“Thank God, you are okay. I am so sorry, Ma.”
Alicia stood by the hospital bed, her palms damp with sweat. She had been holding her breath ever since the doctors wheeled the woman in. For a moment, back on the road, when the body collapsed against her bonnet, she thought she had killed someone.
But the doctor’s words just minutes ago had come as a relief: She’s fine. She can be discharged.
The woman lay against the pillows. The way she glared at Alicia made her want to shrink into the floor.
“Would you have been sorry,” the woman said coldly, “if you had rendered me crippled? Or worse, dead?”
Alicia’s lips trembled. She wanted to speak, but the woman raised her voice again.
“Does saying sorry to me take away the pain I’m in right now?”
Alicia flinched. Her hands went up to her ears
