Never mind that Tom, what happened to the dude you downed with the 4-10 ?
Well you’ll be pleased to hear that he wasn’t dead. For a few moments though, I truly thought he was.
For perhaps a maximum of 10 seconds, I knew what it was like to have killed someone. The human thought process doesn’t suffer the same time constraints as does speech or writing, and those 10 seconds were an eternity.
I had time to realise that I had taken a life, and I had time to realise that I had ruined my own. I had time for regret, and time for self-pity. I had time to promise everything I owned or ever would own to any deity who might be listening if I could just be granted the power to take those few seconds back….
I knelt down beside him and reached out a trembling hand, (To do I know not what) As I did, he began to move a little. Then, he took a great shuddering breath and sat up. I was so relieved that I started to cry, and then I was violently sick.
He wasn’t unscathed by any means. We removed the duffle coat and his shirt so that I could examine his back and there, right across his spine was a huge bruise, all purple and black and filled with jelly blood.
He could barely move his arms or his neck. He couldn’t bend, and he had difficulty walking. It took him a long time to recover. It took me even longer.
We were both given our lives back that day. I’m a confirmed atheist, but others have posed this question.
Do we owe our second chance to the benevolence of some omnipotent being, or did we just get lucky?
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