The Impact Of One Moment

It was Saturday. I was on my way home after strolling through the city with my friends. I decided to go to the store for a second, getting myself some sweets. I put everything into my satchel, keeping the receipt. I exited the supermarket, feeling like I was about to fall asleep. I hadn’t had a lot of sleep the nights before; we had had band practice until early in the morning.

I positioned myself on the border of the pavement, waiting for a good moment to cross the street. There were lots of cars in front of me, all waiting for the traffic light to turn green. I decided it was of no use to wait any longer and stepped on the street, even though I had a bad feeling about it. It was a broad street with 6 lanes if you counted the bicycle lanes.

I was behind a tram carriage, not able to see what was behind it. I knew the lane for the traffic in the other direction was behind it, but I was too tired to realize what that meant. Thoughtlessly, I stepped out from behind the tram.

I felt a hot feeling of fear in my body as I caught view of the oncoming vehicle to my right. It was a bus, just a normal, regular, everyday bus, but it was not normal that I was standing in front of it when it was driving at such a high speed. I could hear the brakes screeching, and the tires sliding on the tarmac. The only thought I was able to think before my body collided with the windshield was “Oh shit”.
All air was knocked out of my lungs. I felt a sharp pain shooting through my body as I was flung through the air. I could see the sky, the the pavement, the sky and then the pavement again before I hit the ground. I fell on my satchel and my head, rolling around a few more times.

The first thought was “Maybe this all isn’t real. It could be a dream,” shortly followed by, “Oh well I’ll just pretend it never happened, go upstairs, tuck myself in bed and say I have a cold”. I was able to stand up, and staggered to the pavement.

There were already people standing there, shock on their faces. The bus driver came out of the bus and brutally yanked at my arm, as I sunk down on the pavement. People were screaming at me, asking where I lived, and as I wasn’t able to breathe I just pointed at the house in front of which we were. They were screaming for my parent’s phone number, the bus driver insulting me. One woman was the only one caring for my feelings; she hugged me, and told all the other people to shut up.

I got out my phone, dialled the number of my parents and managed to squeeze out a few words with my still non-existent breathing. “Bus… Accident… downstairs…”

An ambulance arrived and I could also see a police car. The sirens were wailing, it echoed in my head. My parents were also arriving, white as sheets, breathless from running down the stairs this quickly. The paramedics came running, and they asked me some questions. I tried to answer them as well as possible, and after a basic check-up, I was allowed to stand up. My parents and the paramedics told me we would go upstairs into our apartment, so we could have some privacy.

I staggered up the stairs, not caring about anything. My body was still in shock, I didn’t really feel anything, only some strange bubbling inside. I had to sit down and the paramedics felt my body, looking for broken bones and such. I had to say if anything hurt specifically, I was now starting to feel the pain.

My ribs hurt quite badly, as was my hip and my knee. I had wounds on my hip and knee, but the ribs looked perfectly normal. The medics said we were going to go to the hospital, so I did my best not to fall down the stairs.

When I sat down inside the ambulance car, I was strapped to a seat. Before we could go, a cop came and asked me some questions. It was only now that I noticed I was crying.

Notes

I hope you like it :)

-Laura