My Trip to the ER Takes an Unusual Turn

 

Dear Diary, 

Let's take a trip back to 2006 in Islamabad, Pakistan. I was a beautiful mid-summer day and I had accidentally ran my car into a wall. Yeah. A wall. Not sure what I was thinking. I guess I was distracted and just didn't break in time. I was only going about 10 miles an hour so it wasn't too bad. 

My young daughter was in the car with me and it shook both of us up a bit. I felt something trickling down the side of my face. It was blood. When the car his the wall, my head slammed into the roof handle. I was bleeding from the gash. My daughter started crying and I felt so bad. 

The police came to document the accident and I called a friend to come and take me to the hospital. The hospital was a nice one. I remember it being clean and everyone was so nice. In order to keep my daughter calm, I made fun of myself and would laugh aloud and joke with the nurses. My thinking was, if I laugh then my daughter will see that I am okay. I did not want to scare her any more . 

I ended up getting about six or so stitches. Cracking the doctor up as he stitched me wound. Soon I was on my way home. Not very exciting, but it was a week later that became interesting. 

About a week the accident I received a phone call from one of the doctors at the hospital. 

"Hello?" I said.

"Hi." says a deep voice on the other end. "My name is Dr. Humza. Is this Yasmine?" 

"Yes, it is." 

"I wanted to call to see how you are doing. How are your stitches?" 

"Oh, I am fine. Stitches are doing good. Thanks for asking." (I remember thinking, do they call everyone who comes in like that?) 

After a few minutes of chit chat, the real reason for the call comes to the surface. 

"Well Yasmine, I need to be honest with you."

"Really? What?" 

"I saw you the day you came into the emergency room from across the hall. I loved your smile and I just could not forget about you."

"I see. Um, thanks." I was so puzzled. This has never happened to me before. 

"Yea, I just had to talk to you, so I went through your medical file and got your phone number from it. I hope you don't mind." 

Giggling, I said, "I guess not." Being an American teacher in Pakistan, I was used to people wanting to speak to me, but this was a first for me nonetheless.

"Would you like to have dinner with me?" he continued. 

I thought for a few seconds, and said, "Sure. I would like that."

Well, no big love story to share here, just shocking how I used to put myself in those types of predicaments. Things turned out okay. We went out a couple of times, and chatting for a few weeks on the phone. Nothing came out of it, but we stayed friends. 

I guess I was lucky he wasn't some kind of sociopath.