Today before I went to school at 1pm, I saw a pink thing on the floor before the lifts. Because I live in a HDB flat, it's natural for people to be inconsiderate and throw their rubbish all around and stuff. So I just ignored it, but then I saw it move. Then I thought 'maybe it's the wind' and continued to ignore it, but I had a little suspicion it was a living being. But of course I ignored everything and moved on, being the selfish person I am. I just hoped it would go away when I got back.

Then at about 7.30, Percia(my sis) came home and she looked really scared and asked me if I saw the chick crying. I freaked out and said 'WHAT CHICK?' and she told me that there was a pink, hairless little chick lying on the ground before she went off for tuition. And when she came back, it was in the gutter at the side of the pavement before the lift and she freaked out after taking one look at it. Then I realised what I should have known far earlier- that little pink thing WAS A CHICK. It had been moving and struggling since I had left, for over two hours until Percia went for tuition. She said it wasn't moving when she came back. I obviously thought it was dead, and it was all my fault for not noticing.

But later on, I went out with Percia to see the chick because there was a small chance it wasn't dead and we could help it somehow. We didn't know how but we just thought we could try. Maybe it was foolish but I'm sure when you decide to do things like that, you usually don't think, do you? So we did go out and we saw it there, lying in the gutter. We're both afraid of dead things, so we didn't go closer and didn't even dare to look at it. We met Pa who was just coming up from parking the car, and he took one look at the chick and said 'It's gone. For a long time too, there's nothing we can do.' And then he went into the house. But Percia and I stayed. We didn't believe it was dead because we didn't want to, maybe. But I thought that since the little thing had enough fighting spirit to last two hours in the harsh sun, it couldn't be gone. Then Percia and I, for some reason or other, began to say a prayer and hoped it would somehow help the animal. Somehow.

When it didn't move and seemed to stay there, we both went back into the house, sort of giving up. There was only so much we could do and so much we could try, right? Wrong. We knew it wasn't enough to leave things like that, so we decided we'd go out after dinner and bury it because at least it wouldn't get abused when it was already dead. And it had been a strong young thing. So we asked Ma and she said we could.

After dinner, Percia and I went with our maid, Sri, to pick the chick up and bury it. Sri's not afraid of dead animals unlike us, so she said she'd help us. She picked it up and went down first, while we followed behind. Then we went downstairs and Sri stayed at a side with the chick while the two of us dug a hole in the soil near the multi-purpose hall.

Then it happened. Sri started telling us something, but we couldn't make much of her broken English until she said 'alive' and we turned to look at her. WHAT? She showed us the chick we were so afraid of looking at and told us it had just moved. We dropped the shovel and went over, not afraid anymore since it wasn't dead. (yes I know, maybe the fear was psychological) And it WAS alive. It twitched just the faintest bit, and it was curled up in a foetal position. I saw it clearly for the first time and I found out it was a premature baby, a mere embryo maybe. But by some miracle, it had fought for seven hours under no warmth or protection- and it had LIVED. We huddled over the chick and prayed and prayed and prayed. It twitched and its fragile wings batted just a bit, giving us more hope and more signs that it did indeed want to live on.

Later on, we decided it was best to go up and tell Ma and Pa about the chick. So we did, and Pa sort of got angry at us for making such a big deal of it. But I guess any normal person would, because we must have seemed like fools caring so much about one small thing. I don't know how long we stodd there and prayed or how long Ma tried thinking of various solutions, but in the end we decided we'd leave it under a tree in a remote part of the park, near the walkway though where invasive species weren't likely to go. Sri brought it down and we all went in, still thinking of the chick.

I'm not particularly trying to bring anything across with this. I'm just amazed that such a little bird could have fought on for so long. Eight whole hours is a long time, isn't it? (since an hour or so passed after we knew it was alive) But to a bird, it's even longer. They have shorter lives than us, far shorter. But yet that chick fought on for what could be months to a human like one of us. You never really know how precious life is until you're being forced to give it up. That chick was born at the wrong time. Maybe it was abandoned by its mother, maybe it was dropped accidentally. But it was put in the wrong part of the world too. Not in the wild where maybe other birds might take it in, but in the open pavement where it could be kicked by some terrible person(I think that's why it ended up in the gutter). The next time I think life's unfair, everyone hates me and I want to kill myself or something, I'll think about this. And I'll never ever say those comprehension passages about hardworking spiders rebuilding their webs are stupid and cheesy, never.

Because I witnessed a miracle today.

So as long as you live, maybe you're important to another person. No, not maybe. You ARE. If that chick survives to become a big bird, Percia and I will definitely be happy, and so will its future spouse and children. Next time you ever doubt life's preciousness, just remember the chick that fought eight hours without giving up. Remember that you'll break someone's world apart if you disappear. And I swear it's all true.