Rainbow shoes...

My last memory is of rainbow shoes.

To be precise they were black with a colourful rainbow on the sides. Dancing along the sidewalk.

Whose feet were they?

They had stopped dancing when they last swam before my weak vision. They had stopped dancing after the bright light had blinded me.

I remember screams.

The first, a scream of warning mingled with terror. Then scream after scream of horror, the sound of tears breaking up the screams.

That was before the pain.

The pain...

Blinding, searing, excruciating pain. Cramping up my limbs, breaking them. Feeling as though I were being crushed between two walls. I remember the pain, but I don't want to. It hurt, I cried.

A long stretch of white ceiling, a corridor. People rushing here and there. White coats over blue pajama-like outfits and white masks over their faces. Finally the rushing stopped in a small, secluded room. A white masked face bends over me. My senses swoon.
Then blackness.

Dreams...
Nightmares...

A surreal place of light then dark. Joy then despair. Fighting my way to the top, swimming through an ocean that threatens to drown me. Trying to reach oxygen, my lifeline wavers.
Then... air!

A deep breath...

I slowly awaken as bright light filters through my closed eyes. Accustoming myself to the sunlight I gradually raise my eyelids. My gaze arrests on an object straight away.

I see... I see my rainbow shoes.

My hope and my joy.
Last seen dancing down what was an empty street.

One day, perhaps soon though probably later, they will dance again.

My Rainbow Shoes.