Somewhere! (Hunaak!)

by Abbas, Ibraheem

  All of these details only happened in less than ten seconds, I remember every detail of it like a scene in slow motion! That space that would barely allow my car to pass like an arrow between the trucks and the family car had been reduced to half, the truck’s breaks locking up ahead of me and smoke coming from its wheels. My mother screaming “Dear God!” and then the trucks’ rear end took her away from the right side of my car… along with parts of my body!

  God bless your soul mother! I killed you! Damn audacity! Every daredevil that shows off his adventures that he had avoided easily, does not know that there is always an adventure that he will not be able to show off to anyone. This adventure always comes without warning: he would think it was but a passing moment, then he would send a message recklessly from his phone as he drove the car with three fingers and half an eye —and one tenth of his concentration— one of his regular passings and maneuvers between cars, one of the times he raced everyone to shave five minutes on his way to the café where he wastes half of his life. One of those times could be one of his last or it might be it.

  And with the final moments of my life… my story just started. The accident smashed the right side of my skull along with a few of my ribs and every bone of my right hand. The metal ripped through my stomach and parts of my intestines… None of those who had gathered around me thought this corpse would return to life someday.

  The ambulance paramedics struggled to make it through the crowds who were so occupied with taking pictures of my car that was stuck on the truck —and of my body— they almost covered me in newspapers had it not been for that weak heartbeat that gave me away. But it stopped while I was in the ambulance. My heartbeat stopped. Blood had stopped flowing in my veins and my brain started its countdown when the oxygen stopped flowing.

  Seven minutes is the amount of time that brain cells can last without oxygen before they get damaged. This was a full seven minutes in hopeless attempts to revive my heart which ended with an electric shock. I have already told you everything that had happened to me in those seven minutes, from the moment my soul’s connection to this body weakened and I was then in another world… Somewhere; to the last moment when my heart got shocked and started beating again, bringing me back from the arms of Malak, and throwing me here once more.

  Who was Malak? Was she my nymph? Or just a mirage that my subconscious had used? Did she know that I was having my last breaths in the accident, so she prepared that world for me? Did she design it and prepare it just to welcome me and prepare me psychologically to accept the reality of death? It truly was a world between life and death and granting every wish I had had in my life and making me live it with all its details. Malak could not tell me the truth to shield me from the trauma that might have ended my last hopes of coming back to my life, a soul would not get back to the body when hope was gone. She still wished that I would stay by her side forever. My soul would not have hesitated for an instant to stay there had it not been my worry for my family, for my sister, and mother whom I did not know had already gone there and had met my father… Mr. Khaled!

  Khaled Madani!

  I swear I felt that it was him and that the lady next to him was my mother, all that fondness does not change, no matter how the bodies that surrounded it do! Malak fought to keep me next to her after she had waited for me all those years, but my father and mother were torn with sadness and fear for Maram.

  Everyone knew that that chances of me surviving that accident were negligible, and that even if I did survive I would do so with a number of disabilities that would make me completely dependent on my sister's support. Yet, my Father held onto that impossible hope, especially after Mother had joined him.

  I did not receive the news of my mother’s death with the sadness that should come with such disaster, because I was with her not long before! My experience had removed the barriers between life and death.

  We fear death because we had never lived it before; we fear it just as we fear every other unknown.

  We get sad from parting with the dead, but I was now in their company; I saw them in bless that makes me happy for them and saddened for those who had yet not joined them. If our sadness was for their death, our lives are death in comparison to their lives. If sadness was for their parting, there are those who we do not see while they are still amongst us. They leave our lives without losing their’s! Death is not a farewell… but farewell is death!

  I regained control over my fingers and gradually, my mentality. It took hours to write my first few lines, I did not stop until I wrote everything that had happened to me Somewhere with every detail.

  I felt a strange energy flow throughout my body. I slept in this bed for three months and half of this time in what the doctors called, a vegetable state. A state with no hope of cure other than faith in God’s powers and miracles. Doctors who had seen my brain’s MRI today could not believe that this was the same brain that had more than twenty five percent damage just a few short months before. This was a real miracle as damaged brain cells do not regenerate. My brain worked now with high efficiency and accelerating recovery!

  Two days ago, I opened my eyes and saw what was around me for the first time. Yesterday, I was able to eat my first meal after glucose had been my only nutrition. Today, I said my first words and here I was now trying to get up and revive my muscles.

  I pulled my leg that had forgotten how to walk and I threw it to the ground. I gathered the strength of every muscle in my body to get up; I faltered in my first steps and then I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror. Who was this? Did I know him? Not only had I lost my good looks and the tone of my body muscles that I had. I had also lost half my weight and part of my face. Luckily I did not lose my right eye.

  They had performed several plastic surgeries and began patching up my skull and my face, making it look like a mutant’s mask. Foul patched skin now covered the right side of my face and head. My eyebrows were gone along with parts of my hair. Not only my head, but my chest, stomach and parts of my hand were all covered with patches of wrinkled skin that remained from the scars of the accident and operations.

  A nurse entered and was totally terrified when she found me standing.

  “Mr. Husam! What are you doing? You are not supposed to leave your bed!” — the nurse said.

  At the time, I only cared about leaving the hospital.

  “I am feeling much better, I think I am ready to leave the hospital!” — I said.

  She held me from my arm and helped me return to my bed.

  “You can't leave Mr. Husam, your health conditions aren't stable yet, the consultants still need to analyze your situation.” — the nurse added.

  “Well… I've just survived a fatal accident. Going home won’t kill me for sure!” — I added.

  I just realized that I was speaking to her in a smooth American accent which was in no way related to the Saudi-English that I would have mumbled before my accident, this was the accent that I used… Somewhere!

  The nurse measured my temperature and blood pressure routinely. She handed over to me my pills along with fever and pressure reduction medicines. My temperature was 39 degrees and my blood pressure was above 100/150. My heartbeats were more than 90 bps, all highly elevated. Maram arrived at that moment and saw me sitting on the bed so she dropped the bags she had in her hands and bolted towards me to hug me.

  “Husam!! Oh my God! I do not believe my eyes! The doctors said there was no way you could leave the bed, save for a miracle! Thank God! Thank God!” — Maram said.

  I watched her, this baby girl whom I had left all that bless for and came back to protect her from this world and its monsters.

  “Look what I got you, it’s the Albaik spicy chicken that you love! I also got you some clothes instead of the this hospital robe! Come let me help you get dressed in something nice! But first close your eyes, I have a surprise!” — Maram added.

  I closed my eyes to please her and felt her fingers fixing my hair on the left
side. I think she is trying to hide my injury and deformed eyebrow. She then put a hat on my head.

  “So, what do you think? It is an original cap that I got from the origianl Itihad shop not those knockoffs you would find at Alshati center!” — she said.

  I could not hold back my tears as I watched her empty the rest of the clothes from the bags. My heart was in pain as I looked her in the eyes.

  “Maram… Mam and dad say hi.” — I said.

  She froze and raised her face in complete shock towards me and her tears came down slowly.

  “Husam!! Don’t say that!! You are well! You have been through tough times and your brain was impacted by the accident, but you are in good health now and are improving in a way that surprised all the doctors.” — Maram added.

  “Maram… I am serious! I have seen them, and sat with them and talked to them… just as I am talking to you now. Dad says that he misses you a lot and that you must be all grown up by now.” — I said.

  She collapsed. I could barely make out her words from her gasps.

  “Husam… I also cheated death exactly like you. On the day of the accident, I went crazy calling you and you did not answer, then someone answered and told me to inform the family of the owner of this phone that he was in an accident on the highway. I went out barefooted like a crazy woman looking for a taxi at midnight, I got to the accident location and only found the car and blood and people were saying may God have mercy on their souls!” — Maram said.

  She kept quiet for a moment… allowing me to join her in tears then went on.

  “I do not know how I made it to King Fahad Hospital when they told me you were there… I kept running and calling out for you in the ER… I saw her, Husam, covered on a stretcher. Her abaya was visible from under the blanket and blood was dripping. I also saw you while they were running with you from room to room, no one was telling me anything.

  For three months Husam —with no hope but in Allah— not a single doctor comforted me. First they said that your chances of survival were slim, then they said that your brain was damaged and that you would stay in a coma for the rest of your life. Then they said that even if you did wake up, you’d be crippled and here you are now sitting with good health. You are now passing on Mum and Dad’s regards. No matter how much I praise Allah, it will not be enough!”

  I took her head in my arms to empty what remained of her tears, my poor child had suffered much more than I ever did. The pain of the body is much more bearable than the heart’s ever is!

  I wiped what remained of her tears. I decided that I would help her forget all that she had been through. This was why I had come back to this world, this is what I lived for now.

  “Maram, Mom and Dad told me to take care of you. From now on, crying is not allowed. Is that clear?? By the way, I was never in a coma, I was living in another world but that is a long story. Now, let me change out of this stupid robe and attack these spicy nuggets before they get cold!” — I said.

  Maram was surprised when she saw me jumping gracefully and how I picked up the clothes and moved towards the bathroom. I did regain most of my fitness and another strange thing also happened… my clothes were no longer my size! I remember this pair of jeans and shirt very well. While I could understand the extra space caused by my loss of weight during my coma, the jeans felt a bit short… or was it that I was also a bit taller? I also felt that my bones were growing fast —defying the laws of puberty!— I returned to Maram and ate the Baik meal. I admit that I devoured it all alone and she only had but a few fries in her mouth and she went on to tell me her story for the past three months.

  A young man in a nurse’s coat knocked the door and asked if he could enter, he spoke to me as if he knew me for some time:

  “Husam! How are you dude?” — the Doctor said.

  “Hello doctor, come on in!” — I responded.

  “So tell me how are you today?” — the Doctor asked.

  Maram excused herself to catch up with her studies and left me with the young doctor.

  “Of course I know you and you do not know me… I am Eyad Alzayd, I graduated two years ago and asked to be transferred to King Fahad Hospital just for you!” — he added.

  “It is a pleasure Doctor Eyad…” — I began answering.

  “Just plain Eyad please… consider me your friend” — he interrupted me.

  “OK plain Eyad, you did not say why you requested your transfer here for me.” — I inquired.

  “Listen Husam, your case is unique and would not repeat in the history of medicine, after a month of your accident your story spread amongst doctors, and I pulled every string I had just to be able to follow your case.” — he began explaining.

  “What is so strange about my case?” — I asked.

  “Husam, you have cheated death. Your brain was damaged, every doctor expected you to die within a few days or at best case to stay in a coma forever.” — he began explaining.

  He took a quick glance at my vitals and went on.

  “Something in your brain changed after the accident, the damaged cells regenerated and this had never happened in recorded medicine! Not only your brain, but your entire body. Your bones healed in record time, your wounds have healed as well. Last week, when we checked your vision, you had perfect vision although your records show that you were three points short!” — he added.

  I just realized then that I saw everything clearly without my thick glasses! Dr. Eyad Alzaydi went on frantically.

  “Your cells are in a continuous active and regenerative state, your temperature and pressure are always high and yet your body does not seem to care. My personal analysis is that you have a stem cell explosion. Meaning that all of your cells have become stem cells! They are always regenerating. You, Husam, have turned into a superhero and doctors have even called you the human salamander!” — the Doctor added.

  “This is a very logical analysis Eyad… but it is not true… this has nothing to do with stem cells!” — I responded.

  “How would you know? You just awakened from a three month coma.” — the Doctor responded.

  “The change that has happened is all in my soul… I mean, within my subconscious. The subconscious has unlimited capabilities as it controls everything. Inside each of us is a super hero that cannot move unless we let go of the boundaries we take for granted and delude ourselves with!” — I explained.

  “You seem affected by the soul energy books and the laws of attraction… all of these things are but ideas that have no scientific bases!” — the Doctor responded.

  “Trust me, it has nothing to do with all of that. Eyad, my heart had stopped for seven minutes and my soul went to another world where I lived for a full week before I came back!” — I tried to explain.

  “I have heard about dreams and hallucinations during comas…” — he interjected.

  “These were not dreams nor hallucinations… I lived there in the flesh and blood …in another world! A world more realistic than this one! It was as physical and as clear in a way that made me feel that my real life —in comparison— was nothing but a dream. In this moment, I see you in front of me but I do not feel that it is as real as I did when I was there!” — I explained.

  “I was going to say that you have lost your mind. After the accident, had we not been through a crazy experience myself and my wife, that would allow me to believe anything. I will try to believe you, so that you might also believe me when I tell you my story!” — the Doctor said.

  “Ok. In short, during the week that I lived Somewhere, I met the most beautiful creature as if she was a nymph from heaven. She introduced me to Leonardo de Vinci, Beethoven and Bruce Lee. I also role played as a superhero and battled space monsters! All was a reality not a dream!” — I said.

  Eyad froze for a moment… he did not even close his mouth until I continued.

  “You can consider all of these hallucinations. How would you explain how I learned more than one language during that coma?!
Ho imparato a parlare Italiano fluentemente, als auch die Deutsche Sprache!” — I said.

  As I expected… in addition to my soul’s ability, or subconscious to control my body and gaining amazing fitness that made each cell in my body work at super-human efficiency, I also retained all of the knowledge and experiences that I had gained while I was Somewhere.

  I knew that Doctor Eyad would not understand my Italian and German sentences but I just wanted to prove a point. He tried to play along as he said in a broken French accent as he sat baffled:

  “Impossible! J'ai passé toute ma vie juste pour apprendre un peu de Français!” — he said.

  I smiled and continued:

  “If this a pure medical matter, how would you explain how a person in a coma would learn martial arts? I learned more things during my coma than everything I had learned in my entire life!” — I said.

  I handed him the notes that I had written with all my memories from the days I had spent Somewhere along with perfect sketches. Doctor Eyad’s eyes popped out as he went through the pages and reading some statements and looking at some of the sketches.

  “I had heard of cases were patients had gained extreme skills after getting electrified or had had sudden accidents but I had never thought that it was possible to this extent!” — Doctor Eyad added.

  I stood in front of him and pointed at my short pants.

  “Above all the skills, I do not think Doctors have noticed this.” — I said.