Malaria

Mike becomes ill from malaria. Linda nurses him.

Malaria

Mike was walking home from his last class when abdominal pains struck him. He staggered into the toilet just as his bowels loosened.  Then the vomiting began.  Exhausted he staggered into bed. There, racked by fever and alternating between chills and hot flashes he drifted in and out of sleep.

Dosed by Tylenol and chloroquine; Mike pulled on his clothes and stumbled to Dick De Jesus’s place.

Doctor Ramos frowned. He examined Mike’s throat and took his temperature.

“Malaria?” Dick asked.

The doctor nodded.

Confused Mike muttered “but I take my chloroquine?”

“Chloroquine doesn’t stop malaria,” said Doctor Ramos. “It just reduces its effects. Nothing stops it.”

Half an hour later Dick’s green Volkswagen headed up the road to Mallam Maduri

***

Chills shaking him Mike clutched his sodden sheet around him. Since Dick and Rudy Pablo had placed him in his bed he had drifted in and out of sleep racked by alternating waves of cold and heat. Perspiration had dampened his sheets. “I’ll be back soon,” Dick had told him. An infinity of tossing, vomiting, burning and chills had passed since then; stumbling to and from the bathroom.  With each trip he felt himself growing weaker.

Faint sounds came from else in the house.  Joy De Jesus and Rudy Pablo washed him and gave him broth and juice, most of which he could not keep down.

Managing to sleep he dreamed of Linda and her house in Mallam Maduri. They sat at her garden drinking cold water and talking about the day. How he longed to be there. Instead here he lay as helpless as a baby, his guts turned to water. In his fever he imagined Linda bathing his forehead with a wet cloth whispering gentle words. Reaching out he could imagine touching her hand. The vision told him to sleep. Closing his eyes, he slept.

***

Linda looked at the dirty dishes piled in the sink. “When did he last clean them” she wondered. Before the illness she surmised. Looking under the sink she found the dish washing liquid.

Priscilla picked up a dishcloth. “Wash or dry” she asked

“I’ll wash” said Linda. She placed the stopper, turned the faucet and squeezed green dish washing liquid into the sink. Men, she frowned.

***

While Priscilla and Joy scrubbed the floors, Linda prepared her salt-sugar solution, a mixture that had been used for generations in the Philippines.  She boiled a liter of water. When it cooled she stirred in six teaspoons of sugar and a half-teaspoon of salt.   Filling a glass she took it to Mike.

“Take this.”

Mike frowned at the water in the glass. “What is it” he croaked.

“Sugar-salt solution, very good for diarrhea. Mike, you promised me we will marry in Kano. You will not break that promise. Do not make me a widow before I get married.”

She placed the glass on the bedside table. Helping him rise to a sitting position, Linda pressed the rim of the glass against Mike’s cracked lips. “Drink it.”

He sipped the warm sugary water.  Linda ignored his grimace. “Drink it down.”

***

That evening Dick came by to take Priscilla and Linda back to Mallam Maduri.

“You take Priscilla,” said Linda. “I will stay.”

“But your classes;” Dick protested.

“The headmaster will understand. I will be here tonight and tomorrow.”

***

Standing on a kitchen chair Linda untied the string holding the top of the mosquito net to a small, white hook jutting out from the ceiling.  Mike she had half-carried to another bed, with clean sheets loaned by Joy De Jesus. Now she had to transfer the net. The net smelled of dust. She thought of washing it but knowing that the mosquitoes did not mind the dust, decided against it. Taking the net and the chair to Mike’s new bedroom she began to rehang it.

That night she stayed under the net next to Mike.  She dreamt of their coming marriage, when she and Mike would walk together husband and wife. She looked over at Mike. Linda the spinster, plain and short, could be loved too. All the people would see it and know.  Soon she would live in a new country; a good, rich, free country. She would have her babies. She would love them and they would love her. Mike had given her the chance to make a new and better world for herself. Now between her and her dreams crouched the malaria.

At the foot of the bed she lit a green mosquito coil, dried paste of pyrethrum shaped into a green coil. Its fumes would drive away any mosquito that tried to enter. Inside the net next to her sleeping Mike she sat armed with a rolled up note book waiting for any mosquito that breached her defenses.

***

Mike stirred. Through blinking eyes he looked through the dawn light at Linda sleeping next to him.

“Linda?”

Linda stirred and then placed a hand upon his right shoulder. “Sleep.”

***

A bowl of watery rice porridge and a cup of tea made up  Mike’s breakfast.

“You will be alright here for the day “ Linda asked.

“I suppose so. Do you have to go back?”

“I have classes to see to, plants to water. I will be back in the evening. I will bring supper. There is more porridge you can have for lunch.” Then she added. “Try to take a walk, Mike. Not too far. Dick and Joy’s place maybe.”

“I’ll see how I feel.”

For the rest of the morning he sat and thought about Linda. In May they would marry. In July, after the school year was over, they would travel to the Philippines to see her family and then on to Canada to see his; the trip of a lifetime. First though he must travel as far as the door. In the early afternoon, feeling sufficiently strong he ventured outside and took the path to Dick’s house.

Passing the residences he thought of how back in October he had helped Dan through his bout of malaria. According to Doctor Ramos, Dan had been lucky. A bit of abdominal discomfort, some nausea, a couple of nights of sweats and he was through it.

“Doesn’t look so bad to me” he had told Doctor Ramos.

Ramos had shrugged. “There are many kinds of malaria. You wait until you get it.”

In Botswana there had been malaria in the swamps of the Okavango. The rest of the country had been relatively free of it. Being posted to Francistown Mike had given it little thought. Here in Nigeria, there seemed no escaping it.

***

Joy looked up from mixing a vanilla cake as the tall, pale Canadian knocked on the side of her screen door. Wiping her hands she went over to the door.

“Linda said that I should take a walk so I came this way.”

Joy smiled and opened the door. “Come in Mike. How are you?”

“Good morning, Joy. I’ve been better.  Mind if I sit for a while before I head back?”

“You can keep me company in the kitchen. Would you like some guava juice?”

She took out a pitcher filled with reddish juice. Pouring out a glassful she handed it to Mike, now settled in a kitchen chair.

When the tall Canadian had first come to Hadejia; Joy had played with the notion of going off with him for a day or two, even mentioning it to him. The act had never materialized. What excuse could she have given Dick? Besides, Mike had never shown any interest for her. Instead he had fallen for Linda. Joy had conceded it to be the best solution for the three of them. Yet there were still times deep at night with Dick asleep beside her when she imagined Mike making love to her. She could feel him thrusting into her as he held her. Then, Dick would move or mutter in his sleep and the vision would vanish.

“I wanted to thank you and Dick for your help.”

“Well, that’s what friends are for.”

“We appreciate it, Linda and me.”

Nodding, Joy turned back to mixing her cake.

“Will you be returning to work soon?”

“Next Monday I hope.” Mike placed the empty glass on the table. “Best be headed back. Thanks for the drink, Joy, and the chat.”

Joy saw him to the door. “Come by any time, you and Linda.” She placed a hand on his right shoulder.”

He glanced at the hand, nodded and left.

***

That afternoon, after class, Dick picked up Linda at her place and brought her to Hadejia. She brought with her a jar of vegetable soup and large, covered plate of rice.  The car pulled up in front of Mike’s house. Followed by Dick who was carrying the rice, Linda opened the house door.  They found Mike resting on the couch. He sat up.

“You look much better Mike” said Linda.

“I feel much better.”

“I brought supper.”

“So I see. How are you, Dick?”

Dick nodded. “Okay. I’ll leave you two and get to my place.”

Mike nodded.

“Glad you’re feeling better.”

“Thanks.”

After Dick had left he turned and kissed Linda.

“Next week I’ll go to the District Education Office.”

“Why?”

“I’m going to apply for a transfer to your school.”