Emergency
"Uncle, take me to Singapore General Hospital fast!" I yelled at the taxi driver the second I slided onto the backseat of the blue NTUC income taxi. The taxi driver replied with a silent nod, and sped off.
In the backseat, I could hear my heart thumping hard against my chest. I was breathing at the rate as though I had just taken my 2.4 kilometres NAPFA rest and has broken a record of 12minutes. From the rear mirror, I noticed that my face had lost the lively complexion and had turned ashen. Then, the scenes replayed in my mind.
It was in the afternoon, when I returned home from school. i dragged my feet and my heavy school bag to my room. I had a horrendous day at school-flunked my Mathematics test which everyone has aced, served detention for being late for school and lost my favourite ear stud on the way home. It must have been the work of Karma, for it was he who decided to give me my retributions that day.
My mother was beautiful for a 40 year old, she had thick lucious black hair which had been permed to enhance her perfect facial features. She was my only kin, as my dad died in a plane crashto France four years ago. And it was that particularly day that my mother decided to reprimand me because of my bad grades. She reminded me that I was sitting for the Oridinary Level Examinations in October and that really got onto my nerves. Without careful consideration, I yelled, "Why don't you just leave me alone, to rot and die?" She was flabbergasted at my words, and she left the house, slamming the front day behind her.
In the night, I was still struggling to get my corrections done when the phone rang. It was from the hospital saying that my mother had met with an accident and the chances of her surviving were close to zero. I was aghast and speechless. I grabbed my sweater and raced out of the house; which was how I ended up in that taxi.
Upon arrival, I thanked the doctor and pushed 30 dollars onto his palms and sprinted to the lift lobby. I could not think straight and the scene in the hospital felt so chaotic and unsure. If I were a motorbike on the roads of Jurong East, I would have been arrested by the traffic police and fined for speeding.
My feet was freezing in the lift. I looked at my feet and realised that I had forgotten to put on proper shoes as all I was wearing was a pair of cheap hotel slippers from Tai Wan.
The lift took me to the seventh floor where all the other patients who had met with accidents were. The corridor was dimmed and dead-silent. According to the wall clock just in front of the lift, it was already eleven-thirty.
I could feel my heart thumping in rhythm as though it was a metronome at the speed of 200 beats per minute. I stopped my tear ducts from releasing salty tears into my eyes. I told myself to calm down but, obviously, to no avail.
Finally, I was at the front of room 724. My right hand was trembling so violently that I had to use both hands to turn the knob. There were huge machines placed around the bed, Tubes carrying fluids were connected from the machines to the body. But I was wrong. The machines had already stopped functioning and the body was covered with a thin white blanket from head to toe.
I threw myself forward and grbbbed my mother's hand. I cried, tears of sorrow, regret and guilt. I screamed for my mother to wake up and tell me it was all a dream, a terrible, terrible nightmare.
I shook her real hard, hoping she would come round and comfrt me. I poured my deepest feelings to my mother, about how greatful I was to her and how bad a daughter I had been. I continued to cry with my head lying on the hospital bed.
Out of the blue, I heard an unmistakably familiar voice from behind me.
"Lee Ann? Is that you? What are you doing here?"
The voice sounded a whole lot like my...
"Mum?" I spoke as I tunred my back to meet her eyes.
There she stood, perfectly in one piece. I raced to my mother and gave her a huge bear hug. I begin to sob again, this time, with tears of joy and relief. She stroked me and asked me why I was there.
Just then, a nurse came with my mother's handphone and we understood. It turned out that my mother left house to get me my favourite ice cream from "Ben's & Jerry's" when she dropped her phone. Coincidentally, an accident had occurred and the paramedia had mistaken my mother's handphone as that of the victim, and ended up informing me.
On my way home, I clung tightly to my mother's arm and said, "I love you, Mum. I didn't mean what I said just now..."
She hushed me with, "I know, sweetied. I love you too."
Estelle
In the backseat, I could hear my heart thumping hard against my chest. I was breathing at the rate as though I had just taken my 2.4 kilometres NAPFA rest and has broken a record of 12minutes. From the rear mirror, I noticed that my face had lost the lively complexion and had turned ashen. Then, the scenes replayed in my mind.
It was in the afternoon, when I returned home from school. i dragged my feet and my heavy school bag to my room. I had a horrendous day at school-flunked my Mathematics test which everyone has aced, served detention for being late for school and lost my favourite ear stud on the way home. It must have been the work of Karma, for it was he who decided to give me my retributions that day.
My mother was beautiful for a 40 year old, she had thick lucious black hair which had been permed to enhance her perfect facial features. She was my only kin, as my dad died in a plane crashto France four years ago. And it was that particularly day that my mother decided to reprimand me because of my bad grades. She reminded me that I was sitting for the Oridinary Level Examinations in October and that really got onto my nerves. Without careful consideration, I yelled, "Why don't you just leave me alone, to rot and die?" She was flabbergasted at my words, and she left the house, slamming the front day behind her.
In the night, I was still struggling to get my corrections done when the phone rang. It was from the hospital saying that my mother had met with an accident and the chances of her surviving were close to zero. I was aghast and speechless. I grabbed my sweater and raced out of the house; which was how I ended up in that taxi.
Upon arrival, I thanked the doctor and pushed 30 dollars onto his palms and sprinted to the lift lobby. I could not think straight and the scene in the hospital felt so chaotic and unsure. If I were a motorbike on the roads of Jurong East, I would have been arrested by the traffic police and fined for speeding.
My feet was freezing in the lift. I looked at my feet and realised that I had forgotten to put on proper shoes as all I was wearing was a pair of cheap hotel slippers from Tai Wan.
The lift took me to the seventh floor where all the other patients who had met with accidents were. The corridor was dimmed and dead-silent. According to the wall clock just in front of the lift, it was already eleven-thirty.
I could feel my heart thumping in rhythm as though it was a metronome at the speed of 200 beats per minute. I stopped my tear ducts from releasing salty tears into my eyes. I told myself to calm down but, obviously, to no avail.
Finally, I was at the front of room 724. My right hand was trembling so violently that I had to use both hands to turn the knob. There were huge machines placed around the bed, Tubes carrying fluids were connected from the machines to the body. But I was wrong. The machines had already stopped functioning and the body was covered with a thin white blanket from head to toe.
I threw myself forward and grbbbed my mother's hand. I cried, tears of sorrow, regret and guilt. I screamed for my mother to wake up and tell me it was all a dream, a terrible, terrible nightmare.
I shook her real hard, hoping she would come round and comfrt me. I poured my deepest feelings to my mother, about how greatful I was to her and how bad a daughter I had been. I continued to cry with my head lying on the hospital bed.
Out of the blue, I heard an unmistakably familiar voice from behind me.
"Lee Ann? Is that you? What are you doing here?"
The voice sounded a whole lot like my...
"Mum?" I spoke as I tunred my back to meet her eyes.
There she stood, perfectly in one piece. I raced to my mother and gave her a huge bear hug. I begin to sob again, this time, with tears of joy and relief. She stroked me and asked me why I was there.
Just then, a nurse came with my mother's handphone and we understood. It turned out that my mother left house to get me my favourite ice cream from "Ben's & Jerry's" when she dropped her phone. Coincidentally, an accident had occurred and the paramedia had mistaken my mother's handphone as that of the victim, and ended up informing me.
On my way home, I clung tightly to my mother's arm and said, "I love you, Mum. I didn't mean what I said just now..."
She hushed me with, "I know, sweetied. I love you too."
Estelle
Labels: narrative
posted by 4A rocks like candy at
Monday, June 29, 2009
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