Dust ✔️

Chapter Three -- Reminiscence

"My sweet, Elias." She stroked my cheek and stared at me while I looked for all the dinosaurs in my oatmeal. "Finish up, darling, we have to write out invitations to your fourth birthday party."

Moments after her words, I noticed my vision start to fade and suddenly I watched glimpses of my birthday party, where only two people showed up even though I invited everyone in my daycare. I felt an odd sensation of deja vu as my mother and my two friends sang happy birthday to me.

Suddenly, the room whirled around me again and I was laying on the floor, watching movies in my sleeping bag with my two friends on the carpet, laughing at the nonsense on the screen.

But that was the only moment I captured before I was somewhere else completely again.

A room with white walls and a window with a tree outside of it, shading the room from the sun. On my left there was a bed with white sheets and pillows, on top of the bed was a woman in a white gown with little blue polka dots spread out all over it. I walked up to the woman who looks almost a stranger to me but felt a sense of relief.

One of my very first visits at the hospital. There wasn't much time left...

I turned my attention to the beeping sound that was coming out of what I used to think was a weird machine. My mother broke me out of my thoughts when I saw her hand reach out and touch mine. She gently pulled me close to her and gave a calming smile.

I smiled back and laughed, happy.

"My sweet boy." She said quietly, rasp filled in her voice.

I could stay in this moment forever if it meant that she didn't have to leave me. If it meant I had the chance to stay with her even just a little bit longer. I could hold back every scared feeling and all of my tears just to be able to see her smile one last time.

But the moment was gone. And I was taken somewhere completely different all over again.

Now, laying down on my tummy on the carpet flooring, playing with my rainbow toy xylophone that I received from my mother for my birthday, I listened to the voices of my parents across the room, sitting at the kitchen table.

That was my favorite toy.

It didn't last long, seeing at he later broke it to pieces after throwing it at a wall.

I kept my eyes focused on my toy because I wanted nothing more than to create a song for my mom.

"Do you remember when we moved out into our first apartment together?" My mom suddenly said, looking up from the papers that were spread out in front of them.

"Two days after I moved out here from Canada." My father said, removing his reading glasses from his face and setting them down on the table.

She laughed, "The place was falling apart and we had a bug infestation."

"Mice too," he replied.

She looked into his eyes and smiled brightly at him. "Aw, I loved those little critters!"

My father gave a short laugh and looked down from her to play with the glasses he only just set down. "Our very first argument was about you wanting to keep them as pets, remember?" He looked back up at her with nothing but pain in his eyes.

"And do you remember what I said?"

"It can be our own little family." They said at the same time. A sad exchange.

"Our lives were so easy back then." He picked up the papers that were sitting on the table and started to pile and organize them together. "All we had and wanted was each other. We didn't care about our families or the consequences. We didn't care where we were going or where we would end up, as long as we were together."