We are Wednesday the 9th of Feb., my mother is in the hospital, she has been hurt by a car. She is on a respirator, but the electricity is failing. I thought the hospitals were meant to have a secondary power supply of sorts.

I went to school today, it was closed. So I went to see my mother at the hospital. The doctors say that they can not do anything, that the power surges and the increasing number of emergency cases don’t allow them to spend more time on my mother when they have to choose between saving 10 lives and my mother’s.

It can’t be right, I must have misunderstood, they said yesterday that she would be fine!!!

And people are growing crazy around here… shouts come from everywhere, a hand touch my shoulder lightly.

“It is alright, don’t worry my little baby, we’ll be fine. I just want you to go home and grab the gift I saved for you until your birthday.”

“But mum, my birthday is Monday, I want to get it only with my cake, you promised me a rainbow sponge cake from Paterson!”

“Yes, but things change, I want you to have it now, it is important for me, and it is important for you…”

Her voice trailed and puffed as if she had just run a 100 metres sprint.

“Please my baby, you will find the packet in my bed-side table, under my books, your name is on it. Go NOW! I’ll wait for you here, I will not run on you my little treasure.”

Somehow I understood that it was what she wanted the most, so after an awkward hug, with all the tubes and her being weak etc., I ran away, I should never have done that.

There were no bus, but there were a lot of people in the streets, my bicycle had disappeared, and I ran back home, a long way, more than an hour, but it was worse coming back, so many people, they were fighting breaking the glasses, I was afraid, but I thought only on one thing, mother!

And after 2 hours of running, dodging grapping hands, hiding from people that looked at me crazy, the violence was extreme, but I needed to reach my mommy, I did not like what the doctors said about her… I arrived completely dishevelled, wet, at the door of the hospital, they did not accept any new arriving, I cried and shouted and tried to go past the door, but they would not let me in… so I went along the walls, climbed inside the court, and then climbed up the second floor where my mother was. There, she now shared the bedroom initially done for 2 with 6 other people… she looked at me when I entered, with the most marvellous smile I ever saw, love was sipping through, I forgot everything around me at that instant. I went by her bed and handed her the gift.

“Now my little flower, my morning joy that illuminates my whole day, open it, but before know that this is something I had promised you to tell you for your 13th birthday. Here are some photographs and some letters from your father and a small summary of what I know and remember of him, this should help you to know your father, an perhaps later you can go and look for him. I love you my little bird…”

These were her last words, I cried, shouted at her, but doctors came and undid the tubes, and pushed me away gently. How can this happen?

“What is happening? You take her to the surgery?” But I knew she was dead, only my heart could not understand this, did not want to know it.

I sat there looking after the doctors pushing my mother’s bed with the sheet covering her face. My heart sinking in the blackest despair! The hospital is a blurry red now, the emergency lights I hear the other patients comment on. and people are shouting in the streets, what is happening?

A slumber takes me, too much for me…

Next thing I know, it is early morning, the dim daylight is playing with the dust, the air is fresh. The window is open. A fresh morning breeze animates the curtains, with a little metallic rattle of chain on the heater. Surely this is what awoke me. Someone has put a heavy blanket on me, my day backpack is close to me, I am in the far corner from both the window and the door, clutching my birthright, the gift of my mother.

The room is full of shadows, numerous people are sleeping around, on the ground and I see more than one bed that seems to be occupied by more than one person…

What does this all mean? I have to go… where?

Hey, what’s this? I see a movement in the shadows, through the door I hear a cackling laugh… a bottle crashes in the room, bursts into a bright explosion, I am completely awake now and am acting at once. I put the collar of my shirt over my mouth and help the people around me to wake up, I shout for everyone to hear me. Quick now, there are some people that get up some other won’t. I don’t really have time, but I try to help the old granMa who is beside me, but she shouts to let her be, that she has a misplaced hip and that I won’t be able to carry her… I leave her with tears in my eyes, as much for the smoke as for the despair I feel…

I jump out just in time to see some other doors in the corridor in flames, I am just at the entry of the corridor, the stairs are wounding up and down, I run to them, putting my bag on my shoulders, still clutching the packet my mother gave me. I dive just in time when I heard someone approaching me, he was about to grab me, I am wary of men now, with what I saw last night and now this…