The Innocent Incident

The Incident

The reading circle before the incident was fun compared to the next things that were about to follow, though now I can't remember anything the teacher read. I don't even remember the name of the book. All I remembered was sitting in a circle with my peers and listening to the teacher talk on and on about the book. The old blue carpet we sat on was rough, dusty, and most of all, smelly, like a pile of old socks dipped in sewage. I wondered why no one noticed that.

So when our teacher told us to go back to our seats, I was glad to escape the smelly carpet. I rubbed my numb legs and looked around. There, I saw my friend put her hands on two chairs that were back to back to hoist herself up. I wanted to try it myself. When my friend left, another student hoist herself up, and swung, then another student came, and another. They all swung themselves on that particular set of chairs before going back to their seats.

So I thought, "Why not?" when nobody was waiting, I walked to the chair, the blue chair backs were cool under my touch, even though so many people had already placed their hands on the same spot not so long ago.

With little difficulties, I hoist myself up. My feet dangling above the concrete ground, I slowly pushed myself front and back, front and back. I felt like swinging on a swing, except the ropes on the swings were substituted by my arms. I swung a few times and decided to go back to my seat. That's when things went downhill, I mean literally, downhill. I only have a fuzzy memory of what went wrong at the time. It went somehow like this: my right hand slipped, and I fell to the floor, face down.

My chin started hurting like tiny needles being jabbed in. I thought, "Well, I guess I got myself a bruise from swinging on chairs." Embarrassed, I scampered to my feet. That's when I realize everyone was looking at me oddly. "Why is everyone looking at me? Don't they fall all the time, too?"

I felt something warm and gooey on my chin, I brought my hand to it. Before I touched my chin, something dripped on it. The classroom was as silent as a cemetery at midnight, one could've heard a needle drop. I looked down at my open palm, a drop of dark red liquid lay splattered. I was working out what it was when the teacher grabbed my free hand.

"Miss Jessica, please take Adrian to the nurse." she said calmly. I wondered how she can stay calm, but behind her glasses, a pair of dark brown eyes fixed on my palm. The teacher assistant, Miss Jessica, led me by the hand to the aluminum door. She was tall and slender, with black hair that are dyed brown. When we were almost there, a boy screamed and crawled under his desk. I felt dazed, as if everything was unreal and just a dream. I was led to the nurse, where she cleansed my wound with a wet tissue, and covered it with a piece of clean white gauze. Then she said the fatal words, "You'll have to go to the hospital."

"Do I have to?" I was secretly hoping for an alternative. "Yes, you will have to get it sewn up." the nurse said casually, like when doctor calms you down, saying it's not going to hurt and then jabbing a large needle into your arm. That's when I started sobbing, "No, I don't want my chin to be sewn up, I don't want to go to the hospital."

But we got into a taxi anyway. On the way, Miss Jessica asked me how did I fall. I didn't want to admit I swung on chairs then fall, that seemed like a childish way to hurt yourself. So I pretended I was too upset to say anything. Miss Jessica asked, "Did you run and fall?" That seems more like a reasonable way to hurt yourself. I thought. So I sort of nodded while shaking my head. I knew that was untruthful of me, but I really couldn't bring myself to say the truth.

I wondered if Miss Jessica has any experience of an injury. "Did you ever being sewn up before?" I asked.

"Yes." Miss Jessica said. "Does your chin hurt very badly?"

"No," I replied. "Does it hurt when they were sewing you up?"

"No, not really." she says, "But they will give you some pain relievers before they started. Don't worry, you'll be fine."

Now I was feeling not fine, not fine at all. Now I was scared, really scared. We have arrived at the hospital, and entered the automatic glass doors below the bold red letters, "EMERGENCY." I kept my eyes glued on the white floor, though it was not white anymore, but covered with scratches. Everywhere there are sounds of metal racks, metal beds, and nurses and doctors speeding away. We walked straight to the front desk.

The a lady spoke briefly with Miss Jessica and pushed a paper filled with words across the desk. It told me to fill up where I lived in Taiwan. I saw the option of Pingtung County and Pingtung City. In truth, I didn't know which of the city or county I lived in. So I asked Miss Jessica where is the town of Linbian located on. She said she doesn't know.

So I left that blank. Then a doctor in white robes came to lead us to the operation room. My heart was thumping faster than a hummingbird's wings, and there was no rhythm at all. I held onto Miss Jessica's hands tightly, and we followed the doctor to the operation room. Miss Jessica's slender fingers felt surprisingly warm in the bright white hospital. When I saw the words, "Operation Room" printed on the white door, I panicked. I tried desperately to get myself out of this.

"Can I drink water?" I asked.

"Are you sure you don't want to drink after the operation? The water might leak." said the female doctor seriously.

I'm not sure if that was a joke, so I said plainly, "I am very thirsty." So the doctor showed me where the fountain was. I got a paper cup and pressed the button. I brought the water to my mouth, and drank it all. True, I felt a strange sensation on my chin. I wonder if the water is really leaking.

When the doctor saw me finish drinking water, I was pushed into the operation room and Miss Jessica was beside me. I was told to lay on the green bed. Then, the doctors put a cloth to cover up my eyes. I didn't know what was going to happen. Then I felt my bandage to my wound being taken off. My right hand grabbed for my left. It was being rubbed tenderly but I felt thousands of tiny needles of pain shot up. Then it was pure pain, the kind you got when you are taking a shot. I wrung my hands. Then there was nothing, I mean, I didn't really feel anything after that and for a long time, I felt silence.

Finally I was impatient of whatever they were doing so I asked, "Are we done?"

The doctor replied, " Five more minutes."

I counted one to sixty for five times. There! It's five minutes! I thought. So I asked again, "Are we done?"

To this, the doctor said, "We're almost done, but if you keep moving your mouth, we won't able to finish this operation." So I fell silent again.

Soon enough, we were done and on our way back to school in a yellow cab. I wasn't sobbing anymore. I decided to tell Miss Jessica what happened.

"Miss Jessica?" I asked. "Can I tell you something?"

"Yes."

"Do you remember that I said I ran and fall? Actually I didn't." I said.

"I know. You fell from the chair you were swinging on." she said.

I guess that I looked surprised to know that she somehow has gotten hold of this vital bit of answer, so she replied, "Your classmates told me."

I was relieved, in a way that I was glad I didn't have to think back to my incident, and in a way that I realized I am able to find the courage say the truth, from this day forward till the last page of my life.