I Fell in Love with Hope - Lancali

Time, in a turn of kindness, slows. It stands beside me, watching, as
it has since I was born. It whispers no cruelties or taunts. It drags a
hand down my back and slows the metronome, holding it off until
that inevitable flat note rings.
“Sony?” Hikari cries. “No, no, Sony!”
Eric yells at all of us to leave. Sony’s doctors flood the room.
Hikari is so distraught I need to carry her out. C cries, following us,
covering his face.
Neo is the last to leave. He shuts his eyes to the yelling and kisses
Sony’s face. When he’s ushered out of the room, he takes Hee with
him.
We cry together in the empty hallway, huddled from the blue and the
cold.
When we sink to the floor, there is the inevitable weight of something
missing, like a limb cut clean from our bodies.
From outside the checkered windows, I watch with blurred vision as
Sony takes her last breath. Once her eyes close, they don’t open
again.
—
Death isn’t playful.
Death is sudden.
It has no taste for irony or reason.
It is a taker, plain, direct, no tricks up its sleeve.
But at least,
This time,