Extra.

A toddler, Hibis, clutches her father’s hand as she toddles into their backyard garden together. Lush green bushes surrounded them, and flora and fauna were widespread throughout the whole area. The little girl watches butterflies fluttering from one hibiscus bloom to another, giggling at the sight with joy.

Her father, Mason, chuckles along as he lets his daughter tug him around the patch of petals and leaves, heading towards the big patch of those red-leaf hibiscus. "Wow, dad, they’re so pretty!” Hibis squeals, minuscule, slender fingers reaching to touch the blooming petals. Mason smiles, then swoops the girl up before she can accidentally squish the pumpkins growing beside them. “Yes, yes, they are. That’s why we named you Hibis.”

The man gingerly sits Hibis down on his lap and points to a bright orange hibiscus. Its radiance, blended with the pink, made it the one growing most beautifully of them all. Mason taps on the stigma ever so slightly, letting a drop of nectar gather on the tip of his nails. “How do you think they grow this beautiful? Do you know who planted them?”

Hibis exclaims, “Gardeners!” With no hesitation at all, she beams when her father taps on her nose, the pollen now on it. She giggles as Mason immediately wipes the sticky substance off her as a tease. “Atta girl,” he praises.

“The gardens are like mommy and daddy. We are the ones that planted you.”

From his pocket, Mason fishes out a pack of organic fertilisers, handing some to Hibis to spread out on the ground. Hibis accepts them eagerly, immediately splaying them out rather evenly for a child. “When you grow, you will have your friends as your fertilisers, helping you grow stronger. And when you grow older, you’ll have a butterfly, your prince, to help you bloom,” he continues as the pair watch a vibrantly coloured butterfly fluttering to rest on a petal; it’s the proboscis, sucking up nectar.

Hibis looks up to stare at Mason with her wide eyes, her indigo pupils growing bigger. “What about the farmers? What happens to them?” Her dad straightened up and looked towards the horizon, catching the moment of the sun emerging out of the calm willows from beyond their fence. “The farmers... they will know their job is done, and they will let their hibiscus go.” His voice trails off softly, his eyes misting over something he said. Mason looks back at his daughter, whose eyes were affixed upon the bouquet of hibiscus while his words were processed in her mind. As she dawned with realisation, her gaze met his. She frowns immediately, her eyebrows slanting diagonally in desperation.

“No!” Hibis flung herself onto her father’s leg. “Please don’t go, Daddy!” She pouts while squeezing his leg, never letting go.

Mason laughs ruefully. Prying her arms off, he settles her down on his lap again, clutching her warm hands with his cold ones. He smiles, lopsided. “Alright, alright. I won’t. Your mother won’t. We are your farmers, the ones that bloomed you, and the ones that will always stay by your side.

“In your heart forever.”