7.7: One Day In London Page #7

---

See the pockets?

These are all damaged

because of the explosion here.

And the outside

is all damaged in here.

Detective Sergeant arranged to

clean it when he brought it to us.

He said it was all filled with blood.

Everywhere was blood, but

he clean it and brought it to us,

because it is her personal

possession, you know.

So I'm keeping it here.

The only thing was missing

was her mobile telephone.

When I was ringing her

on 7th of July,

I only used to get the message,

"Neetu speaking.

"I'll come back to you

as soon as possible."

We visited all hospital around

London. There were 12 hospitals.

No, we couldn't get any clue.

After waiting seven days and nights,

desperately and anxiously,

there came the day of 14th July,

when two detective officers

gave us this heartbreaking news

that Neetu's body has been

positively identified.

What can I say now?

I...I remember somebody saying

that they were trying

to deal with people

in order of urgency.

A couple of chaps came over to me,

and one of them shone

his torch in my face.

And I remember him saying,

you know, "This one's gone."

Erm, and then they sort of

moved on, and I just... you know,

it's almost sort of like

anger, outrage really.

You know... cos I wanted

to attract their attention,

and I couldn't get the energy

to do it then, it was so difficult

to breathe and difficult to move

and I think that's when I really

got the sort of adrenaline rush or

whatever that I needed to get up.

Opposite where the bomb went off,

there were two quite severely

injured people with lower leg,

traumatic lower leg amputations.

She was blown sort of sideways, with

her legs, what was left of her legs

wrapped round the handrail,

I think, outside the train as well.

Martine, I don't think, really knew

the extent of her injuries.

I'd like to think she didn't.

So we had to unwrap her legs

without any anaesthetic.

I was at the head end,

sort of supporting her shoulders

as we got onto the stretcher.

And I'll never forget it. She

just looked right up into my eyes

and the torch I had

was shining in her face

so her whole face was illuminated,

looked right into my eyes,

let out this horrendous scream

and just reached up

and dug her nails into my arms

and scratched all the way down.

Because I'm sure

she was in so much pain,

she just needed to have

some sort of release.

I think that was what

that was about, but it was...

it was quite

a horrendous thing to see.

I'd never heard

a scream like that before.

No, don't remember...

anything, really, erm,

until I woke up in hospital,

which I think was about ten days

later or nine days later.

I can remember that as vividly now as

I could an hour after the incident.

It's... I'll never forget it.

There was an element of sort of

handing myself over to these guys.

They were helping me and I had,

I could sort of take a bit of a step

back and let them get on with it.

People were in

their pants and socks,

and I remember thinking, "Where

have their clothes gone?" Erm...

you know, I hadn't been...

I hadn't witnessed blast injuries

before, it's not something I'd seen.

And, er, people's clothes

literally get blown off them.

By all accounts, I had my

underpants on, one shoe and a sock,

and that was it.

I remember going up the stairs,

one of them saying,

complaining how, "Why do

we always get the heavy one?"

And I remember, even though I was

completely out of it thinking,

"This guy's... time for

somebody to crack a joke

"in this sort of situation."

After a while, I just sat down

on the floor by the ticket machines

and... because

I didn't know what to do,

and then I saw people

being brought out of the tunnel.

I was near the lifts,

and what I was seeing coming

out of the lifts just broke me.

It's just something you never forget.

I mean, you don't expect to

get out of a lift in a ticket hall

of a London Underground station

and see what would be considered

a battlefield hospital,

working on people,

holding arms and legs

up in the air

and saline applications going on.

The fact that they'd come out

of the carriage that I was in

made it that much worse.

So I thought,

"I've had enough, I'm off."

I remember one particular case.

She was lying right in front

of the BMA House,

and she would look at me straight,

the eye contact we'll make,

I will go and sit by her side,

hold her hand,

put my hand on her forehead,

and she wanted to say something.

Well, she could not say.

She might have just had an injury

which could have been dealt with.

But, without the equipment,

you can't do anything, you see.

So it was very frustrating.

Azuma, when was

the last time you two were...?

The night before.

Erm, she come home from work

and me and my brother

sat with her in the front room

and she cooked,

and we sat and laughed and giggled

and teased her as always.

And I remember she asked me to make

her some tea and I was like, "Oh!

"You're just sending me around

like your servant."

And she came in the kitchen

and really cuddled me,

and then the next day I was

supposed to go to my auntie's house,

so I couldn't find

my keys that night,

so she stayed up with me

looking for my keys.

I ended up being like, "Go to bed.

"You've got to get up at what time?

It's now, like, just past 12."

And so, I just said to her,

"I'll see you tomorrow."

And she was like, "OK,"

and she closed my bedroom door, and

that was the last time I saw her.

Seven years almost down the line,

I still have dreams of her.

I dream of her quite regularly.

Those kind of stuff won't go away.

Just before she died,

when I'd finished my GCSEs,

I had my leavers' prom,

and I made her take the day off,

and she came

and helped me get ready.

We went together to buy my dress.

So, yeah, I kind of

had all that with her,

so we were really, really close.

I think that is what

is so painful for me now.

Cos my friends are now

getting close to their mums,

but my mum's not here anymore.

And I'm not going to have

all that stuff with her.

She's not going to be there

when I get married

or when I have my own kids.

And I think that's a bit painful.

And that's why I don't think

I'll ever get over it,

cos there'll always be things

where I feel like

I need her there and she's missing.

Yeah, that's seven years

down the line.

It doesn't go away.

SIRENS BLARING:

We was met by a policeman who had

shut the road off at the time.

He asked me what am I going to,

and cos I had no knowledge

of the other incidents going on,

I thought it was

a very strange question,

so I just said to him, "The bus,"

which was in front of me then.

And he said to me, "Right, OK."

He said, "The walking wounded have

gone through the arch of the BMA.

"There's dead and dying everywhere,

"and we suspect

a secondary device on the bus,"

and then he let me

through his cordon.

We were confronted

with photographers.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes