Life In a Flash...In Just a Minute

Martha had repeatedly reminded him to take the insulin shot after breakfast before she left for work….

But he had a stack of emails and WhatsApp messages to answer ASAP at the breakfast table. If he didn’t, he would be fired by the boss in the Press Room in the afternoon when he was scheduled for a meeting with him. The thought of losing his job clawed at Kevin’s insides like a caged beast, threatening to devour him whole.

There were too many to-dos to update on Asana and get executed before 3 pm.

He couldn’t have drawn a blank in the meeting despite his failing health. He was aware that a foggy memory and depleting health at Titan Media Hub would have meant an immediate retirement which he couldn’t have afforded with a long list of pending EMIs and outstanding personal loans dangling like a sword over his head.

He dashed to the door, gulping down a few sips of the celery juice from the pink glass, and completely lost track of the small vial that sat right next to it all along…

He had messed up big time on the high-profile Ember Wild murder case, but could not figure what! The boss had called to see him in thirty which meant he had to drive in flat five minutes, park at the designated facility, and rush down the escalator to avail of the subway ride to reach the office within the deadline.

He was losing the job…yes, his worst fear was coming true. What would he tell Martha? Kevin’s heart raced. He could literally hear it thumping hard now. Martha will not be able to survive the news because they were already scrimping and saving to repay heavy loans. It did not help matters that their income put together was not enough to bail them out of this rough patch.

The weathermen had predicted the day to be the week’s “hottest” and so it was! Navigating through the insanely crowded streets of New York at 9 am is always a nightmare! He barked to get the pedestrians and fellow drivers out of the way, and in return was greeted with a deluge of epithets he best ignored for the time being. He had not a minute to spare. The subway was still a good three minutes away.

He suddenly felt nauseous and his heart pumping up, but he ignored it. Instead, he rushed to the vending machine.

His head felt light and uneasy, but wasn’t sure if it was from fatigue or a foreboding that something unsettling was to happen at work that day. He just had to stop thinking, period.

The train was arriving anytime soon. With the subway ticket finally in hand, Kevin flopped exhausted on one of the commuter benches. He realized that he was sweating profusely as the paper ticket already felt soiled within his clenched fists.

The past thirty minutes of intense running…against time…made his head reel and heart hurt until he saw the woman in white cross the yellow safety line and nose-dive right in front of the roaring car… Kevin made a feeble attempt to shout and reached out to her, but in vain….his cries for help drowned in the cacophony as he dropped unconscious on the concrete. There was a sudden flash, things sped briefly only to become silent in less than 60 seconds.

People rushed to his side. The voices garbled in the background. Everything faded but that woman he had seen across the yellow line, was now looking down at him, holding him tight, and muttering what he could not understand. She thundered at the gathering crowd to make space. He was sinking but they had to act fast to get him medical help.

It was near-death for Kevin. He had suffered a severe hypoglycemic attack. They rushed to admit him to the Emergency unit of the nearby Christ Hospital to avoid letting him slip into a coma.

Sarah Smith was a medical intern there. Kevin had hallucinated seeing her jump to death at a time when he was himself so dangerously close to shuffling off this mortal coil.

A few hours later, when he came to himself, he was a little bemused but extremely relieved to see the ‘lady in white’ alive. He was so glad, after all, that his calls for help hadn’t fallen on deaf ears!

But what was even more puzzling was that she was on duty call and attending to him under her senior’s supervision.

“I am glad we could revive you,” she smiled to him. “It was bad; we had slim chances of seeing you alive ever. Your wife tells us that you left the insulin vial untouched this morning. She has been very worried and was inconsolable when she got here. Maybe you should speak to her,” Sarah advised putting her hands gently on his shoulders.

As she walked towards the door, she turned briefly to say ---

 “Congratulations for getting your life back! Breathe easy while it lasts.”