Clouds Under My Feet

Opening my eyes, I saw the sky laid before me. It was almost a grey color, instead of the usual light blue, and there were no clouds. I was just staring at a grey block that covered my vision. Maybe there was a more important thing to wonder about rather than what's wrong with the sky. Where am I…? I don't think I've been here before, wherever I was. No, I think I must have fallen asleep somewhere strange. Or did I? I moved my hand out in front of me, my fingers flexing against the grey – I wanted to check that I was real. Closed. Opened. I could move my hand perfectly fine. Once I laid it back down, I felt the ground. I grabbed it. Well… the ground isn't supposed to be grabbable, but it was soft and squishy. Seriously… where am I? I sat up. Looking around, I felt so confused. It would seem I was on a cloud or something – the fluff of it covering my legs and feet. But… that doesn't make any sense. Shouldn’t I be back home?

I stood up slowly and as I looked around, I realized something. I must be in a dream. Yes, I had to be in a dream or something… There was no way I could logically be surrounded by clouds right now. But strangely, I felt my body. I could feel every sensation. My head was throbbing, my heart was racing, and worst of all, I had sharp stabbing pains in my stomach. I felt dread suddenly overrule all other emotions. Where was I? Everything just felt too real for this to be a dream. I stood up and decided I would walk around a bit and try to figure things out. I still couldn’t remember anything about who I was, or what had happened to me, but I would try my best to find out. I walked down the cloud and looked around for a sign of… anything, but much to my dismay there was nothing here. There were literally just endless clouds everywhere with nothing else but the grey sky. “H-Hello?”

The sound of my own voice made me cringe. It was scratchy and unused. I looked down and noticed my clothing, a white dress, and that was it. There was nothing on it and for some reason I had no socks or shoes. Just the soft white dress that came down to my knees. But looking down at the clouds under my feet, I noticed something. Color. A bunch of different colors that I couldn’t make out, so I got on my knees and put my face down into the fluff of the clouds. What I saw was strange. A hospital maybe? It was a waiting room full of people, families crying, yearning for their sickly loved ones. Why was I able to see this? What was happening to me?

I was curious though, so I continued watching. A man sat in the waiting room who kept catching my eye. He was a lot older, maybe in his 40s or 50s, and looked more guilty than I’ve ever seen. I wondered who he was and why he felt so nostalgic to me. He didn’t stay for long though, because after a few minutes the man just left. But he was soon replaced by another man, much younger, maybe around 20. He seemed more familiar, and for some reason looking at him, I felt the racing of my heart calm down. I smiled and then immediately frowned, why did I do that? What about him evoked a smile from me? The young man was hurried and went straight from the lobby to the front desk. I crawled over to get a better view of him. When the young man spoke, I could hear him as if he was right there with me, “Excuse me, I’m looking for one of your patients, I’m her boyfriend.” The nurse at the desk looked at him, “What’s her name?”

“Darcy Simone.”

I paused for a while. That name… Whose name was it? Why was it so… familiar to me? Did I know a Darcy? Darcy, Darcy… I clicked my tongue as I thought of why I knew that name so well, but then I saw that the man was gone. He must have gone to look for the girl. I crawled around in the clouds, searching through rooms until I found the one the familiar man was in. I was in shock at the sight. A woman who looked to be about the same age as him was lying in a bed, a bandage wrapped around her stomach. She was asleep, or at least I supposed she was, and the man had the greatest sadness in his eyes I’ve ever seen, “Darcy! I’m so sorry this happened… Please… Wake up, it’s me Lex…” A tear rolled from my eye, and I quickly wiped it away. I wasn’t sure why his reaction to the girl was affecting me so much, but it was. My chest kept welling up with sorrow, and my heart began to beat fast again.

Lex stayed in that room with the girl for what must have been hours. Nurses came in every once in a while, to check on them. They asked Lex if he wanted anything to drink. He refused every time and just held the bed-ridden girl’s hand. Eventually, he began to cry. It was lightly at first, but then he went full-on in tears, shaking, yelling. The nurses told him to calm down or he would have to leave. He was having a hard time composing himself but did calm down if he could only stay longer with her. I could have focused on the other patients but for some reason I didn’t feel the familiarity with them that I felt with Lex and Darcy. “Darcy… Please… I love you… I want to love you for the rest of my life.” Lex’s chin trembled and I saw tears pour from his eyes once again as he grabbed something from his pocket and looked at it. It was a ring. An engagement ring. “Darcy…”

He put it away, “Don’t worry, Darcy… I’ll be here for you…” He stared at the girl, Darcy, for a while, and only broke it to look at the heart monitor once the beeping started. That couldn’t be good. He pushed the help button and yelled for nurses, and by the time they had run into the room, the heart monitor was flat-lining. They brought out a defibrillator and a bunch of other things I didn’t quite understand. I was confused and felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster that wouldn’t stop. A few aching minutes passed and after they had done all they could to start the girl’s heart again, it just wouldn’t. Slowly, while I tried to watch more, I couldn’t, because my vision started to blur, and my ears began to ring. The last thing I remember hearing was the anguished scream of Lex, and a depressing picture of the nurses all standing around in a state of grief.

When I woke up, the sky was blue, and I was still laying on clouds, except this time the air was moving, and everything felt… happy. Before I had even stood up, I heard a familiar voice, “Welcome to Heaven, Darcy.” I was looking at myself. And I was looking back at me. But this me wasn’t me. It was a mirror image of me with the wings of an angel. “Huh…?”