Everything was hazy.  Her family all had halos.  She couldn’t understand why they were crying, but she also couldn’t ask.  She tried, but her mouth wouldn’t move.  Neither would her arms or legs.  She couldn’t avert her eyes to anything but the lamp across the room. 
     And it didn’t bother her.  She didn’t know why it didn’t worry her.  All she knew was a sense of peace, and of floating. 
     That lamp was so beautiful, why would she stop looking at it?  Its lights were dull and heavy, stretching its beams across the floor to comfort and caress her weeping mother.
     She blinked.
     She had moved.  She didn’t think that was possible anymore.  She sat up.  Her arms hung limp by her side, her eyes travelling the room and its occupants.  Still her family wept.  Now they were leaving, one by one.  All but her dad, who sat by her bed and cried himself to sleep.
     “Daddy,” she whispered.  Her mouth tasted like parchment.  “I’m awake.  It’s okay.”  But her father gently snored and didn’t react.
     “Heather,” a small, soft voice said by her ear.  “Come with me.  Tonight, I will show you wonders.”
     Heather pushed aside her blankets and stepped onto the wood floor, rough and cold against her bare feet.  She didn’t question the Voice.  She just followed.
     “I will show you wonders tonight, Heather,” the Voice said again.  “But you must decide before the night is over.”
     “What do I have to decide?” pondered Heather.  The Voice didn’t respond.  It was leading her toward the window.  She could see its faint golden glow.  Without hesitation, Heather climbed onto the window sill and jumped.
     The Voice giggled.  “Your first wonder, Heather.”
     Heather smiled.  She had never flown before, but she was loving it.  And still the Voice led her on.  They were soaring among the clouds, the white rolls skimming her toes.  The Golden Voice was always in front of her, always leading her in safety.  The moon shone her silver light upon Heather and changed the Golden Voice into an eerie glow.  Heather thought it was beautiful.
     The Voice was leading her lower now, and the soft moon’s glow reflected off shimmering treetops.  “Now for your second wonder, my beautiful Heather.”
     The Golden Voice alighted on a tree branch and Heather landed beside it, equally graceful.  “I’m going to show you my people, Heather.  My home.”  As the Voice spoke, Heather could finally distinguish the speaker; a small, delicate lady with the wings of a dragonfly.  It did not surprise her that the Golden Speaker was a fairy.  It only delighted her.
     “Where’s your home?” she asked the fairy.
     “In the trees.”
     “But we are in the trees.  I don’t see anything.”
     “You will, Heather.  You must develop the eyes for it.”
     So Heather concentrated, and wished for her eyes to see.  She prayed that she would see.  And she blinked, and squeezed her eyes shut.  And when she opened them, the sky and the trees and the earth were coated in many glimmering Voices, all of them of a different color.
     “I see your people, Golden Fairy,” she whispered.  The Golden Fairy laughed and fell gently to the ground.  Heather followed.  They walked together through the trees, admiring the many fairies and their quaint homes of all things natural.  And as they walked, Heather gradually became aware that the Golden Fairy was now her own size.  Or maybe she was the size of the Golden Fairy.  It didn’t really matter, because either way they were equal, and that’s all she wanted.
     “Golden Fairy,” she whispered, “I wish I could stay with you forever.”
     “And why can’t you, Heather?” the Golden Voice asked.
     “Well, because…”  But she couldn’t find an adequate response.  But finally she settled with, “Because I assumed I had to go back.” 
     “You can go back,” said the Voice.  “But you can also stay.”
     Heather looked around, at the beauty that surrounded her that she had fallen in love with in a single night.  “Will I be able to see all this if I go back?” she asked.
     The Golden Fairy sadly shook her head.  “No.  Not while you wake.  But in slumber you will find this place again.”
     Heather stood, understanding, wishing she hadn’t.  Finally, she turned toward her friend.  “I have to go ack.  I have to leave you.  But do you have to leave me?”
     The fairy smiled.  “Never have I, and never I will.”
     Heather smiled.  “Then let’s go home.”  The fairy shrank, or Heather grew, and together they flew back to her room, where she crawled once more under the covers, and the Golden Voice alighted in the lamp, stretching her rays to comfort now her father.
     Birds began to sing outside, the sun rose into the sky, and her father woke with a jolt, blinking away hardened tears.  He looked up at her daughter, shock falling onto his face, dragging his mouth open and breaking again the wall that holds all tears.  Daughter and father sprang at each other, weeping to see the other, clinging to the each other like their grasp could keep the other from sinking.  Then they broke away, and stared into each other’s faces. 
     “Margaret!” her father shouted, forcing himself to stand and leave the room.  “A miracle!”
     She laughed and fell against her pillows, staring at the ceiling as she heard the rushed footsteps of her family up the stairs.  As her mother burst into the room, she sprang from the bed and hurled herself onto her mom.  Sobbing, her mother clutched her and whispered, “A miracle.  It’s a miracle.”
     She smiled, not bothering to correct her, but knowing that it wasn’t a miracle – knowing that it was a Golden Voice who lives in her lamp.