A Rainbow in Your Eyes

Chapter 6

Walking into the parking area, a security guard stopped Brian.

“Hey! You! What are you doing here? No beggars allowed!”

“I’m here to visit my sister, Sir.” Brian replied, thinking fast.

“Gmf, a likely story! More likely you’re going to smash a window and steal something! And WHERE might this sister be?”

“In the cancer unit, she was admitted a few days ago. Her names Irielle. But I don’t know how to get there?” He knew full well that the security guard wouldn’t know all the patients in the hospital and, as he was going to the cancer unit anyway, he hoped that phrasing his words as a question would make it easier to get inside.

A car’s honk broke the discussion apart, and the guard had to rush to assist the driver. Deciding that the boy wasn’t worth his trouble, the man yelled a few instructions to Brian while moving away. “When you’re inside, turn left, then go up 2 stories with the elevator. You can’t miss it, Kid.”

Knowing he was none too clean, Brian hoped that he wouldn’t be intercepted again. He had to see her, to know she was all right and see if he could help. He waited just around the corner from the door. When a couple walked in, I rushed to walk just behind them so that it could appear as if he were with them. To his surprise, no one questioned him. The hospital staff were too busy rushing around and the other people in the building were all too much in their own world to pay the strange boy any attention.

Reading the instructions posted on big overhead boards, and remembering the guard’s instructions, he made his way to the children’s oncology unit.

To his dismay, the door was locked with a security code. Looking around, he spotted a couple of chairs and a table with some magazines. He decided to camp out there while keeping an eye on the door. Someone was bound to come past eventually, and he could hopefully slip inside.

He had to wait about an hour before the food trolley arrived. The lady from the foot services was too busy with her huge trolley and getting it through the door to pay attention to him and when she left the door open to push the trolley further into the ward, he took his chance to slip inside.

Slowly, trying very hard not to be spotted, he walked through the ward, looking into rooms. Finally, in the last single room at the back of the ward, he found her. Her golden hair spread over the pillow. She looked small and fragile, and, for a moment, he thought his heart might actually break. Her face was very pale in her sleep.

All the nurses were busy at either the station or with the other children. There was no one else around. Just like at her home, there was no one here that kept her company. Quickly, Brian slipped inside.

Something must have alerted her to his present, a sound, maybe a sixth sense, or maybe they were just that connected. But the moment he was inside, her eyes fluttered open. For a moment, she seemed confused, and then a bright smile lit up her face, and once more Brian thought his heart was breaking. How could a tiny little girl have this kind of effect on him, he wondered as he walked over to his friend.

“Hi” she whispered.

“Hey” he breathed even softer back. For a moment they just looked at each other, until a soft giggle escaped Irielle. It took only moments for her giggles to infect Brian, and soon they both were giggling together. Until a fit of coughing finally brought the two back to the present.

Could a heart really break this many times in such a short few minutes, and still stay alive? Brian wondered. But he didn’t speak, he couldn’t. His throat felt closed up, and he felt like crying. Damn, he hasn’t cried since the day his mamma died!

Walking around the bed so that he could watch the door and hide if needed, Brian saw a hairbrush on the counter. Without a word, he motioned for Irielle to sit up. Scooting in behind her, he lifted the hairbrush and slowly, wordlessly started brushing her hair.

He didn’t know or think of how long he spent just brushing her hair. Some time not long after, she must have drifted off to sleep, but still he held her until finally sleep came for him too.

“What the hell?!” The sound of a man’s voice yelling out woke them both up, where Brian had fallen asleep with Irielle still in his arms.

Quickly he jumped off the bed and scooted back against the window as far as he could from the door where the man was still yelling for the nurses and security. Next to him a young woman that looked very much like Irielle, stood with wide, shocked eyes.

“What the hell are you doing in my daughter’s bed?! If you as much as touched a HAIR on her body, I will f*****g kill you?! Do you understand?! Where the hell is the damn security? NURSES!! SECURITY! I will be removing my daughter from this facility and will be moving her to a new hospital! How the hell did this happen?! A fuckin black kid in bed with my daughter!”

“Daddy! Daddy, stop, please! He’s, my friend.”

Her softly whispered voice and the coughing that followed, pulled Brian out of his shock. Moving back over to Irielle he picked up the water bottle to help her drink. But before he could even reach her, the bottle was grabbed from his hand and he was thrust backward, sending him flying.

“Allen!” The shocked voice of the young woman, who must have been Irielle’s mother, was heard over the commotion of running footsteps and the man called Allen still bellowing for the security. But it was the cries from Irielle that pulled the dazed Brian back upright, shaking his head to clear it.

He could make out the form of Irielle’s mother holding the crying girl wrapped in her arms, preventing her from getting to Brian. Irielle’s one arm wrapped around her mother, the other was outstretched to him as she cried bitterly for her friend while the security guard was pulling his arms back to cuff them, pulling him away from her bed and out of the room.

“Please let me help her.” It was all he could do to whisper. “Please, just let me help her. I just want to help her.”

Something about the way he spoke quieted the room.

“What the hell can you do?! You’re not even a doctor! Take him away! I WILL press charges! How DARE you touch her!”

Another, more sane figure dressed in a white coat, stepped forward. “What’s your name, Son? And how old are you?”

Not once taking his eyes off Irielle, Brian spoke. “My name’s Brian, Sir. And I’m, uhm, I’m sixteen. Please, Irielle’s my friend. I came here with the taxi’s `cause I want to help her. Please! I heard she needed someone’s blood. You can take all mine. Please! I don’t have to live anymore, but just help her!”