Apparently, you can. Especially if you are speeding down a really steep driveway that connects with a busy road frequented by cars, buses, and trucks.
No, I didn't get hit by a bus. I didn't even make it to the main road. It all happened so quickly I didn't even have the time to say "Oops!". But like all accidents go, I remember every detail like as if it happened in slow motion.
I was halfway down the driveway when the front wheel of the plastic vehicle decided to part ways with the mothership. As you might have heard, tricycles tend to behave rather strangely when they are missing the front wheel, and mine certainly had no plans on being the exception. The two steel rods that held the wheel went ploughing into the blacktop, bringing the tricycle from 60 to 0, quite abruptly, in 2 seconds. Meanwhile, for a very, very short period of time, I was airborne. But with the road racing up to kiss me face, fast.
I felt no pain at all. Not even when I hit the road chin-first. All I remember is this bright flash of light and then, darkness. When the light came back on, I had a dull headache and the taste of metal in my mouth. And if it hadn't been for a hysterical Kelly Dorji (yeah, the same one who's an actor/model but he was only eight then), I wouldn't have known that my chin was hanging from my face and you could see bone.
Yeah, there was blood, lots of blood. And a whole lot of screaming and yelling. Numbers were dialled, parents were called, and I was rushed to the hospital.
Five stitches put my chin back where it should have been. The scabs on my face took about a month to go. And, in about another two months, we were back on that steep driveway, racing our Tobu tricycles again as if nothing had happened.
So many years have passed since then and, sometimes, I wonder if the stuff I reminisce about ever took place or am I just imagining memories.
But, on my chin there is a scar
(That's me. 9 years old, and hanging around with Chaagay, waiting for the scabs on my face to go. Thimphu, 1978)
No, I didn't get hit by a bus. I didn't even make it to the main road. It all happened so quickly I didn't even have the time to say "Oops!". But like all accidents go, I remember every detail like as if it happened in slow motion.
I was halfway down the driveway when the front wheel of the plastic vehicle decided to part ways with the mothership. As you might have heard, tricycles tend to behave rather strangely when they are missing the front wheel, and mine certainly had no plans on being the exception. The two steel rods that held the wheel went ploughing into the blacktop, bringing the tricycle from 60 to 0, quite abruptly, in 2 seconds. Meanwhile, for a very, very short period of time, I was airborne. But with the road racing up to kiss me face, fast.
I felt no pain at all. Not even when I hit the road chin-first. All I remember is this bright flash of light and then, darkness. When the light came back on, I had a dull headache and the taste of metal in my mouth. And if it hadn't been for a hysterical Kelly Dorji (yeah, the same one who's an actor/model but he was only eight then), I wouldn't have known that my chin was hanging from my face and you could see bone.
Yeah, there was blood, lots of blood. And a whole lot of screaming and yelling. Numbers were dialled, parents were called, and I was rushed to the hospital.
Five stitches put my chin back where it should have been. The scabs on my face took about a month to go. And, in about another two months, we were back on that steep driveway, racing our Tobu tricycles again as if nothing had happened.
So many years have passed since then and, sometimes, I wonder if the stuff I reminisce about ever took place or am I just imagining memories.
But, on my chin there is a scar
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