Hang On By Norman Olago

It all happened so quickly! One minute he was standing on the platform, the next he was hurtling through the air, hanging on for dear life, I tried to chase after him. I called out, ‘James! Hold on and don't let go!’.  James called out, ‘Dad help me, I’m scared’. 
“Hold on tight James, and don’t let go!”  I ran towards the train, and I  banged on the window, telling the train to stop.  The passengers in the train were having such a fright, they also saw what happened.
One of the surprised passengers stood up and ran to the ticket man and hurriedly told him to stop the train. The ticket man ignored him at first, until he looked up and saw outside the window, legs moving in the air. 
Startled, the ticket man stopped what he was doing and ran towards the door. He reached up and hit the big red button and the train halted to a stop. The sound of the brakes, metal clunking and screeching, slowly the train stopped, and from a distance, I saw James had let go and his body dropped on to the platform. 
Scared and nervous I was hoping that he was not seriously injured. So I ran as fast as I could towards him. All I could see was no movement from him. A crowd had gathered around as I was trying to make my way through to him. I saw James lying on the ground and he was slowly moving. I cried to see him in this kind of state. I looked down at him, saying to myself  ‘I’ve failed to keep you safe’. As I was crying I did not notice that James was sitting up, looking at me. James said ‘Dad, are you ok?’. I looked up quickly to see his bright blue eyes staring at me with worry.
Relieved and calm, I pulled him towards me and hugged him breathlessly.
“Yes i am ok son”.  “Are you ok?”  I asked gently.  
“Just a scratch on my knee, i'm definitely ok dad”  Standing up we headed out towards the exit of the station.
‘Let's go home’.