Ice Cold Truth

“Quick someone call the police,” shouts a woman loudly trying to overcome the loud music from the nearby speakers.

There is a huge crowd of people standing outside of a shop in Bukit Bintang Plaza. They are chatting loudly and some of them are pointing at something hidden in front of them. As I squeeze myself through the crowd. I can see a slightly overweight, old man with a huge white beard. His eyes are closed, as he lies motionless on the floor. I stare at him and I realize that I could go forward and help him, perhaps even save him when I feel my CPR card at the back of my pocket in my navy blues pants.

“Remember to sign your name on the back of your card,” said Mrs. Larios cheerfully as she handed us our CPR certificate card.

I flipped the card over and I proudly signed the card, hoping that I could one-day use my newly gained knowledge to save someone. I could still remember clearly the procedure. Breathe in the air and compress the victim’s nose. Tilt the head back and blow deeply into his mouth. Do those actions twice and then place both hands over the victim’s heart and press down. I had practiced that on the dummy many times before however I was afraid that I might mess up and kill the old man instead of saving him.

What if I mess up on the procedure and instead of saving, kill him? I stand there with that thought in mind while my conscience fights with me…a left jab…a right hook…left punch to the chest…left jab to the face…and a sucker punch to finish me off. My conscience loses as I walk away. Without even looking back, I abandon him.

“What a poor guy, someone stole his money and no one even offered to help him.” I hear my mum comment on an article in a late edition newspaper.

I peek over her shoulder and I realize that she is talking about the old man that I could have saved. Earlier that day, according to the paper, the old man had withdrawn some savings from a nearby bank, however, a young man stole his money. When the old man tried to stop him, he had a heart attack.

The newspaper also stated that if someone had performed CPR on him, he might be alive now. That made me feel sad. I have the skill and knowledge to save his life but I did not. Now I only wished that I could go back to the past.