“Do you ever have bad dreams?” Adara asks, pulling the petals from a daisy.

“What do you mean?” Toby looked up at the sky above at the night sky full of millions of stars.

“Bad dreams… dreams that make you sad.” Adara rubs the petal between a finger and a thumb, “I have them a lot. Sometimes they’re happy, but I have more and more sad ones.”

“What makes you sad about them?”

Adara lays back into the grass beside of Toby, sighs and looks into the glittery sky, “I have dreams that everyone’s looking at me, and they’re sad. I can’t really move in the dreams… But they talk funny and they smile sometimes, but they’re mostly sad. Last night, there was a pretty lady, and she was crying next to me. I don’t know why they’re so sad.”

Toby turns his head to look at Adara, her hair curly hair was like an aura around her head entangling itself with the grass and flowers. His hand found hers, and he lightly took hold of it.

“Hey,” Toby smiled softly, “Whenever you have a bad dream, just think of me. Just say my name, and I’ll come be with you. And you’ll have no more sad dreams.” Adara smiled back at Toby, and felt excited and comforted by what he had said.
She lightly squeezed his hand back.
***

His mother had fallen asleep on the couch, exhausted from another day. Outside it was raining, Toby could hear the pitter-patter of the water droplets. It was nice to hear something else besides just the whirring of the life-support and the struggling breathing of his sister. She lay completely still save the soft moving of her chest. It broke his heart to see her laying there, looking so small compared to the tubes in her nose, mouth and arm that kept her alive.
He couldn't stand to be around when she was awake. Her eyes drifted and was rarely ever responsive for the brief times she was conscious. She often looked confused and pained the entire short time she was. Then she’d drift back under into sleep, and she looked more peaceful. Sometimes… she even looked happy.

After a while, he took her a hold of her small hand very gently.

She lightly squeezed his hand back.