Save the Flowers by Caline Tan Page A

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!
    â€œWhere’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.
    â€œNo 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.
    â€œAnd 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.

    â€œThis 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.
    â€œThey’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.

    â€œYou 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