look healthy and happy, smiling. There’s a bright light ahead of me, calling out my name, urging me to walk towards it. When I get close there’s this feeling inside me that overwhelms me to reach out. The light then turns into a human shape, but I can’t see their face even when I’m standing right in front of it. All I can see is their smile, feel the warmth radiating from them. But the thing is…”

He comes closer and whispers even lower, “It feels like it doesn’t want to take me home, you know like to heaven.”

Furrowing his brows, confusion written on his face, Ry asks, “What’s does it feel like then?”

“Like it wants me to live.” He finishes.

After another moment Kevin turns on his back staring up at the ceiling with a soft sigh passing his pale and dried lips. “I know what you’re thinking. I thought it too. The dream is just me wishing I could stay alive, that I won’t have to go to heaven because I want to believe I can get better. It’s my mind wishing desperately for something I know can’t happen. But its still a really nice dream.”

He closes his eyes as exhaustion finally overwhelms him and the deep slow breaths indicates he was sleeping deeply.

But that wasn’t what Ry was thinking at all. A reoccurring dream that never changed. But what kept sticking out to him was the fact that Kevin described the light shifting into a human shape instead of stating it changed into a person. And the thought that immediately came to his mind without warning or reason was the girl in white who had been stalking him all day.