The Failed Progress

I was in a hurry to reach my school as I had missed my school bus and had to catch an auto. I had a heavy bag on my back loaded with several subject books and notebooks, a purple water bottle and a small rose plant with a tiny pink budding rose for the environment day exhibition.

I ran from my home towards the auto stand as I didn’t afford to be late anymore as I would have to stay out of the assembly if I was late. I asked an auto to wait for me using the signal of my hand and raced towards it. Suddenly, a girl in a green dress came running and sat in the auto that I had stopped. She looked tensed and with agitation asked the driver to move fast.

In a rage, I abused the driver as well as the girl who took my auto. I got another auto and rushed to my school. Near the school gate, I found a huge crowd gathering around a smashed bike and blood stains all around it. The sight of the blood was making me nauseous. I felt sorry for the accident. But ignoring that for a while as I was turning to my school gate, I saw the same girl in the green dress who grabbed my auto. I looked at her big beautiful eyes which had swollen after crying for a long time. 

She was standing dumb faced along with the crowd and then with a loud heart-piercing shriek she leaned towards the injured body saying, ‘No Mumma, you can’t do this to me. I was wrong but you can’t leave me like this, all alone. Wake up, Mumma. I’ll listen to you. I’ll always listen to you. Please, Mumma! I know I am stupid to always argue with you. I promise Mumma, now I'll do as you say. But just wake up for God's sake.” 

Her words were filled with an intense love for her mother but they were not enough to help her mother to respond to her. I couldn't stop myself and went there just to inquire. A shopkeeper said, "I had already called her daughter from her mobile. What else can we do? This is a case of an accident. I saw a young boy on a bike coming in full speed from the other side, while this poor lady was crossing the road. The bike bumped on her and the boy fled with the bike. No one could note his bike's number."

I asked him, "But why no one is taking her to the hospital? She will die if it's delayed."

A man from the crowd said, "No one can take her to the hospital as it is a case of an accident and the bike rider who caused the accident has fled. If anyone does that one has to bear the consequences."

The girl tried to lift the body of her mother herself but couldn’t do that. I couldn’t wait any longer and run towards the ailing girl leaving my plant near the school gate. I stopped an auto and carried the injured lady with the help of the girl who was sobbing continuously to the auto. We took her to the city hospital.

It was too late to save her life. The doctors declared the lady dead within an hour after she was taken to the ICU. 

The girl was spellbound and fell on the floor. She had lost her only companion, her mother. I sat beside her but didn’t know what to do or what to say. She was guilty of doing something against the wish of her mother and now she had to live with that guilt forever. 

That reminded me of my mother and I took her cell phone to call my mother to inform her about the incident. Within a few minutes, my mother came there in the hospital. I found it strange that my mom was crying too as if the dead lady was very close to her. I came to know from her that the bike rider who fled after the accident was none other than my elder brother who got his new bike this year on his 18th birthday.