As a cool breeze of wind blew into my owner’s bedroom, I woke up. As usual, my owner, Giselle, rubbed her half-opened eyes and immediately told me to open Carmessage, which was an app for texting others. She pressed on a contact which she named ‘I miss you’ and texted that person ‘Good Morning.’ It was her daily routine as she had texted that person every morning since she was in Form 1. She would always add ‘I miss you’ after she had greeted the mysterious contact as another gust of wind blew towards her miserable face. After that, she put me in a dim and dull school bag and carried the school bag out with me. Before she left the house, she turned her head and slightly looked back.
When we were on our way to school, Giselle took me out of the school bag again. She was about to open Intagram, a social media when a primary school girl caught her eyes. Her gaze was fixed on the girl who was messing around with her father. They had a harmonious relationship and they ran on the streets cheerfully as if they were going to paint the town red. However, this heartwarming and sunny scene seemed to make Giselle feel dejected. Suddenly, raindrops fell from the grey and dull sky and fell to my screen. The father in front of us fretted but he managed to take out an umbrella to cover the raindrops for his beloved daughter. However, Giselle didn’t take out her umbrella. Instead, she opened the ‘Photos’ app and told me to display a photo of her and her father, which was taken 3 years ago. As the heavy rain and Giselle’s tears fell on me like a waterfall, my ‘face’ was soaked. Giselle’s mood was as gloomy as the weather. Her fingers were trembling and her eyes were as red as a cherry as she zoomed in the photo and stared at her father’s face. She then opened Carmessage again and pressed on the mysterious contact once again as she headed towards a weird hill which was obviously not the location of her school.
As she trod up the high hill with smoke and a lot of weeds, her forehead was full of sweat. She ordered me to open the ‘Google Map’ app and pressed on a queer place named ‘ABC Graveyard’. It was half past eight already and I shivered as a call from her school popped up. However, Giselle rejected the call. I felt that an unusual dangerous user was tracking down my GPS all of a sudden. My heart sank as Giselle continued to stride up the hill.
After 30 minutes of walking, Giselle finally reached her destination with a lot of graves. A ‘sea’ full of graves, white flowers and incense sticks was just in front of us. She then went to one of the graves with her father’s black-and-white photo and knelt down. Tears rolled down her face as she mumbled, ‘I…I have been texting your number for the past 3 years. Why did you leave me when I was in Form 1 without a farewell in that terrible car accident?’ Giselle murmured in a shaky voice as her dress was already wet due to her overflowing tears. ‘Although mom’s working in McDonalds as a part-time worker and we are impoverished, I promise that I will do my best to take care of her. I… I just want to tell you that I love you and miss you very much.’ Giselle’s warm tears fell on my ‘face’ when someone suddenly yelled behind us.
‘Giselle! The school was looking for you and the I.T. workers tracked down your GPS location of your phone to search for you! Your mother was extremely anxious when we informed her that you didn’t go to school. Don’t you know that your deceased father will be extremely disappointed if he knew that you skipped school to go to a creepy hill?’ The woman, Mrs. Poon, who seemed to be Giselle’s class teacher was furious at first but she understood everything and got reduced to tears when she saw Giselle bowing in front of the grave with her watery eyes. As Mrs. Poon joined Giselle and bowed down, Giselle whispered to me, “Thank you for being a ‘bridge’ to connect me and Dad over these 3 years.” I was deeply touched and proud as I thought of how we mobile phones could help people connect with others, and even with the dead…