Where’s the sky?

“Look, mama, balloons! So many balloons! I can’t see the sky, mama. I can’t see the sky, mama!”

“But why are you crying, honey?”

“Because I can’t see the sky, mama. The sky, mama, I can’t see it. Please, mama, the sky! Please, mama!”

The child kept crying and pointing at the sky. She kept pulling her mother, trying to somehow (anyhow) transfer her desperation and fear to her mother by pulling her hands and tugging her clothes. She kept asking her mother for help. Engulfed with despair, the mother didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t understand her child’s cry for help; she couldn’t see why not seeing the sky was like a life-and-death situation for her child.

“Mama, I beg you. Please, the sky’s almost gone. Do something, mama.”

“What can I do honey? I don’t know where the balloons are coming from!”

Slowly, there remains no sky, just balloons. Balloons everywhere!

“Mama…”- last cry for help.

The child sits down on the ground.

“Mama, shouldn’t I be happy to see balloons? I’m just a kid. Why is not being able to see the sky so scary to me, mama? Why can’t I be happy like those kids?”

Both looked at the other kids following the balloons with smiles on their faces, childlike joy in their running feet and wonder and excitement in their eyes as the mother and the child held each other’s hands with bewilderment and vulnerability.

Her mother replies, “Look at me! Don’t you see my helplessness?”

“I do, mama. Do you want me to run after the balloons like the other kids? Would that make you a little less sad, mama?”

“But what about you honey? What about what makes you happy?”

“Oh, Mama, I think I have no hope at all. The sky, I can’t see the sky, mama. I’m scared! Not seeing the sky is scary, mama. It shouldn’t be this way, right, mama? Something’s wrong with me, right mama?”

The mother looks up, cheeks dampened, eyes questioning something or someone up there, while the child lets go of her hands and runs anyway.

 

 

Neonstrous!!

Pumba kept thinking if he would choose a different life if he could. He kept looking at the triangular-shaped black box kinda thing until he finally decided to touch it. Once he touched the box, a neon-colored screen appeared with bold letters telling him all about the box.

“Dear you, who is now the owner of this remote. Push any buttons you want. All you get to know is that this is a remote control that comes with no instructions at all. YOU do whatever you want with it. YOU bear the consequences and cry, laugh, lament, regret, or rejoice. We just tell you that this is a triangular remote. Make smart choices, or not. We don’t care. That’s our slogan.”

Pumba already started to regret his choice. “Why did I touch that stupid box? I mean the remote. The rude, mean, and nonsensical remote. Has it started already? I’m regretting everything already. But I didn’t push any of the buttons yet. What if I don’t have to and it’ll still act like a bad nightmare? Should I just leave it? What if it gets worse? Should I press the green button? Or the red one? What about the blue one or the yellow one? What if I press all of them together? Should I just throw it away? Destroy it maybe?"

The moment Pumba tries stepping on the remote to destroy it, the neon screen reappears!

“Foolish human! Look at yourself. Who’s destroying whom?”

Embrace me woman!

 I saw the red flag at the end of the road. I moved forward but it moved along with me. I moved as fast as I could. The red flag! It was still there. Glaring, grinning! Haunting every part of my body, dissecting my skin, creeping through the cells, reaching my veins, poisoning my blood. I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was drowning and the only thing I could hold onto was a rope that was so thin that it would cut through my skin. Painful, lethal either way!

I kept running. I kept running until I couldn’t anymore. My legs and lungs gave up. I heard them scream in an asphyxiated voice, “We can’t do this anymore. You’re on your own.” I urged back, “Please I beg you. Don’t give up on me. Don’t give up on us. It’s coming closer. Please, I can’t do this by myself.”

“We’ll see if you can!”

I saw no other way but to let it reach me. It kept creeping and coming closer…and closer…and closer…

The red flag and me. Face to face.

“Embrace me, woman! Embrace me! Look at me. I’ve become a part of you. You can’t escape me. You can’t get rid of me. I’ll follow you wherever you go. How long can you run for?”

I stood my ground and replied with a smirk on my face, “You’re right. No more running. Look me in the eye. Do you see fear?”