Ray

His presence startled the boy. Even without looking up, Ollie felt him standing in the far left corner of his room. Squeezed between a window and a bookcase. Silent, as always. He never spoke, as if embarrassed of the message he had to deliver. But Ollie knew. He was glad the man came. It meant she didn’t have to be on her own.

‘I didn’t know you’re coming, Ray.’ Said the boy without looking at his visitor, thoughtfully replacing crayons in the Crayola set and discreetly smelling fingers. He loved the smell of warm wax on his hands. Ray looked at his toes peeking from between the straps of his sandals, anxiously twisting and scrunching his white hat in his large yet delicate hands.

He was sorry. He didn’t want to be there any more than the boy wanted him, yet there they were… A boy with very little future and a man whose job was to take whatever of his future there was left to take. Ollie straightened up his slim back and yawned loudly. He turned his head towards the door and perked up his left ear to listen out for clues of what his mum was up to. After few seconds, the faint voices of people living inside the telly reached him. It was the show mum hated, which meant she had fallen asleep on the sofa. “Good,” he thought. She was always so peaceful when she slept. That moment of oblivion was all she needed to hide the reality from her.

Their life was tiring. God, how tiring… For them both. Constant money worries. Constant agonising over hospital visits. The chemos. The remissions. The returns of cancer. The hair loss. It was too much for anyone, let alone a single mum. She needed rest. It wasn’t long now.

The boy put his Crayola set and the drawing pad neatly away and slipped on his favourite Batman hoodie.

‘Ray?’ The boy looked at the man, whose blue eyes glistened in the final glimmers of the setting sun. ‘Does she know you’re here?’ The man shook his head and put his hat on. It was nearly time to go.

‘Ok… So, how does it work now? Do I go and say goodbye?’ The boy thought better of it. ‘Or maybe not. She’s asleep. Let’s let her sleep. It’ll be easier this way, won’t it?’ Ray nodded with a faint smile. It never got any easier.

‘Right…’ Said the boy. ‘She’ll remember me, won’t she? She’ll still love me, won’t she? After… You know…’ Ray smiled assuredly as if to say “more than anything”.

‘Well, I’ll always love her too. It’s time she had some peace.’ The boy smiled and stifled a sob.

***

It was dark and cold when she woke up. Disorientated, she yanked herself up to discover she’s on her sofa, and the TV turned itself off after few hours of inactivity. What time was it? “Ollie!” She thought panicked and ran into her son’s room.

As she flicked the nightlight on, the first thing she saw was the sphere of his perfect white bald head resting against a dresser. Then his thin, lifeless body ravaged by illness and medication, and the stick-like arms poking from the sleeves of his oversized hoody. And finally, his tiny face of a fighter. He was in peace.

She screamed as an incurable wound has been ripped open in the fabric of her entire being. Ray’s wings folded around her.