Nor Doth He Sleep

Her strength seemed to sap just as the short film ended, and she sagged against him. He looked at her worriedly. “I think we’d better get you to the hospital.”

Mimi shook her head vehemently. “No, I don’t want to go to hospital.”

“Baby, you need to,” Roger pushed back damp strands of dark hair from her face to look deep into her eyes.

“No.”

Roger looked at Mark helplessly. “Mimi, it would be a good idea for you to get checked out,” the other man said diplomatically.

She shook her head again. “I know it’s Christmas, I don’t want to spend Christmas in hospital.”

“Can’t blame you for that,” Maureen commented. Several heads turned to glare at her. “What? I’m just saying.”

“Mimi…” Roger pleaded.

“No,” she turned her dark, pleading eyes on her boyfriend. “I’ll go after Christmas if you still want me to get checked out, but I don’t want to spend Christmas in hospital.”

“I don’t think a day or two would make much difference,” Joanne admitted aside to Roger, voicing the very thing he tried not to think of.

“Better not to fight with her,” Collins agreed.

Roger gave in. “Will you at least lie down in a proper bed?” be begged Mimi.

“Only if you come with me,” she replied pertly, though the effect was lost in the thready weakness of her voice.

He swept her into his arms, momentarily freaking that she was so light. “As you wish.”

“We’ll see you two in the morning,” Mark called after them as Roger carried Mimi into his bedroom.

Roger gently placed Mimi on his bed, removing her cold, wet clothes and dressing her in one of his flannel shirts. Tucking her under the quilt, he asked, “Are you warm enough now, Mimi?”

She smiled. “I’ll be warmer if you’d climb in with me.”

“Are you sure?” he asked doubtfully. When she nodded he grinned and stripped down to his boxers and put an old long-sleeved tee-shirt on, sliding into the bed beside her and gathering her into his arms.

They lay like that, together, in silence, for a long time, just content to be in each others’ company. It had been a long seven-and-a-half weeks since they had last seen each other, and it had been even longer since they had really been together. So they just concentrated on being together, not thinking about Mimi’s illness or the future.

Finally Mimi spoke. “Could you sing to me Roger, please?”

“Sure,” Roger sat up so that he could sing easier. He didn’t reach for his guitar, sensing that she wanted him close. “What do you want to hear?”

“A Christmas carol.”

“Any carol?” When she nodded he launched into ‘O Holy Night’, his voice cracking when he reached the high notes.

But Mimi didn’t mind, she asked for another one when he finished singing. So he continued by singing ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’, ‘Away in a Manger’. ‘Silent Night’, ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’, ‘Once in Royal David’s City’, and ‘Jingle Bells’.

By this point, Mimi had grown rather sleepy, and when he finished ‘Jingle Bells’ he thought he had drifted off. But one eye opened sleepily and she murmured a request for another song. Not a Christmas carol this time, but ‘Your Eyes’, the song he finally wrote, the song about her. The song that Angel sent her back to hear.

Roger smiled, but before he started singing he rummaged through the pockets of his clothes for a box of matches. At her confused look, he reached over and lit a candle that sat at his bedside. “When we met a year ago, you kept asking me to light your candle.” He indicated the candle. “For old times sake.” Kissing her gently, he began to sing.

Instead of the strong note that he finished on when he sang it before, Roger half-sighed the last word; noting that Mimi had finally fallen asleep. Indeed, his heart almost skipped a beat for a moment when he saw her there, afraid that she had died; but in the candlelight he could see her chest rise and fall as she breathed.

Roger did not sleep at all that Christmas Eve. He was too busy watching his love in the flickering candlelight, afraid to take his eyes off her. Afraid that if he slept he would wake to find that it was all a dream and she was still lost somewhere on the streets of New York. Afraid that if he took his eyes off her she would slip away, leaving him with only her memory.

Although it was not the longest night of the year, it was still a long night and the candle had burned very low before the first rays of dawn broke. But finally sunlight began to filter through the loft, and with it came the chiming of church bells announcing Christmas Mass. Roger smiled at the sound, it reminded him of another carol.

“What are you smiling at?” Mimi asked sleepily.

His smile widened when he saw that she was awake. “I was just thinking of another Christmas carol.”

“Which one?”

Instead of just answering her, he began to sing:

“That’s a pretty one,” she said when he finished singing. “Even though there’s not a whole lot of ‘peace on Earth’ at the moment.”

“Well, we can hope,” he kissed the top of her head. “Merry Christmas, Mimi. I love you.”