World Travel Guide Online

Look Both Ways
London, England

The following morning when I woke, the room was empty. Everyone was out. Hanno hadn’t returned either. It made me giggle. I had heard a lot of stories about the nightlife in London, and I’m sure he was most definitely experiencing it. I kinda felt sorry that I wasn’t able to go with him. He looked as if he’d make a good wingman, that’s for sure, especially the way he was primping himself for the potential ladies.

Very late into the afternoon, I walked into the room to look for some phone numbers in my pack. The room was still empty, except for the arrival of one person: Hanno! He was staring in the mirror, looking at himself.

Excitedly I walked up to him, giving him a dap. “Yo Hanno, what it be like bro? Yo check it, so how was the party, was it mad phat? I’m sure you must’ve been taggin’ and baggin’ those birds, right?”

He looked at me with a smirk on his face. “I got run over by a bus.”

That confused me for a second. I guess he didn’t understand my street slang, so I said it using more correct English. “So how was the club, Hanno? I’m sure it must’ve been good. Did you meet any women? How was the scene?”

He looked at me again and said dryly, “I didn’t make it there. I got run over by a bus.”

Now I was really confused. “What?”

“I got run over by a bus,” He then bent his head down, pulling away the hair on the right side of his scalp. There was a fresh line of stitches running across his head, at LEAST 8 inches long!

I was shocked! “What the hell happened to you?!”

“I don’t know. I was standing on a corner not far from here just after I left, when everything went black. The next thing I knew I had paramedics hovering over me, trying to wake me up. They said I had been hit by one of the double-decker buses. It apparently hit me so hard that I went flying in the air, landing on my right side. I slid across the ground, my head hitting the curb. That’s why I got the stitches. I was taken to a hospital and given CAT scans as well. They said they saw nothing wrong. But they kept me for observation until just about an hour ago.

“There were some pedestrians that saw it happen too. They thought I was dead. The bus driver didn’t even stop when he hit me. But they ran after him. I don’t know if they caught him though. One of them called the police, and stayed with me while I laid there.”

I stood there, my jaw agape. I looked closer at his scalp and saw caked blood all around his ear, the large stitches looking quite ghoulish. “I have blood all over my jacket.” At first I didn’t believe him because the color of the jacket hid the blood. But he took his right sleeve and ran it under the faucet. The water ran red! Dried blood streamed off if it!

“My God, man. That’s unbelievable. How the hell can that happen to you on your FIRST NIGHT OUT IN LONDON?”

“I don’t know. I can tell you that I was wasn’t even drunk when it happened. The pedestrians said that I was looking the wrong way when I crossed the street.

“The paramedics kept asking me the same questions,” he said, lightly touching his head. “They asked me what my name was. If I knew what happened to me. They said I was lucky to be alive. I explained to them that this was my first night in London alone. I wanted to have a big night. And I guess in a way, I did.”

I didn’t know what to say. “Shit, Hanno… I’m sorry this happened to you!”

“They asked me where I was from. I told them Estonia. You know what they said when I told them that?” He had another smirk on his face.

“What?”

“Maybe you should go back.”