The end of dreams

32

Silvia felt a little afraid while getting slowly closer to Michelle. 

"Hello, Michelle, I am sorry for..." 

"Don't worry... please, don't say a word" she said, running out of breath in spite of the feeble aid she was being given by two nasal cannulae for the oxygen therapy. "I just want you to hold my hand." 

Then she fell asleep for a few seconds. She was gasping. Her arms were all pierced by needles connected to intravenous feeding apparatuses.

Anyone would be gasping while being injected with so much poison. 

"Hi, George..." slurred Michelle as soon as she woke up again. "Well done, Silvia. You are a good type of guy" she went on, addressing the air.

Silvia leant her face on the bed: she wanted to hide her face and wipe her tears. She kept that position for a few seconds while holding Michelle's hand. Michelle's very hand was the only thing that was giving her consolation. It was warm and soft. 

Then Michelle opened her eyes. She looked towards the door and raised a smile. 

" Hi, daddy" she said, then she fell asleep.

At that point everybody else in the room could not keep from crying any more.

Silvia had looked in her eyes, the very moment Michelle had re-opened them during her delirium; she had realized her friend's eyes were no longer the same: those huge, black eyes had turned into someone else's eyes, maybe her father's. She was no longer alone in her huge dying body. Enzo had come back to his little girl so that he could partly relieve her of that infamous pain. 

"Gaia! Gaia has started talking! The clowns..." Michelle tossed about while addressing the father she had never known; she groaned with pain. 

"Just sleep, darling... the clowns, yes..." said Anna while caressing her and attempting to calm her down.

Michelle felt a strong desire to speak but the morphine drip hindered her from doing it.

"Gaia came here the other day" said Anna, as she interpreted Michelle's thoughts. "The volunteers of the Abio Organization knew about the little girl so they made her a surprise by dressing up like clowns...Gaia pointed to them with her little finger as soon as she saw them; she was excited so she addressed Michelle, who was holding her in her arms, and called her mom... it was the first word she said" said Anna, profoundly moved.

Michelle kept on tossing about, though. She wanted to talk but she was out of breath and the pains did not pause. 

"Nicholas has begun going to school" she slurred.

"Nicholas... yes" replied Mark.

He had alway stayed by her side since the day he had seen her again after his return from Cuba. 

He had been holding her hand night and day. 

"Did she get to know him?" asked Silvia in a feeble voice.

"No, she didn't and I can't really understand why she knows certain things." 

"Sometimes I have the impression she knows my son better than I do." 

"Gaia... Nicholas..." said Michelle with all the breath she had.

Her voice had turned into a scream owing to the twinge that was piercing her legs.