…..and I never thought I would end up in this kind of a situation. The cycle of Life!!! I kept my forehead on the steering and I was feeling cold!!! The Light from the street light was piercing in to my eyes. I started thinking about a similar night which happened almost 2 years back in my life. It was a similar night and a similar street light…
TWO YEARS BACK….
The party was over by 1 AM. That was best party I had since a long time. The music, the dance, the girls, the spirit…everything kept on hanging around me. “Never get married…Bachelor life is the best part of your life” somebody had advised me during the party. I felt respect for that guy!!!
I, Neil Franco, would have been a dead duck, if I had married that girl, Diana, my so-called ex-girl friend. I had loved her more than my soul…but finally what happened almost destroyed me…she ditched me and walked off from my life…with another guy. Long 7 years since all those things happened!!! But, still under the high spirits of alcohol, I think about her. I wonder how terribly different my life would have been, if she were married to me now!!! Pathetic!!!
Now I am free like a bird. A party animal. A successful entrepreneur. I never get tensed about anything under the sun. I don’t care about this life at all. I don’t respect girls and I am thinking and talking to myself too much right now…What all stuff did I drink boss…?
I checked my watch again…time was 1:30 AM. Oh Good Jesus!!! What are you doing Neil?…You are sitting in your car and thinking about your ex-girl friend who ditched you and went away from your life seven years back and that too… for the last 30 minutes! Don’t you have any plans of going home? I was trying to puke out all her thoughts inside me…I was feeling sick, but it never came outside. It kept haunting me from inside!!! Drive the car Neil…Force it!!!
I started my car…my new Honda Jazz…”Why so serious ?” car. My new flat was a 30 minutes drive and I was in full throttle within 10 seconds…I turned off the A.C and pulled down my side wind shield. The air was so fresh and the night was so calm. The highway was like a desert and I was flying like an eagle…I kept flying and flying and flying….
I saw a beautiful flash of light, and then heard a loud thudding sound. Somebody had hit me, or at least I felt like, on my forehead and the next instant I felt the smell of blood in the air. Then I couldn't see or sense anything for sometime…I felt numb!!! A sharp high frequency sound was piercing my ears!!! I opened my eyes after sometime…and then I realized that, something very bad had happened to my car and me. I convinced myself that I was alive and all my body parts were still with me. I re-assured my self that both my hands were moving properly, and then I looked outside trying to comprehend what had just happened.
I then realized that…I had met with an accident. I saw another car in a very bad shape through my broken wind shield. I opened my door and stepped outside. The street light was bright enough and I saw somebody lying unconscious in the driving seat of that car!!! I was feeling sick…I knelt down in the road side and vomited…My legs became strength less and I could not stand. The smell of blood again surfaced in my senses and I checked my nose…It was badly bleeding. I checked my shirt, and it was wet with blood. I could not really grab how much I was hurt. I wished somebody would come that way to help me… I wished somebody would give me some water to drink.
Water…It was there inside my car in the rear seat. I crawled to my car and opened the rear door, took the bottle and drank some water. I lied down there for sometime…and after sometime I was feeling better. I drank some more water and got up on my feet. I checked the other car, and I could still vaguely see somebody lying in the front seat keeping his forehead on the steering…
I stepped back a few steps and imagined what just had happened…It was a head to head collision. I was in the wrong side and in full speed. Oh Shit!!! I never saw that car coming…A pain of guilt and fear suddenly started to itch inside my stomach. My heart started beating faster and I was feeling warm behind my ears…
“Would the other guy still be alive…?” was the first logical question which came to my mind after a long time. “How badly would he be hurt…?”. I started shivering, as I limped towards the other car.
It was a small car and the front bonnet was totally plunged inside…I really hoped to see that guy moving around, but he was motionless in his position. I reached near the driver's seat door and called out loud something awkwardly like- “Hello…”. Sound was not completely coming out from my throat…I felt dizzy!!!
“He is dying…” suddenly that thought came to my mind…I have to do something before it becomes too late. Why nobody is driving through this highway…I really wanted somebody to help me, but I realized that I was all alone.
The wind shield of the front door of that car was completely broken. I opened that door. My shivering hands touched him and I could see blood dripping down from the back of his head. I shook him gently and called out something to wake him up. He was still motionless. I feared the worst!!!
I held his head gently and pulled it back from the steering and rested it on the headrest of the driver’s seat. His complete face was painted with red blood. I could not make out where all he was wounded.
I limped back to my car, took the water bottle and came back. Another car went past in a lightning speed, and before I could cry out something to stop him, it vanished.
I poured water on his face and…took my kerchief and wiped his face. He was still unconscious, but I had a strange feeling that he was still alive. I thought of checking his pulse, but then I left it. I saw a wound on his forehead and it scared me like hell. I poured some more water on his face!!!
He slowly opened his eyes…or was I just hoping so? No…He really did!!!
Under the monochromatic light of neon street lamp, I saw his face clearly for the first time and I realized that I have seen him before in my life.
My mind rolled back seven years in just a fraction of a second. I started to feel sick again. My heart was going to break in to pieces. If I am not wrong and if my eyes are still working properly; if I am not totally hallucinated, and if I am not dreaming…then it is him!!! My Ex-Girlfriend’s Husband. Mr…..Mr…….Mr…Samuel or Sebastian. No!!!
Some name which starts with ‘S’. Oh God!!! I forgot his name!!!
But its him…I remember his face, even though he has changed a little bit!!!
He slightly opened his eyes and looked at me. Oh GOD!!! He is dying!!!
But is it really that guy?
I stepped back again and closed my eyes and shook my head intensely to get rid of everything which was running through my mind…But it dint help me a bit!!!
I opened my eyes again. I again had a close look at him…Is that him? The guy who ruined my life seven years back? The guy who took my girl away from my life forever? Is that the guy I felt like killing deliberately seven years back?
I was not sure…but I was almost convinced that it was him!!!
What should I do next… I started thinking, and then I felt that the night is going to be very long for me.
I don’t know why, but one part of my mind suddenly said to escape from the crime scene well before someone arrived at the place. Escape!!! Let him die or whatever!!!
Wait!!! What are you thinking Neil? Are you not a human being??? You drink, you drive fast and hit someone and take him almost till the death…and even if you still have a chance to save his life, you want to shamelessly escape from the crime scene!!! Pity!!!
Now…again…I have started thinking too much!!! What is happening???
My mind was divided exactly in to two halves. One part said to stay there and help him…to save his life. The other half, the cruel part, said to just escape, no matter who he is.
But what if he is not the person I am thinking about…ok. Then you verify it!!!
I opened the dashboard of his car and took his documents. It had a copy of driving license also. I took it and checked it.
Name: Salvia Paul.
“Salvia”…obviously it starts with a “S”…but, was it Salvia? I remember it to be Samuel or Sebastian…or I don’t exactly remember.
But, what difference was it going to make if it was him???
Then, I will leave him here, because he ruined my life, and I want to kill him.
But, did he really ruin your life?
Yes, he ruined my life…he took her away from my life.
How do you know…?It can be like she herself went away from your life.
But…anyway was he a part of it?
But have you really ever thought why she went away from your life?
Yes…because he came in to her life…
That’s not a great answer…there are many other guys, if not him, she would have gone with…You could not hold her close to your heart…that’s why she went.
No…I loved her very much, and I wanted her in my life…what else I could have done?
What else did he do for her, so that she went with him…?
I don’t know…
Yes…that is what I am saying…You don’t know many things. You don’t know the past itself clearly…also it's kind of obvious that you don’t know the present and the future.
You don’t know whether this is the so-called “ex-girlfriend’s husband” guy or not?
Even if it is him, you don’t know what kind of guy he is!
You don’t know whether she is still with him or not!
You don’t know whether they both are living happily or not!
It's not only about you…its about many other people associated and involved in this….
So…Go ahead and help him!!!
I stood there freezing…my brain was crushing itself from inside. I saw the other guy, Salvia, opening his eyes slightly and looking at me…
I never understood what his eyes were telling me…I stood in the chill air, under the street light, staring back at him…and I stood there for a long time…..
…and finally I felt that his eyes were saying to me that- “This is called life…Move on!!!”
I smiled back at him… took him to my car…and went to the nearest hospital!!
I was waiting outside the operation theatre and a nurse handed over his cell phone to me.
I checked the last dialed number, the name was: Diana!!
I called her.
She answered and was crying from the other side- “Hey, Salvy…where are you? Are you ok?….I have been trying for you for the last 4 hours…where are you dear…Salvy….Salvy….”
“Hello” I spoke
“Who is this…where is Salvy….?” She asked, I could feel that she was dissolving at the other side.
“Salvy met with an accident. I am his friend Neil. Please come to National Hospital immediately…”’
I don’t know why, but I started crying…and I cried from my heart after 7 years!!!
After 30 minutes, when she arrived I was standing in a remote corner, so that she could not see me!!!
But I saw her clearly…It was her… My Diana!!!
And…I saw a little baby girl sleeping on her shoulders.
I saw Diana crying for her husband…she came running towards the operation theatre…she was trying to hold her grief, but it always came out!!! She started yelling—“ I want to see Salvy….Salvy….I want to see him once…Is he alive…? Tell me please. Is he alive…oh God!!!”
Her loud cries kept reverberating in my ears and on that day I understood the importance of life…If not to ourselves, to many other people associated to us!!! Our parents, our friends, our family…all!!!
I realized how much she loved him. Seven years back…She never ditched me…I was just, not the right person for her…that’s all!!
All I know is that they are living very happily ever since....
The present day……
…..and I never thought I would end up in this kind of a situation. The cycle of Life!!!
I could not move. My complete body was numb!!! I could not open my eyes…I felt somebody opening the door and standing near me…Then a splash of water was on my face. I wanted to drink water!!!
An accident…again in my life!!! And this time it was me at the other end!!!
I slowly opened my eyes…I could not see anything clearly even though the street light was very bright. A similar Night and a similar street Light!!!
I saw somebody staring at me. I saw somebody standing outside the door and thinking a lot. I saw somebody coming to the other front door and opening the dash board, and taking the documents. Somebody took the driving license and checked my name. I just could not see the face, I concentrated on that face and finally I saw…
…and then I saw her. She was beautiful, but she was crying. Her face was pale and looking frightened. Am I dreaming or am I dead?
I was neither dreaming nor dead. She opened the door and looked at me and suddenly I felt better.
“…Am I dead…?” I somehow managed to ask.
I could see surprise and an expression of relief on her face.
“You are not…and you will not…”
“I will not…?”
“Ah…I mean…not today due to this….uh….”
“Oh..Nice..to hear that……uh…hmm…Are you dead….?”
Then I saw a laugh from her heart…and I wanted to tell her that, it was a similar night 2 years back which made me a better person. I wanted to tell her that-“I am getting a feeling that this day again is going to change my life a lot….”
Then I thought that I will tell her after sometime, because…..
The night was still cold and the street light was still bright!!!
