The Sky




I love kids; they brighten my day. That’s one of the reasons why I work here. Everyone always tells me that they don’t understand how I can stand a day with this job, and sometimes I don’t understand it either. But something here I love, I just cant live without. That’s why I keep coming back. I work at the children’s hospital in the cancer center. I’m a nurse that goes around and try and make the kids comfortable, and happier. Just try and make them smile and laugh. I will admit it is a hard job, and I have issues with depression. But it’s the kids that count, they need me there.
When I met this little boy named Skyler, my world flipped around. He was only 9. But man, did he have the soul of a 30 year old. I would take longer shifts just so I could sit there next to his bedside and talk to him. Skyler had these deep blue eyes with splashes of green and yellow inside them. His skin was a very even tone and his little round baldhead suited him nicely. His voice would cheer you up anytime. We would always talk about how happy the world was. Even though I knew it wasn’t. I couldn’t tell him that. He would always talk about tall things; skyscrapers, mountains, birds, the sky. All we wanted to do was be tall. Not necessarily tall in height but just to look down on everything. To just be high enough reach the sky. And that’s why I started calling him Sky. I always told him that someday he would reach that sky. He will be able to look down on the city, and the world, and get a whole new perspective. But he just needs to be patient. There were some special occasions where we could leave the hospital. We were able to go to the park or the beach and watch the sunset. Everyday was just full of laughter.

I knew when Skyler started getting sicker. He would sleep longer and it would seem like his eyes were dragging to stay open. He started getting dark shadows under his eyes. My brother and I are practically like travel buddies and have been traveling for years. Then we couldn’t afford it anymore and we sort of put that on hold for a while. For my birthday Skyler had been sick. I remember walking into the room and seeing his head turn towards me and I watched his eyes widen and his jaw drop.
“I Forgot.” Skyler whimpered
Man, was he devastated. He spent the day crying and apologizing on how sorry he was that he forgot to give me something. No matter how many times I told him he doesn’t have to do anything he just told me he did. It was the only way he could repay me because I’ve “given him so much.” When I left that day my brother had a surprise for me at the apartment we share. He said we were going on a trip, finally, to Italy. It was a dream come true I couldn’t thank him enough. We were in Europe within four days. All was fantastic. My brother and I were in Italy, and Skyler seemed fine when I left. We were planning on spending one whole week there. On the 3rd day, I got a phone call. It was Angie, my very close friend that works at the hospital with me. She spoke the words to me that shredded my heart apart. She said that Skyler didn’t have much longer. After I left home to come to Italy Skylers condition just got worse. They took him off chemotherapy and were just keeping him on painkillers. Only 4 hours after I got this call I was already on a plane home. I got there the next day at around 7pm. He was lying in his bed in the hospital room. There were so many balloons and teddy bears surrounding him. I slowly walk into the room taking the chair that the other nurse was sitting in. Just seeing his pale worn out skin lying helpless there brought tears to my eyes. Maybe he heard me crying somehow, but Skyler woke up and looked right at me. He gave me a smile and whispered my name. His eyes spoke words of struggle.
“Hi baby” I reply holding in my sobs and putting my hand on his arm.
“Hold on.” Skyler said before he reached over the other side of the bed and bringing up a big blue book.
“It’s for you,” he said, “happy birthday.” I remove the big red bow that was tied around the scrapbook. I open it up to the first pages to find dozens of pictures spread across the paper. They are pictures of us. Some have captions like “My 10th Birthday”, “The time we covered our faces with stickers.” Skyler was just grinning and watching my breathless reaction to the gift he gave me. My eyes were overflowing with tears, I was grinning too. Just looking down at the pages he has made. The book was full. But one of the last pages was captioned in big blue letters. When I touched the sky. There was one picture on this page; it was of Skyler and me sitting on the beach.
“Thank you” I said in a hushed voice as tears fall down my cheeks. It was more than I could ask for. I ended up falling asleep right next to Skyler. My head on his bedside, while holding his hand. In the morning I woke up, but Skyler didn’t. I knew it was going to happen. I just couldn’t get it in my head I just sat there next to him. I didn’t even grab one of the nurses. I just needed one more look at his innocent face. He had finally reached the sky. He was up there looking down on the world.