She was walking next to me and talking about something. I wasn’t even fully listening.
Then I heard a loud horn.
I turned and saw a truck coming very fast.
Before I could react, it hit her.
She fell on the road.
Everything went silent for me. I couldn’t hear anything properly. I just held her and kept saying “Amma… Amma…” but she wasn’t moving.
And then I felt something strange.
Like time was waiting for me.
Ten seconds.
Only once.
I didn’t think about anything else. I just wanted her back.
Suddenly everything changed.
She was next to me again, still talking.
The truck was coming.
This time I didn’t freeze. I pulled her back quickly.
The truck missed us.
For one second I felt relieved.
Then it lost control.
It swerved and crashed into a crowded bus stop.
The sound was horrible.
People screaming. Glass breaking.
When it stopped, my mother was alive. She was shaking but alive.
Across the road, five people were lying on the ground.
Not moving.
My mother hugged me and kept saying, “You saved me.”
But I couldn’t look at those five bodies.
If I didn’t use those ten seconds… maybe only one person would have died.
I saved her.
But did I really save anything?