winter break trip part 3

what i remember was that the scooter motor sounded uncharacteristically loud as we started off. as we got onto the road, we started violently twisting from one side to another. i didn't panic, i didn't freeze, but i remember feeling as though this wasn't really happening to me, instead that i was watching this unfold not knowing if i should be laughing or holding my breath.

the soundtrack came back, the motor sounded loudly again, and the scooter took off without us on it. i don't remember the feeling of my head hitting the ground so much as i remember the sound of the helmet. it wasn't a thud, or a crack. it was high pitched, hollow, short, a pathetic sound for such a dramatic moment. my head bounced off the ground a little bit before falling back down. i rested there in the road on my back, arms at my side, legs out front for an instant before i sat straight up like some kind of reanimated zombie, thinking out loud, "we've got to get off this road."

amanda was off to my right, a little in front of me, in a daze but awake. i stood up surprisingly easily, went over to her, and said calmly but repeatedly, "we've got to get off this road." as soon as i saw her start to stand up, and maybe a bit too early, i grabbed her arms over her head and started to pull her to the side of the road. i remember seeing her half crab walk thinking, "why doesn't she stand up and walk normally?" not realizing i had her by the arms so that she couldn't stand up unless i pulled her up or let go of her.

we got off the road and i sat down on the grass. the effort had exhausted me. i lay down on my back for a moment, and when i looked up again, i saw amanda out in the road again struggling to get the scooter off to the side all by herself. i watched with horror, but had no energy to get up and do anything, only able to shout something like, "just leave it there!" fortunately by then, traffic had stopped on both sides. she came back with the scooter, but our bags had fallen out of the storage compartment and were still in the road. i lay back down again thinking, "all these people have stopped, surely someone will fetch our stuff out of the road."

and here, some of these people who had stopped came over to us, shouting in chinese, trying to tell if we were alright. the helmet saved my head, but i had flung it off as soon as i got off the road. not having a helmet on, and wearing jeans that had two huge holes in the knee, i think the man who was shouting at me thought i must be in terrible shape. i had scratches on my knuckles and a bruise on my lower right leg, but beyond that i was fine as far as i could tell. "還好還好!" i told him.

amanda got the worst of it. she had a scraped and bruised left knee, scrapes on her left arm, and a hole on her right elbow that was bleeding profusely. she had already soaked one wet wipe in blood. soon, the ambulance came. we both agreed neither of us wanted a ride to the hospital. even more worrisome was the arrival of the police. we weren't entirely sure how legal it was for us to be riding a rented scooter without a taiwanese driving license.

in the ambulance, the paramedics cleaned the wound on her elbow and bandaged her. the paramedics didn't seem to need to do much else, so i told them we didn't need a ride to the hospital. simple enough. i thought the police would be more trouble, but the only thing they asked me was who was driving. we gave them our names and passport numbers and told them we were okay. they checked to see if the scooter would still start. it did. after that, everyone left as quickly as they arrived and we were alone on the side of the road once more.