Ailee Cyania's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Ailee stood in the fourth-floor hallway of Happy Suds Children's Hospital, holding a clipboard that listed seventeen names. Today the jellyfish therapy program would either work or it wouldn't. She had spent months reading studies, writing proposals, and answering questions she couldn't fully answer. Now children were gathering in the activity room, and she would finally see if what she believed could become something real. The centerpiece sat behind glass doors in the courtyard — an outdoor pool with an orchid-colored waterfall that spilled into a lazy river. Jellyfish drifted through the current, their bodies glowing soft pink against the blue. Ailee had fought for every inch of it. She watched the first child press her hand against the glass, eyes wide. Three others followed. Within an hour, every child on the list had asked to go in. By the third week, the hospital administrator asked Ailee to present at a conference. By the sixth, a hospital in Seattle called. Then one in Toronto. The doubting voice in her head grew quieter each time she stood in front of the pool and watched a child smile. She didn't have proof that jellyfish healed anyone. But she had children who wanted to come back. The day the doormat arrived, Ailee almost laughed. Someone had ordered it as a gift — bright pink with the word WELCOME stretched across an image of Earth. They placed it outside the courtyard entrance, right beneath the egg-shaped swing that hung from the archway. The swing glowed purple at night, tiny jellyfish lanterns suspended in a globe of glitter. Children from four countries had sat in it by then. The program was no longer just hers. It belonged to the world now.