PANG !!!

It was a little after ten o'clock in the morning. Most of the shops at the Times Square shopping mall in Hong Kong weren't open yet so it was still fairly quiet. There were some early shoppers browsing, security guards patrolling, and people like me going up to the office towers for meetings.

A little while later, I came back down from my meeting and walked diagonally across the atrium towards the escalators to leave. Clutching my heavy laptop bag against me, I walked briskly, a habit from living in busy Hong Kong for too long.

Suddenly, I heard a loud PANG!!! behind me. Not a sharp BANG!!! like a gun, but PANG!!! as if something soft like a big sack of mail or heavy clothing had dropped on the floor. Startled, I stopped and naturally turned around. About three to four meters away from me was a person on the floor. A male, lying on his backside, arms stretched out wide. I noticed a watch near him, it must have came off during the impact. I stood there stunned, feelingless, motionless, not unlike the body in front of me.

Quickly (was it? I wasn't sure) a lot of security guards ran towards him, and covered him with a tarpaulin. By this time I had come back to my senses, there were a lot of people and noise around me. I slowly backed towards the growing crowd still clutching my laptop which now felt light and very comforting. I stood there and started to cry. The gentleman standing next to me handed me a tissue and asked if I was ok. I nodded, but wasn't really sure. I heard sirens outside and the emergency services came. Eventually I fumbled for my phone and called my husband. He was at work and in the middle of a meeting. All he heard was me sobbing over the phone, Times Square and suicide. I think he told me to stay put and wait for him to come and collect me.

The next day I read from the newspaper that the guy didn't make it. Apparently he had been loitering on the ninth floor all morning, wandering along the balcony. This had caught the security guards' attention, but since he hadn't done anything, neither could they, other than to keep a close eye on him. That explains all the security guards I saw and the speed of them to the scene.

My husband's friend says I was very lucky given the circumstances and that the best out of the worse happened to me. I could have witnessed everything with my own eyes had he fell in front of me. Or, in the worst case he could have landed right on top of me. In which case would I still be sitting here today writing about this ?