The Draft 1

'Ington.'

A boy, no more than ten looked up from his robot he was holding. He looked no different from the children in the hospital's playroom. Quiet and reserved. There were hardly playing in the small room of dollhouses, plastic trucks and jigsaws. They were the children of their malignant parents.

'Are you Ington Khiang?' A thin man in navy army uniform approached Ington at eye level. Ington couldn't stop noticing the Tree emblem on the serviceman's sleeve, even as Ington nodded, he wanted to reach out and touch the Tree.

'How old are you?' The serviceman asked. His voice was tender with kindness.

It's a Lantern Tree. Ington decided. His mother had always informed him about the need for Lantern trees in this world. According to her, lantern trees were different things to different people. But they were essentially the anchors of the world.

'Are you alright, boy?' The voice concerned.

Ington decided that his own Lantern tree would like a lot like the one on the sleeve of the serviceman. Not the part about "Kingdom First" which was bold in golden threads under the Tree, but the shape that embodied it. The Tree was shaped like a fish. A diving fish head-down, with flaming tails in every directions upwards.

'Do you know your mother is sick?' The serviceman asked, looking closer at Ington, hoping to jolt a response from the boy.

Lantern Trees are the anchors of the world. Their roots held the ocean floors together.

'Your mother, Ington.' The serviceman collected himself and gave, 'Your mother is very sick and will not hold out soon. Do you understand what I'm saying, Ington? Your mother is passing on soon.'

They looked at each other for a while.

The branches of the Lantern Trees held rainbows of dreams. The leaves rustled as the world breathe. Chest to chest, shoulders to shoulders.

'Ington?'

Ington closed his eyes and could no longer identify the questioner. He thought he heard his mother in the light of the canopies. He had asked his mother once, on why were the trees different things to everyone.

Because there are no such things as Lantern Trees. Ington in the eye of his mind, remembered his mother's grin as she said, 'At least, not yet.'

'Ington?'

Ington opened his eyes and stood up from his chair. He held his robot to his chest and asked, 'Where is Mummy?'

The Serviceman bought Ington into another room adjacent to the playroom. A different room from the usual rooms Ington's dying mother was in. This room was filled with equipments and people. The people were formal, tired and have stopped whispering to each other when Ington  entered the room.

Ington found his mother in the bed, eyes staring blankly into the ceiling. He had never seen a corpse before and it frightened him a bit. Mostly because the person on the bed did not look like his mother at all. Colors were drained off from her skin and she looked like an unfinished wax doll. Ington heard the formal people switching off the monitor which was giving a high pitched zinc noise.

'Ington, do you want to say something to her?' The Serviceman brought Ington nearer to the bed. The formal people around his mother appeared having problem closing her eyelids. Her eyelids kept flopping open to the ceiling.

'At least, not yet.' Ington remembered his mother telling him. He placed his robot on his mother and stared blankly on the floor until they bought him away from his mother.