Chapter Text
A chilly day. It's that time of the year when the weather gets too cold for comfort indoors but just not cold enough to turn the heaters on. It feels as though this time comes one week sooner each year, until there's no summer left.
Cristallo huddled in her woollen handknit blanket. The other patients in the ward didn't seem to mind the cold nights. At least not as much as she did.
She tried to take her mind off the cold with a little distraction, but she had long exhausted all the little distractions the ward offered. She had memorised the flickering pattern of the sickly white fluorescent lights, the sewing pattern at the edges of the curtains separating beds, the footsteps of the doctors and the nurses walking outside based on their shoes and gaits, the rotation of the three daily meals that resets every 14 days...
Cristallo had read every book the hospital library — more precisely a single bookshelf of tattered books donated by people who no longer wanted them — had to offer, including a repair manual for a 1987 Volvo car that somehow made its way there.
She was particularly fond of a paperback novel from the 1960s. It was the first volume of a series, but the other volumes were nowhere to be found. The once-colourful text on the cover was now barely legible, and the ragged brown pages were gracelessly falling off. She had left it in the library the previous week, so as to let others read it as well, and to forget as many details as possible before her fifth readthrough.
Now she was all alone for the first time in months, as her last roommate was discharged yesterday, making the hospital room appear larger than ever. Having spent her days in this white, sterile room since spring, she began to doubt she will ever enjoy the same fate.
She gazed outside. An abandoned swallow's nest lay by the windowsill outside, dispersing with the wind little by little with every passing day. It was the only form of change one could observe in the room. Cristallo sighed. Try as she might, she could no longer muster the curiosity for anything around her, nor did she feel that she had anything in her little life to look forward to. Save for one thing.
'Ms Cristallo? You have a visitor.' Four o'clock in the afternoon. A white-haired woman with long French braids walked in, carrying a bouquet of brightly coloured balloons that seemed to have more colour than the rest of the room combined. 'Hellooo!' She tied the balloons to the corner post of the bed and sat down on the bedside chair.
— Are you feeling better today, my little dandelion?
— Good afternoon, doctor. I'm feeling better, thank you.
— That's good! Very good! Because I have a little surprise for you!
— A surprise? For me?
Balloon Party glanced around to see if there's anyone around, then took out a small rectangular package with a confetti patterned wrapping.
— Get ready! Ehehe...
— A present? Thank you very much.
Cristallo began gently unpacking the gift, making an effort to avoid tearing the wrapping. With a gentle smile on her face, Balloon Party patiently watched her struggle with the tape and the paper folds. After two minutes, Cristallo was tired, but had successfully removed the wrapping and folded it to save as a keepsake. Her present was a book.
— This is... Gasp! This is the second volume of the novel!
— Shhh, — Balloon Party leaned in and whispered loudly enough to be heard from outside, — flip the other side!
— The other side? Oh dear, a box of pastilles!
— Shhhhh! Sh-sh-sh! Shh! Keep quiet! It's a secret!
Cristallo put her hands on her mouth and nodded. Balloon Party opened the box in her lap, picked out a red pastille and pushed it through between the fingers covering Cristallo's mouth. Having consumed nothing but bland hospital food for months, the intense taste of strawberry stunned Cristallo for a few seconds. Seeing her pale cheeks turn rosy in an instant made Balloon Party giggle.
Balloon Party brushed Cristallo's hair with a soft bristle brush as she hummed a cheery tune, whilst Cristallo examined the brand-new book in her hands. As a thought struck her, she put the book down and lost her smile.
— Doctor.
— Hmm?
— Why are you doing this for me?
— Why am I brushing your hair?
Cristallo tightly clutched the blanket on her shoulders.
— No, I mean... I mean, why would you spend your time here with me every day?
Balloon Party grinned widely.
— It is a doctor's duty!
— But you don't even work here.
— Oh, details details...
Cristallo's face fell. She idly traced the squirrel and rat patterns on the handknit blanket with the tip of her finger.
— ...
— Hm? What's wrong, my little dandelion?
— We're outside visiting hours, but they're still letting you visit. How come?
Balloon Party smirked mischievously.
— Rules can be stretched! Like a long balloon! I made a little deal with Medicine Pocket.
— A deal?
— They let me stay with you for as long as I want. I keep it a secret that they bring Baby Blue to the night shift break room at nights.
Cristallo was taken aback but didn't appear to be convinced.
— The doctors are treating me more gently than usual lately. They're saying I'm getting better, but I feel weaker than ever. I'm getting worried.
Balloon Party paused for a second before continuing brushing.
— Don't worry, my little dandelion. You're going to get better. And I'm going to throw you a biiig party.
— I can hear the doctors talking outside my door. I can't hear what they're saying, but lately they talk less and they sound sadder. And yesterday... I heard a nurse cry after my routine tests.
— Pfft. That's how all adults talk like. — Balloon Party made a dismissing gesture with the brush, as if the two weren't adults themselves. — They don't know anything.
— They won't tell me anything, and I think I know why.
— But I will tell you something.
— Oh? What is it?
— I will tell you... That when you're out, you're going to wear the prettiest of all dresses. Not like this boring gown. And and and I'll take you to an amusement park. We're going to ride the ferris wheel. And I have a biiig surprise for you there.
Cristallo pondered for a few seconds with a wry pout.
— ...Promise?
Balloon Party pat herself on the chest with the back of the brush with a satisfied smile.
— Doctor's promise!
Cristallo smiled. Comforting thoughts of dubious credibility swept away her doubts for the time being.
— Okay, doctor... I trust you.
Balloon Party put down the brush and ran her fingers through Cristallo's hair.
— Your hair... It's so soft. Like cotton candy.
— Thank you. It's because you brush it every day for me, — she bashfully turned away her face. — And it's thanks to your arcanum that I still have it. You must really like my hair.
Balloon Party softly giggled.
— I do like your hair, — she picked up and kissed a lock of her hair. — You're veeery beautiful.
Cristallo felt a lump in her throat.
— Is... that so?
— But you would be juuust as beautiful without it too.
— I...
Balloon Party knelt down by the bed. She gently put her hands on Cristallo's cheeks and wiped away the tears under her bleary eyes with her thumbs.
— As long as you smile.
Cristallo was caught off-guard by this gesture. Seeing Balloon Party's warm and sincere smile just inches away from her face, she couldn't help but smile back.
— Th-thank... thank y-
Her sentence was interrupted by sobbing, so she decided to express her feelings in a different way. She pulled Balloon Party to herself and hugged her as tightly as her weak, slender arms could.
When the nurse came for the evening checkup, Balloon Party kissed the cannula on the back of Cristallo's hand and waved her goodbye with a wide grin. Cristallo realised she no longer felt the cold. The warmth radiating from Balloon Party's chest had warded away the chill haunting her frail body.
She did not once whimper when the nurse drew her blood. She tried to stay awake to read her book, but the painkillers gently put her to sleep before she could get past the second page. The moonlight reflected the bright colours of the balloons onto the windowpanes. The swallow's nest at the windowsill lost another piece to the wind.