Juan Martin and a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day
It’s all part of the trip, I told my self when this very long day had finally ended. I thought about what had happened, and then about those who where suffering the most. After analyzing my experience I felt extremely grateful for the wonderful day I had just lived.
It was a perfectly normal week day, when we would wake up around 8:30 and 9:00, have breakfast, relax and plan where we would spend our day in the future city, Singapore. We decided to go visit the famous Botanic Gardens, a huge place surrounded by wonderful plants and trees, with plenty to do and a great place to sit back and relax. We went to some wonderful lakes, where Guadalupe and Manuel fed the fish and laughed at the funny looking animals we found right next to the shore, after that, we walked for about half an hour, and decided to stop and rest for a minute. There was a nice small waterfall on the opposite side from we were sitting at.
Manuel and Guadalupe were playing and going to the waterfall and back where we were. I was just messing around with my chopstick-wand, which is caused by my deep obsession with Harry Potter I developed during Europe, when I heard my mom scream. I turned around as quickly as I could and saw something I did not allow myself to believe, I saw Guadalupe running into a golf cart. It may have been seconds, even instants, but I felt something I will never forget in my entire life. I felt that my loved sister was walking away from me. Would I never get a chance to help her in school? Or give her tips about boys? Or even take her to the movies? All those happy memories I had experienced with her flashed in my head, her laughter and her screams and her obsession with Gymboree all came to my mind begging me to react, but I could not move. My legs trembled violently, and I stood there in absolute shock shouting unconsciously at the man who had done it while my mom ran to pick up Guadalupe who was crying in the floor. I may have spoken words I didn't know existed, but forgiveness in that moment was not a considerable option.
My parents picked up Guadalupe and went to the bathroom to check if everything was fine and told us to stay put. After recovering from the non-stop sobs and terrible thoughts destroying my desire to stay calm, two couples came and asked us if there was anything they could do to help. I couldn't have asked for anything else, it was like starving and then eating, I felt relieved and cared for, a couple of minutes passed and my mom came walking towards us with a face of relief, wearing an expression of thankfulness and peace. That face hit me hard, and then I started to cry again, saying ”¡Mi hermana, Mi hermana…!” and my mom asked me “¿Yo? ¿Mala? ¿Por qué?” and I kept on specifying what I wanted to say, but she kept on misunderstanding she was “mala”, then she said, “your sister is fine, all she has is a small scratch in her leg”. I felt so relieved I could have fallen. She was ok, I was incredibly thankful.
We had lunch after a wave of questions from doctors and policemen which we were happy to answer, and the poor man who had ran into my sister was begging for our forgiveness, we all forgave him, after all it had been an accident. We had lunch, it was an amazing pizza, even after being in Italy, I still loved that taste, maybe the whole thing made me hungry.
The day passed and it was all fine, we where calmed, happy and gracious, we came back to our AirBandB apartment and got in the elevator and then my parents asked, “Who has the key?” Everyone said they didn't except me, I remembered I did have the key on my front pocket, but it wasn't there anymore, it couldn't be, it had been enough, I simply couldn't take more pressure in a day. But then, I said: I left it in the first Uber we took in the morning. My mom looked at me with a face which I knew said: After all this days, where nothing had happened, did it really have to be TODAY?! It wasn't as bad as I thought it could have been, I thought we would have to call Eunice (our host) and she would be mad at us for calling so late (she is so nice and I cant imagine her getting mad) and then going to a -1 star motel, but we couldn't pay it because my dad’s credit card would have been blocked as usual (it is being blocked every day for the past 2 weeks because of the “Abnormal Behavior” I don't blame them.) But it wasn't that way, my dad payed 25 Singaporean dollars for the lock man to come, and the Uber arrived and gave us the key that night, it all turned out to be ok and we slept in peace, knowing that tomorrow would be a different day and a new adventure awaited.
