Pain, fear and excitement could be felt as chuckles between yelps echoed throughout the playground as

my best friend Mico, fell from the gigantic mango tree after trying his best to climb and hand me a
taste to one of tree’s yellow ,sweet looking, kidney shaped fruit.

I was watching and cheering him from below. He was sparkling, determination running through his
veins, I guess I was mesmerized. He set foot again to the massive brown tree trunk and tried again. I saw
it, the red and purple hue that was starting to form in his right arm. He wasn't bothered by it but I was.
Higher and higher he went, but I could still see his soft black hair being brushed by the cold wind giving
me a better view of his beautiful face. I held my breath for a moment until I could hear my heart beat
thumping through my chest as he got to the tip of the branch, closing his eyes he stretched his arm, and
finally got a grip to one of its branches where two yellow mangoes lifelessly hanged. The aroma of the
mangoes smelled sweeter and sweeter as he came closer to the ground. But thick, grey, and suffocating
clouds of smoke replaced the lingering sweet aroma of the mangoes. I looked around but the green
grasses that used to tickle my feet as I run across the playground, the tips of gigantic mountains that
touches the bright blue sky, the enormous trees that love dancing with the wind, and as well as Mico,
himself was gone in a blink of an eye. Years have passed and now the pollution itself wraps around
everyone’s body like the second skin we neither want nor needed. Its particles invading our lungs,
exacerbating health issues and shortening our lives is nothing but normal. We have lived our lives
wearing masks, or hide in homes with air filtration, that neither of us can barely afford.,

I pity the children of today’s generation for the least that I can do for them is to sit on my rocking chair,
that is as old and weak as I am, and tell them stories about the time when the air was so clean that trees
and blossoms had a fragrance and the sky was blue like it is in the VR games advertised from all the
electronic billboards, and most especially how I try to convince myself that maybe Mico and I are
destined for each other, in another life, and definitely not on this one. The thick, grey, and suffocating
clouds of smoke are back again, but thicker and darker than before—This time I know it had come to
finally fetch me/ us (ano better huhu). Panting and covered with cold sweat, I immediately run to my
window and stared at the gigantic mountains outside, its still there, left untouched, the trees were still
there, calmly playing with the wind as usual. So it was just a bad dream after all, Isn’t it? Or is it? We
must act now, shall we?