Let Me Fly Away

A film of haze screened the area in the late evening, around 08:00 - 08:15 pm. Jawson lay on his bed with a thermometer in his mouth. His mother had kept it and had told him to hold it while she went to the kitchen to check on the heating water, in which she had poured turmeric and salt. He was down with cold and his temperature was above 100. 

He noticed a nest on the branch of the tree which was just outside his window, raising tall from the footpath. He was quite surprised that he hadn't noticed the nest all this while even though it was just outside his window.

He was listening to the sound of cars passing by on the road below. By now he had started to enjoy the honking by the vehicles since he had developed a taste for them from when this illness took over him, almost a week now. 

His mother came, and with her came the glass of hot water in which there was turmeric and salt. His mother checked his temperature and went "Oh god! 106." then she said gesturing towards the glass of water she held "Go, gargle with it." He lifted his torso to get up from his bed but as he did so, he suddenly felt a surge of pressure in his head which turned to dizziness in a second. He then let himself go and fell on the bed again.  

"I can't get up. I'm feeling dizzy," he said to his mother.  

"Wait I'll help you," she held him by the shoulder putting her arm across his back and lifted him up. He then got off the bed with her help and both started to walk towards the basin. All the way from the bed to the basin, he was feeling dizzy. Soon as they reached the basin his mother left him and he balanced himself by placing both his arms on the basin brim. She brought his glass and he gargled with it. 

"Good for your throat," she said. "And for your cold too." 

"Mom, that last thing I want is anything good for my cold.' 

After he was done gargling, which he did only a bit as he was feeling like he was the pivot and the world was slowly rotating on him, his mother took him back to his bed and he laid on the bed. She tucked him with the blanket and told him to rest. She said she will bring the food to his bed during dinner.  

He kept on thinking about his friends and what they might be doing at the moment. Not even one friend of his called him. "Probably they are all busy roaming around," he thought. "Fine. Sometimes it's better to get no calls then to get calls and be clueless about what to talk." 

Dinner came. Not feeling like eating he ate only for namesake, after a lot of persuasion from his mother, he ate a bit more; but that was it. His mother went and he as was since almost a week, he was laying on his bed. Bed time came. He was already on his bed, so he thought "For me it's no bed time. It's only sleeping time." His mother came with his medicines; syrup and tablets. He had them and then his mother went to her room, telling him, "Goodnight, Goodnight ma," he replied. 

The medicines took effect, and he started feeling sleepy. He didn't realise when he fell asleep, and he realised that the medicines put him to sleep without his awareness when he woke up around 03:00 in the night.  

He was feeling a tingling sensation within his back, on his scapula area. Suddenly it started to itch him a lot. He reached for his back and started scratching. The itch grew rapidly to the point where he started scratching without caring about hurting himself.

"Aahhhh!" he groaned in pain.

His mother came running to his room, and saw him frantically scratching his back. 

"Oh mom it's itching a lot!" he shouted.

"What's happening to you!?" his mother asked seeing him walked here and there like a mad man.

"Oh... I don't know!"

It suddenly started aching. A lot. He shouted, and shouting, he fell on his knees, then completely on the ground. He mother got really worried having no idea about what was happening to him. She got down on her knees and tried to make him face her, at the same trying to check what was happening on his back.

She noticed something really terrible. The around on his scapulas were tearing slowly in a verticle shape.

"Oh my! Oh my!" she exclaimed in fear.  

While Jawson  cried pain, his mother felt helpless and clueless about what to do. His back continued tear as his mother moved back not being able to do anything. She started crying while watching her son in agony. You could hear the sound of his tearing skin. Something was peeking out of his back with a slimy gooey liquid all over it.  It grew in size as it continued to extend from his back. 

After almost 20 seconds or so the thing stopped coming out as it had reached its limit and tired of screaming, Jawson lay on the ground in a spoon position, panting. His mother looked on with wide eyes. The thing that came out of Jawson's back seemed like wings. His mother was trying to process what she saw and what it possibly was. 

"Mom... what came... out. What... is it?" stuttered Jawson. His mother replied "I... I-I think it's wings." 

Jawson simled, and thought, "The risk was worth it, Marvin." Marvin was his college friend. "Dr.Halden, it worked." Dr. Halden was a science professor of his college. 

Since a week Dr. Halden was perplexed as to where his potion was lost, the one he had formulated for the army. It was remaining to be tested.