Someone threw a rock at the train

The rock,thrown from the beach at an incredibly speed hit me. I don't know who it is. I don't even know why he did it either. I'm sitting on this hospital bed making up excuses for him and thinking of my life...because he threw a rock at ME.

When I got to Cape Town, I was told one of the best things I HAD to do was take a train ride to Simon's Town. Its a favorite summer past time for Cape Townians. Taking the train offers you the best views of the peninsula, ending at Simon's Town.
A quaint,historic military town with charming antique shops, some of the best sea food restaurants and...some hanging feeling of a period past. Just up the road, there's Boulders beach;a gorgeous strip of land with magnificent boulders, properties, penguins, gorgeous sea views and little coves where one can hide with beach towel and a novel for hours with no disturbance.
I love Simon's Town and go there a lot. Whenever I have to play tour guide like one has to when one has friends from inland, this is the 1st thing I try to take them on! The train ride to Simon's Town!

I have a new friend in town. She relocated here three weeks ago. Yesterday after church, I decided to pull out my trump card activity for her and her 2 year old daughter!
The mother, being a Gautenger, was skeptical about safety and all those things usually said about train rides. They had only ever been on the Gautrain she added. I knew the feeling, I was once like her. I assured her that these were relatively safe and...well, we live in South Africa...you're only ever as safe as the second before the next.

The child was ECSTATIC to go on a choochoo-buddy (ey,don't ask). We got on in 1st class and off we were! The train wasn't full...but,it being a sunny Sunday, there were a coupla people in it. There were boys running up and down the 1st class carriages with a scared little puppy. I remember them chit-chatting with the baby when they passed us. Security eventually came and chased them to the next carriage.

As we were approaching Kalk Bay, the ocean views spread out the train windows. Hello Cape Town you beauty! I lifted the child so she cud see the ocean from the window. People got off, people came in...as it is the way of train rides.
As the train departed, I myself had to get a proper view blue-green water stretched out in front of me...

*THUMP*....it all went black. My head was throbbing. I was trying to make sense of what just happened. Funnily...I was taken back to a story I read earlier this year. It was about a man who died after being hit by a brick while in a train. I realised I had been hit...I was scared...but...hey,I have no blood...I'm ok at least. I removed the hand that I had not realized I had on my forehead and blood came gushing out.

I'm grateful my friend brought me to this hospital. The problem with head injuries, I'm told, is that one can seem perfectly ok...then speech blurs, you start walking sideways...you die.

Before here, I had sat at the train station with dozens of men in blue giving statement after statement for 2hours. Blood still gushing out, weak...waiting for an ambulance. I lost my wallet earlier this week...so my medical aid card wasn't in my bag...purrfuct neh?
After two hours of waiting in the tiny train station, a good hearted cop took me in his car to False Bay hospital. There, I was given a tetanus shot and a big bandage was attached to my forehead...to stop the blood I suppose. I needed to be stitched the nurses told me...(Eeehhhh...I dzont sink soo)
Now, I've seen stitches done at...umm...y'know...some hospitals. There was NO WAY I was gonna be zig zagged on my face!!I cried even more then.

I waited for the doctor to see me a further 2hours. That's when my friend came...said this is bull and brought me here.
A cosmetic surgeon was called to stitch me so I'm hoping I won't have to fringe for life.

The boy who hit me? He's probably unaware of all this. Or even that he 'may' have scratched someone. His life is tops.
This incident got me thinking of how fragile life really is. I didn't get a flash of my life's important people or think of Renda...It was: rock-makes-contact then BLACKNESS. It can all be over in a flash.
Even now...while waiting to hear how my head looks (note:I have confirmed that I do have a brain now :p), what ifs fill my head (that has a brain)
 What if the skull IS cracked?
What if I'm bleeding inside?
What if I have 6months left?
Would I continue doing what I do daily? Would I put effort in what I put effort in?

Life can change very quickly. My one near-death experience has got me thinking about such things. It can all be gone in a second...a statistic in our world topping Crime records.

Those boys play that game all thru summer. Blissfully (high on glue) unaware of the consequences of their actions. What a ripple effect they cause. Renda being without a mother. The stress of getting a body from here to Venda...I'd smell(eeeuuuwww)
The stress of friends in pain getting outfits for the funeral (tjoootjooooo)...its all so senseless! And even now, he doesn't know I'm lying here, drugged, scared, without my mother here...thinking these thoughts.

Well, I am grateful for the revelation this has brought. God protected me. I am alive, not a statistic. I always say 'you won't die a second before your time...and death doesn't scare me...' I guess I just never thought my time...your time, could be this next second. One needs to be in the right with their maker every second of any day.
A new start, a new me. Life goes on.