Falling

#shortstories is an ongoing series of articles recounting some of our interesting real life experiences.

My mind was starting to lose its sanity as I climbed up the gate in front of my house, trying to get out of the house silently. I picked up my worn-out basketball, jumped down from the gate and started to saunter to the nearby basketball court. Basketball has always been a stress reliever, momentarily taking me away into a paradise where every predicament loses its grip on my weary soul. That was just what I needed that evening. Exams were coming up and I had studied scarcely, what's more, there was only little time to spare before facing the big hurdle that was presented before me.


As I started taking long and heavy steps towards the basketball court, I came across a dog who was lingering across the street. A golden retriever, to be exact. Abandoned on the streets because of his injured
leg, it took refuge in the home of a good Samaritan opposite mine. Now, it was following me, wagging its tail furiously, as if telling me to cheer up. For some reason, I started jogging a little, and it followed me, running past me at times, behind me at others. It was fun.

All of a sudden, I felt something soft bashing into my legs. It knocked me out of my balance and I fell on the hard tarmac road. Immense pain seeped through my hands and knees, my mind disoriented. After a 360 degree roll, laying on my back, I tried to get to grips with the supervening event that disrupted my plans for a perfect evening workout. A few seconds of moaning and groaning later, I found myself exhaustively inspecting the injuries sustained. A few bruises on both knees and the elbows, and not to mention two moderately deep cuts on my right palm which I much required to write in my exam.

Well, I was pissed, quite frankly, at the dog who somehow caused me my plight, even with an injured leg. Why God, why now? I felt annoyed, disapproving of my choice to go for basketball in the first place. Upon my return back home, my dad came up to me with inquisition. I could only respond with utter reluctance, too lethargic to even bother. That's when an epiphany occurred ; Why bother to be angry at the golden retriever? It's not that being exasperated at the dog could turn back time and reverse what happened to myself. Sometimes it best just to leave things as they are and accept them. Life is too short for us to dwell on trivial things.