A ROAD ACCIDENT

A FIGHT WITH THE ANGELOF DEATH

With my luck like a weevil in a biscuit, I was still alive. I saw what was happening but could not afford to speak. I was hurt at my elbow and my ankle was severely painful. Behind my left eye, I felt drops of blood falling on my shoulder. Black seemed to be the colour of the day. I really smelt death as pain that cut like a knife engulfed me. If I managed to escape death on that fateful day, I guess, one day I will become the president in our country. I was very lucky indeed.

People pulled me outside the car. I tried to run but women held me firmly. My heart pounded under my chest since I was afraid of death. My chest cavity threatened to rapture because of the heartbeat. I remained rooted to the ground and my eyes on the scene. I forced myself to blink but my eyelids remained rigid, allowing hot tear drops on my cheeks draw two neat lines.

Helplessly, Diana was between the seats. She was left unconscious, almost half dead! Between the devil and deep blue sea, she lay bleeding profusely. Monica, driver and my dad were seriously smashed. Their skins were caked with blood from the pool they lay in. At the car boot, was the palm of the driver!

Under the car, blood flowed like a waterfall. It was a b****y mess, horrid scene and too disgusting to see. What I saw made my eyes almost pop out of their sockets! When my dad was pulled outside the car, he was half n***d; his skinned face was awash with blood, hips torn to shreds, teeth fragments lay on the ground, eyes gorged out of their sockets, his both legs were broken severally, the left hand was missing and his abdomen so pierced that some inner parts were out.

The scene was indeed ghastly. I had lost my father! He was dead! I couldn't believe my eyes full of hot tear drops. The fate was very fearful. Surely, there was pain inside me that cut like a scalpel. Everybody was amazed.

A mist of thoughts clouded my mind. Pure horror struck me as my knees trembled with fright. Everything was in total confusion. Wails and screams went through the air as everything stood aghast with terror. Women were weeping, ladies mourning, children crying and men shouting `Help, Help'!

They screamed at the top of their voices. The noises were unbearable. The rowdy scene could awaken the dead. “This is careless driving”, a woman said.

“This is a black spot. We have lost many people at this place,” a man added letting out a repellent odour which reeked through our noses.

He was pouting in pain and sweating heavily. His teeth were tightly held together. He was like a monster with red pepper eyes. He had a figure that I thought would only be seen in vampire movies. He was irritated beyond control thus breathing fire. I definitely knew that everything was in a mess.

Off the road in a ditch at the left side, the engine of the school bus was still on. The driver and nine students died on spot and others were seriously injured. People were pulling them from the school bus. The scene was full of pathetic cries and grief. All what I saw is fearful to speak.

The idea that my dad was dead hit me like a thunder bolt. More people gathered at the scene to witness the uncharged tragedy. The horrifying scenes almost send some by-standing women mad as others sobbed hysterically. Many bodies remained trapped in the bus lying in pools of blood. Before the men in blue arrived, some opportunists destined to aid took the opportunity of the ordeal and ransacked the pockets of the victims.

Within a blink of an eye, car alarms and sirens of ambulances were heard zooming to the scene blaring at full speed to rescue the lucky survivors. The siren alerted the pickpockets that their days were numbered and hence they ran for safety. All bodies were pulled outside the bus and put in the waiting two ambulances.

People who cheated death by a whisker strolled away with renewed spirit to serve their creator for saving them from the lethal jaws of death. Just then, injured people were rescued and rushed to hospital minutes before they fell into a coma. Those who sustained minor injuries were treated and discharged while those with serious injuries were admitted.

On my hospital bed, I was attended by a doctor who was dressed in an angelic-white dustcoat. He had a stethoscope dangling from his neck. He was very humble, loving and caring. On the wall flat screened television, the breaking news were all about the accident. Everything before me blurred as tears brimmed my eye sockets. My desolate mind was crammed with all sorts of thoughts and I pondered deeply about it. I felt crushed, lonely and belittled, unable to curb my mind from keeping the scroll of the fatal accident.

After few minutes, my uncle arrived in the hospital. He asked me about my father but I was mute. Only tears were flowing on my visage. My life on earth was a living hell. I cursed the day I was born. That was the day when the sun did not set on the western barren horizon and tyranny of darkness reigned in my life. I was admitted for three days for more treatment.

Wasting no precious moment, my uncle paid the hospital bill and took me back home. On the way, I was frightened to encounter another accident but finally we arrived home safely.

At home, I saw new faces and neighbours who sat at different groups under the compound trees. They were all dull, mourning and others cried. Whoever I met said sorry to me. Their condolences sunk deep in my soul and sometimes, led me shed tears. My mother cried all long until her eyes grew sore. At every morning, the elders sat under the mango tree for burial preparation.

Days dragged to hours, hours dragged to minutes and the day was at hand. Memories unfold in my mind when I figure the adventure. The day broke briskly. The sun was blowing with all its pleasantness that only the country wind could carry. Birds were singing gaily to the rising sun as they looked for insects. The sky was blue and very clear except small puppy clouds which hung on the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro.

The situation was frightening. My teeth rattled together in the early morning cold gushing wind. The gentle hum of wind was brushing against the paw paw palm. I never knew what I was doing but I felt lost, lonely and misplaced on planet earth.

My blood almost froze in my protruded veins and my heart palpitated inside my chest. I then moved phlegmatically and managed to sun bath on the rays of the cruel splendidly rising sun. Behind the house, I sat on a stone and endlessly, gazed at the rising sun.

The adventure tossed from corner to corner of my mind like a ball in a playground. I wept bitter tears. My eyes were red with weeping. Tears of sorrow were brimming in my eyes. I blinked repeatedly in bid to keep them back but all in vain.

I temporally became blind from the salty tears that ran down my cheeks. Seething pain stubbed all my nerves leaving me weeping. I took a handkerchief and wiped my running nose. After few minutes, the scorching rising sun forced me to go back into my hut.

At noon, people of all walks of life, men and women, the old and young had sneaked into the compound. They brought water, firewood and even food. The elders had dug the grave and sat under the green mango tree.

They chattered in low tones and everything was in good manner. Our friends and relatives sent messages of condolences as some of those who attended the funeral sobbed distractedly. It was a grotesque sight to watch.

Memories of the chaotic day are flesh in my mind. The sun hot and scorching like sulfur, hit every one. After lunch hour, I heard the distant wails of a hearse. In the twinkling of an eye, the hearse arrived and the coffin was taken into my dad's house. Immediately, the family members were called for last prayers. After a thrush of a duck's tail, we carried the coffin, singing mournfully towards the grave.

The place was full of turmoil. Dad was buried and his files were closed on planet earth. When the funeral was over, I went and knelt down by the grave. Tears of contrition were flowing down my cherub chubby cheeks making neat two lines.

I solemnly whispered, ‘Dear dad rest in peace until we meet again in heaven.’

I then sat by the graveside engulfed by darkness as sympathy tears flowed down my dark red tomato cheeks. Quickly, a woman rushed to me and pulled me from near the grave. She forced me to sit on a skeleton chair which laid near the door of my dad’s house. Truly speaking, it was a tragedy too soon.

The scorching sun was making its slow but sure progress reluctantly towards the western horizon. Birds were chirping melodiously going back to their nests, saying good bye to the tedious day. Panting and tired, I found myself sweating.

I stood up and aimlessly took some steps around the home compound. On reaching under a tree, I heaved myself on the top of a rock and endlessly, gazed at people leaving back to their homes. It took me some time to regain my strength.

An air of gloom hung in the family. We were caught with painful sorrow. We could not imagine life without a father. It was the bitterest pill to swallow. I felt as if I was exploding into small bits. What a smashing blow in our family!

That was how I lost my Dad. He lost his fight with the angel of death and left to an imaginary world. The adventure into the invisible world engulfed and left me in a trance, young and green in mind. Mom, a jobless widow also experienced the pain of the adventure.

Pangs of anger stings my stomach and the whole body at every moment the events of that fateful day replay like a video cassette in my mind. The wounds are too fresh to heal.

Surely, what gain is obtained in spilling of innocent blood? What did we do to deserve all that? For how long shall people suffer their own destiny? Surely, death is real. It eloped with my father leaving me, a fatherless, and my mother, a widow. Drivers should drive safely, caring lives of passengers. Actually, if I were God, I would stop death!