I opened my eyes slowly and stared out into the world, the taxi going full speed up the hill.the noise filled my ears and the child next to me could not stop crying.It stopped and an old lady with big bags and sacks came in….it was Monday and she was from far, maybe she had been visiting her son, the taxi went on slowly.It was getting late…….. The old lady started talking to the man sitting next to her, telling her of times when long ago….she was old, maybe she had been at her daughters wedding over the weekend, to give her blessings and wish her well on her new life as a wife.She had a smile on her face, bright and bubbly like one who had just won the big lottery.The man did not seem to care.He had a mobile phone with him and he seemed to be wishing for it to ring…to get away from all this truth, form knowing how it all used to be when food was taken from the ground and water from the rivers and power was burning wood and a man was measured by not what he had but what he did with his life……

My hand gently caressed my chest, the ugly scar of decades ago still clung onto me and the memory of it never faded from my thoughts…..My killer was dead, my death has already been avenged the pain taken away and the memories trickling back into my thoughts.The girl next to me asked me for the time, we always seemed to be in the same taxi in the mornings and she seemed to be in a hurry each and everyday.I looked at her and showed her the time.

The child with her mother on my other side was quite.She must be taking her to the clinic at Wonderpark, they are always taking them there on Tuesdays for vaccinations and the regular check ups, but this baby seemed to be sick, overcome by a painful ailment that had caused the skin around her face to turn red.She sucked on her bottle and kept quite, maybe she might sleep. The taxi stopped and the two School kids got off, large school bags on their backs, exam time…stresses and shortened TV times.We moved on, still far to go.

The bullet had severed too much tissue and the time I spent lying on the hardened ground waiting for help a lot of blood left my body till I was forced to die, leave for another life………I did not know.I waited to see light warm and beautiful but only endless heavy darkness surrounded me until the only light came from within my eyes, the sight of a woman dressed in medical uniform standing there smiling at me……..this was years ago, when my life was restarted, no memory lay in me, when I grew up, flashes of horror filled my days till my parents left me on a picnic outing and that was the last time I saw them…….over the years, the images fit and the picture became clearer with each flash or nightmare or dream or streak of memory…..