The Rain Of Realization

Ever wondered how your life can change within a span of twenty minutes? Take my day, for example, which started out monotonous but turned out to be the most significant day of my life.

           I groaned and flopped back onto the car seat. Such a huge traffic jam AND it was raining outside- There was no way I could reach my school on time! Looking out of the window, I thought about the look on my principal’s face when she catches me coming out of the school 20 minutes late- again! My train of thoughts was interrupted when my gaze met with an old lady on the road. She was frail-looking, wrinkled and had a hunchback. She wore a plain white saree and was barefooted. She looked at me and smiled. A smile formed on my lips too. I was about to continue listening to music when I heard a loud screech. I turned towards the source of the sound. A white Audi, racing down the street, was about to go right at that woman.  My brain had just begun to analyse the situation. I had to do something. A scream formed in my throat but I couldn’t even open my mouth. The car obscured my view of the lady and within a few seconds, I heard a loud scream. My body went numb. I heard a choke as I fumbled to open the seatbelt. I then realized that I was the one choking. Time slowed down. I rushed and opened the door. I wanted to run towards that lady and do something but two strong arms had held me back. “Dad! I want to go!”, I yelled, looking at my Dad, who was shaking his head, saying no. “DAD, I SAID LET-ME-GO!”. Maybe it was something in my voice that let my dad’s grip loosen. As I had the opportunity, I ran towards the crowd of people who had now assembled.

       

  

I      I pushed myself into the crowd and then reeled back. There were two things that hit me:

           The Blood

   The smell of it

The crowd just stared at the lifeless body of the bleeding lady. I fell to my knees and placed her head on my lap. That is when I met her gaze for the second time today. She mouthed something before her eyes rolled over her head. “No!”, I screamed. I put her head on the ground and began to think of everything I learnt in my CPR lessons. I placed my hands on her chest and began to thump. The world faded away, leaving me with the lady. But to tell you, I felt different. I’d never been more focused ever in my life before. Frantically, I lifted my head to search for a familiar face. I flipped from face to face until my eyes met this one certain man. HE looked ordinary, had a mob of brown hair, bloodshot eyes and was heavily built. He wore jeans and a shirt, nothing different from the others. But his expression gave him away. His shoulders were shaking, fear written across his face. As he saw me, his eyes widened and he started to back up. Fortunately, a few others noticed his behaviour and shot angry looks at him. The culprit turned back on his heels and hurried back to escape on his blood-stained white Audi.

((Please play this and continue reading!))

Halo.

   

  Pulling my eyes away from the culprit, I focused on the lady. Her face had withered while two thin streaks of blood streamed down from her nose. My will crumpled but a small voice at the back of my head kept me going. 1,2,3, thump! 1,2,3, thump! I kept repeating the pattern, unmindful and ignorant of the gasps and cries of the crowd.

  

            Everything seemed bleak. The fragile woman under my hands, the blurred faces of the watchers’ and my own heart which had started to falter and give up. As I was about to stop, I heard a flutter. Looking up into the sky, I searched for the source, when I heard it again. Louder and stronger- like the flap of a bird’s wings before it took off the ground. I stared down at the lady and felt it again. Right under my hand. Her heart.

      “She’s alive”, I cried with joy and continued to thump her chest. A minute later, the sounds of the ambulance sirens flooded the street as some of the onlookers rushed forward and helped me put the lady onto the stretcher.

As I stand there and see the taillights of the ambulance van pull away, I realize that the past twenty minutes happen to be most significant period of my life.

My calmness inspite the obvious chaos, the rush of adrenaline and for once how my mind and heart agreed on one thing. In that instant, I knew what I wanted to do. I knew what I wanted to become. “A doctor”, I mumbled to myself as I took a few steps back and hit the bumper of a car and slid down.

 My eyes were full of tears, I could see blurred images of a man and woman, along with an old lady and a young girl come to me. The man placed his arms on my shoulders and kept calling me. The woman stood there, smiling, telling me she was proud to call me her daughter. That old lady (( Not the lady who “died”)) , who turned out to be my grandma, looked at me and smiled. That young girl was giving me this crazy grin as she took photos of me, saying I’d go viral on the Internet, Calling me “Dr.Natasha” and “The sister who turned out be a doctor”.

 But I just smiled and let myself get drenched in the rain of hope and realization.