The Prophecy of the Gems (31 page)

I woke up. This time, it’s over. Death is coming for me. But … I have to live, so that my vision becomes reality.

I look at my right hand one last time. In the hollow of my palm, majestic rays of light shine from a sun. Hope… I kept it for myself, I let my illness defeat me. I’m going to die, and Hope will die with me. I close my eyes. It’s much too hard to leave.

That’s it. I hear Death’s footsteps, her cold breath drifts past my cheek. I feel like crying. The tears don’t come. I feel like screaming, but I no longer have the strength.

I would have liked to leave without fear. Without regrets, but it’s impossible.

I’m suffocating. Everything around me is fading away. Only Death and I are left. She holds out her hand to me. It hurts so much…

The nurses are bustling around in the room. The door opens. Dr Arnon comes in, impassive.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

“It’s the girl, the one who lost her parents,” replies a nurse. “She’s in trouble.”

Dr Arnon comes over to the bed. The sick child’s wasted body is shaking spasmodically; her lips are dry, and she’s moaning.

“It’s the end,” he observes quietly.

A sudden flash of lucidity seems to rally the dying girl.

“The telephone!” she wails. Then, in a tremulous voice, she whispers, “I have to — I have to… call… someone.”

Dr Arnon nods to one of the nurses.

“It’s her last wish,” he sighs. “We can’t refuse her that.”

I mustn’t die! I must pass on the gift of Hope. And what if it isn’t too late? Death is here — and yet, I still believe in my vision, in the impossible. That’s all I have left, Hope. I should have given it to others. But I didn’t. Why shouldn’t I still believe in it? As long as I still have Hope inside me, can Death really take me away?

The doctor and the nurses leave the room. The patient feverishly picks up the receiver, dials a number. She still knows it by heart. The voice that has haunted both her dreams and her nightmares now answers.

“I’m going to die,” the girl says weakly. “I forgive you. But now, the choice is yours. Either you forget me, or… You know what you have to do.”

“Joa? Is that you, Joa?”

But the patient has already hung up.

There, it’s done. I called him. Eli Ador, the one I loved, the one who abandoned me. Why did he run away, the first and last time he came to see me? It made me think I didn’t matter to him. But perhaps he was scared. Of the hospital, of Death prowling the halls. Of what I had become.

Now it’s not important any more.

In the end, the Nameless One emerged from the shadows. The blood on his hands did not prevent him from becoming the Chosen One. If the people of Fairytale were able to forgive
him, even make him their King — why shouldn’t I forgive Eli?

My breathing is becoming more and more shallow. I can hardly hear my heartbeats any more. Death is waiting for me. Impatiently.

“Listen to me, she’s very weak,” the nurse is saying. “She hasn’t got long now.”

“You can’t keep me from seeing her!” the young man protests anxiously. “I have to be with her. She has to live!” There was a burning determination in his eyes, perhaps even mixed with a faint flicker of hope.

“I’m afraid it might be too late,” explains the nurse.

She looks at the young man. He has tousled brown hair, desperate eyes.

“Didn’t you ever come to see her before?” she asks.

“Once,” he says bitterly. “Let me see her,” he pleads.

The nurse thinks about it for a moment.

“Go on in,” she says gently, “but don’t be long.”

I don’t know if Eli will come. But I look at the sun in the palm of my hand and I believe. I believe in the impossible, I believe in my dream, in my vision of the future. I believe in Elyador. I’m still hoping. Simply hoping.

Death is nearby. Too bad. She’ll wait.

I’ll live. Because I have to. Because I want to. I’ve been dreaming. Now, I’d rather live, even if it comes to the same thing.

My dream gave life back to me. Now I must give dreams back to life.