Parallel Universe — Little One
His eyes were the tiniest jewels I had ever seen and suddenly I understood why it was so instant, this kind of love. This little one, the sweet baby boy so recently born into Michael’s family, I couldn’t imagine how the world had ever spun without him.
He was soft, really soft, in a way only something as innocent and as pure as a baby could understand. Pink cheeks and glowing. He watched me as I held him, eyes occasionally slipping in and out of sleep.
“Hello little one,” I whispered when everybody else had left the room, “welcome to the world. It’s been waiting for you, we all have, waiting for you to come home.”
I could hear him breathing, so quiet yet so powerful.
“There’s a few things you should know about what you have waiting for you, what you have yet to experience and to feel. Number one, the world is made of day and night, dark and light. During the days that shine the brightest, remember to fall in love and be happy and sing and cry and write your story. Because that belongs to you, those words, those moments, they’re all yours to write and to create, nobody else’s. And during the darkest of nights, hold on to that. Re-read your chapters and remember your moments, memories, they will remind you of the light, the light that will always defeat the dark.”
His fingers stretched, curled around mine, stretched again.
“Number two, if it makes you happy and it isn’t hurting anybody else then it is absolutely something you should do. Never give up on things that make you glow inside, and if people doubt you then let them. You’ll prove them wrong eventually.”
Michael walked back into the room then. Sitting down next to me he leaned over and kissed his new little cousin on his head.
“What are you two up to then?” He smiled brilliantly, teeth sparkling, face shining, still caught up in the excitement of this little one.
I ignored his question, “And finally, number three, there will come a day when you meet somebody so spectacular that you will forget how to breathe. And that’s okay, trust me. Because eventually you will find that your breathing will become natural again, just like the way you will feel about them. They’ll make you feel something you could only imagine the stars would and suddenly everything you have ever wanted will lie within them. Don’t ever be afraid to love them with all that you have. And don’t ever be afraid not to, not if you don’t truly feel it. Your heart will guide you wherever you need to go.”
Michael was watching me as I held his cousin. I could feel his eyes, warm and intense and the most beautiful things I had ever seen, now so brilliantly copied onto the face of his newest family member. I knew for sure that one day there would be somebody who would get as caught up in those eyes as I did with Michael’s. And I knew for sure somebody was going to fall head over heels in love with this sweet little boy, one day. How could they not?
“She’s right little man, that will be the day you realise you caught the world,” Michael said, his voice soft and slow, “but until then, welcome little one, I hope you get everything you are yet to dream of. And I hope, more than anything, you remember how loved you are.”
