A Thousand Mile Wish



Forgive me if now I wear the face of worry
This time alone could never cause any doubt
But I've been cold too long
Such a strange time to find myself coming down as the rain
With all the holes my love,
To fill up from the middle
This storm could stay all night

He laid his head on his pillow, letting the week's tensions melt from his muscles. Ephram watched the shadows dancing on his ceiling and sighed. A string of guitar chords filled the silence, but he didn't remember turning any music on.

"Whatever happened to your purple hair?" Claire was sitting at his desk.

'Ah...' He thought.

"I like this song..." She answered his unspoken question that she had done it.

"I let it grow out."

"Oh." She blended with the shadows around his room. "Do you like it here?"

"It's not bad. I have a yard." After a moment Ephram turned his head to see her. "What's it like?"

"What's what like?" Claire whispered. Outside, a storm had begun.

"Dying." Thunder and rain nearly consumed his voice.

"Kinda tingly. Like when you foot falls asleep."

"...but you didn't wake up."

"Didn't want to."

So can you stay until we close our eyes
Til your dreams hold mine
Just stay until we know we tried one more time


Lightening lit up his room, and the only shadow that remained was in the corner, with Claire. She stood up with a clap of thunder and moved closer to Ephram's bed. His room lit up again and he felt the bed sink with Claire's weight. Ephram wondered why, but Claire started to speak again.

"I don't know, either. It's your dream."

"Oh." Ephram closed his eyes. Another flash of lightening startled him into opening his eyes. At first he panicked when he noticed he wasn't in his room anymore, but in Claire's.

"Claire?" He slowly called out. Ephram turned around to face the bed that he knew was behind him. There she was. So was the empty bottle. 'Oh God...'

Cause laughing lovers can overcome their closest demons
And they'll go on and they won't let go
They saw something that they know
Has never come so close
Can it stay here for us, for now?

A door shut in the distance and a familiar voice called out a familiar name. Once. Twice, then footsteps came closer. A knock on the door and Ephram knew what he was watching. Her death. Lightening and thunder accompanied the change from Claire's room to the ER. Her tall frame was on a gurney and stains of charcoal were on her face and the thin sheet that covered her chest. Claire was awake, and staring at the swinging double doors that lead to the hallway. Her wrists were in restraints.

"They did save me." She said to him. Claire wiggled a wrist free. "Too bad one of them was a little incompetent."

She reached over and undid the other strap. Claire hopped out of bed and came toe to toe with Ephram. She smiled darkly as she tied the flimsy hospital gown closed. He realized in this moment that Claire wasn't who he remembered; she'd changed drastically.

Can it stay until we know ourselves?
I'm torn as I tell
You're the story that I know and fell from
I'm so far into your story I don't know why
We think we're in control
When we lie between the lines
"I told you awhile ago, in an e-mail I sent you, that things weren't the same when you left."

She was rummaging around the drawers that where closest to the gurney she had occupied mere seconds ago. The IV in her arm was starting to annoy her and in one swift moment, she ripped it from her vein and sent the IV pole flying across the room until it tipped on the cold tile.

"What are you looking for?" Ephram had remained silent for most of this.

"This." Claire held up a gleaming piece of metal. "My last hope."

Those words echoed in Ephram's ears. Claire had gotten back up on the Gurney and brought her last hope into action. Ephram squeezed his eyes shut against the scene and impending flood of tears.

We'll find a line to follow
It's got to show real soon
Or we'll never each this high
 "Ephram..." She called out his name. The stain of charcoal mixed with her blood made him sick. He choked it back and opened his eyes. The darkness of his room greeted him with silence. The queasiness of Ephram's stomach brought back flashes from his dream. Quickly he jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. He didn't bother to turn on the light. Ephram leaned against the cold bathroom wall when his stomach was finally empty. He heard footsteps approaching and they reverberated in his head, bringing back his dream and the nausea. Ephram heaved his stomach into the porcelain bowl.

"Ephram!" The light flicked on, assaulting his eyes. His father stood in the doorway, a worried look etched on his face. Andy watched his son dry heave once more before he leaned back against the wall, trying to catch his breath. He grabbed a washcloth and ran it under cold water.

We climb a little further
Cause there's nothing we can't get around together
Further gets colder until nothing was all that I saw around


"Anything left?" Andy asked as he wrung out the excess water. He kneeled down next to his oldest and wiped the sweat from his face.

"I don't think so." Ephram closed his eyes as he father put his hand to his forehead.

"You don't feel like you have a fever." His father said. "Maybe it was just something you ate. Do you still feel sick?"

"A little..." Ephram answered truthfully. He yawned. His father handed him a little pink pill and a glass of water. Images of the first scenes of his dream filtered across his vision. He wondered if Claire took that bottle of pills with water...

"Yes..." Claire said from the doorway. Ephram barely heard her as he started to nod off back to sleep.

A few minutes later Andy picked his son up carefully from the bathroom floor and carried him back to his room.


So we stay until the ground
That we can't come down from splits us away
Maybe stars know why we fall
I just wish they were thinking out loud
Oh, I could wish all night


Disclaimer: The song "Thousand Mile Wish" belongs to the band "Finger Eleven", not me.