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Phil opened his eyes as he felt a hand gently touched his forehead. “Hi, there,” whispered Dan. He was sitting beside Phil’s bed, curly hair and crumpled black shirt. He looked messy, and tired.
“What happened?” Phil asked.
“You just collapsed suddenly, scared the shit out of me.” Dan sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a high fever?”
He did? He didn’t even realize. “Your hand is cold,” he blurted out instead. Dan’s eyes widened. He drew his hand back. “Ah, no,” Phil said quickly, “I mean, it feels nice.”
Dan snorted. “Yeah right. Want me to get you an ice pack or something?”
“No. Stay here.”
Dan stared him. “Why are you suddenly become clingy?”
Phil chuckled. “Nothing,” he said, staring back at Dan’s hazel eyes, “I just had a dream about our first meeting.”
“The Manchester day?”
“No,” Phil smiled, “long before that.”
***
Lancashire, 1991
The hospital room was quiet. The only sound Phil could hear was a steady beep from the strange machine with a TV that only showed a repeating mountains drawing and lines beside his bedside. Sometimes he could hear a buzzing conversation between nurses and creaky metal sound of the bed with wheels passed his room, but other than that, his room was quiet.
Usually his family was always there to accompany him, whether it was his mom, his dad, or his grandparents. Even his brother, Martin, would come straight to the hospital from his school. He would tell Phil about his day at school, about his teacher and friends and how he beat some evil boys with his punch but mom would get mad if she heard it and she would scold Martin until he promised to apologize to the other boys the next day. However, today Phil was alone. His mom was there though, but she said she had to go back home to fetch some more clothes and she would come back as soon as possible.
Phil wanted to take a walk around. He was bored and alone but there was a cord attached to his hand and it was painful whenever he tugged it, so he just stared out the window instead.
Suddenly, Phil felt a gentle breeze followed by a flutter sound. He turned his head and found a man standing at the corner of the room. Curly dark brown hair covered his face.
“Who are you?” Phil asked.
The man stilled. Slowly, he lifted his head and stared at Phil. His face was a combination of surprised and curious. “You can see me?”
Phil nodded. Was he supposed not to see him? Was he hiding? Was that why he wore black clothes all over his body? Although, Phil guessed it would be hard to hide with large black wings protruding from his back.
“Are you hiding?” Phil asked again. The man’s brows creased. “That’s okay,” Phil smiled, “Sometimes I could see hiding people.” That’s right, he was really good at noticing hiding people. People that were there, but no one else could see. “I won’t tell anyone, so you don’t have to worry.”
“I see,” the man muttered.
“What’s your name?”
The man was silence for a moment Phil thought he forgot his name, but then he said “Daniel.”
Phil grinned. “My name is Philip, but you can call me Phil. Only old people call me Philip.”
“I know. I came here to pick you up.”
“Pick me up?”
“Yes, to come home.”
Phil lit up. “Really? I can’t wait to come home. I miss my rabbit and my friends and I want to play and run around again. There’s a field near my house. Many flowers grow there, it’s beautiful.” Phil reached a glass jar filled with colorful wild flowers from the table on his bedside. “See, my friends collected the flowers for me. Do you want to hold it?”
“No, I will make them wither.”
“Why will you?”
“I just will.” Daniel looked away, but after a moment he inquired softly, “what’s the color?”
“The flowers? Can’t you see it?”
“I don’t see colors.”
“That would be sad, colors are beautiful.”
“It’s okay, I used to it.”
“Then, I will describe it for you.” Phil beamed. “I will describe all of the colors in the world so you can feel as if you can see them.” He picked a little white flower and showed it to Daniel. “This is white, a very light color, like the color of clouds in summer sky.” Then he picked a red flower. “This is red, a very brave but beautiful color. Mommy often colored his lips red.” Then he pointed a yellow one in the middle. “This is yellow, it’s --”
“Honey, what are you doing?” his mom popped into the room.
“Mommy,” Phil exclaimed, “look, I’m showing colors to Daniel.”
“Who’s Daniel?”
“He comes to pick me up.” Phil pointed the corner of the room where Daniel stood, but his mom just gave him a questioning look.
Daniel smiled, “maybe later,” he said. Then he unfurled his large black wings and disappeared.
***
The next day Daniel came again. Phil showed him his animal book. He pointed the colors in the book and described it to Daniel. He always kept a distant from Phil, but he stood close enough to see the pages. And the next day, and the next day, Daniel came around and Phil would describe him colors from his books, flowers his friends and parents brought, and sometimes they would look out the window and Phil told him about the sky, the leaves, the grass, the tree bark and the pond water he could see from his room.
“What’s the color of your eyes?” Daniel asked one day. “I can tell they are bright.”
Phil smiled, “they are blue, like sunny midday sky, but sometimes they are green, like wild grass in a field, and sometimes they merge, blue and green, like the color of the ocean.”
“I bet they are beautiful.”
“They are,” Phil showed him a cheeky smile, “I’m very proud of my eyes.”
“What about,” Daniel hesitated, “um, what about my wings?”
Phil looked at Daniel’s large black wings. “They are black.”
“Is it a horrible color? Is it terrifying?”
“No,” Phil shook his head, “it reminds me of the night sky and it’s beautiful.”
Daniel shot his eyebrows upward. “Really?”
“Yes. We used to stare at the night sky. Me, mom, dad, and Martin. I like night sky the most. It’s beautiful. There are many twinkling stars scattered above us, like mom’s jewel or Martin’s marble. And sometimes we could see Mister Moon hiding behind the clouds,” Phil looked up at the ceiling, smiling as though he could see the night sky through it.
Daniel smiled at him, his expression fond, “thank you,” he whispered quietly
***
“Why are your wings keep falling?” Phil asked when Daniel came to visit him again. “Are you sick? Is that why you’re in hospital?”
“No, this is because I don’t do my job.”
“Why don’t you do your job?”
Daniel shook his head. He smiled, but he looked sad. “I don’t want to. I don’t like it.”
“Does it hurt? when your wings falling?”
“It does, every time.”
***
“Where’s your mother?”
Phil looked up. Daniel was standing in front of the window, light streaming down his wings, casting a shadow behind him. The feathers kept falling but he was smiling so Phil guessed he was fine. “Mom had to go to Martin’s school. They said he got into a fight, but that is not true, the other boys are evil. They asked money from other smaller kids, so Martin beat them up.”
Daniel chuckled. “Your brother sound like a hero.”
“He is!” Phil chimed excitedly. “One day I’ll be strong and I’ll be like him too.” He punched the air in front of him as if he was punching a bad guy, but unfortunately, his hand was tangled with the blanket and he accidentally knocked the flower glass jar. It fell down from the table and shattered all over the floor. “Oh dear,” Phil bent down and picked up a big shard of glass.
“No, it’s dangerous, don’t touch it!” Daniel shouted, but Phil had already picked it up and it pricked his fingers.
“Aw!” Phil squealed as blood oozing out of his finger.
“Are you okay?” Daniel ran to him. He pulled Phil’s hand to his and examined the wound.
“Your hands are cold,” Phil said.
Daniel’s eyes widened as though he realized he just done something wrong and he let go of Phil’s hand abruptly. “No,” he whispered, his voice quavering. “No, no, no! I shouldn’t touch you!” Daniel stepped backward, trembling as he stared at his hands in horror. “NO! NO! NO!” he cried.
The shrill was the most painful mourn Phil ever heard, so sad, and scared. Phil didn’t know why Daniel cried. He wanted to tell him that he was okay. He wanted to hug him and tell him that everything was okay, but his body couldn’t move, his hands and feet felt heavy and his eyes were getting cloudy. Everything around him became hazy. The beeping machine beside his bed started screaming and the mountains drawing change into eternal lines. Doctors and nurses burst into his room and panic chattering filled the air.
Phil tried to look at Daniel through doctors around him. Daniel was screaming with his hands covering his face as if he was in a deep agony. He screamed, and screamed, and screamed, and then silenced. He looked up at the ceiling, tears streaming down his cheeks. He muttered something and his wings began to glow, bright, but not blinding. Gently clad the room with white light. Daniel turned his head and glanced at Phil. He smiled. “Goodbye, child,” he whispered, and then it was all white.
Next thing Phil remembered was he woke up on his bed. His mom, dad, and Martin were all beside him. Mom and Martin were crying, even his dad’s eyes were red and puffed. When they saw him woke up, they all hugged and kissed him and mom couldn’t stop saying “thank God.” Phil looked around his room, but Daniel was not there. Phil asked his family where Daniel was, but no one knew who he was. They asked doctors and nurses, but no one ever heard of him.
“Maybe you were dreaming?” Martin suggested.
Phil shook his head. He was sure Daniel was real, though even until he got out of the hospital, Daniel was nowhere to be found.
***
Epilogue:
Berkshire, 1991
“What a beautiful baby. What will you name him?”
“I’m thinking of Daniel. What do you think?”
“Daniel?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a beautiful name.”
“It is.”