Consequences Of Throwing Caution To The Wind - The Price Of An Impulsive Decision!

I took my family's photo album two days and began to look at the photos on its pages as I flipped through them. I stumbled on a photo that had I and my cousins, Veronica and Nicholas, strike a pose for a shot. The dressing of Nicholas's wound on his ear in the photo caught my attention and I began to reminisce about the accident that led to it. As I reminisced about the accident it dawned on me that it occurred twenty years ago. It is amazing how time elapses!

I spent some of my holidays as a kid at my cousins residence in Lagos Island and always had fun. I also enjoyed exploring and getting acquainted with new environments. My cousins knew this and loved taking me round their neighbourhood.We always had a great time during such walks. I also got to be friends with most of their neighbours who were often curious about who I was and always asked my cousins about how me. They became nice to me after my cousins disclosed that I was their relative. We often walked to different parts of the neighbourhood and later developed routes for our walks!

We got an invitation to a birthday party by a friend of Veronica's mum. We were excited when the news of the invitation was relayed to us. We had a conversation a few days earlier about our wish to attend a party! The invitation to the birthday party was like a manifestation of that wish becoming reality and a ticket for a getaway to us! It gives us an opportunity to make new friends and have fun. We were excited about the upcoming birthday party and patiently waited for the scheduled date.

Veronica's mum owned a grocery store in one of the busiest commercial areas on the Island. We often accompanied her to the store to assist her. I learnt a lot from our time at the store. I got to observe first hand the basic principles that guide a business and the value of being friendly to customers. I admired the way Veronica's mum related with customers. Her friendly nature made her have loyal customers and regular patronage. Veronica and I were given the task of running errands and delivering groceries to customers at their homes or offices. We often get rewarded with stipends by the customers for our services. This made us feel happy as we had some money to ourselves!

Veronica and I just returned back from a delivery we made to a customer and were on our way out to relay a message to a friend of Veronica's mum when an unexpected incident happened. Nicholas wanted to accompany us for the delivery we made earlier but did not because his mum needed his assistance in the store. He felt bored staying in the store and thought Veronica and I were having a lot of fun delivering groceries to various customers! We were actually having fun! In his desperation to be part of the fun we were having, Nicholas snuck out of the store and ran after us without observing vehicular traffic before crossing the ever busy road in front of the store. A motorbike on transit knocked him down as he ran across the road. Veronica and I were surprised when we heard an alarm for help raised by pedestrians. We ran to the scene of the accident and were in disbelief when we discovered that Nicholas was the victim. He was quickly taken to the hospital for treatment. We were still unable to understand how Nicholas got involved in the accident. His mum was traumatised and wondered why Nicholas would sneek out of the store to ran after us.

Nicholas sustained several wounds on the side of his face and left ear. He had to visit the hospital several times for examinations and dressing of the wounds. We were grateful that the impact of the collision he had with the motorbike did not inflict more physical damage on his body. Nicholas's condition made us less enthusiastic to attend the birthday party but we did anyways! We also had fun too!

Reminiscing on this accident while looking at the photo we took at the birthday party made me realise how naive one could be as a kid as we are fortunate to sometimes evade the grave consequences of impulsive decisions! Looking at Nicholas's dressed wound in the photo is a reminder of such an instance!

Thanks for reading,
Have a great day folks.

_{image source: pixabay.com}