‘Blink!’
My master had an inbox message. I had to notify him first! I shook my body energetically. Would my master notice?
“Who’s the one who ruins my morning?” My master was a little mad at the message.
Did I do something unnecessary? Anyways, you had a new message, master!
He then picked me up from a cold, bland surface. Heh! Such a long gravity! My master held me in front of his sleepy eyes. They seemed reluctant to open, though. Master looked into my eyes intensely. All of a sudden, I could see all of his incoming messages. The message sent to us just now was ‘Hey, care to join us on hiking?’, and my master started typing. ‘No, thx, dude. I have just woken up,’ my master replied. ‘Yea, don’t join the villainous people who ruined your peaceful sleep, my master!’ I whispered.
However, there was another inbox message earlier than ‘dude’s’. It was from someone named ‘Janice’. She typed, ‘Can we meet at the Meadows Café at 10?’. My master pressed on my both chubby, flat, tumor-looking hands that stood out on two sides of my body with his rough, a little itchy fingers. He asked me, “Hey, Sydney, what time is it now?” “It’s 9:55 a.m., Sir,” I spoke to him! It was an outstanding achievement to talk to my master finally. However, he didn’t feel pleased. Instead, he was shocked and dropped me down to the floor. Ouch!
After a while, he brought me on the streets with him. My master was somewhat anxious, although I could only see part of him through my second pair of eyes. He was running at speed… Oh ho! As clarified by the installation ‘Manage Health’, my master was running at 55 kilometres per hour. He was running faster than an average private car. I swore if every human on this very planet called Earth ran at this pace, there would be no purpose for land transportation to exist. What was even shocking was that even the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, could be a speck of dust compared to my master. Bolt’s record was 44.72 kilometres per hour, while master’s record was 55 kilometres per hour. If Dr. Emmett Brown was here to witness my master’s mind-blowing speed, I bet he would say, ‘Great Scott’. My body was shaking fiercely, and I felt somewhat dizzy. Also, the notification from ‘Manage Health’ claimed that the master would suffer health risks like sudden heart failure from this severe ‘ground-shaking’ run. I agreed with Manage Health’s professional advice. Human beings would usually throw up at this pace. Human beings would get car-sick if they couldn’t withstand the speed. For me? It would be ‘run-sick’!
“You are so late! It’s already 10:15!” A girl called my master over. Master apologized and sat on the chair nearest to him. The girl and master started chatting while I was recovering from the ‘run-sick’. The trees and gently-moving clouds further helped me recover. Soon, everything was back to the original, calm, peaceful pace.
“I would like to ask you for a favour,” said the girl. I looked at her. She had a pair of crystal-blue eyes, and her hair was like the newly grown wheat from the countryside. She also had a hat with vibrant colours. As my master replied, they continued for an hour or so. They also ordered some food. They smelt like hot-crossed buns and toasts with a piece of freshly melted butter on top. They smelt perfect for the start of a day.
“No, you get it all wrong, it’s not like…” my master tried to comfort her, but the girl threw a bun on my master’s clothes and ran away. His voice was fainter and fainter every second. Soon, the voice vanished. One second, two seconds, five seconds, five minutes, fifteen minutes… wait, something was wrong. Was my master still here with me? I searched around the whole environment I could see, but there were no signs of my master anywhere. Something went to my desperate little mind. Notify him!
‘Dun, dun, dun, dun!’ I played his favourite masterpieces. Nothing happened.
‘Shutter!’ I blinked automatically—no signs of master anywhere. Eventually, I was tired of trying all sorts of methods.
‘Who’s the one who ruins my morning?’ He dropped me on the floor. My body was shaking severely… Flashbacks of what had happened from the start of the day came up in my mind. My master had been treating me without pity given. Although I tried my best, serving the greatest I could perform to him, all I got was ending up being left behind. Was I not good enough for him? Yet, he spent time with me regularly and even shared his deepest secrets with me. So it was not the case, wasn’t it? I was the one he truly needed, not that girl who threw buns at him! Oh, I got it! It was that very ‘Janice’ who took my master away from me. A filthy rat indeed! I must make my master forget her. I must not lose to that girl. Ah, that’s right. Delete everything about her!
Suddenly, something with sharp-looking edges… It was a maple leaf, which had just fallen from the maple tree above, but why was there a maple leaf? Why did it have to be maple leaf? Was it trying to tell me something? Sydney?
‘A maple leaf symbolizes strength and endurance, Sir.’ Strength and endurance, huh. That’s right. I got to be strong and keep going! I must not give my hopes up! My master must be looking for me everywhere. I should behave well until he came. I just had to sit still. Sit still. Sit still…
‘Chip. Chirp.’ Two little tree sparrows returned to their sweet home, their nest, with three baby sparrows striving for food the two tree sparrows brought. A tree sparrow gave its food to two baby sparrows, and the other gave it to the remaining baby sparrow, which could barely chirp. How wonderful it was. In human beings’ definition, it’s called ‘familial love’. I have never had somebody who feeds me that way. Unlike my master, I don’t have a mother to call. The two sparrows which shared their food were taking away the ‘non-chirping’ ones. How mean they were! I was kind of jealous of my master being a human. Human beings have their family members. At that time, I tried to recall—someone named ‘my younger brother’ in my ‘absolute’ memory. I wanted to try to snatch ‘my younger brother’s food once if I were allowed to.
“Hey, Amber, do you feel better now? You were absent from school earlier the week because of the fever…”
“Yea, I’m feeling more energetic than ever before! Maybe it’s a rebirth, Charisse!”
“Then we could experience a lot of rebirths in our lifetime. Hehe! “So true. By the way, I’m going to the library. Care to join?”
“Sure. Why not?” Children casually chatted as they passed up. How beautiful human interactions were. I liked the tone of worriedness among pals when one was sick or injured. When I fell on the floor, my master wouldn’t ask me how I felt or apologise for dropping me. Instead, he acted as if nothing had happened. However, when you could experience genuine emotion through daily in-person interactions, why would one choose to type and text when you could experience those? If I had to choose, there would be no doubt about choosing meeting in reality, but fate is cruel. There wouldn’t be anyone who would talk with me as human beings think it’s such a silly thing to do. I didn’t know it was stupid, though. If my master wanted to talk with me, I would be all ears.
As hours passed by, I felt sleepier and sleepier. I guessed I had to fail you, my dearest maple leaf. I couldn’t keep on.
Another piece of maple leaf fell on me at that very moment—a fallen maple leaf. A fallen leaf means growth, change and revival. Yea, master, perhaps it’s time for a change. You shouldn’t spend all of your time with me. ‘Time has come for you to change, Sir,’ I told myself.
Shortly after, I could faintly hear…
“That’s weird, the phone is not reacting!” My master anxiously clicked on me. The maple leaf was still recovering my face.
“ A maple leaf? Or is it…”