Chapter 5 – Look Into the Sky
“Is Melody awake yet?” Rhapsody asked Harmony quietly from outside Aria’s room.
“Yes,” Harmony replied tiredly. “She’s been awake all night.”
“As have you, from the looks of it,” Rhapsody noted lightly.
“I was so sure she would wake up after she started singing,” Harmony sighed in defeat. “I just kept waiting and waiting…”
“Go get some sleep,” Rhapsody told her firmly. “I’ll wake you up if anything happens.”
“Why are you helping us so much?” Harmony asked softly. “I’m not trying to be ungrateful, but you’ve spent almost every waking moment taking care of us. I feel like I’m monopolizing your life.”
“Because I’ve been looking for something special in this world all of my life,” Rhapsody replied with warm smile. “Now that it has fallen right into my lap, I’m hardly going to turn around and walk away.”
“I don’t know what I would have done without your help this week,” Harmony told her sincerely. “Thank you for all you have done for us.”
“It has truly been a pleasure,” Rhapsody told her with a bright smile. “You and Melody are extraordinarily wonderful people and that is a rare thing to find in this world.”
“Is that Rhapsody?” Melody’s voice came from inside Aria’s room.
“Yes,” Rhapsody replied as she donned a mask and opened the door. “How are you doing this morning?”
“Better, now that another friendly face is here,” Melody replied with a grin in her voice. “Happy birthday!”
“Ugh!” Rhapsody groaned. “I just felt my IQ shrink. Now that I’m not a teenager, I don’t know everything anymore.”
“Ha ha,” Melody replied dryly. “Very funny. What brings you here so early? It’s barely nine. I thought you would be sleeping in after staying here so late last night.”
“My stupid alarm woke me up,” Rhapsody growled in mock exasperation. “One of the problems with my eidetic memory is that once I wake up in the morning, I can’t get back to sleep.”
“Wow, that really sucks,” Melody said sympathetically. “Maybe you should try falling out of another tree and see if it goes away…”
“If I thought that would actually work, I might just try it,” Rhapsody chuckled. “Speaking of sleep; I had a rather interesting dream last night.”
“Oh?” Melody asked curiously. “Am I old enough to hear about it?”
“Melody!” Harmony admonished sharply.
“Only joking, mom,” Melody grinned impudently. “So what did you dream about?”
Rhapsody related all of the details of her dream as they listened raptly.
“Did you understand the words in the song?” Melody asked intently.
“Yes,” Rhapsody nodded with a teasing smile. “Would you like to hear them?”
“Was that a rhetorical question?” Melody asked with a roll of her eyes. “Of course I want to hear them!”
Rhapsody laughed lightly at getting the desired reaction. “Okay, here’s what I heard.”
The Place I’ll Return To Someday
Look into the sky
Can you see the moon across the ocean
Coming close to me
I can hear the melody
Cry into the void
Let my voice become the hand that reaches
Out to you and leads
To my long lost memory
Carry me home
I lost my way on roads ever weaving
Home
Where darkness fades and hearts are ever believing
Carry me home
I close my eyes and cling to you ever dreaming
Find me
Oh don't forget the child for whom you are grieving
Voice that calls from there
And the footsteps of its fallen angels
Now becomes the beat
Of my heart so incomplete
Every night I bathe
In the blue that washes over me
And brings me to my knees
In this longing I believe
Carry me home
I lost my way on roads ever weaving
Home
Where darkness fades and hearts are ever believing
Carry me home
I close my eyes and cling to you ever dreaming
Find me
Oh don't forget the child for whom you are grieving
As she finished repeating the words, Melody and Harmony quietly walked over to stand next to Aria’s bed.
“God, I wish I knew what to do!” Harmony sighed out in a broken voice. “There has to be a way to bring her back to us.”
Melody hugged her mother from behind, closing her eyes as she rested her head against her back. “We’ll find a way, mom. Just don’t ever lose hope.”
Rhapsody swallowed a lump in her throat as she watched the two of them. Whatever else resulted from this tragedy, at least it had brought these two closer together.
A growing noise from outside the window distracted her from her thoughts. She wandered over to see what was causing all of the excitement. Her eyes widened as she realized what she was seeing. Hundreds of people were marching around the hospital parking lot, carrying picket signs and banners. Her eyes narrowed as she read what was on the signs.
Revelations 19:20 - And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Matthew 7:15 - Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
“What are you looking at?” Melody asked curiously.
“Nothing,” Rhapsody said quickly. She turned away from the window and grabbed them both by the hand. “Come on, you two; bed time. Get some sleep before you collapse. I’ll wake you up if anything interesting happens.”
“Promise?” Melody asked.
“Promise,” Rhapsody assured her as she opened the door and herded them into the waiting area. The two of them had been sleeping on recliners for the past week. Getting either of them to go home for a night was next to impossible.
After ensuring Harmony and Melody were going to stay in the comfortable recliners in the visiting area, Rhapsody walked back into Aria’s room and stood over her unmoving form.
“I wanted to thank you for what you did last night,” Rhapsody told the slumbering girl. “I don’t know what would have happened if they had succeeded in putting me in that cage, but I have a feeling it wouldn’t have been good.”
If she had any doubt that the small girl could hear what was happening around her, it was banished when Aria started singing the same melody from her dream from the night before. It wasn’t in English this time though. The notes seemed more poignant when sung in the foreign language, as if the words in their native language contained elements of power.
Emily entered the room in the middle of the song. She walked up next to Rhapsody and stood silently until Aria finished singing. It was as if all of the elements for hope, love and peace were intertwined into a single weave of channeled energy. The tiredness that clung to Rhapsody from her short night of sleep faded away, leaving her energized and optimistic.
“Wow,” Emily whispered quietly when Aria finished. “If God had a voice, it would sound like this.”
“And so she does,” Rhapsody replied with a smile.
They were both startled out of their reverie as a rock bounced off the window. Emily followed Rhapsody over to stare down at the angry mob below. Another rock hit the building next to the window as a less coordinated malcontent stood chanting slogans with his peers.
“What the hell are they doing?” Emily asked in scandalized tones.
“Religious fundamentalists,” Rhapsody told her with a disgusted shake of her head. “They’re convinced that Aria is the anti-Christ, s
o they’re doing what any God-fearing Christian would do and trying to kill her.”
The hospital security staff was hopelessly outnumbered as the mob pushed past them and entered the hospital. Rhapsody stared in shock, unable to accept the fact that people could really be so stupid.
“They’re coming for Aria?” Emily gasped in dismay. “We have to get her out of here!”
Rhapsody looked around, chewing her lower lip absently as she thought quickly. “Are there any empty patient rooms nearby?”
“Right next to us,” Emily replied uncertainly. “Why?”
Rhapsody quickly went into the next room and climbed into the empty bed, pulling the blankets up around her. “Wrap my face in bandages,” Rhapsody commanded Emily tersely.
Emily stared at her without moving as her eyes filled with understanding. “Rhapsody...”
“There’s no time,” Rhapsody snapped impatiently. “Hurry!”
Emily reluctantly moved over and began wrapping her face in gauze. “The police will do something…”
“They won’t get here in time,” Rhapsody interrupted her through the gauze.
Emily’s eyes filled with tears as she realized the seriousness of the situation. “Rhapsody, there’s got to be something else we can do-“
Her words were cut off by the sound of the mob arriving. Rhapsody took a deep breath, then began singing the same words she had just heard Aria sing. She knew she wasn’t as good as Melody and Harmony, but it was good enough for the mob. They stormed into her room with a wordless roar. She refused to open her eyes as the first blows from blunted objects landed, trying as hard as she could to keep from crying out, lest they discover she wasn’t really the coma patient they were after.
Blow after blow slammed into her head and body, sending pain coursing up her arms, head, legs, stomach…everywhere. Tears leaked down her bandaged cheeks as she clenched her jaw as hard as she could to keep from crying out. Pass out already, damnit!
The roar of the mob was suddenly interrupted by a sound of such discordant chaos that she lost the battle with consciousness and fell into blessed darkness.