The Colors

"Come quick! I'm about to close the shop," Samantha is standing outside her shop. Tasty Tunes sells all kinds of musical instruments.

"Doesn't your shop open at nine and close at five?" Sara asks, pointing at the shop signage. The whir of her e-bike stops as she parks it outside. It is ten in the morning.

"I'm going to the protest," Samantha says. "Aren't you coming?"

"No. I'm not into these things. Not yet. At least. I'm more of a neutral sort of person," she says, picking her repaired violin. The shop is halfway between her home and her music academy.

"Nice bike. Is it electric?" Samantha asks as she locks the door of her shop.

"Thanks. My brother found it online. It comes with its own app and displays its live location wherever I go," Sara loves to talk about her futuristic hubless bike.

"That's great. Bye, Sara," Samantha says and walks towards the people gathered at the end of the street to go to the main protest.

Sara's bike wakes up, and she starts moving toward her music class. The violin has no frets, keys, or buttons. She has to find the right note on the fingerboard by touch. She struggles as even the slightest shift of her finger makes her sound out of tune. She wants to impress her violin teacher, but it is not easy.

She also wants to impress her classmates - especially the new boy who is good at getting it right the first time.

As she keeps thinking about her music class, she fails to see the fast-moving car when she turns left.

The car hits her, and she sees a blackness spreading.

--------------------

"Will she live, doctor?" Sara's mother asks the doctor in the hospital. Her voice is trembling. Her eyes are watery.

"All of her vital organs are badly hurt. Let's see what happens," the doctor hurries to reach the operation theatre.

Her brother, Scott, is only ten. He is not sitting still. He is asking the medical staff about Sara's condition again and again.

"Why don't you sit here. I know you're feeling bad," One nurse, Angela, says. "I'll keep you updated about her condition. Right?"

"Okay," he sits down near his mother.

Two cops reach them and ask questions about the driver of the car. But they have no idea. The cops soon leave them alone.

After an hour, they see Angela coming. She looks worried. They stand up.

"Sara had a heart attack. But don't worry, she is lucky. We have found a matching donor," Angela speaks with a smile.

"Oh, God!" Sara's mother sits in a chair.

"When will she get the new heart?" Scott asks.

"In four hours. It's her luck," Angela goes away.

They sit and think if it is Sara's lucky day. Sara was only seventeen. Her mother is trying to control her thoughts.

It's five when they see Angela again. She has some papers in her hand.

"You have to sign these," Angela says. She goes back in a hurry without saying anything else.

Sara's mother tells her father about the accident on the phone. He is in Florida and cancels his meetings to come back home.

Scott is asking everybody again. One staff member tells him that Sara's kidneys have stopped working.

"I'm here. I'll give her my kidney. Blood relatives are the best donors, right?" Scott says.

"Yes, they are. But we already have a match. Don't worry," the staff said.

Scott sits down and tells her mother about this latest development. She is even more worried now.

It is eleven when her father joins them in the waiting area. Angela comes to update them on Sara's condition.

"Heart transplant was successful. She is still in the operation theatre for the new kidney," Angela holds the hand of Sara's mother. "I don't know how to say it but she is going to need eye surgery."

"Will she be able to see?" Scott's father asks.

"I hope so," Angela lies.

The three of them spend the night in the waiting area. They don't sleep, they don't eat, and they don't give up asking everybody about Sara. The hospital staff and doctors try to comfort them.

At five in the morning, Angela visits them again. She is trying to smile.

"Things are going in Sara's favor. She'll be in surgery again at nine," Angela says. "You guys should rest now."

But they sit there - worried and tired.

--------------------

"She'll survive," the doctor tells them in the evening. "She is a very lucky girl."

"Can we see her now?" Scott asks the doctor.

"Tomorrow, maybe. She is heavily sedated at this time. The rest will do her good," the doctor says.

"How many operations did she go through?" the father asks.

"Broken ribs, heart transplant, kidney transplant, and eye surgery," the doctor says. "Thank the technology and all the people who are willing to donate their organs."

"Thank you, doctor!" Sara's mother says. "Can we know the donors to thank them or their families?"

"It's against the policy to disclose the identity of the donors. But I can tell you something astonishing if you want to know," the doctor smiles.

"Please, we'd be grateful," the father says.

"The cornea for the eye was donated by a Japanese-American. The heart came from an African-American boy who had died in a protest rally for BLM," the doctor continues. "And the kidney came from an Indian girl."

"Yellow, black, and brown," Scott says. "Sara is alive because of all these colors."

At the protest, Sara is sitting with Samantha. They are carrying their placards. It is a peaceful protest.

"What changed your mind, Sara?" Samantha asks Sara when she sees her.

"A car," Sara says, smiling. "And what happened after that."

She tells her the whole story.

"I'm not only white now. I am black because of my heart. I am brown because of my kidney and I am yellow because of my eyes," Sara says. "I'm not neutral anymore."

Her placard says: "Our colors will save us."

--------------------