I watched the double doors close. I stood there and watched the object pull out of the port. I was confused. I couldn’t understand any of this. Before I could fit the puzzles together, I felt myself being dragged away. I looked up and saw a woman in white. Who is she!? Where is my father?! Where is appa!? As I slid across the floor, the port seemed further and further away. I wasn’t being dragged anymore, I was moving at such incredible speed towards a wooden double door. As much as I tried to tug away, I couldn’t. Like an attraction to a magnet, I was into the blinding light behind the wooden doors.

                                                                      ----

    “Get ready a bed in the Children’s ward.”

   “Yes, noted.”

    I woke up to the sounds of wheels and the metal jerking. Slowly, I opened my eyes and the ceiling above me sped into a blur. I looked to my right, and like déjà vu, it was the woman in white. I felt my nose, and there were tubes attached to my insides and connected to some equipment by the bed.

    The car accident.

    I finally remembered. I must have been in some kind of coma before I woke up. What about that dream? Or was it some kind of limbo Appa and I were stuck in?

    Where is my father?

    The woman in white, who I presumed to be the nurse, stops pushing the bed forward and went to a nearby bed parked at the side of the corridor. I noticed a pair of dark mud-brown working boots that my father always wore to work. The nurse handed me a box.

    The box was a lively, bright green with a pink ribbon securing it. Passing the bed, I spotted my father’s clothes on the day of the accident. All of a sudden, a chill prickled my every bit of skin. Tears formed in my eyes and spilled out from the corners. Clutching the box, I closed my eyes, desperately wanting to return to the limbo.

    On the box, there were words that said:

    Happy Birthday dear!

    Love, Appa.

                                                                          ---

    Le Plus beau cadeau que l'on puisse faire c'est le don de soi.  

    “The greatest gift that one can do is self-giving.”

     This is what I learnt in French. To others, it’s probably just a quote.

     To me, it’s my father’s greatest gift.