Short Story: That Dark Night When Full Moon Closed My Eyes

First Aid Box. Check. Knife. Check. Spectacle Case. Check. The words keep ticking in his mind like the hands of a clock. Beating him. Slapping him. Consoling him. And frightening him. How many times he had to satisfy himself by telling that it was not his mistake. The death of that old man did not happen due to him. But it does not work. It never did. He has stopped sleeping in the night after that incident. Every night he is out on the road, with just one line embossed on his heart - no death will happen in front of me even if he meets a person who is fainting, losing breath or getting a heart attack. He is equipped now.

But still it haunts him. He never feels good in any condition, under any situation now. Cool breeze appears as if smiling shamelessly on him and taunting him, asking him by shaking his conscious - What happened to you that day? Why could not you do anything? How did you afford to let a person die in front of you? Why did you just got fixed on the ground as if you were not a living entity. As if you were a statue made of stone. As if you did not have a heart, brain or senses to act on what was happening in front of you. He still accuses himself. Though after that night when that incident happened that shook his heart and soul. Immediately after that incident he underwent a training in paramedic and took an oath that this incident will never happen in his life again. He will never let it happen at any cost. And that is when he equipped himself with his ultra modern First Aid Box that is equipped enough to manage a dying body to revive to a sustainable position and reach to a nearby hospital. He can manage the show even in case if anyone is profusely bleeding, or has had a heart attack.

But that night was most shocking night of his life. He was 19 and was coming back home after watching a late night movie with his friends. He was alone and was driving his car, after dropping his three friends to their home. All of a sudden he saw some large shape on he road in front that was apparently of a man in his middle age lying on the road, rolling over with both his hands on his heart as if in deep pain and in clear moonlight he could sense that probably it is a heart attack or some sever pain that the person is not able to control and is in dire need of assistance. Instead of pressing the brake pad of his car, he found his accelerator pad getting pressed and with a speed he moved his car from the side of that person. 

He had got totally confused and nervous. He got frightened that if he will stop, some men will appear from the sides and will attack on him. Or even if this is a genuine case, police will put him behind the bars claiming him to be responsible for this.

But next day morning when he read the newspaper and got to know that it was a genuine case and since nobody stopped there to help that person, he had passed away due to serious heart congestion. Had someone stopped and helped that person, probably a life would not have gone unnecessarily on the road.

This post is a part of Write Over the Weekend, an initiative for Indian Bloggers by BlogAdda.