The Impact Of One Moment

“Why did you get into this accident?” the police officer asked.

“I… I… I was just so tired… and I didn’t see it… and it was not on purpose.” I stammered, tears streaming down my face.

“Could you please tell me how the accident happened?” he wanted to know; I could tell he was a bit annoyed. I gave him a quick recap of the whole thing, trying hard not to choke on my sobs.

“Now your name, address, social insurance number, date of birth and phone number please.”
I answered again, telling him all the familiar information.

“Okay well, thank you,” he said, turning away and talking to the paramedic, “A few people on the bus claim to be injured as they have fallen over. You might need to check on them.”

My brain slowly processed this sentence, and I started to panic. People on the bus had been injured. Other persons were hurt, because of me. The tears started pouring faster, and luckily, the paramedic saw and gave me some tissues.

I rummaged around in my bag to check on my things. Everything was full of hand lotion, as I had fallen on the satchel. I laughed, kind of amused by this stupid cream being spilled all over my things. Everything smelled of it.

After a few more minutes, the car drove off. At the hospital, I was wheeled around in my chair. It felt stupid, but I was also a bit thankful for not having to stand up. I was then put onto a hospital bed and left in some long hallway with my mum standing beside me.

“Jack, I am so glad you are still alive. You could’ve died…” she whispered, tears starting to fill her eyes.

“I know mum. I am so sorry. I am a horrible person.” I said, tears also starting to well up again.

“Shh, my little angel. It is okay, everything will be fine. I love you.” She replied, gently stroking my hair.

I had to wait for an hour or more, I didn’t even bother to check the time after 45 minutes of waiting in the uncomfortable hospital bed. My mum called different people.

Apparently we were invited for dinner somewhere that very day. My mum seemed upset about cancelling it. I told her to not cancel it yet but wait until the doctor would have checked me and an x-ray was done. She was okay with that.

When finally a nurse came and wheeled me off again, into the x-ray room this time, I was relieved. Things were hurting very badly now, breathing was difficult, my head hurt, and my wounds were burning. The x-ray was not very nice, I had to hold my breath which hurt terribly, and afterwards, an ultrasound was made to check if any inner bleedings had occurred. I was brought outside again and had to wait, in a cubicle for patients this time.

There was a doctor checking me while we awaited the results of the x-ray and the ultrasound. I had to lift all different parts of my body, parts were squeezed or stroked, applied pressure on and so on. I felt like a guinea pig in a lab testing. Also, my wounds were cleaned and bandaged.
After what seemed like a really long time, the results came. I had nothing broken, no inner bleedings or whatsoever, just a concussion and some bruised ribs additionally to the wounds. The doctor said she wanted to keep me in hospital for the night, but my mum argued with her, telling her she was a doctor too, until she was allowed to take me home if she signed a paper.

I was given some painkillers on the way and we were good to go.

At home, we decided we would go to dinner, and as I didn’t want to spoil it and force one of my parents to stay at home and babysit me, I agreed to go there too. Before we left, I called my boyfriend Randy, telling him I had been hit by a bus.

“Randy? It’s Jack here.” – “Oh, hi Jack. What’s up?” he asked, sounding bored. “Well… I just got hit by a bus.” There was silence, until he finally answered.
“Jack, are you fucking stupid, calling me, telling me you’ve been hit by a bus? I am sorry for you and I am glad you are still here.” I felt a knot in my throat form, but I managed to reply. “Thank you Randy for your empathy. I love you.” I ended the call.

The car drive was horrible, I was totally on edge, panicking we would have another accident, although I tried to seem unconcerned.

Dinner itself was terrible as well, I didn’t feel like eating and the food was not good either. I felt like crying the entire time. After I had eaten, I put a scarf on my face and passed out on the couch.

The rest of the evening went by in a blur, the painkillers I had taken were slowly starting to lose their effect. When I came home, I went straight to bed.

I had a difficult time falling asleep, as the accident was still so prominent in my head, and my ribs hurt like hell now I was lying. I could either choose to lie on my hip, hurting the wound, or on the other side where my bruised ribs were. After a lot of shuffling around, I finally fell asleep. I did not sleep well.

Notes

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-Laura