Earth and I
Just open your eyes, the way she looks at you isn’t the same as the way she looks at anyone else.
It was Mako’s birthday, Boa and Tovey went to Fio’s Café to celebrate his birthday. It also happened to be Mako’s favourite café. Tovey brought along her camera because she wanted to take a picture of Mako with the green dog plush.
Earlier that day, Tovey placed the camera on her desk and Mako saw it. He came inside her cubicle and grabbed hold of it. She was terrified he might see the pictures she took the night before. She snatched it away from him!
The night before, Tovey was taking pictures of his birthday gift and they were all in the camera. If he saw them, what would he think of her? Probably some nutcase who had nothing better to do, other than taking pictures of some guy’s birthday gift.
I lost my mind trying to figure out yours
She felt kind of trapped and pathetic. But she was glad Kaori had told her about Mako’s private birthday party.
It was getting harder each day, she didn’t know what to do with herself when she wasn’t around him. She wanted to get something more than just a box of chocolate. But Boa and Kaori didn’t want to spend too much. Kaori suggested Tovey, she could get a separate one. She could … but what if it was too obvious she liked him? So, she convinced Kaori to get a plush with the chocolate.
The green bunny plush was now sitting on top of his monitor.
Mako left work early today and he whispered goodbye to Tovey.
She felt like burning up inside.
Hearing the words ‘He likes her’ feels like I’ve just be shot right in the heart.
Tovey was eating at a ramen noodle house. She was hoping her feelings for Mako had subsided. She was wrong. Mako kept talking about his ex over hot bowls of ramen. She felt a piece of her heart eaten away each time he said he still liked his ex. Tovey wished he’d stop going on about his ex.
Shion was telling the group his nose-picking joke over a few hot sake throughout dinner. Tovey was laughing out loud the whole time. She realized she could be herself whenever she was around Shion. While she was joking away with Shion, she noticed Mako starring at her quietly. Their eyes met for just over a second. Tovey looked away wondering if it meant something.
It was a cold winter night, three new friends said goodbye outside the ramen house. After Mako blew a goodbye kiss with his left hand, Shion walked Tovey home.
She was glad she didn’t have to walk home alone.
The Start of the Dance
She’s a big big girl, in a big big world …
Shion said goodbye “I’ll text you when I’m home. Just so you won’t miss me too much!” Tovey laughed then waved goodbye at him.
She turned around and saw her bicycle at the door step. Although it was a cold night, the sky was clear and her tummy was warmed from the all the sake she drank. She could either get in the house and start bingeing on Netflix. Or she could take the bike and go for a ride.
The thought of drowning in endless episodes of Terrace House with bags of potato chips didn’t appeal to her suddenly. So she unlocked the padlock then hopped on her bike. She rode slowly at first. Then faster and faster. She didn’t have a destination. Her mind was clouded and her heart was heavy. She hoped riding would clear her mind.
Her childhood with her family wasn’t particularly good. They never communicate a lot to each other. She remembered lunches with her dad was just eating in silence. She remembered her mum would rather go out with her friends playing Mah-jong than taking her to the library. When she was 13, her cousin gave her an old bike and she was able to ride everywhere she wanted. It was her time to explore freely. She would ride and ride. She would fantasize a life. A life which she would live in a big city with a big career in law or something. She didn’t really know what she wanted to do. But she knew it was the kind of life she wanted for herself. Be a woman with her own mind and more importantly, to fall in love.
Sadly, she had never been lucky in love.
She looked up the sky and the stars looked different tonight…
Whenever Tovey was with Mako, all she could think about was “Say something… Tell me what you’re feeling… ” But when she thought through all the possible answers, she would rather not know it.
Listening to music while riding her bike was her freedom. She could run free in her mind with her music. She could ride free to anywhere she wanted with her bike. She wouldn’t stop until she had to.
She then saw a tree and decided to stop. Ellie Goulding started blasting out loudly as she took off her headphones, “When I look in the sky, you give me… The brightest blue… “
Tovey then walked up the stairs next to the tree where she found a lookout to the big city. The stars looked different tonight. She felt like anything could happen. She then looked at the stars glowing high up around her. And then she spotted a shooting star. Funny thing was, there wasn’t just one shooting star. There were a few.
As Tovey was watching the numerous shooting stars in the backdrop of the big city lights, a grey furry animal was hopping towards her. It hopped closer and closer to her. She didn’t know it was there until she felt a little poke at her ankle. She looked down and saw a little rabbit. It was about the size of a tennis ball. It stood up and said ‘I can help!” Tovey knelt down with her hands held out in front of it. It hopped right onto her right palm and sat firmly inside. Tovey was pretty sure a rabbit couldn’t talk.
She answered anyway “I don’t think anyone can help me. Let alone you tiny little one.” It didn’t take long for the little rabbit to fall asleep in her hands.
Should Tovey let the rabbit go back to where it came from? Or should she take it back home with her?
It would be dancing in the dark…
Tovey was still in deep sleep when the alarm clock went off. It buzzed for a few minutes before she pressed snooze. After the 3rd snooze, she looked at her clock and realized she was late “Fuck!”
She didn’t do her bed and jumped straight into her shower. As soon as she turned on nose in the shower. It became a habit for her since she was a kid as she always wake up with a blocked nose. She also had a birth mark in a shape of a star on her nose but lucky it was small enough to pass off as a mole.
She closed the door behind her and then realized she forgot her headphone. She then searched for her keys in her bag and then realized her headphone wasn’t the only thing she forgot. Lucky she had her mobile phone.
She saw 14 missed calls on her mobile lock screen. All from Shion. She tapped his name on the screen.
Shion picked up “Hey bitch! You never called back I got worried about you.”
Tovey shrugged “Sorry I …”
Shion cut her short “Did you see the news? Just watch it now!”
Tovey then said “I’m locked out, can you give me your copy of my keys?”
Shion agreed but insisted her to watch the news.
Tovey wondered what the fuss was about. The little rabbit’s head popped out from Tovey’s backpack. Tovey smiled at it “Hey Tiny… stay in there, I’ll get you some carrots on the way to my office after this.” Tiny looked at her then popped back into her backpack.
Tovey tapped on CNN app and there were pictures of fires scattered on various spots in the world. One video showed civilians shouting frantically when London bridge collapsed into the water. Eighty seven people were killed.
The news confirmed that a rogue planet was nearing Earth. What Tovey saw last night were a bunch of debris dislodged by the rogue planet. They were not shooting stars.
Various news channels confirmed it was a rogue planet called PSO_J318.5-22. It was first discovered in October 2013, wandering alone in the galaxy. No one knew how a rogue planet like this came to exist. Scientist still theorized that it might just be a failed star. A rogue planet would glow faintly from the heat of their formation for a long time. Once they cooled down, it would be dancing in the dark.
Tovey then figured this rogue planet had found his dance partner, Earth.
The Aftermath
She’s erupting with love
There were news break everywhere around the world. People were now able to spot the rogue planet from their house or apartment in Sydney, Tokyo, London, Paris, New York and Los Angeles – “Numerous shooting stars spotted last night was in fact debris falling out from the rogue planet which is now visible everywhere around the globe.” Everyday life on earth started changing by the hour.
At first, GPS in cars stopped working. Shion was in his car, stuck in the traffic. He kept hitting the GPS navigator on the dashboard but sadly, GPS couldn’t detect his location. He grabbed his phone out and tried Google map. The map displayed but there was no feedback for his location.
He called Tovey but it rang out “Fuck!” He hit the dashboard with his fist. He texted her instead.
Tovey was now trying to get hold of her parents. But her mum was busy with her brother’s kids. She then called her dad but he was busy with his work, trying to get the last order of fresh breads out before the morning finished.
Tovey was stroking Tiny in her arm at the bus stop. She read Shion’s text message and figured she couldn’t get back home anyway. So, she decided going into work instead.
The office floor was nearly empty when she arrived. She went into her manager’s office but he wasn’t there. Boa was sitting in front of her PC watching the news on CNN website. Kaori was standing next to Boa. It didn’t seem like anyone was working at all. Tovey then looking around for Mako but just saw a few people in the accounting department cursing at the news on TV.
The Murray-Darling river had surged over its banks causing flood. The closer the rogue planet got, the more tension and friction it caused the surface of rocks.
Gravitational pull by the rogue planet also caused tectonic activity in London. Earthquake started small, then spread all the way from the city to the suburbs.
In Tokyo, the quakes in turn caused the volcano. There were more than 1,500 volcanoes on earth. Nearly half of those had started erupting vigorously.
But he would never love her.
Back at the office building, Tovey giggled quietly when she saw Kat’s face in shock horror across from her desk. Kat usually smirked at Tovey when she wanted something done immediately or she would yell at Tovey when something wasn’t done her way. It was a bleak morning for everyone but Tovey couldn’t help herself.
Tovey joined Boa and Kaori “Has anyone seen Mako today?” Boa was glued to her screen. Kaori turned to Tovey “He just called and said he won’t come into work.”
“Oh, how come? Is he okay?”
“He said he wanted to stay home and pack before driving down to the South Coast.”
Tovey knew where he was going. He was going to see his ex that he could never get over. Tiny suddenly popped its head out of Tovey’s backpack. As if it knew what Tovey was feeling at the time. It hopped out and then onto Tovey’s chest. It was licking Tovey’s neck as if to comfort her. Tovey suddenly felt everything was OK in the world again.
Shion’s car was right in the middle where the first large debris dropped. It crashed into the cars in front of Shion’s. Tovey saw the news and remembered that was where Shion was when he called her.
Mako ran to his car and tried to start the engine but it wouldn’t. TV stopped working. There were black-outs in parts of the city. Somehow mobile phones still worked.
Tovey called her mum again. Mum picked up this time ” … Where are you?”.
“I’m at the office now. But everyone is either leaving for home or driving out to the country. Are you OK?”
Mum didn’t say much, “I’m OK.” And then silence. Tovey always wondered if her mum had ever loved her.
“Everyone is evacuating the building so I’m leaving the office to go home now. I’ll call you when I get home.” They hung up.
Mako would never love Tovey. But he won’t forget about her. That, she was certain. Regardless, she called his mobile. It could be her last chance of confessing her feelings towards him. But mobile phones stopped working now. She was too late.
No way of getting in touch with her parents, or Mako, or Shion. She dropped Tiny into her backpack and ran out to catch the next bus home.
Finally found someone
Tovey checked her app hoping the next bus wouldn’t take too long to arrive. All public transport timetable in the app were either delayed or cancelled. It would have taken her forty five minutes to walk home. When she looked up and saw the immobile traffic on the road, then she decided to just walk.
The rogue planet looked bigger by the minute. Tovey walked quicker as if when she got home, she would be safe. The temperature in the air was getting warmer. She suddenly remembered Tiny was still in her backpack. She unzipped her backpack and found the poor little rabbit looking somewhat out of breath. She took it out and it happily hopped onto the ground.
Tovey didn’t stop when she arrived at her place. She kept running up the hill towards the lookout. Without mobile connection and communication with anyone, it was the only way she could find out what had become of the big city she had loved all her life. Tiny was trying to catch up with her all this time but kept lagging behind.
By the time they arrived at the gate of the Third Quarantine Cemetery, Tovey was getting tired and started walking slowly. Tiny was still hopping persistently behind her.
Tovey’s walking pace was getting slower and slower. Tiny was hopping and was able to catch up to her. They could now see the 4 meter tall lighthouse with red stripes to the left of the cemetery. Tovey remembered the lookout was just a few metres further from the lighthouse so she kept on.
As they were getting closer to the lookout, Tiny was still hopping tirelessly. Tiny was so focused on trying to keep up with Tovey, it didn’t even notice Tovey wasn’t walking next to it anymore.
“Where is Tovey?” Tiny wondered. There was no sign of Tovey anywhere. It was as if she had vaporized into thin air. Tiny looked and looked and then saw a white rabbit hopping out of a pile of clothes and headed into the direction of the lookout.
No sign of Tovey anywhere, so Tiny followed the white rabbit.
When the white rabbit and Tiny finally reached the lookout, they could see debris dropping out of the sky. It was raining fire, literally. There was nothing the two rabbits could do except to watch the end of the world, the end of civilisation happening right in front of them.
The white rabbit turned around, hopped closer to Tiny and sniffed it on the nose. If anyone could see the white rabbit on close-up, there was a dark spot on its nose in the shape of a star. Very much like Tovey’s birthmark.
And if the white rabbit were Tovey, you could say that she had finally found someone to love.