3 Idiots - Part I

Three people who changed my life... for the worse

First Prick 

I met the first one about 8 years ago. When I met him I actually couldn't see him due to loss of consciousness. He hit my head with a stick he found by the curb.

I was walking home by myself at night, after a meeting with my colleagues. I brought a laptop with me for presentations and such. I was nearing my house which was just around the corner, which, unfortunately had no street light.

By his own testimony in his trial, he said he saw me walking with a laptop case from the back. When I entered the dark corner, he saw the stick close to him. Since his wife was in dire need for milk(his words), he got the bright idea to introduce the stick to the back of my head and steal my laptop.

He was fast, I guess, since I didn't even realize I was hit, or even passed out. I just sort of woke up blind in the dark, with a feeling of wet grass on my face.

I tried to move my head, but it felt glued to the ground. When I tried to lift my head, I felt like I was falling into oblivion. I couldn't even sense gravity. The ground felt like a huge wall that I had grab on to to stop myself from falling to the horizon. So I stayed still for a while.

After my eyes have adjusted, it was still too dark to see anything, so I closed my eyes because I was feeling nauseous. My memory was so blurry, I forgot where I was. I guess when I passed out, I dreamt that I've already reached my house and fell asleep on my bed.

I began to piece together in my head the chronology of events that led me to that particular situation. With my eyes still closed, I focused on the tactile feeling of the ground. With a patch of gravel around my feet, wet grass around my upper body, and some mud under my fingers, cross referencing it with my memory of my neighborhood, I triangulated my position with regard to my house.

"Just around the corner.", I thought.

Then I start to survey the damages. Feeling my body, I surmised that my laptop was gone, but my wallet and phone was still in my pocket. Maybe he was in a hurry because it was a spontaneous thing. Taking the phone out, I pressed 1 to fast-dial my housemate. I asked if he's home. When he said yes, I told him to open the door and look outside.

"I just got robbed.", I said.

He had a friend over at the time and they both found me lying on the ground, groaning from the nausea and the pain that's just registering after the endorphin secretion subside.

After that the neighbors, who happened to be my seniors, who are already doctors, came out to help. I still couldn't open my eyes or move my head without falling into nothingness, so I can only guess what happened after that based on what I can hear. Apparently, I was out for half an hour. There was blood coming out from my nose and ears, meaning the base of my skull was cracked.

They put me in a taxi and sent me to the hospital. That night I talked my tongue off and laughed like crazy, before falling asleep, maybe due to the drugs they gave me.

Three days later, finally my vertigo's subsided. Since there were no other wounds, I continued my studies without a hitch, save for a few 5-minute convulsions which lasted for at least 7 years.

Two weeks after the robbery, the robber got caught in a neighboring town trying to sell my laptop to a skeptical customer. I was brought in to identify my laptop, which I did, and got it back. It was cleaned and reformatted, but it was mine again.

I finally met him at the trial. He looked so innocent, with a clean pressed shirt and a doe-eyed expression. Then the prosecutors presented the stick he hit me with as evidence, and I saw there's a rusty nail sticking out at the end of it. It dawned on me that if the nailed part had hit my head, I would've died. That was the exact time I lost all confidence in the stubbornness of life. Life is easy to end. Whether you choose to or not.

I was depressed for two years after that.

I heard he was also jailed for two years, so it's not all bad.