A Childhood Memory: The Mysterious Accident

Some recent events may trigger our memory, it sometimes helped us to recall the good and the happy times we had, but sometimes it could trigger the memory we chose to forget because of the bad experience and trauma we faced. However, no matter what we do, there will always be something to remind us about it.

It was a fine day; last Saturday (January 15, 2022) was a busy day for me since I have started my extra activities aside from attending the house. While I was relaxing in our bed with my youngest, my husband suddenly appeared in front of the door, he was like a reporter who’s reporting about what’s happening outside.

“There’s an accident outside, people panicked, someone was hurt.”

At first, I doubted him because he used to play tricks on me most of the time. But then he convinced me to just see it to myself.

As I walked outside, I saw a crowd of people talking, chitchatting and I could see the worriedness on their faces, as I looked around, I saw a man lying from afar, just across the gate where I am standing. The man was not moving, beside him was a motorcycle, so it’s true, there was an accident.

I heard from the people that they saw the man losing his control while driving when a motorcycle from the opposite direction towards him passed by. Then some people who came across him driving could tell that he was drunk.

As the ambulance came with the rescue team, fortunately, we saw the man move his arms and he responded by moving his eyebrows to the medic’s questions about him. However, blood was dripping off from his ears that could be a sign of internal hemorrhage. After checking on him, the rescue team rushed the man to the hospital.

Road accidents may happen at any time in any unexpected circumstances and my old memories, there’s a portion in my memory that a road accident has been part of it.

But it's not as tragic as what happened to the man in the neighborhood.

I was the year 2004, I was 8 years old and during those years my family was in a critical stage of getting broken. My father and my mom always fight over something, money, issues about everything. Those days, they were full of action scenes, flying plates, flying brooms, dustpan, vases, cups, picture frames, or anything handy to throw. My mom was the one who throw anything at my father whenever they quarrel.

And honestly, those scenes gave me trauma when I was a kid. After the tiring fight they had, at dawn, my mother packed our things, hers, my newborn sister’s and mine, we managed to escape my father and my brother who's sleeping in the other room. We rode a tricycle until we got to the terminal.

My mom brought me to her hometown, we traveled about 61 km., I even fell asleep during the trip, and when I woke up we were already reached her place.

My heartfelt so heavy deep inside, I miss my home, my original home. One day passed by, my father along with my brother traveled riding my dad’s tricycle just to get us back. Our family was full of drama in a snap. My father did everything to convince my mother to just go home with him. But my mom was as hard as a rock.

She kept throwing things again to my father, and my dad and brother went home disappointed and sad.

I spent weeks there, frustrated and bored. My mother’s house was located on the farm, near the mountains and the house was standing in the center surrounded by vast rice fields, no electricity, no neighbors nearby, just me, my mom, grandparents, and my newborn little sis.

But another week passed by, my father suddenly appeared, with him was my brother, I was full of gladness when I knew that we were going home. Finally, my mom reconciled with my father on that day.

Riding my father’s tricycle, we excitedly placed our stuff inside. In the front seat, I was the first to seat near the driver’s seat then beside me was my mom, holding the baby. At the back, vegetables, fruits, and our packed things were placed and tied with rope so they won’t fall during the travel.

My brother was seated on the back ride (at the back of my dad).

We happily said our farewell to our grandparents on that day, then we started the 61 km travel.

Everything was fine while we’re passing by in the town, the road was smooth, but not until we reached a rough road in one of the barangays at the end of the town.

There were no people, no houses, all you could see was a road, along a rough road with unstable levels of grounds and was too rocky. My father slowed down but while we’re in the middle of the empty road, I could feel that our tricycle loses its balance.

The pieces of stuff at the back were rumbling, and I heard my mother’s loud voice and a crying baby, later did I realized, we just had an accident.

My father’s motorcycle turned overturned, and I could still picture out that the driver’s seat was on the ground and the sidecar was turned on the upside. (I’m not good at describing it so please excuse my English)

But believe me or not, I forgot how did I get out of my seat. Since I was on the edge near the driver’s seat, I saw myself standing staring at my family in a bad position. My mother and my little sister were trapped inside the sidecar, while my father got stuck in the driver’s seat.

Luckily, my brother who’s seating on the back ride jumped before the tricycle overturned. However, he got minor wounds from the impact of his fall.

It was like a dream, I never blinked an eye but how did I get out?

Those were the questions that until today I couldn’t get the answers to.

Several minutes passed, another vehicle fortunately passed by and call for help. The houses were quite far but there were still people who came by to assist us.

We were just lucky no one was hurt badly during the accident we had. My mother, my little sister, dad, and my brother got minor wounds except for mine. Their bodies were aching except mine.

Then, we assume that the tricycle loses its balance due to the unstable level of the ground on the road, but the residents there told us that we’re might being played by the “unseen”.

You know most people in the mountainside believe in encantos, magic, ghosts, and other unseen more.

It could be a mystery for some reason, and until today we were full of questions about the incident.

But one thing is for sure, accidents on the road could happen anytime, and as I’ve said, it could happen in the most unexpected circumstance. Just like what happened to me and my family last 2004.

Written by: @eommaZel ✍🏻🥀

💚 Thanks for reading!