(Lubumbashi, DRC – 1976)

I kept on dozing on and off. When I woke up, we were being thrashed around in the back of a large jeep. Daddy was steadying me, Simon by Mummy.

A few minutes later we arrived at a hotel. We walked into the lobby. There were two men sitting in the hallway smoking cigars. They looked up when they saw the four of us walk in. One of them said, looking in the general direction of the four of us standing there,

“For Christ’s sake, man, you all stink! You look as though you’ve been through hell and back! Go and have a shower, then join us for beers and something to eat”. I looked at Daddy, then Mummy. Their clothes were crumpled and covered with both mine and Simon’s vomit.

“Do any of you have some medication to bring a fever down?”, Daddy asked one of the men. Before any of them could answer, a man with kind eyes, with white gloves on, took our bags and said,
“Bwana, please, sir, come this way.” his beautiful smile shone out of his smooth black face.
“We have medicine for you sir. Paracetamol is good, sir?” Daddy nodded.

As he showed us to our room the kind man spoke to another. They exchanged a few words in a mix of their local language and French. All I understood was chambre 205.
Once in our room my throat started to itch, and Simon started sneezing.
“It’s damp and musty but… at least we have clean sheets!”. Daddy cheered, looking over to the lovely large bed with bright white sheets. On either side of the double bed were two small cots on either side of the bed. They looked so cozy. I was about to throw myself on one of them when Mummy said,

“Children, don’t you even think about jumping on the beds until you’re clean! Get yourselves straight into the bathroom, take your filthy clothes off there. I’ll run the bath.”
“Whilst you do that, darling, I’ll ring up reception to see if they can bring something up to the room for the kids to eat.” said Daddy.

There was a knock at the door. The kind man gave bottled water and some tablets to Daddy. They spoke about what food they could bring upstairs for us. Then Daddy closed the door after saying thank you and goodbye.

After the bath, we had chicken, rice, some warm milk, and crushed up medicine which Mummy made us take with water. I gagged when I tried it, but Mummy made me drink it all up. Simon too. Then we were put to bed. My head still hurt and my body felt so tired, I just melted into the bed. Mummy sat on Simon’s bed,

“Poor little thing. He’s totally conked out”, she said as she stroked his still fringeless head. Simon had fallen asleep the minute his head touched the pillow.

Daddy sat down on the low bed and gave me a kiss and hug. Just before getting up he said,
“Sweetie, we are going downstairs to get something to eat and drink, we won’t be long, but if anything happens whilst we are downstairs, look after your little brother and come and find us”. I nodded and fell instantly asleep.

I woke up thinking that I’d wet the bed. But I realized that my pajamas were soaking wet. I was thirsty. I needed some water. My hot breath made me even thirstier. I sat up. My body shivered with cold even though I felt so hot. My mind was foggy with where we were. The little bedside table light had been left on. I looked around the room. Oh yes, the hotel. The double bed was empty. Mummy and Daddy must be still downstairs. I got up from the bed slowly. I stumbled a little as my head started to spin. When my eyes came into focus, I walked towards Simon’s bed. He was still sleeping, or rather tossing and turning and mumbling something in his sleep. His head was soaked like a wet mop. His chest glistening with sweat. He must have taken his pajama top off in his sleep.

“Simon, wake up!”, I whispered, shaking him at the same time. He groaned and turned over towards the wall.
“Wake up!” I repeated. I shook him more urgently. He stirred and turned back towards me. I sat on the side of his bed with my Moncchichi in one hand, and my thumb in my mouth.
He opened his eyes slowly, looked at me, then towards the big bed and saw it was empty.
“Where’s Mummy?” Simon whined.
“I want Mummy. I don’t feel well”. His face was flushed red.

Suddenly the little light went out. I reached out and felt for the switch. When I found it, I clicked it, but it didn’t turn on. Simon started crying. My body shivered even more. But not just from feeling cold. I was scared. Look after Simon and come and find us.
“Put your top back on and grab teddy. Let’s go and find Mummy and Daddy”.

Once he was done getting dressed, we inched towards the bedroom door. I hoped to find the corridor lit up when I opened it. It wasn’t. I fumbled around. Further down the corridor I noticed a small red flashing light. We walked towards it. It was the elevator. I pressed the red button, but nothing happened. My eyes started adjusting to the dark. I looked around and noticed a door with a push bar across it, like the red ones I’d seen in airports. I pulled Simon over and we pushed the bar together. It opened to some stairs.
“I’m scared” Simon whined. “I want Mummy.” “Shhh, we’ll find her soon” I comforted him, held his sweaty hand tighter and we walked down the narrow stairs slowly, with one hand gripping tight on to the handrails, being careful not to fall, the other holding Simon’s hand.

At the bottom of the second flight of stairs, we found the door with another push bar on it. We pushed it hard and found ourselves in the lobby. Simon started shouting for Mummy again. I could see the beams of four or five flashlights bouncing around. I could see the different shapes and heights of people, but none of them looked like Mummy and Daddy. We walked slowly into the middle of the lobby. Behind one of the closed doors, nearer to the far end of the lobby I heard people talking. I tugged Simon towards the sound and opened the door to find Mummy, standing with a group of other people. She looked up as we walked in.
“Children!” she shouted running towards us and swooping us both up.
“Oh, thank goodness you are alright! Did you see Daddy? He came to check on you.” She covered our faces with kisses. I hugged her fiercely.
“I didn’t see him.” I said quite calmly. “I did what you told me to do. I came to find you.”
“Shhh, shhh, yes well done, you did everything right, darling.”
“Can someone please find my husband and let him know that the children are alr….” At that moment, Daddy burst into the room. The moment he saw us, he too ran towards us and hugged us tightly and said,
“Oh my darlings, I was terrified that someone had taken you when I saw that you weren’t in your rooms. Oh, what a fright!”

“I’m so thirsty Mummy” I said, remembering how thirsty I was.
“Me too” chimed in Simon. Mummy felt both our foreheads.
“They’re both still burning up Andrew”, she said. We were both taken back upstairs, given some water, some more disgusting medicine, and tucked back into bed. After all the excitement and worry, I felt extremely tired and just wanted to sleep. Mummy sat on the side of my bed and put a cold flannel on my forehead. It felt fresh. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

The following day we all woke up early. Simon and I both still had a fever. I went to the bathroom to pee. It was a large toilet seat so I had to put my legs a little wider than usual to keep my balance, which meant that I could see myself peeing. I was surprised at the color of my pee. It was black… “Mummy!” I called. “My pee is black!” Daddy rushed in. I was off the toilet by this time, about to flush when Daddy stopped me. He looked down the toilet and checked the color. He then crouched down and said,
“Look at me, darling”. He held my face gently, in his large soft hands, looked inside my eyes, and carefully pulled down the bottom part of my eyes, one by one.
“Oh god” he muttered quietly, and then called out to Mummy and said,
“Patricia, can you check the color of the whites of Simon’s eyes”.
I could see the worried look on Daddy’s face.
“What is it Daddy?” I asked.
Mummy came into the bathroom, checked my eyes just like Daddy had done a minute ago. She looked up at Daddy and they both said out loud in unison,
“Hepatitis”.

*Photo by Allan Mas from Pexels