The Chosen Ones

The New Beginning

"Rey." Ben's voice reaches her like distant echoes that travel hiding in the wind over the green meadow that surrounds her. "Rey." She's sitting in the lotus pose while her mind remains calm, under the warm rays of the morning sunlight that eternally bathe the tender grass she lives on.

"Wake up Rey. I haven't seen your eyes or heard your voice for a hundred days. Come back to me sweetheart, please. " Ben's voice echoes louder around her as the wind wraps around her body like a caress. Unlike the other ninety-nine days, this time Rey does feel the strength to come out of that dream in which she remains suspended.

The way back to reality is peaceful, her bare feet leading her from the green meadow where she meditated to a clarity that's taking over her senses. She first feels her body sore and tired, enigmatically tight, as if she's inside an armour. The sounds of trees swaying in the wind reach her ears, with the distant laughter of children playing, the murmur of a stream running free through the earth, a machine humming low. Then she's able to smell the scent of damp earth, wet grass, apple blossoms and Ben's skin makes her feel at home. The taste in her mouth is bitter and dry, of herbal tea and medicine.

Opening her eyes is difficult, Rey blinking several times to get a better focus. When she's able to see properly, she understands that she's lying on her back with no pillow under her head. Above her, a vaulted soft green ceiling crossed by four beams carved with orange leaves and orange blossoms, enigmatically familiar. Small rainbows painted by the sun's rays when passing through some glass and, due to their undulations, must come from a glass or jug of water near a window. The pressure on her body deepens below her breasts to what she thinks is her knees, but the idea seems impossible to her, she shouldn't be able to feel her legs.

She lets her head drops to the right and can only see large machines next to the bed, some with coloured bulbs that glow like her heartbeat while others follow her breathing rhythm. Another is just a large screen that shows graphs, numbers, and endless information that she can't read. The last machine is a series of cylinders with various coloured liquids that came out in thin tubes, from what little she can see they're connected to her arm and abdomen.

Taking some extra effort, she turns her head to the left and her heart begins to beat out of control when she sees the rest of the room. Her eyes clouded with tears as she recognized her room on the farm. The walls are soft green mortar with thick wooden beams painted with small red, orange and purple flowers. A clay fireplace occupies the corner with a small worn-out leather sofa. Her small desk's still in the corner at the other side of the fireplace, next to a small cabinet with a white ceramic ewer.

Moving her left arm it's almost impossible over the sheets, soft and cold to the touch, until she finds the strength to lift her hand to her face with some difficulty. She squints her eyes getting used to the idea that she really was there, wondering where Ben was. Noticing an unknown weight on her ring finger, Rey checks her hand seeing with total amazement a beautiful ring of two round sapphires mounted on delicate gold lines, which twist on themselves to form the ring; Leia's ring.

A new wave of tears takes over her, wanting nothing more than to sink back into that weightless sleep in which she was a few minutes ago. The heart monitor begins to emit an increasingly high-pitched alarm as she cries louder, struggling to breathe, but as she tries to roll over to turn it off, whatever is holding her against the bed starts pressing harder, holding her still, and the other machine makes a high-pitched sound hurting her ears.

At the moment she starts fighting against whatever is restraining her, a sudden voice paralyzes her, taking her breath away. "REY!"

Before she builds the strength to turn over, Ben's kneeling over the bed beside her, grabbing her face and covering it with endless kisses: "Don't move! Rey, don't move. Everything's all right"