Tangible Sunshine (standard:other, 1999 words)
Author: Hopeless Romeo	Added: Dec 08 2000	Views/Reads: 3598/2315	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
It's closest to drama, but not quite. In a story spanning just over a month, a dying, infant child struggles to captivate a ray of sunshine, while parents, inwardly struggling with their daughter's rapidly approaching end, look on in pain. 4 pages or so

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


Ryan and Melissa stood in the doorway of the room, watching their small
child of a year and a half sit upright on her bed.  She had crawled to 
a place on the bed where she could be completely engulfed in a ray of 
sunshine, which passed through one of the room's large windows and its 
partially opened curtain.  This curtain allowed the sun to cast a 
clear-cut beam upon the bed, its bounds just enough for the small girl 
called Pearl to sit in completely.  The child sat, her arms extended 
and flailing almost wildly in the light.  She was smiling widely, her 
open mouth revealing a perfect set of small, milk-white baby teeth.  
Her golden hair glistened, and her big blue eyes had their charismatic 
twinkle in them as they always did.  Little Pearl looked happy and 
healthy as ever--which was rather unusual, yet very much the case.  Her 
parents, on the other hand, did not look well.  They looked tired, 
which was not unlikely considering they each hadn't slept in days.  
Three days, to be exact.  That's how long it had been since they'd 
learned of their child's ailment.  The chemotherapy, which they would 
try despite its very low chance of success, was to begin the next day.  
Melissa stood, teary-eyed, watching her young child as she played in 
the light, leaning against her husband who looked on as well, managing 
a smile at his beautiful child.  The small child Pearl seemed to take 
no notice to her parents, however, too enthralled in her own 
surroundings to care about anything else.  After a few minutes Pearl 
seemed to get tired.  She began to cry.  Melissa hurried over and 
comforted her, soothed her to sleep, then lay her down to take a nap. 

*                    *                    * 

As Ryan watched his child sleep, a tear ran down his cheek, he tried
hard not to burst into tears, tried not to wake little Pearl.  She lay 
on her back, smiling in her sleep.  Her head was now bald from the 
chemotherapy which had begun some two weeks before.  Apparently it had 
been taking little effect, aside from making Pearl very weak.  She 
slept close to nineteen hours a day, but she always seemed happy when 
she slept.  Ryan and Melissa often wondered what went on the little 
head of their child when she slept.  Ryan now reached over and gently 
touched the forehead of little Pearl.  How vulnerable, yet beautiful 
she was.  He backed away after a few seconds, just to look on her.  
Speaking pragmatically, it is amazing how a weak and small creature 
such as Pearl, barely able to utter the words "mama" or "dada", barely 
able to take a few simple steps, barely able, even, to sit upright 
without support at her back, it is amazing how such a child can work 
her way to the very center of so many hearts, amazing how she, who 
brings little more than some fleeting moments of joy and admiration to 
others, she, who takes in so much more than she gives out, she, who is 
little more than potential, can be so important to the lives of so 
many.  This is truly one of the fascinating characteristics of humans, 
how they can be so dependent upon such a being.  Yet, it is a beautiful 
characteristic.  A beautiful frailty which makes humans, well, human. 
Suddenly Pearl giggled in her sleep, and reached out.  Her hands 
started grabbing at something.  After several attempts that seemed to 
fail, Pearl frowned and let her hand fall to her side.  Ryan narrowed 
his eyes at Pearl and appeared puzzled for a little bit, then shrugged 
it off and leaned back in his seat.  He'd try to get some sleep.  He 
certainly hadn't been getting enough of it. 

*                    *                    * 

Melissa walked into the room to see, to her amazement, that Pearl was
sitting up.  Not only was she sitting up, but she appeared to be filled 
with energy, she seemed to be happy and almost like normal for the 
first time since the chemotherapy had begun.  It had now been five 
weeks, her time was almost up.  Melissa stood in the doorway open 
mouthed and wide-eyed watching her little girl.  Pearl sat in the 
bright sunlight; it was a beautiful day outside.  The curtain had been 
opened completely and Pearl's small bed was completely covered in 
sunshine.  She sat in the middle of her bed flailing her arms happily 
in the light, but something struck Melissa as odd.  She was grabbing at 
the sunlight, giggling wildly as she did so, she seemed to be trying to 
take hold of it, as if it was something she could grasp, and play with. 
 Something she could gather and put it in a basket. Something... 
tangible.  Melissa looked to her right to see her husband leaning back 
in his chair, smiling, watching little Pearl.  She walked over and 
knelt next to Ryan.  She leaned over to him and whispered in his ear. 

"What's she doing?" she asked him. 

"Got me, but I think it's cute," he said.  She smiled and agreed, and
they watched their child play for a short time before she wore out, and 
began to cry.  Melissa scurried to the rescue, taking Pearl in her arms 
and kissing her and singing a soft song.  The weak child was easily 
calmed, and feel asleep quickly. 

"What are we going to do, Ryan?" said Melissa as she laid Pearl down to
sleep. 

"I don't know Melissa, I just don't know."  Ryan replied.  Melissa
walked over to Ryan, suddenly on the verge of tears, she sat in Ryan's 
lap and buried her face in his shoulder, and began to cry.  He patted 
her back, and they stayed this way until both fell asleep in each 
other's arms to the rhythmic beeps of an instrument which measured 
Pearl's heartbeat. 

*                    *                    * 

Pearl suddenly found herself sitting on a cloud.  It was a big, puffy
cloud, much softer and much more comfortable than the bed she had spent 
most of her time on in the hospital.  Her golden hair had returned 
fully to her head, and she felt better and more full of energy than 
ever.  She couldn't see her parents anywhere, but she was sure they 
were around there somewhere.  Suddenly she noticed she was directly 
beneath the sun, and rays of sunshine were all around her.  She was 
very excited and began to grab at it--she'd always wanted to play with 
that beautiful stuff which seemed to be near her a lot.  But, to her 
surprise, she got it, managed to grab it.  It was light, and felt 
hollow.  It glowed very brightly and seemed to break off from one 
particular ray which had struck her fancy, instantly it was replaced by 
a fluid flow of more sunshine. She grabbed at it again, this time with 
her other hand, and the cool glowing substance again broke off.  It 
felt like nothing she had ever felt before, and she loved it.  It was 
indescribable, it seemed to make her whole body feel great.  She 
flailed her arms up and down, holding the pieces of sunshine in her 
hands, the tangible wonder which no one had ever had the privilege of 
handling.  Tears began to stream down Pearl's face.  She was in heaven. 


*                    *                    * 

Melissa and Ryan woke instantly from a light sleep to a continuous and
piercing tone.  They both stood up quickly and glanced over at one of 
the screens that hung over Pearl's bed.  A straight green line streamed 
across the screen.  A tear left the corner of Ryan's eye, and Melissa 
ran over to him and embraced him. 


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