CHAPTER TEN: I’VE BEEN HIT
When I was crossing the road that day, I’ve walked slowly and I’ve looked both sides before crossing, yet I still got hit.
There was a motorcycle suddenly speeding towards me. I didn’t manage to move away, so I fell. My leg hurt and was bleeding, and my lunch was all over the place. I saw what Mother made for me: ham and egg sandwich, an apple and a box of pear juice.
The motorcycle guy picked up his bike and picked me up. Someone across the street came over and asked, “Are you alright? There’s a clinic nearby.”
So they both took me to have my leg bandaged.
The guy who hit me kept on talking, first to the doctor, then to the nurse. He talked real quick, and I couldn’t even understand any of his words. Besides, my leg was so friggin’ painful. I’m trying hard to hold the pain.
Later Mother came and asked the doctor, “Anything wrong? Will he be lame? Who hit him?”
The guy who hit me came to her and said, “It’s me, Mrs. Weasley. I just told the doctor that your son wasn’t watching the road when he was crossing. He made me hit him.”
I then realized that he was our neighbour who works at a construction site. He was Mother’s regular customer. Every time he came for waffles he would asked, “Hey, egghead! Have you eaten your eggs today?” When I replied “Yes”, he would laugh out loud.
But Mother never laughed.
He turned to the doctor and said, “That kid’s brain’s a little slow and reflexes are bad. I did yell out for him to move away but he just stood there.”
He looked at me and said, “What bad luck.”
Mother touched my knee and scolded me silently, “Didn’t I tell you to be careful?”
I said, “I was careful.”
The guy who hit me took his helmet and said, “Alright, I gotta go work now. Tell your son to be careful next time.”
Mother said, “Hey! You just hit my son! Aren’t you gonna pay for the medical bills? You could’ve given my son a concussion!”
The doctor said, “We’ll have to monitor him for three days to confirm that.”
The guy who hit me replied angrily, “Your son’s brain ain’t gonna be any different whether he got a concussion or not. I told you, it was he who wasn’t careful. You can’t blame it all on me.”
He paused for a while and continued, “You shouldn’t be letting that kid walking around in the streets alone, or you’d be blaming everyone for every accident he gets into.”
“Are you saying it’s my fault?” Mother was also angry.
“What else you expect?”
Mother started to cry as she said, “You think you’re so tough bullying someone more dumb than you are, aren’t you?”
The doctor patted Mother’s shoulder and said, “Alright, alright, that’s enough. For now, the medical bills are on me. You just take your son back home and rest, and don’t let water get into his wound.”
So Mother took me home. I didn’t have to go to school today.
But I really felt like eating ham and egg sandwich. When I told that to Mother, she scolded me angrily, “Is there anything else you can do besides eating? Being bullied, that’s all you can do!”
I didn’t dare speak another word. My leg still hurt. Next time if I cross the road, I’m gonna walk even slower and I’m gonna wait until there’s absolutely no more cars before crossing.
But there are so many cars on the road. Do I have to wait until the middle of the night and there’s not a single person on the road before I cross?
The guy who hit was really fierce. Is he always like that when he hits other people? But then again, it’s better not to hit anyone else.
It hurts getting hit.
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