Ever watched the movie Sliding Doors, where one small incident may lead to a series of unforeseen events?
SLIDING DOORS
Today I caught the bus into town to do my weekly grocery shopping. As the bus pulled out from the end of the road, it signaled to turn left. Wait! It's supposed to turn right. What's going on?? Then I realised I got on the wrong bus. Stupid me!!! I immediately got off and walked back to the previous stop. Urggh!!! I hate walking in the cold especially when it's only 4 degrees centrigrade. Now I have to wait another 20 minutes in the cold for the next bus.
As I was playing on my mobile phone at the bus stop, I saw out the corner of my eye, a young skinny lad, and a nurse walking towards me. I assume it was his girlfriend who has just finised her shift, as the hospital is just down the road. There wasn't any dialogue between the two, almost like they were together but didn't know one another. I was thinking how come the poor girl isn't cold as she was just wearing short sleeves scrubs.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
The guy didn't look very friendly and suddenly he spat quite violently on the pavement. Comon! Spitting is rude and unhygienic, and now especially with Covid, it's even worse. I threw a look of disapproval, not directly at him, but if he saw my face he would have seen it. I continued to pretend play on my mobile phone, and casually walked a few steps to get away from him. He walked towards me. It didn't feel good. Then he shouted something at me, I didn't catch what he said but it made me jump and uneasy. I looked up, and the guy had his back to the nurse. She mouthed something at me and made a telephone call gesture. I didn't catch what she was trying to say, maybe "don't worry, I will call his friends or family about it." So I left it and walked a few more steps further away from the guy. I was feeling really uncomfortable now.
Hubby was standing near the nurse, and both were behind the guy. I saw the nurse say something to hubby. The guy went hysterical again, shouting and spitting even more eractic than beore. It was then that I noticed the guy was wearing a hostipial patient wristband. I continue to walk away and when I turned back I saw hubby with his hands in the air, like when someone is pointing a gun at you!! Luckily, the guy wasn't armed or anything, hubby was fine. Hubby caught up with me and said the nurse asked him to call the police. Shit!
CALLING THE POLICE
He said when he reached for the phone, the guy went into another fit, that's why he had to put his phone away and put his hands up to show he wasn't making any phone calls. I continued to walk away, towards the hospital and immediately pulled my phone out to call 999. I don't think I've ever done that before.
As we were walking towards the hospital and speaking to 999 at the same time, we saw another guy walking towards us. I told him there's a nurse over there with a guy who is very unstable and could he please help keep an eye on her whilst I talk to the police. It was all a bit chaotic as both hubby and I were trying to explain the situation to him, and I was also on the phone at the same time. This guy eventually got the gist of the situation and went over to the bus stop whilst I continue to speak to 999.
The 999 operator asked for the location and description of the guy. I never got a direct look at him, young, skinny, wearing black jacket and a beanie hat. When asked about his race, I suddenly froze into panic mode, was it ok to say he was black? Or was that racist? I can't remember what I mumbled in the end.
THE BUS
By this time, I had nearly reached the hospital. Hubby said he saw the nurse on the bus which had just pulled into the hospital. I relayed that to the 999 operator. "What about the lad?" They asked. "What about the lad?" I asked hubby. Can't see him, can only see the girl on the bus.
Eventually, I got to the hospital and walked up to the bus. It had stopped outside the main entrance, not by the bus stop where it should be.
The nurse had got off the bus, thank goodness she was ok. The guy who we stopped and asked to look after the nurse was also on the bus. He was ok as well. Four or five security guards were outside the bus guarding the hysterical lad who had calmed down a little by now. The lad then walked over to the hospital bus stop and all the security guards followed him. I updated the 999 operator with the latest situation and she asked if the police still needed to come. I wasn't sure. It wasn't my call. A Site Matron had arrived. I told the matron I was on the phone with 999, did they need to police to come? She mentioned something about the girl being in custody so it's better if the police came. It was getting all very confusing so I handed my phone over for the matron to speak to 999 directly.
HE IS A SHE
With my phone out of my hands, I spoke to the nurse to see how she was doing. Considering what happened, her spirits were high. She thanked me for my help and apologised for what happened. That was so sweet of her. It turns out, the 'guy' was actually a girl!!!! Since I never (dared to) look at her directly, all I saw was someone who was skinny, wearing trousers and black jacket, with short hair, wearing a woolly hat. I just assumed it was a young lad. Turns out the girl is under police custody. Not sure why she is at the hospital, but the nurse told me the girl said she wanted to buy something from the shops, and then ran away. That's why she had to run after her. And that explains why the mood was so odd when I saw the pair of them at the bus stop.
A couple of minutes later, the guy girl threw another fit at the bus stop. This time the security guys had to drag her back into the hospital. She was kicking trying to get away, but bearing in mind she was under custody anyway, no way would they let her abscond for the second time. A police car then pulled up with two officers and spoke to the matron directly. I got my phone back, and the 999 operator wanted my details for the record before I hung up.
AFTERNOON TEA
I bid farewell to the nurse and continued to wait for my bus, a whole hour after I got on my first wrong one.
By the time I got into town, I was dying for my afternoon tea break.
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This really was a sliding doors situation, one turn left rather than right and we see all that can happen!
Total stressful day by just reading that, so finally getting into town and having cake would have been a welcome reward!
I was so glad when I got to sit down for my tea at the cafe in Morrison, and surprisingly, the Victorian sandwich cake was really nice!!!
What a scary story! Thank God no one got hurt! You never know what people are capable of.
That slice of cake 🍰 looks good.
Actually, I never thought about what would happened, or if the worse could have happened if the 'guy' had a knife. It just didn't cross my mind, but luckily every one turned out fine.
Wow... This was def a sliding doors moment! So crazy how one thing can lead to another and had you been on the right bus never would of experienced any of it 🤯!
Absolutely, it just weird how things happen in life. Actually, if we had walked a few steps quicker to the bus stop we could have caught the next bus immediately, and things would have been different again
This is an exciting story, @livinguktaiwan! Perhaps it is a description of situations that happen every day but no one has decided to tell them as you have done. Very well done!
Thanks @gracielaacevedo. I guess I lead such a pretty boring life (it's sad isn't it?) so whenever something out of the ordinary happens it becomes quite exciting 🙃
Thanks for posting this unexpected story on @theinkwell,@livinguktaiwan. You kept us reading at the speed of the events narrated.
We look forward to seeing your comments interacting with fellow writers.
Thanks @theinkwell for the kind words. I know you guys have high standards, and writing isn't really my forte, so am glad that people actually made it to the end of my story!
Wow, brilliant. I'm a newbie and this is actually the first story I'm reading in this community,I was so absorbed all through the story, I really didn't plan to finish the read but didn't know when I did, nice one
Thanks @luckydrums and welcome to Hive. Keep up the good work with engagement in the community
Thanks alot , when I see nice things , I can't help but say nice things too
Wow, what an adventure, @livinguktaiwan. Thanks for sharing it in The Ink Well. But... just checking... is this fiction? Just for future reference, we are a short story community, and we are all about fictional stories.
We invite you to have a look around and get to know our community. You can find our community rules at the top of The Ink Well home page. We ask everyone who posts in The Ink Well to read and comment on at least two other writers' work in the community for every story published.
You can also find some introductory information in our recent newsletter. And be sure to visit the resources available in our catalog of fiction writing tips.
Again, welcome!
Woops sorry 😌 this is a real life story, will bear in mind in future. Thanks and I be sure to wander around the community
Wow that's quite the situation. Sounded a bit tense and awkward there for a while. Glad nothing too bad happened and that you and your husband were fine. Still very uncomfortable sounding though.
I guess if was walking around a rough area, I would have half expected something to happen or at least have my guard up, but this near where I live so wasn't expecting anything to happen. Luckily all good in the end
Whew... This was really scary.
You just changed the way I'll be looking at sliding doors from now.
At least, no one got hurt.
Thankfully.
It's surprising how a small event can have so much impact on the rest of your day, or even the rest of your life sometimes. Thanks for dropping by
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Oh my, that sounds very chaotic and stressful! I can't even imagine! I have had to call the cops before for people driving crazy on the road, but never anything like that. Was your husband with you when you got on the wrong bus? That is the only thing I am confused about :)
Yes hubby was with me all the, guess the pronouns caused a bit of confusion where I started of with "I" all the time until he 'entered the stage' 🙃
Ah, okay, well at least you both came out of it unharmed!
Scary story. But you are brave. Usually, in potentially dangerous situations like this one, most people wouldn´t do anything, they just pretend not to notice and get out from the place asap... You are brave :)
I really felt for the poor nurse there on her own, and felt a bit stupid and guilty for not picking up the signs when she made the telephone hand gesture and mouthed something to me. I wish I'd picked up the urgency of the situation sooner 😒
You still did more than what most people would do ;)
Yo, this was super well done. I thought only fiction was available on the Ink Well, but this is a short story worthy of any story curation. 🙂
And ye, the butterfly effect's a bitch. In your case, it could've been much worse though. 😅 All's well that ends well though!
And I want that cake!
You're correct, I made a mistake posting here, I didn't realise real life stories are not permitted 🙃
The cake was a nice round off after the little episode
This had me hooked really. Are you sure you aren't a screen writer? 😆...
That cake beckons to me...🤤
Nothing beats a piece of cake to round off the afternoon!!!
Only if had been the right bus you would of missed all this excitement but you did well handling yourself and others that piece of cake was well deserved and thank God it all went well for you.
Thanks @tinman88, a cup of tea never felt so good before!!
Lol, I bet 😊
"If only I could turn back time.." I had that soundtrack in my head when you mentioned Sliding Doors. I remember that movie with the two scenarios.
It's crazy how one small decision, in your case riding a different bus ended up with an alarming encounter with an absconding patient which then turned out to be a girl. Such a relief she wasn't armed. It's a scary situation with everything happening so fast.
Yes, totally unexpected that day, and I really have to take my hat off to the nurse, she was so brave going after her on her own. Think she's Filipino as well, such a sweet girl.
Cool experience. And yes I remember Sliding Door quite well.
Cool and a bit scary, and now thinking back out could have been worse as it hadn't cross my mind at that time the 'guy' may have a knife 😬
How’s your kung-fu? There are good schools over there to teach that stuff now for sure :)
My kung-fu is bad. Like level 0. :)
I always say, “I just ate, still digesting, so my Kung-fu may not be as good as .. say .. later on!” :)