“Mother, who am I!?” “Why am I appearing in this world?” “Who am I living for, mother?”

    Loads of questions continuously pour into the mind of a 9-year-old girl called Thu, and these things have bothered her these days. She can not sleep at all every night recently just to find these answers to all the questions above, but with innocent thoughts, she even has not tasted fully flavors of life, how is she able to get what she wants? Suddenly, Thu turns over to see her mother who has closed her eyes for a while. Looking at her focusedly, the girl discovers that her mother is much slimmer than before, there are no longer slender fingers to braid her hair in the early morning. Thu smiles at her mother unconsciously. Right now, she is forgetting her first intention, she wonders whether her mother’s dream has her in there or not instead. Thu hears a few chirping sounds of summer cicadas, she carefully turns her head towards the window. Outside are there only several branches of a longan tree glimmering, akin to hands made of needles. Thinking like that, Thu shivers, but she still tries to overcome her fear to see, and seek cicadas sticking to the tree trunks. Once she was introduced about the similarities between the sounds of those cicadas and a choir. The girl asks if they are in a straight queue and if a conductor is leading the melody. Immersing herself in the tinkling sound outside, she only hears the silence now. As Thu wants to hear that sound one more time, she narrows her eyes and looks for the remaining traces of cicadas, and it does not come as a surprise that there is no point in her searching. She exhales a long breath, quickly giving up what she is doing.

    Thu places her hands on her head, tries to imitate the behavior of her grandfather every noon with a view to hoping for the sleep coming soon to dispel her fear of darkness. Strangely, this night the girl can not sleep a wink at all. She intends to observe the moonlight with the longan branches, perhaps the moon will bring a light to erase the ferocity of these branches. Not knowing this stemming from when, Thu always has a belief rooted in her heart that as long as the moon shines, every place will brighten than ever, even more than a diamond. Under her eyes, everything will show its true form in the moonlight. She rubs her eyes and looks back to the longan tree she almost forgets, so her thought is efficacious. The little girl smiles happily, some of them are truly softer and more gentle although what she sees is the image of that tree deep in the dark. This time, Thu thinks of herself as a character Boo, and the tree will disguise as a big blue monster Sulley. They are all her go-to characters in Monster Inx- a movie seen many times. The girl feels excited with her own imagination and tries to recall the exact times she has watched this film. The first was when she was with her best friend since kindergarten, then the second was watching with her class at Christmas,… Thu takes her hands under the moonlight, but it is bizarre. She can not see her small hand anywhere.

   Well, she does not pay much attention to this, Thu gradually feels the loneliness approaching near her and feels a bit afraid of the seemingly absolute silence. Subsequently, she is secure, she can hear her mother’s steady breathing. The girl makes up her mind. She will wake her mother up to talk to her. Thu is eager with her thought not for good, but a sudden thought prevents her from doing that. Have mother always told her not to disturb others, especially when they are turning in. Recently, she guesses that her mother is very occupied as she doesn’t come home regularly like she used to, and whenever she appears, her face is marked with unnamed sorrow. The little girl looks sadly at her mother’s swollen eyes, although her mother is hitting the sack, there is a hint of suffering that she can not understand where it stems from. Thu realizes that she shouldn’t affect her mother’s sleep and regrets a little what she planned to do, the girl discreetly places her hand on her mother's slightly tangled hair and gently stroks each lock. Another strange thing this night, she mutters. Why is mother’s hair so messy today, Thu has a big question in her head. Thu still remembers every time she stroked her mother’s hair, it was usually extremely smooth and had a faint scent of wood. However, this hair loses its unique smell and is replaced with a sour smell. This makes Thu think that her mother has left this hair for a long period. Thu bears in mind that one of the usual things her mother often praises is her hair. Saying that hair is like a waterfall isnot indeed wrong. Sometimes, that hair would brush a few across her face when she was fetched to school by her mother, then she would keep it loose, or when her mother and her were in a competition to see who would finally be the most eminent hairdresser. And the next thing takes her aback above all. Her mother’s hair is short, it only reaches shoulder length. Why has mother had such prominent changes that she does not realize them until now? Never in her life did she imagine that her mother’s loved hair would disappear.

   Tonight, too many strange things happen to Thu. Changes from her mother surprise her more than ever. In her small subconsciousness, Thu can not avoid being frightened, perchance she is awake in her own dream. This thing Thu has heard from a classmate and she still remembers him telling about how he built a spaceship in his dream. With this assumption in her little head, Thu was less frightened and wanted to call her dream mother to ask what on earth is going on here. How surprised it is, all her persistent effort to shake her mother is effortless, her mother does not open her eyes or react even a bit. Thu shouted to call her mother many times, even her throat is aching, the only thing answering her is the sound of breathing from her sleeping mother. Until now, the little does not realize this is not her dream anymore. She is pretty patient, clinches herself painfully to wake up from the coma, but the truth has to be revealed. The fact that it is reality, Thu knows. Fear overtakes her, the crisis of facing an unexpected situation makes her immobilized, each quick breath she tries to hold back to say her mother’s name loudly. She is afraid that her mother has been faint because of hard work, so she gets out of the bed to find a landline phone with the intention of contacting her grandparents. Nevertheless, something she cannot oversee ensues again. Every time she was about to touch the floor, there will be an abstract force immediately pulling her back to the bed. She screams uncontrollably, her mind can no longer think. Thu shouts out the name of the neighbor, from the name of the dog next dog to her favorite cake’s name. Thu can not figure out what she should say anymore, her voice is getting smaller and smaller. Not a single person answers her pleading. The little girl huddles in a corner, her eyes do not dare to see her emotionless mother on the bed. Sobs resounds from time to time without ceasing. After a long time, she forces herself to gather some courage to look around. The scene is pitch black at the moment, with only moonlight from the window glimmering in, Thu seems to catch the last ray of hope and again she puts all her strength to scream for help. Suddenly, what she feels now is floating in the air. The panic has not gone yet, she was in unknown place, a place she has never been to before. Around Thu is a light gray color, with no end and no starting point. There is nothing here, not even the slightest sound or existence of a creature. Thu runs her forehead, she cannot tell where she is as the places she has passed are the same as the starting point. Even the sound of her stepping does not have, this makes her wonder whether she is running or staying at one point all the time. This uncertainty makes Thu unable to adapt instantly, she prays what she has just experienced is a nightmare, once she wakes up, she sees the faces of her loved ones. Time in this place seems to be non-existent, copious reasons for this Thu has thought about, but there is one that she disappears from the world she tries to ignore. She does not have enough courage to do that. She does not have her mother by her side anymore. There are many exciting things left that Thu has not had a chance of doing completely, why there are no aforementioned announcements for this sudden disappearance?