By: Frances A. Ong
Some boy named Sam was puttering-muttering
in his garden when he thought
up a friend.
He gave her dewdrop eyes and
a face of soft sweet fruit.
Her arms would be like vines
when she gave you a hug and
her legs would be quick and
sturdy like fast-growing roots.
She was almost done but that
someone named Sam had to think
up a heart. He picked up a rock
but it was too heavy, too hard.
He tried to put in a bird but
it needed more room to fly.
That someone named Sam, he was
stumped. He couldn’t make a
little girl if he couldn’t find
a heart. Then his eye spied
a tiny red flower growing in
the corner of his plot.
It was the kind of flower
that only bloomed in the rainy
season. The color was deep and
bright—the kind that made any
room happy-looking. It grew
on a short tender stalk with
tenacious roots like the fingers
of a baby.
"I
like it," he muttered, puttering
about. So he patted some rich
moist soil into the cavern of
her chest and planted the tiny
red bloom. When the roots grasped
the earth she opened her eyes,
bright and liquid with the dew.
Her peach-fruit face broke into
a smile and her spindly arms
reached out to hug the first
person she saw – someone named
Sam. She began to trip a bit
and then began to skip. The
rainy season was in full swing
and someone called Sam took
her by a tiny hand. They danced
a jig and sloshed in the mud.
Slosh slosh slosh. Squish squish
squish! "I think I’ll call you
Gigi – would you like that?"
And Gigi nodded her head.
He would often ask, " Are
you my little girl with dewdrop
eyes?"
And she would reply, "Yupyup!
I’ll always be your little girl.
I will hug you and hold you
and whirl." She skipped off
while he sat in his garden to
putter and mutter.
One day, the rain stopped.
Gigi, with the red flower
heart began to feel tired. Her
dewdrop eyes were drooping and
her cute fruity face was pruning
up. The bright red bloom was
curling into itself. Some little
boy named Sam was worried.
They tried everything.
They used his mother's watering
pot but it was too small.
They tried to keep her in
the shower stall but the water
bill was cut.
They made her swim in the
well but she got bored.
It was hard to keep a little
girl with a seasonal flower
in place of a heart. She would
always be looking for rain.
So someone sad named Sam gave
her a little raincoat and a
box of fresh soil and sent her
on her way. Gigi trudged off
toward rain.
It was hard to live on short
showers and quick swims but
it simply had to do. Then one
day, she felt a little drizzle.
She tripped a bit and when it
turned into a shower the trip
became a skip. The rain was
in full swing again. She took
of her little coat when the
little red flower felt the rain,
the tiny roots tightened their
grip and the tender stalk straightened
up. Her dewy eyes were so bright
she could have been crying.
Her face grew plump with a smile.
Gigi followed the rain. She
hitched a hike and plodded on,
across a rice field and over
the China Sea. She followed
it over loose sand and tightly
packed earth, her nimble root
legs scrambling and grasping
up the dirt tracks. She followed
it through jungles and scrambled
after it up mountains. She skipped
and hopped and sloshed and squished
through damp earth and watery
mud. She was unusually happy.
From time to time though,
she thought of someone whose
name was Sam who knew how to
make dewdrop eyes and sweet
faces from fruit.
"I
wonder what happened to my someone
named Sam," she puttered and
muttered while she sloshed through
the rain. "Is he taller or fatter
or older? Is he happier or sadder
or grumpier?" But she kept following
the rain.
One day, the rain came through
a town. She followed it up alleyways
and side streets to a little
house. "I know this house,"
Gigi thought. There was a little
garden by the side of the house
and an old man was puttering
and muttering in the middle
of it.
Gigi walked up to him and
said, "Excuse me sir, do you
know someone named Sam?" And
he turned around to look at
her and it seemed like his eyes,
too, were made of dew. And while
the rain lasted, Gigi and some
old man named Sam sloshed and
squished and danced in the mud.