“I got a call saying he was in here, is he okay?

The nurse looked up his name on the computer, clicking away at the keyboard, her nurse’s identification badge glinting in the blinding lights illuminating the white hospital walls.

“He gave us a bit of fright, had trouble breathing with all that dust in his lungs, but he’s fine now. He’s resting just down the hall.” The nurse turned in a polite dismissal.

Vivian’s body shook with the effort of her sigh of relief, a long steady exhale.

“He’s okay” Vivian said out loud to herself. She always believed that saying something out loud made it real. Her dad was okay, an all to welcome reality.

Vivian turned towards Aster, blinking her tears away and wiping a few salty droplets from her eyelashes.

“Do you mind, maybe walking down the hall with me to see him?, I don’t think I really want to be alone” Vivian asked.

Aster smiled, as she lifted the back of her hand to Vivian’s chin, wiping away a tear that had caressed its way down Vivian’s cheek and nodded her answer.

Vivian and Aster walked side by side down the hallway of big heavy doors, each with it’s own glass window, big enough to suggest a vast countryside view could be seen from them, but instead a view of a tiny sterile room topped with medical equipment. An optical illusion. They stopped in front of room 11, where a tall figure was resting under a blanket of sterile pink, a cow lick on the side of his head, creating a spiky wave that moved across his forehead. Vivian stopped at the door with Aster at her side, and they both let the comfortable silence fill the small spaces between where they each stood. Vivian felt a something soft and warm fill the inside of her hands, that same electric feeling bursting from her fingertips, like goose bumps on a cold day. Aster’s hand was warm, and firm, and fit perfectly into Vivian’s. Vivian felt a smile slide into her cheeks, her dimples tell tale signs of the happiness escaping her. Vivian caught Aster’s eyes with hers, suddenly aware of the loudness of her pulse and she wondered if Aster could hear her heart beating. She smiled, and moved her gaze to her father, safe and well. In this moment, Vivian realised that everything was okay. Her Dad was okay, she was okay, and she was with Aster. Just as the tears of joy and relief were building in her tear ducts, she caught her reflection in the clear glass window of the door of room 11. Mirrored was her smiling face, no longer distorted, but now clear and beautiful. Her inner feelings portrayed right in front of her.