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Ah Lan was only fourteen and she was small for her age. Sometimes, her friends
used to mock her and say, "you're going to be a dwarf, when you grow up. You're
like a shromp". All this used to hurt her, especially when she knew what a brave
heart she got and how much of hard work she tried to do for her mother. One
day, she was walking home from school. She had a lot of homework to do and she
also wanted to help with the shopping. So, she tried to hurry through the
jostling throngs. The pavements were very crowded. People were rushing this way
and that. Some, like Ah Lan were trying to get home. Some were shopping at the
wayside stalls. Others were merely hurrying to see the sights of the town. The
streets were also very full. Taxis were hooting and driving along much too fast.
cars and buses wwre speeding in all directions. even the tri-shaws were doing a
busy trade. Ah Lan struggled on.
Suddenly, there was a loud hooting of horns, and a wild screech of brakes
followed by the loudest crash she had ever heard. She jumped with fright and
when she looked up, there beside her on the road was a car, a taxi and a tri-shaw,
all involved in an enormous accident. The car, hit by the taxi, was lying on its
side, its doors jammed into the monsoon ditch. The tri-shaw had been hit too and
was lying a crumpled mass of steel with its rider huddled beside it.
A siren heralded the arrival of the traffic police in two black motor cars,
and the ambulance bell could be heard in the distance. The crowd stopped in its
tracks and stood transfixed. The, as if galvanized into life the pedestrians
pressed forward, round the cars and onto the edge of the pavement, until the
whole street was covered with a crowd of silent, curious people, watching. Smoke
was rising from the bonnet of the car.
"Stand back ! Stand back", shouted a harassed policeman. "We must move the
tri-shaw rider who is badly hurt".
The crowd moved reluctantly backwards slowly pushing. Ah Lan, peeping through
the legs of the man in front, saw the tri-shaw rider bleeding and unconscious,
being lifted onto a stretcher and into a large white ambulance which had just
arrived.
The taxi driver got out of the taxi followed by his two passengers neither of
whom was hurt. "It wasn't my fault", the taxi driver began, waving his arms
wildly and almost attacking the policeman with the shock. No one was taking any
notice of the car. The people were all looking at the taxi and the ambulance. An
Lan peeped to see what was happening. Out of the door, now facing up to the sky,
a man was struggling. First his head, bruised and cut and then his body
appeared. Wearily he heaved himself to the ground. 'My child is trapped in the
back seat', he yelled in despair. 'Help me ! Help me !" Only Ah Lan heard,
because she alone had been watching. "Although I am small and like a shrimp, as
they say," she thought, "I can help now. I must, because no one else is
listening." She rushed to the car.
"Be careful", shouted the frantic father. "The petrol thank will be alight
soon, but please help me to get my child. You're small enough to climb in."
Without further ado, with a brave heart, Ah Lan struggled up and into the
back window, through the broken glass and onto the back seat. There was the
child crying piteously.
"It's alright. You'll be safe", whispered Ah Lan and clutching the small
child to her breast, she got up and put it carefully through the window and into
the arms of its father. "Be quick yourself", he yelled. "The bonnet is on fire.
I knew it would." Ah Lan, small and brave, was tired and frightened herself by
now. Moreover, she had cut her legs badly climbing in.
"Come out ! Come out ! You'll be burnt in a minute", screamed the crowd, all
of whom were looking.
With one superhuman effort, Ah Lan heaved and flung herself through the back
window, just as the whole car went up in smoke. She fell out onto the road at
the feet of the grateful father.
"You saved my child". He almost sobbed. "A small girl yourself, but you saved
my child. A brave deed indeed". |
