A Brave Deed

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 shrimp”. All this used to hurt her, especially when she knew what a brave heart she got and how much 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 were 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. Then, 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 backward 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 that 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 shock. No one was taking any notice of the car. The people were all looking at the taxi and the ambulance. A 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 tank 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”.