(First person POV)
'I had to die. Yeah… no kidding.'
"Dhalik, stop! Come back here, young man!"
'Whatever she says, I'm not going back.'
"I'm not coming back with you!" I yelled. "I'm done with those stupid tests!" My voice echoed down the corridor.
Behind me, footsteps were getting closer. "You were in an accident, for the love of god!"
"Hah... so what, nurse Elli?"
A few weeks ago I used to be just another kid. At eight years old, I was reckless and barely thought about the consequences.
'I learned it the hard way though.'
It all began in my neighborhood while playing with my friends.
*******
Three weeks ago…
[August 4, 2005- midday| Shimoni-Heights Mombasa gated community]
I was out playing football with the kids from the community, when one of us kicked the ball too hard and it flew over the fence and landed on the roof of a building close by.
We just looked at each other. "Ah... what now?"
Now, as a sensible child, I should've gotten an adult to help, right? Well no. I did what any dumb kid would've done.
"I'll go and get it." Yep totally not sensible.
There was a big tree beside the building. Its thick branches stretched close enough for me to reach the roof. So I climbed up the tree, crossed onto a branch, then jumped onto the roof.
Once I reached the roof, I grabbed the ball.
"Here it comes!" I told them as I threw the ball back down. As I was about to jump off the roof and onto the branches to climb back down. The roof— cracked.
"What!"
My foot went through the surface and something caught my leg. "Whoa!"
That caused my balance to shift and before I knew it. I was falling, head first. "Aaaa!"
Time didn't seem to slow like in the movies I watched, it also didn't feel stretched like what people claim it does in those kind of moments. It just continued.
I still remember that feeling clearly. It wasn't confusion.
".....!" Just fear.
Because at that moment, I knew.
Seconds later I hit the ground. Hard, and everything went dark.
Now I'm not clear on everything that happened afterward. But it went something like this.
*******
[August 4, 2005 – later that day | Mombasa Hospital]
Somehow I was still conscious when Msemo carried me into the hospital. He was a retired Kenyan veteran working as a guard these days.
"Help! Someone help!"
In that state all I could hear were hospital sounds like machines, groaning, overlapping footsteps and voices. As emergency workers rushed to get me the help I needed.
"Someone get a stretcher now!" Was said.
"The emergency room is ready," came from another, as I was being rushed into it.
One of them stayed behind to get my details before following after the stretcher.
I couldn't feel my body properly. The room felt far away, almost distant, like I wasn't fully inside it.
'Where am I?'
Doctors, nurses moved around me, checking monitors and adjusting IVs.
A moment later, somebody walked in. "Patient report."
"Dhalik. Eight years old, blunt trauma from a fall. Multiple fractures and internal hemorrhage."
'What's going on?'
"Is he stable enough to operate on?"
"Yes— no his heart rate is falling," someone said.
"Get the defibrillator ready," said another. "Come on faster, we're losing him."
"Charging."
"Clear!" A moment later the shock came. "Again!"
As voices grew faint and as death came closer. I noticed something unusual, I wasn't afraid. I actually felt… free.
'So this is how my story ends huh.'
"Doctor, I think we lost him." And the last thing I heard was a sigh, then. "Time of death."
That's when it happened. At first it was soft, as though the silence itself was swallowing the sound. But gradually it became clearer.
Beep. Beep.
The monitor kept beeping. Someone said something, but I didn't hear what was said. Just the beginning and the end.
'What was that?'
A hand near me. A cloth moving. Then nothing.
Later it was said I was lucky. I don't know if that was really the case, even now I still doubt it.