An Inch Away From Death

By Given Letsoalo

June 2015

Somewhere in South Africa, Limpopo,Polokwane city.

It was not an ordinary winter night.

It was cold as a store refrigerator and only warmth was needed to go through the night.

An old traditional camp fire was made inside the house with charcoals, and nothing could get me away from it!

The warmth was needed,there was nothing I could do more or less than to sit as close as I can to the charcoal fire and surprisingly it started to produce smoke inside the house

As it already started we all went to sleep on a bed full of different beddings at once.

A moment of silence had came to me when I felt like I was busy gasping for air, as if I was wearing a plastic bag tied thoroughly around my neck.

Patiently relaxing and trying to analyse what might be happening, it tends to get very strange and strong.

Frightness got the best of me and my decision was to stand up and wake everyone up.

I took few steps away from the bed and felt as if i was a baby taking my first steps, so I turned back and fell on the bed and all I could think of was "God help me"

Miraculously I stood up,but as I was walking I felt as if I came back from a lab to test a new drug, I felt as if I was floating.

Luckily the bathroom door was open and as I entered into the room I realised that my bladder was full.

I stood there looking at the toilet but nothing happened, it was like digging the dessert sand and expecting water to come out of the ground.

As I was starting to forget what had happened in my room, it started all over again and gasped for air and just fell in the bath tub to run cold water whilst in the tub.

Relaxation started to come through,and so did the hot water.

Because the room was dark and my mind was numb, I couldn't see if the fossit was on  cold or hot.

It was 3:40 AM in the morning when everyone was sleeping while I was an inch close from death.

As the hot water came by surprise, I jumped out of the bath tub as if i knew that hot water will eventually come out of the fossit any moment.

As I closed the fossit I walked out of the bathroom feeling dizzy and felt as if i was floating at the same time.

Just like any red blooded human being would think, and my thoughts were that "this is serious".

I walked down the passage with no balance trying to wake my mom up to help me.

As I walk to her room and unluckily her door room was closed. It is a coincidence that I hit the door with my head as i fainted one step away from her room and fell on a metal chair and caused a frightening sound that woke everyone up.

I woke up hearing my two brothers and mom saying wake up! Wake up! Wake up!

As I opened my eyes, a bottle of cold water was faced upwards and my mouth was full of it I just swallowed.

Seeing that everyone woke up to save me, in my mind was " if it wasn't for them, my last sight would have been this night"

I stood up and changed my clothes and took different pills countlessly hoping that I will be able to sleep and wake up again.

It was a Sunday morning of June the 7th 2015 that a life of an 18 year old was an inch away from death.

Waking up at 17:30 PM just made everything feel like a dream, and it wasn't a dream.