I was jolted awake by screams and shouts emanating within my vicinity. I checked my watch and it was 5am. I was a little dazed, but the consistency of the screams didn't permit me enough time for my body to gradually realize that I had woken up. Usually I’d take 10 minutes, give our take, after opening my eyes to get accustomed to being awake before leaving the bed. That didn't happen on this unlikely Monday morning.
The shouts continued and now fully awake I could distinctively hear the voice of my neighbor, who had been screaming at the top of his lungs for less than 10 seconds but felt like an eternity to him.
I rushed to my door half-naked and heard him shout, “thief, thief”. Almost trance-like, I went for my keys and opened my door, rushing head-on towards where he was pointing. I made out 2 figures scaling the fence and another on the other side, bellowing and threatening me not to come after them.
“Seems you want to die”, he shouted. “Go back into your house”.
Without any sort of weapon to defend myself, I search around and luckily found a huge wood, which at that moment I put 30 percent of my trust in. How ridiculous. I made my way towards the thieves, who had been far ahead of me, running away. While running towards them, in what was a pitch black environment, I was still shouting “thief” at the top of my lungs. I reckon they didn't like that because once again I heard their voices from afar, warning that I not continue my chase.
“We will kill you if you come any closer”
My insane reply was, “Today I’ll die in your hands”, as I kept chasing the 3 men. Truly an INSANE response to give.
The more I shouted “thief”, the more other courageous neighbors from other flats seeing that a “lone ranger” was chasing 3 thieves, began rushing out of their houses and towards the thieves. Knowing that their situation was getting dire by the second, the thieves dropped the things they had stolen and fled through an almost impassable route. We tried to follow, but that route would put any chaser at a huge disadvantage.
We recovered virtually all that was stolen and brought them back to my grateful landlord, who had been the target of the theft. Apparently, the thieves had broken into his house through his ceiling at the dead of night and had successfully tied his nephew, his sister-in-law and himself in a 1 hour operation. They had attempted to coerce more out of him, using his 3 little children, the oldest 6, as leverage. They had hit his wife, and threatened to kidnap Joshua, his 3 year old son, whom I was particularly fond of. They had continued terrorising him and his family until the neighbor, who shouted, saw them and raised the alarm, unleashing Captain America. Hahaha.
I can joke about it now but as much as it was terrifying for me, I can only imagine how my landlord and his family would have felt. And that made me feel angrier at myself for not doing more...for not successfully apprehending at least one of them.
A lot of people in the neighborhood congratulated me on my valiant effort, considering I had left the hospital some 3 days before and was still recovering from my accident. At the time of the chase I couldn't feel a thing. It was as if I had taken a morphine shot or something. Pills, huh?
Well, I felt like how heroes feel until people that I actually call my loved ones started chastising me for putting myself in a situation that could have resulted in something worse.
“What if they shot you”, my mum cried over the phone.
“You are taking risks that no other person except your family will take for you”, my sister said.
And my spouse threw a fit.
I felt really deflated. I never intended for anyone that I love to be sad about my decisions much less a decision that I felt helped someone in dire need. Whenever people talked of the risk, I always asked them to put themselves in the shoes of the terrified incapacitated man, whose family was held at the behest of thieves at his own home.
“How would you feel if no one came to your rescue at your moment of dire need?”
I believe “we are our brother’s keepers”. If we can't put ourselves on the line for a good man that has little children and a wife, then what is the point of it all? What was even the point of me surviving a life-threatening accident, if I cannot try my best to help others in need.
There has been a gradual decay in society. The culture of not caring about what happens to the next person is on the increase. This is to the extent that a person that goes out of his/her way to help someone else at a cost is at best, a hero and at worst, a fool. It would not be heroic if it was a culture. It would be ordinary if everyone does it. If everyone came out to help, or to sacrifice for another. If we all did it, it would just be another thing that people do. And guess what? Our lives would have been better for it.
I believe we can be better. The bad people are few and we, the good, are the many. We shouldn’t let a few bad people make the rest so afraid that it seems like there are only a few good people.
My leg still hurts though. Maybe I do need that adrenaline shot.
