Save the Flowers Read online

  SAVE

  THE FLOWERS

  Written & Illustrated by

  Caline Tan

  Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Glossary

  Note from the Author

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Copyright

  FOR KENNETH AND CHRISTINE

  FOR BEING MY

  SOURCE OF INSPIRATION

  Prologue

  15 August 2111

  11:33pm

  The door opened. A man, dressed in a black shirt and a pair of black pants, slipped into the laboratory and closed the door quietly behind him.

  The laboratory was dark. The man switched on his torch and shone the light around the room. He seemed to be looking for something. On the left side of the room was a desk with two laptops. On the right side of the room was a long workbench with several pots of plants. More potted plants were found on the floor directly below the bench. The room looked more like a jungle than a laboratory.

  After a few minutes, the man found the object that he was looking for. He shone his torch on it as he strode towards it. It was a silvery-grey pebble lying on a workbench under the window. Several more pots of plants lined the workbench.

  The man held the torch in his mouth with his teeth, keeping the light on the pebble. There were several tiny green dots on the pebble. Using his right index finger, the man pressed on one of the dots. The pebble opened up like a clam. Inside the pebble were many more small lit dots of different colours. These lit dots were actually small buttons. The buttons were arranged close together in neat rows. One would not be able to touch any of the buttons without touching the others around it with one’s fingers. The man took out a sharp tool from his bag. He then started using it to jab at the lit buttons.

  “Who are you?” a voice suddenly sounded.

  The man in black got a shock and dropped his torch. He bent down to pick it up.

  “What are you doing here in the middle of the night?” asked the voice again.

  The man straightened himself up and faced the pebble. It was the pebble who had been talking to him.

  “Hello, don’t you remember me? We met this afternoon,” said the man, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

  “I recognise your voice,” said the pebble. “You’re Professor Raymond Kong, Professor Han’s friend.”

  “Yes, I’m glad you remember,” said Professor Kong, smiling. “Professor Han sent me here. He said that there is something wrong with you so he asked me to help fix you.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know. He didn’t tell me that there’s anything wrong with me,” said the pebble. It felt that something was not right. If Professor Kong was sent here by Professor Han, as what he claimed, why did he come in the middle of the night? And why didn’t he turn on the lights? Was he afraid to be seen?

  “So what’s wrong with me?” asked the pebble as Professor Kong started to use the sharp tool to hit the various buttons inside its body.

  “Well, I need to do a check before I can find out,” said Professor Kong as he moved the tool swiftly over the buttons.

  “I don’t think you’re sent by Professor Han! You’re trying to steal his data!” shouted the pebble. “Help! Help!”

  “Stop shouting! If you continue to shout, I’ll throw you to the ground and break you to pieces!” Professor Kong warned.

  “I don’t care if you break me into pieces!” shouted the pebble. “I won’t let you steal Professor Han’s data. Help! Security! There’s an intruder!”

  Professor Kong panicked. He placed the torch on the workbench and grabbed the pebble. He covered the pebble with his hands to try to block the noise that it was making. However, it did not work. Afraid that the pebble’s shouts would alert the security, he decided to put it in his bag. While he was trying to open his bag with one of his hands, something sharp shot out from the pebble and pricked his palm.

  “Ouch!” Professor Kong yelled in pain and flung the pebble into the air. The pebble flew to the other corner of the laboratory. It hit against the wall before crashing onto the floor.

  “What did it poke me with?” exclaimed Professor Kong angrily as he used a tissue to dab away the blood on his wound. He walked towards the place where the pebble had landed. To his horror, the pebble was not there!

  “Where’s the pebble?” asked the puzzled Professor Kong. He shone his torch on the floor and under the chairs and tables. He searched the whole floor but the pebble was nowhere to be found.

  “No one must know that I’ve been here,” the Professor said to himself. Hastily, he let himself out of the laboratory and closed the door silently.

  Chapter 1

  16 August 2011

  11:58am

  Mabel would never forget the day when it all happened – the day she met Robozonic.

  It was just like any other day, except that it was hotter than usual. She was walking to school through the park. It was a ten-minute walk from her flat. Since her mother had started on her job as a baker, Mabel had been walking to and from school on her own.

  Mabel loved going to school by herself. She felt really grown up. Her older brother Marcus, who was ten, still needed their father to walk him to school. Most importantly, she would never have met Robozonic if she had not gone to school by herself.

  On that really hot day, the moment Mabel stepped out of her HDB block, sweat started trickling down her back. Within seconds, her school uniform was stuck to her back like a plaster.

  Seeing a bench under a big shady tree further up on another path, she dashed towards it.

  She had never stopped near the big shady tree to take a rest before. Her mother had told her not to stop anywhere on the way to school.

  “And don’t talk to any strangers!” her mother had warned.

  However, that day, Mabel really needed the shade from the big leafy tree as she was melting under the heat. As soon as she stood below its wide branches and leaves, she felt the cool breeze on her face. She sat on the bench and rested, using both her hands to fan herself.

  “This is getting too hot! I must complain to Mr Golden Sun,” said Mabel to herself. She lifted her head towards the sky, cupped both her hands around her mouth and shouted to the sun, “Hey, Mr Golden Sun, why are you so hot today? Can you hide behind some clouds, please?”

  Mabel had a strange habit. Since she started talking at two, she loved to talk to objects. She would talk to the sun, the chair, the table, the clock, the flowers, and anything that she saw. Her mother told her that when she was three, she would hold a ball in her hands and say, “Ball, ball, when I kick you, please don’t go so far away.”

  And when she was about four, she would hold her pillow in her hands just before bed and say, “Mr Pillow, I’m going to bed now. Please give me sweet dreams.”

  When she had started school, she began to talk to her pencils and erasers. “Mr Pencil and Miss Eraser, you are to live happily with each other in my pencil case and never quarrel.”

  She knew that these objects would never answer her, but she still loved talking to them. It was just a fun game to her.

  “They’re my friends,” she would say to her parents. Marcus often told her that she was crazy. Her parents just let her be, as they thought it was not unusual for children to talk to things. They believed that when she got older, she would stop this strange habit.

  Anyway, on that hot day, the sun did not answer Mabel and there was not a single cloud in the
sky for it to hide behind. She took out her water bottle. It was a Little Miss water bottle which her father had bought for her. She took a big mouthful of water. Looking around, she noticed the two rows of yellow flowers planted along the sides of the path. The petals of the flowers were drooping under the heat of the sun.

  “You poor things, I think you need some water too,” she said to the flowers.

  She walked over to the flowers and sprinkled some water from her water bottle on them. They seemed to cheer up as the water touched their petals and leaves. She then poured all the water from her bottle on the flowers.

  “Alright, that’s all I have,” she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a large flower on the other side of the path near the big shady tree. Its stem was taller than the rest and it stood out from amongst the row of yellow flowers.

  “This flower will look beautiful in my room,” said Mabel as she bent down to take a closer look. She felt an urge to pick the flower. Her eyes did a quick check. There was no one in the park. She stretched out her hand towards the flower to touch the petals. All of a sudden, she heard a voice.

  Chapter 2

  “Don’t pluck the flower. Don’t pluck the flower,” the voice said. Shocked, Mabel stood up and turned her head around to see where the voice was coming from. She did not see anyone. She leaned her body forward and was about to touch the flower when she heard the voice again.

  “Don’t pluck the flower. Don’t pluck the flower.”

  She swung her whole body around but still could not see anyone. Feeling guilty, she decided that she should continue on her way to school. After a few steps, she tripped over something and fell forward. She managed to save herself from falling flat onto the ground with her two hands. When she picked herself up, she saw a large pebble in front of her in the middle of the path.

  “You must have made me fall,” said Mabel to the large pebble. She gave it a hard kick and it flew a few metres away from her.

  “Stop kicking me!” a voice said again.

  “Who’s talking?” she asked angrily. Why did she keep hearing voices but not see anyone? Was someone playing a trick on her?

  “I’m talking to you. Can you please not kick me? It’s very painful!” exclaimed the same voice. The voice seemed to be coming from the direction of the large pebble. Mabel moved closer to the pebble and lowered her head towards it.

  “Are you talking to me?” she asked. She thought her ears were playing tricks on her.

  “Yes, it’s me! Why must you kick me while you are walking? Can’t you just walk normally?” cried the large pebble.

  Mabel jumped back. A talking pebble! Was she imagining it? After years of talking to objects around her, had she really gone crazy?

  She moved closer to the pebble, rubbed her eyes and stared. The pebble was silvery-grey in colour and much larger than the rest of the pebbles.

  “What are you looking at?” cried the pebble. “Don’t you know it’s rude to stare?”

  Mabel froze. “Did… did… did you really just talk to me? But… but… how can you talk? You’re a pebble,” she stammered.

  “Yes, I was talking to you. Of course I can talk. Don’t think that only humans can talk. I’m very special. I can talk and think. I’m also very smart,” said the pebble, adding, “And, for your information, I am not just a pebble.”

  Although Mabel was still in shock, she quickly calmed herself down by taking a deep breath. After all, she had not been talking to objects for years for nothing. Now that something was finally talking to her, she did not want to scare it away.

  “So you’re a talking pebble,” she said. “But please get this clear, I didn’t want to kick you. You made me trip. So I was just, well, taking revenge.”

  Suddenly, she remembered something. “Were you the one who asked me not to pluck the flower?”

  “Yes, it was me. The flowers give food to the bees and butterflies. How could you pluck the flowers? They will also feel pain when you pluck them from their stems,” said the pebble.

  “Really? They feel pain? How would you know? You’re not a flower,” said Mabel.

  “They told me,” replied the pebble.

  “You mean you can talk to the flowers too?” asked Mabel. It was all getting too much for her. First a pebble talked to her, and now this pebble said it could talk to flowers too.

  “Yes, I can talk to the flowers, the trees and even the animals. You can too,” said the pebble.

  “Me? Talk to the flowers, the trees and even the animals?” exclaimed Mabel, her big eyes now bulging like a goldfish’s. Talking to things around her! It was her dream coming true!

  “How can I talk to the flowers?” she asked softly. She was afraid that the flowers would be frightened by her loud voice.

  “Just say, ‘Hello, flowers!’” said the pebble.

  Mabel looked at the flowers around her. She took a deep breath and said gently, “Hello, flowers.”

  Then she heard it. It was the sweetest voice she had ever heard. It was like singing. In fact, it was not one voice but a chorus of voices!

  “Hello,” the flowers sang together.

  “Oh, you can really hear me! This is so exciting!” exclaimed Mabel. She started jumping up and down. She was not dreaming.

  “Yes, we can hear you. Thank you for giving us the water,” said the flowers.

  “You’re most welcome,” smiled Mabel.

  “Could you help save us, please?” pleaded the flowers.

  “Save you? Why do you need me to save you?” asked Mabel.

  “The two boys, they’re hurting us,” sang the flowers.

  “Which two boys? Where are they?” asked Mabel, curious. She looked around, but there was not a single person in the park. The hot sun must have kept everyone away.

  The pebble answered for the flowers. “Those two boys who walked past here earlier. They took their water bottles and hit the flowers as they walked. They thought it was fun! They were trying to see who could hit the most number of flowers. They have been doing it for the past few days.”

  “How could the boys do that? No wonder the flowers were dying. If I see those two boys, I’ll teach them a lesson!” said Mabel, a sense of justice filling her heart. She put her hands on her hips and stamped her feet.

  “You will do that? Then you must come earlier tomorrow. I’ll show you who the two boys are and you can stop them.”

  Mabel suddenly felt nervous. Her sense of justice was overcome by her fear. “Me? Stop them? But I’m only a small child. What if they beat me up instead? I don’t think I can do it.”

  “You coward! You just said you were going to teach them a lesson,” said the pebble angrily.

  “Well, I want to, but I really don’t know how,” replied Mabel softly.

  “Please save us,” sang the flowers again. “Only you can help us.”

  Mabel felt very sorry for the flowers. How could she continue to let the two boys hurt them?

  “Please, please, please. You’ve got to help the flowers. You’re the kindest and sweetest girl. Only you can help,” urged the pebble.

  Upon hearing the words “kindest” and “sweetest”, Mabel smiled widely. “Let me think. Let me think.”

  She paced up and down the path. “I tell you what. I’ll ask my best friend, Julie. She’s the smartest kid I’ve ever known. She has, like, read almost all the books in the library.”

  “Great! Let’s go find your friend now and tell her about it.”

  “I’m meeting her at the school gate at 12:15. I’ll tell her when I see her,” said Mabel. She looked at her watch. “Oh dear, it’s already 12:25. I’ve got to go!”

  “Wait!” cried the pebble. “Don’t go. Take me with you. I want to go to school too!”

  “You want to go to school with me?” asked Mabel, puzzled. Why would a pebble want to go to school?

  “Yes! I think it’ll be great fun! Please, please, please take me with you,” pleaded the pebble.

  “Oh, alright,”
said Mabel. “I guess it’ll be quite fun to have a talking pebble with me. I could show it to Julie. She always scolds me for talking to things. Now I can tell her that things talk to me too.”

  Mabel picked up the pebble and held it in her hand. She brought it up to her eyes and studied it again. It felt heavy and was about the size of her palm. There were some green specks on it too. There were also two large yellow dots which seemed to sparkle under the sunlight. It looked slightly strange for a pebble. Suddenly, the two large yellow dots lit up and she saw a pair of eyes staring right at her!

  Chapter 3

  “Ahhh!” Mabel screamed and threw the pebble to the ground.

  “What are you doing? Why did you throw me to the ground?” asked the pebble.

  “You… you… you have eyes!” stammered Mabel.

  “Why can’t I have eyes? You have eyes too. Without eyes, how can I see?” said the pebble.

  “But… but… but you’re a pebble. Pebbles don’t have eyes, or ears or a mouth!” cried Mabel, her chest rising up and down.

  “Well, as I said, I’m not an ordinary pebble. In the first place, pebbles don’t talk, but I do,” the pebble said.

  “So what are you really?” Mabel asked, her mind racing, trying to guess what the pebble really was.

  “Well, it’s difficult to explain. You’re too young. I don’t think you can understand,” said the pebble.

  “How do you know I can’t understand if you have not told me anything? I’m a big girl. You can tell me,” said Mabel.

  “Fine, I’ll tell you,” said the pebble finally. “I’m actually a Robozonic.”

  “What’s a Robozonic?” asked Mabel, more puzzled than ever. She squatted down in front of the pebble, eager to hear what it was going to say.

  “See, I told you you wouldn’t understand. How should I explain it? Well, I’m a special gadget, like a robot – but more than just a robot. I’m also a communicator, a time machine…” said Robozonic.