Grace
Aw shucks, today as usual the weather was fine and it was like going to rain. I decided to go for my usual jog to comfort myself after eating so much junk food. But never did i know i would return home with both knees scraped badly.
I usually run from my house at hillview to ford factory, then to the old fire station, round the back part bukit batok nature reserve then to the enterance of bukit batok nature reserve and pass all the condos there back to my house. But today i decided to try running it the other way round, so i was thinking that the route would be much smoother at first but at the latter part it was mostly uphills and downhills. I ran the first part without much trouble but it was at the latter part that i met with the accident.
I was racing downhill after a long uphill at the ford factory site, heading towards home already. My run was about 5/6 completed and it was just three more bus-stops to my house. So as some "genius" engineer built the bus-stop so damn narrow that there are no spare paths in front of the bus stop, i had to run behind it dodging the wild growing vines at the walls behind the bus-stop to go past it. But as i made my careful attempt to squeeze past the supporting pole of the bus-stop and the wall decorated with vines, i lost my balance and fell.
It was a whirl of events as i could picture the flesh on my knee being scraped clean off like a apple peeler peeling off the skin of an apple. The rough surface mercilessly removed a generous amount of skin exposing the millions of screaming red cells underneath. My hand tried to stop the impact but it was in vain. The people at the bus-stop was oblivious to what just happened and i had to shoot them an anatagonising look of pain before they hurried to their heels to help. There was an old chinese lady and an accompaning middle aged indian lady. The indian lady expressed the most sincere look of concern compared to the chinese lady who looked as if she had seen this a million times. It was the indian lady who helped me to my feet and seated me on the empty seats at the bus-stop. I was still confused and hurt at the moment, but i still had a sane mind to reject the offer of the chinese lady who had so conviently tore off some public grass and tried to use the sap to rub on my wound. I know she has ages and years of experience but sorry i had to trust myself on this, rubbing stray grass on wounds are NOT a way of helping it to heal. The more sensible indian lady offered me clean tissues to stop the flood from flowing like the nile river. I gratefully accepted them and said a heartfelt thanks, not to the chinese lady of course. The chinese lady threw away the stray grass seeing that i did not appreciate it and tried to advise me in hokkien to rub white sugar on it when i got home. That image of me rubbing sugar on my wounds just made me so revolted that i shunned away from her right after those words escaped from her mouth. The more understanding indian lady asked me where i stayed and it was far more practical than whatever advice the chinese lady had offered. I pointed to my condo to reassure her that i could make it home alive. She nodded and made her leave, giving me some space to clear out my thoughts about it.
Although i fell down and was wounded pretty bad, i thank God that it was not so far away from my house and that it was at a bus-stop where there were seats and kind people( yes including the chinese lady). I rejoice not at the fact that i fell down but at the fact that though this i was able to see the side of other races that i was always blind to. I am grateful for this discovering experience and my heart does not feel the regret of this run but is joyous at the lesson that i learnt from it.
I believe that the wound will heal in time but the lesson that i learn from it will be everlasting.
it was at; 3:51 AM
