If these Wings could Fly

Ash remembered. She remembered the past. The journey on the bus. Getting on the 7c. Stopping off at Cosham and waiting half an hour for the 3 to the hospital. All costing 10 quid. Then the walk to the front doors of St. Mary's Hospital. A building so tall it's a wonder people can stand the stairs. That sudden stench of chlorine as the doors opened and you enter the reception. The receptionist (who's been here God knows how long) who gave a kind smile as she just knew you were about to ask if Beth was awake.

Beth. The girl that lived in room 761. So called because it's on the 7th floor of St Mary's and it's the 61st room. Obviously. The receptionist would then wave Ash off to her destination. The corridors were painted in clinical blues and whites, calm colours that set your mind at ease. Or at least tried.

Beth was Ash's sister, and for 9 of her 10 years on this Earth, she called room 761 home. You could tell from the way the place was decorated, how the curtains had been replaced with one that was covered in pink flowers, how posters of whatever band was to her fancy for the week covered the entirety of one of the wall, how the nurses carted a TV up 7 flights of stairs without complaint, how, unlike the rest of the hospital, the smell was pleasant, a combination of jasmine and hyacinth. The scent was familiar to this room. Kept out the chlorine fairly well (but have fun smelling nothing but flowers for a week).

Beth's residency on the 7th floor was long term. Still a baby, she had developed a cancer in the lungs. Because of that, every so often, Beth would stop breathing. The doctors and nurses would race in and desperately try to resuscitate her. They pulled out defibrillators and shocked her chest. Beth would thrash about, despite being technically dead. If that didn't work, doctors cut into her throat and installed a pipe to help her breathe. If that didn't work either, well... Luckily Beth hasn't reached that point.

In all honesty, considering everything, it was a miracle the girl was still alive.

Beth was idly staring at a flower, perched on the windowsill, called Angel's Tears. These were responsible for the signature scent of room 761. They belonged to a family of flowers known as Narcissus. This species of flower has a reputation among the botanical community for being difficult to cultivate. But Beth didn't care about that. She gave her flowers more attention than to her own body. Of course, she did have help with that. Claire from the florist-over-by-the-bus-stop (the place had a proper name, but this was more fun for Beth to say) Ash took each day never hesitated to give advice.

Funny thing is, Claire and Beth have never met face to face. They communicate by using Ash as a conduit for their conversations. The one time they had tried to meet, it was a bright, sunny day. Beth spent hours picking out what clothes she would wear from the 3 outfits she had available. She eventually settled on a plaited white dress, embroidered in a flowery pattern, because the clothes the hospital issued wasn't particularly fashionable and the other outfit didn't fit her anymore. It was when Beth took her first step in the outside world, away from the planet of St Mary's Hospital for the sick, that fate rolled a 1 and ruined what should have been the perfect day.

Beth had an especially critical attack then. It really looked as if her time was up, but she pulled through in the end. However, it was not a complete victory. Normally, Beth would be up and at it again causing trouble for the other patients within a few weeks. It had been 4 months, and no one had complained about the girl living in room 761. The doctors didn't expect her to walk again.

Beth laid in her bed, idly staring at that flower named after the tears of angels. A machine helped her breathe; it's deep, drowning, desperate wheezing drummed through the air. Well that's what the doctors said anyways, to Ash it seemed more like the thing was strangling the poor girl.

Unlike her sister, Ash looked at a certain poster on the wall, the only constant in a world that changed every week according to a little girl's fancy. The poster showed a bird in flight, soaring among the clouds. Its wings were stretched as far as they could go, desperate to soar ever higher. Its eyes reflected the light of the sun. Perhaps, if that bird tried, it could leave the Earth forever, never to return...

Maybe.

"Hey sis?" a voice said. It was far too hoarse to belong to a little girl.

"Yeah?" Ash answered.

"Do you think someday...?" Beth stared dreamily out of the solitary window, into the cold, grey sky, as if she could somehow force this idea, such a distant, far-flung thought, into materialising. "Do you think that someday, we could fly?"

It was Ash's turn to stare out the window, as if her stare could force this dream into reality. "Yeah." She promised. "We can fly."

And on that note, it started raining. The clouds unleashed a torrent of water down on the earth. It was as the heavens themselves wept. All for that girl in room 761, who dreamed of flying.

gZRg