The Accident

The story I am going to share with you definitely changed my perspective towards the importance of life and has taught me why we should value things we have. I am not a good writer and this is my first story. I think this message is really something I want to get across people.

This incident happened with me on Monday last week. I work part time as an Uber eats driver and deliver food to earn some cash for paying bills.

So, I was driving down the road at around 12 am doing Uber Eats. It was a 60km limit road and I was under the speed limit. Suddenly a cat ran from right side of the road to cross it. The timing of cat running to cross the road was so sudden that I did not get time to react and hit the cat.

I heard the sound of the first hit with my car bumper and second hit was sounded like the poor animal hit the tyres. After the sound of those two hits there was already a sense in my mind that the cat would not have survived those. I still pulled over immediately and got out of my car to see the cat.

As I opened the door and looked back, I saw the cat jumped very high and then fell on the ground. The jump felt like it was involuntary jump which its nervous system made it to do as its body had lost control and felt like it used all the remaining energy to make that jump. After that jump, its body suffered like an insect suffers when you put bug spray on it. It stopped in less than 5 seconds and I could see its stomach inflating with air which made me sure its alive but probably it was the last breath that it inhaled.

My body was shivering with fear at that time and with shivering hands I took out my phone and searched the keyword “Animal Helpline” on google and quickly dialled the number in first link. Someone picked it and I explained the whole situation in one sentence. They asked me if I can bring the cat to their hospital. I was lost and looking at the cat at same time while talking and told them that I think the cat is dead. They told me to bring it anyway so that they could track and inform owners about the deceased pet.

I hanged up and quickly googled their address and picked up the cat. As soon as I picked up its body was loose and it was bleeding from few spots and I had realised that it was no more. I still ran towards the car, put the cat in back seat and started driving. On maps I could see the hospital was 25 km away and would take about 24 minutes to reach there.

I started driving, my hands were still shaking and I felt like crying. I had to go through a few streets before getting on highway and all I was thinking was to overspeed and reach to hospital quickly just in case if cat was still alive and they could save its life. That 1% part of my brain which was thinking it can be alive also gave me a thought to overspeed and reach the destination quickly. But I decided not to over speed because of the speeding fines and other consequences they bring with them.

After this thought I felt that I am so mean who is thinking about fine money right now and giving it more importance than life. I was caught in this dilemma and could not decide what was the right thing to do. In the end I decided to stay within the road rules and kept driving. While on highway each second felt like forever and it felt like time has stopped.

I have a few wishes in my life like everyone has, like becoming rich and marrying girl of my dreams but at that time all I could feel was, “I don’t want anything, I take back what I have wished for. I only want this cat to live, that’s all.” Funny how things you want in your life can change completely in few moments.

Anyway after 25 minutes of driving I finally reached the hospital, rushed out of my car, open the back door, took the cat out and ran towards the hospital door. A lady opened the door and another lady quickly collected cat and they went in another room. After 2-3 minutes she came out of the door and told me that they will inform the owners about it. I asked, ”Is the cat dead?” And she told me unfortunately yes, its gone and they will inform the owners. I was pretty upset and my face would have definitely shown the anxiety and shock at that time as the lady walked me out to my car and told me to take a deep breath before driving and said that it was not my fault but owners should have kept it indoors.

I sat in my car and went blank for a second. After a second I couldn’t stop myself and cried out really loud. All I was thinking was, I killed an animal, I stole his only life from him. And that feeling of responsibility for someone‘s death made me cry out so loud for few minutes. After I stopped crying I looked for tissues to clean my face and there weren’t any, so I went inside the clinic again to ask them if I can use bathroom to wash my face. They let me in again and when I saw my face in bathroom mirror, it was so red and I was surprised to see my face like that.

I came out after washing my face and they gave me box of tissues. One of the nurse told me that they have contacted the owners and they are not angry on me and they will collect the dead body tomorrow morning. I said thank you and went out again in my car. I gave a thought about what she said about owners not being angry on me. That sentence didn’t make me feel any better as I was not concerned what owners think. I was sad only because an animal had lost its life from an accident with my car and its gone.

Life is something which once gone never comes back. The gift of life by God is given only once and that cat had lost it just because I hit him/her. And that poor animal will never know what happened, why it happened and what was the mistake.

All the senses which make you feel alive were gone and maybe the cat went into forever darkness. I am not a believer of life after death but while driving back home I was wishing that there was something after death where the cat had gone now and is happier.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that being alive is such a great thing. My housemate has a pet cat too and it likes to sit near window to get sunlight and feel warm and cozy. I was thinking that the cat I killed would never be able to have that feeling again or it could never have the joy and pleasure of eating cat food again. Or the satisfaction of drinking water when you are thirsty. All weird thoughts like these were running in my mind and I had no control.

My thought process continued like this for couple more days before I started to recover. This incident was not just an accident for me but it made me understand the importance of life. There are lot of things we do everyday and still complain about life at the end of day. Valuing small things in life matters a lot. Little and small things like sipping your coffee, watching a movie, taking a shower all are things that need to be valued as these things make us experience the feeling of being alive.

Life is a gift we only get once and we should value it and care for people around us and our families, as these things will not last forever and one day everyone will loose this thing called life.