[𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐚𝐝 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝] - 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐩𝐚𝐝 𝐇𝐐 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐏𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐 ☆
19-year old Akira Joshi has always lived in a shell. She has always viewed the world through a pair of metaphorical rose tinted glasses. Good grades...
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《Short Recap》
The siren of the ambulance pierced the air, as the paramedic team jumped out and got to work immediately. Everything seemed to happen in a blur. They placed Mrs. Pinto on the ventilator and rushed to the nearest hospital, as two nurses held me back.
I screamed and screamed until no sound came. Salty tears ran down my cheeks like a river during summertime as I was put into a hospital car and taken away.
The irony of the situation wasn't lost to me.
I had told Mrs. Pinto that I would not be held accountable if she ended up in the hospital today.
But this was all my fault. I should have helped her across the road. I should have...
●○●
I stared emptily at the stark white walls of the hospital, as I sat uncomfortably on a metal bench outside the operation theatre. The deafening silence suddenly started feeling heavier as it weighed down on me.
Sasha, Mrs. Pinto's daughter, paced restlessly up and down the corridor. The hospital had called her immediately after taking Mrs. Pinto into the ER.
"You should go home Akira. It's very late." She said quietly, pausing to glance ruefully at the door of the OT which had been shut for the last one and a half hour.
I looked up at her in a daze and shook my head, "I'm not going anywhere until I'm sure that Mrs. Pinto's going to be fine. This wouldn't have happened if I had been more careful."
My lips trembled as I spoke.
"None of this was your fault, dear," Sasha reassured me with a sad smile, "My mother travels alone everyday. If anything, I'm grateful that you were there to make sure she reached the hospital on time."
I remained silent, staring at the white tiled floor unsurely.
"But..." I started shifting my gaze slowly to meet Sasha's.
"I know what you're going to say," she cut me off, " I don't blame you for what happened and neither does my mother. And she's a tough old woman, she'll certainly get through this."
The last part sounded more like she was reassuring herself. I really felt sorry for her.
"I'm staying." I stated, my mind spinning in a tizzy as I tried to fathom all the possible outcomes of Mrs. Pinto's accident.
She'd reached the hospital on time so she should have better odds of survival, right?
Sasha shrugged, "Well, you might at least want to change your clothes then. They're covered with blood."
I looked down at my ruined outfit, my dark washed denim shorts looked even darker because of the blood that had seeped in. The yellow smiley face on the corner of my t-shirt looked a lot like those animated, happy drops of blood that had featured in the introduction to menstruation videos they showed us in sixth grade.
