Ronan: To the Moon and Back

1. Dinosaurs and Music

Photography is something Raelyn has always loved. Every aspect of it; the simple, the complicated, the contrasts between subjects, continued to grow on her, makes a nice, warm home in her heart. There's everything the light touches, how it can illuminate entire photos, make eyes sparkle, smiles radiant, oceans glitter, make people almost feel the warmth of the sun. Then there's the opposite. The dark, the haunting, the shadows creeping around trees, hiding around corners.

Raelyn has the ability to capture storms in her photos, clouds that turn dark once the lightening has struck. It's everything she loves, something she feels good at, an escape she can run too, lock her mind away in her photographs, be so absorbed in her camera that she forgets reality. It's a hobby, a passion that doubles as her comfort blanket, something she feels safe in, feels at ease and relaxed. That is, until the day the shadows in her photos seep into her reality, the same day her whole lit up world is ensnared with darkness.

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Usually when Raelyn walks down the colorful, painted corridors of Humming Bird Children's Hospice, she has no evidence of a smile on her lips. She always has this feeling like she isn't allowed to be happy when the place is filled with masked misery, machines that beep loudly and dripping IV bags. Today, however, she finds that she can't fight the curling of her mouth as she clutches a small plastic dinosaur in her hand. She is ecstatic to see the reaction she might get out of the little gift. Despite the hovering gloom that seems to cling to the ceiling of the in-house wing over everyone in the place, today is her favorite day of the week.

Music day. The day were the dark clouds are replaced by beautiful colorful notes, acting as a rainbow in the middle of a storm. As Raelyn passes one of the patient's rooms, she hears guitar chords spilling out of the open door, the acoustic notes backing beautiful harmonizing voices. Doubling back to the room, Raelyn lingers in the doorway, next to a tall, buff man, watching the scene in front of her. The man shifts, pulling Raelyn's attention away for a moment to look up at him. She guesses he's a good 6'1 at least, with biceps big enough to crush her camera if it ever had the misfortune of falling between the man's arms. He must notice the visitors pass clipped to the hem of her shirt, because his borderline threatening gaze turns to normal, and offers her a friendly smile. Raelyn's returns it, dubs him as a bodyguard, and focuses back on the scene front of her

The backs of five boys face her, one with a black guitar strap slung over his shoulder, as they sing to the patient on the bed, who Raelyn now recognizes as the little three year old, Addie. No one can mistake the mile wide grin on the little blonde girls face as those boys belt out notes to a song she's heard several times before. Raelyn can feel her own smile grow bigger as Addie giggles; a chorus of tinkling bells, clapping her hands together. Addie suddenly stands up on her bed, picking up her feet, one right after the other in a little running dance.

Her already concerned mother tugs gently on her daughter's arm, bringing her back down onto the bed so she won't overexcite her small body. One of the voices stop singing, replaced by a loud amused laugh at Addie's reaction. Her mother, smiling despite her daughter's jogging dance, acknowledges Raelyn's presence, returning the wave the mother gives her with her own. Taking one last glance at the day's musical guest, she turns away from the room, continuing to walk down the hall, stopping at another room four doors down.

Rae inhales a slow, deep breath. Be strong. Smile. Raelyn mentally preps herself, pressing the palm of her hand flat against her chest as a short spasm clenches at her muscles. She drops her hand from her chest to wrap her fingers around the sliver door handle, pausing to take one more deep breath, before exhaling shakily. Hiding the dinosaur behind her back, she enters the room, much less cheerful than the previous one.

Sitting on the bed is a little boy, legs criss-crossed beneath a blue blanket, decorated with red rocket ships and white stars. There's a nurse checking his vitals next to him, singing the alphabet while it looks like she's taking his blood pressure. The boys eyes shift from the nurse to Ralyen, and the second his blue eyes spot her, they light up brighter than the sun, instantly lifting the mood. The navy blue beanie he's wearing slips over his eyebrows, before he pushes it off his head completely. Raelyn makes a mental note to buy him a new one.