Comforting Lies

Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.” — Rudyard Kipling

Edited on canva

There was a time when I would never admit that I was afraid of anything. I would rather have a three hour long argument with you than admit that I had any fears. I guess it felt better to deny it, or so I thought. It didn't take me long to realise that the more I denied it, the more it manifested;the more real it became.

I totally dread heights and anything that comes with it. One may think that I'm talking about very high valleys or mountains. On the contrary, I mean deep gutters, high buildings with no protectors and the likes. If I'm at a high altitude and I look down and sense danger, the fear kicks in. It wasn't always that way, but something happened.

A little Back Story

As kids, my sister and I were very jovial and liberal. We lived on the last floor of a two storey building and looking out through the windows was our favourite thing to do. We had this custom of waving at our dad whenever he was on his way to work.

Just like every other day, we stood by the window, pumped with so much adrenaline, waiting for our dad's car to emerge from the garage. I took the lower window and my sister climbed on a stool and took the upper window. As our dad's car emerged from the garage, we started singing our normal song;

"Daddy, bye bye. Buy something for us on your way back".

Our dad smiled and waved back at us. I thought it all ended but in split seconds, I saw my eight year old sister falling off the window. She slipped from the stool and went directly out of the window. _{Too bad her favourite hero "superman" didn't come to her rescue}. It's somewhat funny now but on the day it happened, nothing was funny.

The ground floor of our house was covered in sand and so she fell backwards on the sand and didn't move an inch anymore. "Didi!" was the only word that could escape my mouth. I wasn't ready to lose a sibling and that too, my only sister. My dad who was on his way out parked his car in so much panic and sprinted to where Didi was lying helplessly.

As a medical doctor, he wasn't supposed to treat his daughter but such a rule didn't bother him at the time. I sprinted downstairs to see what was going on and as I reached downstairs, I was sent back upstairs to get some drugs. Amidst tears, I ran back upstairs and as I opened the front door, the power supply was cut off. There was no means of light but I kept moving. In my state of panic, I forgot that there was this big black door with a sharp door handle.

I ran into the door and the door handle pierced into my skin, very close to my eyes. Not relenting, I still ran to get the drugs I was asked to get. I went back with bloody eyes and the drugs. At this point, my dad was totally devastated, you could see it in his eyes. Two kids to attend to at the same time. My case was minimal in comparison to that of my sister and so the nurses took care of my bleeding.

After some time, everything was under control. Didi sustained some injuries. She had a dislocation at her waist which was handled. The good news was that nothing happened to her spine.

After that incident, I never liked height. Irrespective of how high or how low the height is. I saw what my sister went through as a kid and I never want to go through that hence my acrophobia which is as a result of trauma. Just amazing.

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This is my response to @galenkp's weekend engagement prompt. Check here for interesting writing prompts. Until next time, have a lovely weekend.

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All the images used belong to me and were taken with my mobile device except stated otherwise

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With love, wongi ✨