The other day I had a fall. I don’t know how or what exactly happened. One moment there I was on the landing with my right foot poised to take the first step down the stairs, the next thing I knew I had seemingly tried an unintended dance step right there and turned one hundred and eighty degrees, ending with my back to the stairs and going down with nothing to hold on.

In my right hand was an empty water bottle, in my left, the ever present Kindle and the phone. I remember thinking to myself, ‘This is it, Shail. This is where it all ends, or at the least you end up in a wheelchair!’ I had visions of myself going down the seven odd steps, hitting my head on the floor and lying motionless, the water bottle clattering as it rolled further down the next set of stairs, the Kindle and phone shattered having flown off my hand. I wondered what L&M would do. Would he call the ambulance or waste time asking ‘what happened?’! I saw myself being conscious enough to tell him to stop asking questions and call the damn ambulance, now. Yeah, I do have some imagination, right?

Fortunately, none of this happened.

Having taken the one hundred and eighty degree turn, my foot thought it prudent to make it a full circle and then some more. At the end of all the pirouetting, I found myself sitting on the second step with my back against the wall, my hands extended, the plastic bottle in the right and the Kindle and phone still in the left. I could feel pain in my forearm which I presumably used as lever against the wall to break my fall.

I continued sitting there for a while, still in shock, trying to figure out just what had happened. That it had been a miraculous escape there was no doubt at all. Calamity had knocked wishing to make itself home, but had changed its mind at the very last minute and left before the door opened to let it in. And no one any the wiser. So I called out to the L&M and recounted what had transpired, shocking him much. For a while we discussed and dissected the incident, speculating on the whys and hows, but were left baffled with no real answers that fit.

This is only the third in the series of falls I have had in recent times.

The first had been while following Luci out of the bathroom after giving her a bath. Heeding the doctor’s words (he has cautioned me falls could work out dear for me because of the osteoporosis of the back), I was walking carefully and consciously, aware that my feet and slippers were wet, and yet I suddenly found myself sailing after Luci to land, not so gently, on my butt. I lay there for a while stunned, wondering if I had broken something or not, then picked myself up gingerly. The right hip which has been a whiny whatchamacallit for long, and has been coaxed and cajoled into not making a fuss, protested, grumbling at the undignified treatment meted out. Other than that everything seemed fine.

The next fall was at the Nizwa Fort. I was walking out of the gateway of the fort, camera in hand, when I realized my right foot was going forward smoothly as if with a mind of its own. The left leg, not having been notified in advance about this change of plans, and under pressure to keep up but unable to, folded itself beneath me. The result was that I found myself on bended knee (left) on the patterned floor of the entrance, as if I was going to propose minus ring or rose. The right leg though was spread straight out in front in an odd manner. As for the camera, which was all I was thinking of right then, was still safe in my outstretched hands. What a picture it must have been! Anyone watching would no doubt have thought this was some new style in the art of picture taking.

I wonder, just what is it with me and falls?! I fervently hope there is no fourth.

©Shail Mohan 2018

Daily Prompt: Wonder