Still Alive

  ***

  Lillian glared at her tablet angrily as she read the Facebook post from her sister’s page. Some charlatan was claiming videos on YouTube could cure people of any kind of sickness. Before her daughter was diagnosed with Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome, she might have just ignored hoaxes like this.

  She quickly posted a response, feeling angry tears splash on her hand as she typed.

  “It’s bad enough that there are people sick enough in this world to think hoaxes like this are funny, but to contribute to their insensitivity is unacceptable. I thought better of you, Miriam.”

  Lillian tossed her tablet down on the couch and walked over to watch the restless sleep of her five-year-old daughter. Sometimes it seemed like the whole purpose of life was to provide amusement for some sadistic deity who reveled in the pain and sorrow of everyone and everything. If there was a God, and she was quite confident there wasn’t, she had a lot to say to him when she finally met the bastard.

  She was brought out of her brooding by an urgent knock at her door. Frowning, she walked over to the front door and opened it. Her sister nearly knocked her off her feet as she pushed past determinedly, walking over to her daughter’s room.

  “What the hell are you doing, Miriam?” Lillian demanded irritably.

  “Watch,” Miriam said firmly. “I’ve already witnessed this work on someone else.”

  Lillian frowned as Miriam pulled out an mp3 player and began playing a song on the speaker. Before she could work herself into another rage, the voice of an angel began singing. Lillian slowly closed her mouth as she listened, entranced. When the second voice joined in, she felt something come alive in her that she thought long dead: wonder.

  As the third verse began, she stared in stupefied shock as her daughter woke up and stared at her with a clear gaze, eyes no longer clouded with constant pain.

  “Mommy, she made the pain go away!” Melany grinned at her brightly.

  “Who did, sweetie?” Lillian asked thickly.

  “The girl with the pretty eyes,” Melany replied with a grin that split her face from ear to ear. “She said to get better and I did. Why didn’t the doctors think of that?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie,” Lillian choked out as she knelt down and gathered Melany in her arms.

  For the first time in four years, Lillian wept tears of joy instead of bitterness.