March 24th 2009

It was the day i had the final math test at the academy(in my country, almost everyone in school goes to attend coaching classes). I had been preparing for it because i knew this test would help me know where i stand in revision so i could get a better score in my 12th grade finals.

It was really rainy that day. I was sitting in front of the heater( i think its pretty warm this year) with my sister and i was studying. Everyone else had gone to schools or work. I looked at the watch and thought i should be going now. My sister said "Don't you think you should stay? Look at the weather."

"No, everyone will be there, i paid to get tested, its for my own good." I said. Hehe, i was really serious about studies then.

"Wear that waterproof jacket you have."

"I will" I said.

As i went out, she called out for me to wear something on my head too, but i didn't listen, no time, i thought.

Uh oh, i had forgotten my pen at home. No matter, i'll buy it from the old man's shop up the slope. It was a really steep slope there. Hehe, my then friends used to call it The 90 Degree Street. So i took my bicycle and walked up the hill and bought the pen. Just two minutes and i had gone sopping wet everywhere.

I paid for the pen and rode my bicycle down the slope. It was then i realized that brakes weren't working. I tried to stop the rapidly accelerating bicycle by touching my feet at the ground but the road was really smooth and slippery and i kept gaining momentum. As i went a little ahead, i saw a white van coming up the hill. I was heading straight into it really fast. My houe was just a bit far on the slope, The van driver honked and flashed his headlights but i couldn't stop and neither could he because his van was already having trouble going uphill in that rain, so in that moment, i thought, if i crash into him, i'm going to hit the windscreen or roll over, both of which i did not want and just then i turned my bike to the right and crashed headfirst into the closed iron gate(with slanting thin metal strips) of my home with a loud bang, opening it wide.

And then everything disappeared. It was really strange. There was nothing, not pain, not sound, not even the feeling of being there or the feeling of my hands on the handlebar or anything at all. I couldn't see anything, not even darkness, just no feeling.

Then slowly, i started hearing the patter of rain. Then i felt i was sprawled on the floor with my legs twisted. Then i heard myself moan and opened my eyes. to see blood on the handlebar of the bicycle and to taste it in my mouth. "Oh great!" I thought. "Now i'll have to clean that up too. What am i gonna say when they ask why i'm late?" The door of the downstairs people banged open and their youngest son(he's a geographer in his late twenties) came running towards me.

"Oh no! I don't need YOUR help" I thought. I hated those downstairs people. I got up with a jerk. He was looking at me scared. I tried to untwist the handlebar but it was no use. I picked the cycle up with my hands and ran upstairs, still feeling no pain but seeing drops of blood mix with rainwater that was falling through the stairs like small waterfalls.

I put the bike down on the terrace and locked it, then opened the wooden door of the lounge and went in. When i turned to close the door, my knees shook and i grabbed them to stop myself from falling. It was then i thought something must be wrong.

"Who's there? Is it you Free? Did you hear that bang?"  My sister called out from her room.

I felt a little angry at her for being so lazy. I could well be an intruder and she was in her room chatting. She came out just then and looked at me and her mouth opened like an O.

"What happened?" She tried to come close but i ran past her. I wanted to see what had happened. I went straight to the sink in the bathroom and turned on the light. When i saw my face, i screamed a little scream and had to grab the sink to keep myself from falling down. I had a huge wound in my crown and the hairline. Blood was running down through my forehead and temples. I had a wound at the beginning of my nose and one at my chin and my upper lip was all cut out and bloody(so that explained the blood in my mouth) and veins and teeth were visible. I ran my tounge on my front teeth and found one to be slightly chipped off. My sister came running after me and grabbed me, asking all sorts of questions and walking me to the lounge again.

When i sat in front of the heater, i started feeling the pain. It was horrible. I was spluttering blood gasping and couldn't talk properly but i did explain that i had crashed into the gate. Must be the strips that dug into my face and caused all those wounds.

My sister started to cry and hug me. I tried to control myself but couldn't and started to cry too. It wasn't easy to cry either. My face was aching really bad and the upper lip was torn. Then she got up and called my brother(he was the only one available. My mother had gone on an official lunch in the twin city and my father goes there for work daily.) He came a little while later. He asked my sister everything and took me to a car. One of his friends'. We went to a nearby hospital but they refused after a nurse checked me, saying they couldn't treat me. It was a small, private hospital.

Then we went to the military hospital. I was taken to the trauma centre and made to lie on a bed there. Then a uniformed doctor took me to a small enclosure and injected me with something(don't ask where.lol)

Then i was taken to an operation theatre where they put me on a bed and turned on those lights on a disk telling me to calm down. I was still crying. They put a white sheet over me with a hole for the place that was to be operated. In that case, my chin. I could see the lights from the sheet. They first cleaned the wounds and then injected me with local anaeshthesia and my brow went numb. They then joked about, calling each other "staff" although they were all surgeons to be and even flirted(its true, the female doctors were quite neat, hehe) as they operated. I slowly started to like their classroom gossips and the way they operated. One of them would cut with a knife and they'd take turns to stitch each wound. Starting from chin, they went to the tricky upper lip, then the nose, the left eyebrow, and finally the head where they did 21 stitches. congratulating each other after each one. It took really long and they used the strongest string there.

So after about four hours, they were finally done. They left and their assistant pushed all my here back and made a turban of crepe bandage around my head and said to my brother "If you'd taken him to some other hospital, they would've done it real early and messy. But he's brand new now."

"You won't be needing a platic surgery now kid" he smiled at me.

Mom had come there from the lunch and was crying as i went out. So was my father but he had chosen to lie down on an empty bed.

So it was finally over. Next few days passed with my face really swollen and dark purple. I could barely talk or eat and my friends visited me and we laughed at the state of me. Those were the last few days in highschool and i couldn't even sit the preperation exam arranged by the college as i was on bed rest until the stitches were cut after seven days. But it was over. Now i'm ok. Although i have significantly less hair on the spot on my head but my face looks mostly normal.