Connected by Magic

Prologue

I don't know much about my past. Were my parents nice? Was I abandoned? Could it be they were part of an accident? Or did they suffer the same fate as me? Stuck within a hospital room, not knowing whether you'll ever see the outside again.

There are many answers I seek for my questions. To know where I came from would the first thing I wish to know. Even so, after so many years, I think I should consider myself lucky, very grateful even, perhaps blessed. Whether I am alive within this room or not. Whether my world is small or not.

I am certainly blessed by the people that have taken care of me. To know I have a sister that cares for me. Parents that are doing whatever they can to see me healed. I am grateful and thankful that I have them in my life.

But it still feels lonely at times.

I sleep alone within these four walls. Every doctor is wrapped in sterile clothing to not get me sick. And visitors sit behind a glass wall, speaking through a phone. It's as if my world is increasingly becoming father and father away from theirs. A life with different values and beliefs, or so it feels to me.

I see the trees outside the glass window. The men and women from a distance; touching and speaking so close to one another that it looks alien. I don't even remember how someone else feels like. Is it soft? Scaly? I am joking. I shouldn't be silly. It's probably like my own skin, with hairs and all. Yet it doesn't make me less curious.

It's within these pages I feel most myself. I can say and think and do as I wish. Describe it and make it seem real. Perhaps it's just a trick to keep going. What can I say? I don't know. And I think I do not wish to know. For what will happen if these pages lose its value?

A scary thought.

"Amelia, you have a visitor!"

Amelia looked up from the white pages with blue lines. Between them letters of value, her own words, her true voice. The unfiltered thoughts. She said them to her best friend too. The only one who has seen them. But there was a time, three maybe four years ago, that they didn't need to sit behind a glass wall. They talked and saw one another every day. It saddened her to be separated by an impenetrable see-through wall.

In the past they ran together through bushes and in between the thick forest trees. Perhaps if they dared, jump into the river and secretly grin at each other as they got scolded. But now they only had a phone through which they heard each other's voice.

Amilia shuffled out of bed. Her feet took small steps as her hands clutched her walker. The strain of walking made her arms shake yet she smiled. It had been ages, or so it felt, to have a visitor. She felt like it had been a marathon once she sat, the soft seat helping her relax as she breathed deeply to catch her breath.

Yet she reached for the phone as it came online, placing the horn against her ear. "Hermione..." whispered Amelia as she took deep breaths. "One... moment..."

"Take your time. I can stay for a few hours today."

"I'll... run a marathon... just training. You'll see," said Amelia in a soft voice, grinning a little. Hermione chuckles, shaking her head a bit as she propped one leg up, one arm around it. Her gaze is soft and gentle as she looks at her, patiently waiting for her to catch her breath.

"How's it going, Amelia? Any news?" asked Hermione when Amelia's breathing settled down.

"I think mum and dad told you, right?"

Hermione nodded, shifting the horn to the other side. It seems she felt hopeful about the approach. That already gave her more confidence too. If her big brain sister found it hopeful, she should as well.