(Democratic Republic of Congo formerly known as Zaire – 1976)

We had been playing with some bright coloured bubble gum balls that Mummy had brought home that morning. She had told us specifically not to touch them. But they looked so bright and tempting in their long see-through plastic tube. Simon, my little brother, and I thought it would be a good idea to try a few, so whilst Cecile, the Nanny, and Mummy were not looking, I pulled up a chair to climb on, jumped onto the kitchen counter, opened the cupboard where I’d seen Mummy hide them, and took a few each for Simon and myself. We decided to hide in the bathroom to try them. Giggling, we shoved 3 gum balls into our mouths.

“hmmmmm…” I whispered. The taste was as sweet as the sugar lumps Granny used to give us when we visited her in England. After a few minutes of quiet chewing, Simon spluttered,
“Sham, it’s too big, too mush…”.
His mouth was frothing, dribble going everywhere.
“Spit it out Simes” I said holding my hand out.
He spat it out into my hand.
“ewwww, yukky!” I said.

I stared down at the ball of wet sticky mess in my hand. I wonder if this would stick on his hair? Before I knew it my hand had reached out and plastered the gum in Simon’s fringe. We both started sniggering at the patch of sticky gum in his hair. Simon started to try and get it out, but it was stuck fast. I tried too, but all I was doing was getting it more and more tangled.
“I know what we need…..scissors!” I said.
I knew that if Mummy saw what I’d done to Simon’s hair she was going to be so angry. Let’s see if I can find some scissors in the kitchen.
“Stay there, Simon. Don’t move.” I said to him. I knew he wasn’t likely to go anywhere as he always did what I told him. I was bigger than him after all.

I sneaked back into the kitchen as quietly as I could. If I made too much noise both Mummy and Cecile would grow suspicious. Cecile was busy ironing in the room behind the kitchen. Mummy was in the living room on the phone with someone.
I rummaged through one drawer. No, not there. Then through another. Tongs, wooden spoons, knives….oops, be careful with those…Where are the scissors? I opened the last drawer. Yes! Found them. I tiptoed softly back into the bathroom, scissors in hand, pointing downwards in case I tripped, careful that Mummy didn’t see me.

Simon hadn’t moved, as expected.
“Come here. Face me” I said,
“no, not that way…this way, look up, yeah that’s it”.
I put the toilet seat down and stood on it. I needed to be higher so I could reach the top of his head.
With the top of Simon’s head in full view, I could see the damage I had done. The clump of chewing gum was well and truly stuck. No matter how much tugging and pulling I did, it would not budge. I held up the scissors to cut the gum out. At that moment Simon flinched. A much larger chunk of sticky hair fell to the floor. I looked up at him. He was grinning from ear to ear and had no fringe left.
“Gum gone! Yay!!” He cheered.

We both heard the front door open and the jangling of keys. It was hard not to hear him coming. He carried around a big bunch of keys he needed to open and close the bank where he worked.
“Daddy’s home!” We both shouted and ran out of the bathroom.
Daddy scooped both of us up into his arms, hugging us tightly.
“Patricia, I’m home!” he said.
Mummy came into the hallway joining in the group hug.
“Why are you home so early, Andrew?” she asked and then noticing the scissors in my hand continued,
“and why are those in your hand, Samantha?” With the excitement of Daddy arriving home, I had forgotten about the hair incident. My eyes wandered guiltily towards Simon’s missing fringe. Mummy’s eyes followed.
“Oh my goodness gracious me, what on earth did you do?” She cried out, needling her fingers through his hair as if she was going to find the missing hair in there somewhere.

“Right you lot” Daddy said, putting both Simon and I down. We don’t have time for this now. We have to pack a bag quickly. Patricia, you do the bags, I’ll get the passports and documents. We have to leave as soon as we can. There’s a plane that will take the four of us.” Daddy said.
“Are we leaving now? But why so soon? I thought we had at least another month until we had to be there” Mummy’s voice was high-pitched. I could tell she was panicked.
“The Lubumbashi branch called this morning and told us to be on the next flight out. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to call you darling. It’s ok, we will be there for a few months and then we’ll be back here. No need to pack too much”.
“Cecile!” Mummy called out. “Can you come and help with the suitcases please?” She appeared from the back of the kitchen.

Whilst Mummy, Daddy and Cecile were packing the suitcases, Simon and I rushed to our bedroom and got our favourite toys out. Me my precious Moncchichi doll and Simon his teddy and his latest lego creation.
“Let’s put our shoes on so we are ready when they are” I said to Simon. He couldn’t tie his shoelaces yet, so I helped him.
“I wonder where we are going?” I said to no one in particular.

Within no time we were on our way to the airport. Simon and I hugging our soft toys, and me with my thumb in my mouth. I was surprised but relieved that Mummy hadn’t got more cross with me about Simon’s hair. The windows were down, bringing in the usual heavy heat inside the car. Daddy had sweat running down his face. Mummy had the deep crease on her forehead when she was worried about something.
“Why didn’t Cecile come with us, Mummy?” I asked.
“She’s going to stay and look after the flat and her own family darling until we get back”, she answered.
“I’m going to miss her” I said.
“Me too”. Simon added.
“We are all going to miss her darlings, but she’ll be right here where we left her when we get back”, Mummy said reassuringly.

When we arrived at the airport, Daddy managed to find a parking spot quickly. He got out of the car and rushed to the trunk to grab the bags. “Darling, hold tight to the children. Whatever you do, don’t let them go. Children, please, it’s very important to stay with us at all times, is that understood?” We both nodded and scrambled out of the car. We held Mummy’s hand tight. We had been to the airport many times before, but I had never seen so many people walking towards the terminal. It was a throng of noise, colours, people, shoving, pushing.

“Mummy, I don’t feel well”. I felt like I was going to vomit. Daddy overheard, turned around and pulled me up into his arms. “Come on sweetie. There, there. We’ll be out of this crowd soon”. I felt better. Daddy was tall. Being above the crowd meant I could breathe. There were two official looking white men coming towards Daddy. “Mr. Frearson, come this way please. Follow closely”. Our tight unit followed the two men. Our passports were looked at by another man in army uniform. We were taken through a gate and then we were pointed to a small plane that was landing on the runway.
“That’s your plane. You’ll need to run for it the minute it lands”.
The crowd behind the gates was getting louder and louder, bigger and bigger. It seemed like there were thousands of people crammed in the airport building. I could see arms stretched out, waving passports and papers, holding children up in the air, people shouting in French and English and Swahili.

Daddy looked over at Mummy and asked,
“Ready Patricia?” She already had Simon in her arms who was looking a little pale. I still wasn’t feeling too well. My head felt hot.
“As ready as I’ll ever be”. She answered.
“Ok then, let’s go!”. Daddy started running. Mummy followed. My stomach felt like it was turning inside out with all the bumping up and down. My arms were stretched around Daddy’s shoulders as I held tightly on to his neck. I looked behind us. It seemed like the whole crowd had been let through the gates at the same time. They all started to run too. Towards us. I closed my eyes and held on tighter to Daddy. I didn’t want to fall into this scary crowd. I turned to see if we were any closer to the plane. A little, but not much. I noticed that it wasn’t the usual staircase leading up to the plane entrance. Just an old rickety ladder leading to the small door on the side of the plane. We arrived at the ladder. There was a man at the top of the ladder. He had a captain’s hat on. He must be the pilot. Without hesitation, Daddy swiftly handed my brother and I up and over into the plane, to the pilot. Once we were in his safe hands, Daddy too scrambled up the ladder and as he got through I heard him shout back down to Mummy

“Grab hold of the rungs Patricia, tight, or you’ll be dragged down”. The crowd was on top of Mummy, there were people swarming around the rickety ladder, trying to get onto the same small plane. Daddy reached down towards her. I heard him say
“Hold on to my hands…that’s it…hold tight”. He managed to pull her up with all his strength into the belly of the plane. Once Daddy had pulled her to safety the pilot pushed the door shut. The crowd sound stopped. Mummy and Daddy lay on the plane floor, huffing and puffing.
“Mummy!” I cried. Simon and I threw ourselves on top of Mummy hugging her.
“I’m so scared”. I said.

“Hush now darlings. It’s all going to be fine now”. She said, hugging us both. The pilot disappeared into the cockpit. The engines came on. The noise was terrifying. It was as loud as a dragon breathing fire. I hugged Mummy tighter. After a few minutes, he popped his head out and shouted,
“Sit down quickly, belts on. You’ll have to hold the kids on your laps. It’s going to be a rough ride”.

I had noticed that there were only two very sad looking chairs in the middle of the plane floor. We all moved towards the seats, sat down, me on Daddy’s lap, Simon on Mummy’s. Before we were up in the air Simon started throwing up. It wasn’t too long that I joined him.
It was a bumpy flight. We were being thrown all over the place. Mummy and Daddy held on to us as tightly as they could, despite our wretchings, over and over again. My lungs felt like they would burst. Simon was always travel sick so it wasn’t surprising that he was ill. But it was unusual for me. We both threw up for the rest of the flight. My hair felt damp and clammy. My body so tired. My thrashing got less and less frantic. Daddy just held me tight. Mummy held Simon tight.

I must have fallen asleep because I didn’t notice the plane land. I woke up, still in Daddy’s arms but realised we were already off the plane. It was quiet and there wasn’t anyone else around. I wondered briefly where we were. It felt good to be on the ground again. There was a cool breeze blowing but my head still felt like a hammer was hammering away at it. Before dozing back to sleep I heard Mummy say “There’s something wrong with them, Andrew. I think we need to get them to a hospital.”

*Photo by Scott Webb from Pexels