18th Birthday

12 - "The Boy From 15 Years Ago"

“Roses are red, violets are blue. Bathed with blood good as dead, in the vast blue skies, like a soaring bird I flew.”

These were the words Ian thought after the impact caused by the ambulance car that hit him. A crowd surrounded the area after they witness the accident. By the time the police arrived with another ambulance van, Dorothy felt her chest tighten.

“Ian?”

She ran to the area and confirmed it was really him, seeing his face soaked in his blood and screamed, “IAN!”

Ian was still able to talk but he was barely catching his breath. He opened his mouth and spoke hoarsely, “Dorothy…”

She panicked and called the personnel from the other ambulance. He was still able to move a bit, so he touched Dorothy’s face and said, “Don’t cry… That ugly face will look uglier.”

Upon hearing those words, she suddenly remembered the boy from her childhood.

*START OF FLASHBACK*

Dorothy and her older brothers were playing at the playground. One of them bought her a balloon and said, “Have this balloon, Doty! Be a good girl and don’t roam around too far from us, okay?”

The jolly little Doty (Dorothy) nodded and sat on a bench near a sand box. While her brothers were playing basketball with other kids, she just sat there and enjoyed watching the other build her sand castles. She held on to her balloon for a while until she accidentally let go of it because she saw a colorful butterfly.

When she realized she didn’t have the balloon, it was already stuck on a big tree and then she started crying, “My balloon~”

She couldn’t disturb her brothers, so she remained the crying. A minute later, a little boy jumped down from above the tree. With him was the balloon that got stuck a while ago, and the boy gave it to Doty. The little boy smiled and eccentrically said, “Here’s your balloon!”

Even when she was holding the balloon, she kept on crying. The little boy scratched his head and thought of something that could make her stop crying. He had some candies in his pocket took out some and offered, “I have candies here. Do you want some?”

Little Doty nodded. So the little boy grabbed her left hand, handed her a share of his candy and said, “Don’t cry… That ugly face will look uglier.”

Pissed with what the little boy said, she punched his stomach. He coughed a bit and ran away. She tried chasing him, but he was too fast for her. She wanted to say thanks, but the little boy sprinted towards the entrance of the playground.

Clumsy as he was, the little boy attempted to cross the street without looking out for incoming vehicles. He was on the middle of the road when a car almost hit him. Good thing he was saved by an old man.

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?” asked the old man. He nodded and ran away. But before he could be so distant, Doty shouted, “What’s your name?!”

He looked back and shouted, “The name’s Ian Williams!”

Off the little boy went as Doty said to herself, “I haven’t thanked him.”

*END OF FLASHBACK*

Dorothy’s eyes flooded with tears and asked, “You were that boy back then?”

Ian couldn’t hear what she was saying, so he told her, “I can’t hear you, Dorothy… Just promise me one thing…”

He coughed blood and asked her a favor, “Finish the book and give it to Evon on her birthday.”

Dorothy nodded, and then the personnel took him away. He lost his consciousness. She was crying nonstop not only because of that one piece of memory, but because of the memories they shared for a short period of time. And then she thought, (He was the man of my many firsts.)

Later, she calls his father. Upon hearing the call, before he could speak, she talked first, “Dr. Williams, please try to be calm as much as possible with what I’m about to tell you.”

The doctor was clueless but he had a bad feeling. He answered professionally, “Okay I’ll listen.”

She uttered the words, “Ian was caught in a car accident near the hospital that you asked him to go to.”

The doctor was devastated after hearing what happened to his son and became speechless.

“Hello? Doc? Still there?”

He dropped the call and immediately attended to his son who was currently in the Operating Room of that hospital. Although a doctor, he was experiencing one of the greatest insults in their profession: They can’t do anything when other doctors are in charge of their loved ones.

He was crying silently. Dorothy explained what happened based from the viewpoints of some bystander. The doctor knew this was going to happen as he grabbed his copy of Ian’s unfinished book from his attaché case.

“He kept mentioning how he always wanted to save Evon’s mother. He even asked if living people can donate their hearts.” he explained. Dorothy listened attentively. Inside the Operating Room, the doctors handling Ian managed to repair and stitch Ian’s wound.

However, there wasn’t a sign of life rhythm on the ECG. One of the doctors suggested that they bring out a defibrillator.

“On the count of 3, 1…2…3…”

They tried reviving Ian, but the first attempt was no good.

“Load more joules, let’s try again.”

Ian’s body was electrocuted for the second time but still wasn’t good. One of the doctors decided to give up but the others insisted to do one more.

“Charge!”

The doctors tried many times. Still there wasn’t a change, so one of them was forced to declare Ian’s death, “Time of death, 11:27am.”

The revival process seemed have failed, so one of the doctors came out from the Operating Room to tell them the news. Dr .Williams was so frustrated about the doctor’s expression and asked, “How’s my son?”

The doctor sighed and said, “We did everything we could to save your son.”

He felt rage inside his heart and couldn’t believe what the other doctor said, so he unconsciously released his rage on him, “Don’t you give me that line! I could’ve done better than that!”

The other doctor asked him to calm down while Dorothy cried right beside him. Dr. Williams kept on bugging the doctor, but all he could say to him was sorry. He blamed himself for what happened, “If only I didn’t let him go…”

And then suddenly…

*BEEP…*

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*BEEP…*