Another Chance

I was soaring.

My arms had become wings and my blazing red hair had grown honey brown feathers to enhance its warm glow. I could feel the wind rushing past my face and I could see everyone become dots on the ground as I rose higher and higher.

Suddenly the experience was over and I was hurtling towards the ground at a frightening speed. I my hair was a dull limpid orange and my arms were the same pale flaky gray color that I had been born with. The ground was rushing up to break my fall, and break me as well.
Even in my dreams I was going to die and no one could save me.

My head was pounding when I woke up and I groaned when I saw the sickeningly pale green walls of my hospital room. I actually thought my dream was just me fading away in real life. Nurses were rushing in and out of my room and I knew something was up.
Dr. Flynn was checking all those noisy beeping machines that were forever hooked up to my body. I wished he would take them out already, even though I knew that if I was disconnected from the machines, I would die.

But I’d never had a life and dying didn’t seem scary to me at all. I actually woke up each day hoping that the power would go out in the hospital and I’d finally be able to leave. But then I remembered that there were other people in the hospital who actually needed and wanted their machines, so I always took back that silent wish.

“How are we doing, Sage?”

I blinked twice, and he nodded and wrote something down on his clipboard. One blink was for positive answers and two blinks were for negative answers. It was a pretty good system for a terminally ill mute kid. Of course I could never tell anyone that my favorite color was blue and that I hated the ugly green that they had painted the walls. But I’m sure my time was almost up, so it didn’t really matter what my opinions were at this point or at any point anyway.

Mason the clumsy and borderline creepy pre med student intern burst into the room and nearly fell flat on his face. I felt something jerk me and suddenly the machines stopped beeping. Dr. Flynn’s face was frozen in horror and I turned my head to see that the machine was now off and the outlet that it had been plugged into, no longer had a plug in it.
Mason must have ripped it out when he tripped.

My vision began to fade at the edges and Dr. Flynn rushed over to plug in the machine, and suddenly with strength I was not aware of, I grabbed his leg. He turned to look at me and his head cocked to the side in confusion.
I blinked twice.
* * *
I opened my eyes to two large green ones staring back at me. I chirped happily and nuzzled my mommy’s white feathered chest, with my honey brown crested head.

A sudden burst of energy burst through me and I launched myself out of the nest and to the mouth of the cave. A large shadow past over me and I looked up to see a large black gryphon zipping across the sky. I chirped again and leapt into the air, in an attempt to join the gryphon in the sky. My mother came up below me and flapped her wings, giving me a boost of air to coast on.

Then I was soaring.