Heena Lal

An Accident It was a breezy Saturday afternoon. The clouds covered the sun and bought great harmony into the air. I was a young girl about the age of 10 and was standing on the terrace located on the top of the house. I was smiling and enjoying every moment that went through. Yet, I did not know what game fate would play with me that day, and what choice of. I was walking around the huge terrace and observing what everyone else was doing because I had nothing better to do. I was mostly companied by people older than me and almost all of them were my relatives. A few were my cousin’s friends. I could view other terraces from the top my terrace and people all around gathered together because it was some kind of celebration. They were lighting all kinds of spectacular fireworks and smoke was everywhere. Everyone on my terrace got the chance to light the fireworks except me since I was so young. So I went and asked one of my cousins for a small firework that was not dangerous for me. I was allowed to light a small firework and hold it until it burned out by itself. I happily ran around the terrace with the firework in my hand. The terrace was so huge so I went from corner to corner. I was mindful not to get too close to an opening about twelve feet down in the terrace. The big square opening lead to another house and the chickens were kept in that little area. It had walls around it but there were no stairs connecting to the terrace because it was a different house.
Suddenly, an older cousin of mine wanted the firework for himself. I did not want to give it to him because it was my first time playing with fireworks. I kept backing off but my cousin kept following me trying to snatch it out of my hands. He kept telling me that I was too young for it and he really needed it to light another firework but I kept on refusing. Neither of us realized that the opening was right behind me and I fell into it. At first, I did not know what was happening to me. There was no movement in my body and I felt as if I could not hear anything. I had no control over my body or senses and was only in one position. I quickly realized I was falling down in air. It was a very awkward and different feeling. It made me terrified and devastated. I did not know what was going to happen to me next. Am I going to live or die? I was so young and helpless I did not know what to think or say. Suddenly, I hit the hard cement ground smashing and killing one of the poor chickens. I also felt something hit my head awfully hard.
I laid there on the ground thinking I was dead but I heard the noise of the chickens around me. I thought to myself that I probably lost some of my senses but fortunately I did not. Blood was all around me and the smell of it was sickening. I had no strength whatsoever to get up so I just laid there. The selfish cousin somehow managed to come down to save me. He tried to get me up so I gathered all my strength together and got up. It was extremely difficult for me to even cry because the pain was so bad itself. Pools of blood streamed down my face and ears and I was literally bathing in blood. The stickiness, redness, and smell of blood made me want to vomit. The blood was oozing down my face so fast we could not even figure out where it was coming from. I heard loud screams and noise from above and so I looked up. I finally saw some hope coming down as my aunt threw down a rope and I begged her to be saved. By the help of my cousin and aunt I managed to reach to the top of the terrace by the rope.
I was quickly rushed to the hospital and was sent into the emergency room. There the doctors gave me stitches on the head and also on my left cheek as I screamed with pain. They tried to divert my mind by talking about school and other irrelevant things but I could not get my mind off the pain. I had no strength to talk to them since I lost so much blood. They wrapped a tight cloth around my head and on my left hand which had a small fracture, and they were finally done with sewing. After taking a long nap, I woke up and saw my mother first, then my rest of the family and other relatives surrounding me around the bed. I saw tears from my mother’s eye’s going down to her lips. She came close to me and kissed on my forehead. I was very happy to be alive with all my sense functioning as they used to function before the accident. To this day I could never forget the most terrible, horrible, scary, disturbing and frightful moment of my life.