Mid-Autumn

No my friend, darkness is not everywhere, for here and there I find faces illuminated from within; paper lanterns among the dark trees.
-Carole Borges

I had almost forgotten that it’s Mid-Autumn Festival until my friend called me up in the late morning to make an appointment with me to bring our kids down for a “Candle-Burning” session at night.

It’s a wonder how fast the time has passed and the kids had grown. Rachel used to be so little and eager to carry a lantern. Now, she only feels embarrassed being seen carrying one. Mervin was so excited about his Ultraman lantern before too. Nowadays, he looks for things with as little cartoon characters as possible. Angel was the most pitiful cherub. Her childhood of lantern-carrying and other festivities was shortened due to the lack of interest from her older siblings and a burnout mother.

After a quick wash and dinner after school, the kids headed to the little playground near our place for their little gathering with their lanterns from previous years. Even Angel was made to feel awkward holding a lantern as the older children were reluctant to carry one. In the end, we hanged the lanterns on a nearby tree for the sake of enhancing the mood.

The night air was seething with smoke and ashes from the burning candles and dried leaves and twigs and sparklers. As if the haze condition recently wasn’t bad enough.

“Do you know how the haze got started?” I mused.

“How?” the kids looked on with genuine interest on their faces.

“It all began with the burning of the leaves… Just like what you are doing now,” I laughed.

The kids’ friends were partially kampong kids from Malaysia who know a great deal of deriving fun from nature. I am also the most urbanized mother among the three who listened with awe to all the stuffs they had attempted before during their childhood.

Soon, the one pile of burning leaves grew to two as the boys decided to compete with the girls. Oddly, Mervin quietly quitted from his party and became an entrepreneur of his own small burning ground. All of a sudden, Angel decided to leave her group and joined Mervin too.

“Can’t you see that he’s so pathetic? He’s only one person,” she defended her brother.

As if her joining in wasn’t enough, she decided to loot some dried leaves and twigs from the other two parties to invest in the fire-making.

“Can’t you see he’s so pathetic? He’s one person only leh…” she’s all for her brother.

The adults were all amused by this sudden show of affection.

We went home at around half-past ten. The kids were shoved into the bathroom right away while I packed their stuffs back into the storeroom. It’ll be another year when they’ll be needed again.

When I maneuvered in and out of the kitchen, living room and bedrooms to get things done, Rachel fell asleep on the half-covered couch. I hadn’t had the time and strength to pull down the covers and thus had left it half-done since afternoon.

Mervin and Angel were still up and playing Gameboy in my room. These two rascals were full of energy.

“Mummy, can you help me complete this stage?” Angel called out to me.

“Sure,” I replied and took over.

When I was once again aware of my surroundings, I realized that it was way past two in the morning and the two monkeys were already snoring beside me. Oh gosh, had I been playing that long?

I switched off the Gameboy and went back into the kitchen to finish the chores which could never be finished. By the time I could crawl back to my bedroom, it was after three. I looked at the pile of unfolded clothes on my bed, dumped it onto my chair and went off to sleep.

There wasn’t time for guilt to creep in as I drifted into a deep slumber within seconds.