It had been two days since the fair came and went. Rays of sunlight beamed down into my face, causing me to wake up. I looked around the small room where Anya and I slept. The walls were straw and the floor wooden, but we were sheltered. I scanned the room with my drowsy eyes. Something was wrong.
I looked at the straw mattress where Anya usually slept. There was no Anya.
Suddenly I heard a moaning noise coming from behind a wooden chair at the far left corner of the room.
I leaped out of bed, rushed to the chair, only to discover that it was Anya, in the fetal position.
"Get away! Away! No! No, no, no, no! Don't touch me. No! Don't. Stop. Marie! Help me, get it away! Why is it here Marie? Marie! Marie! Marie! Help me. Mama! Pappa, Pappa, where is Pappa? Marie, what is happening?"
The fever consumed her and she hushed and fell into a hypnotic sleep.
I felt her forehead, it was burning hot, and her face was flushed. I brushed her curly brown hair away from her face.
"Mama, come quickly" I shouted, my voice horse from panic, "It's Anya! Quickly!"
Mama rushed into the room, eyes wide with worry.
"Fever." She announced, "Marie, run to the Presberthy and see if the physician can come at once and tend to her."
I undressed myself as quickly as I could, throwing off my blue ragged nightgown and throwing on a long dress that came up to my elbows.
I ran out of the house, all the way to the Presberthy.
When I got there, there were many people all lined up outside of the sacred building. I joined the line to see what was going on.
"Got the fever she has. Hallucinating and what not." an elderly woman said from behind me.
"Oi, my wife has not only got a fever, but black looking hole things starting to cover her body she has. And the smell, oh the smell! Death is what it is. Sad, sad." an old Serf said in reply.
The line grew smaller and smaller as the sun started to reach the peak in the sky, over the mountains that were behind the forest.
Finally my turn came.
"Ma belle, qu'est ce que passe? Est- ce que la peste noir? (My beauty, what has happend? Is it the black plague?)" The physician asked me, speaking in his native tongue, French.
"Qu'est ce que "la peste noire"? (What is the black plague?)" I asked back.
"C'est commence avec un fievre, et pendant une ou deux jours, tourne a des taches noires avec des circules rouges. Si tu as la peste noir, je tu cicatriserai. (It starts with a fever, and during one or two days, black blotches will form with red circles around them. If you have the black plague, I will heal you.)"
"Oh! Ma soeur as un fievre! Est- ce que la peste noire? (Oh! My sister has a fever! Is it the black plague?)" I asked again, worried.
"Je ne sais pas, mais probablement c'est la peste. Je allerai a ton chateau demain matin et curee ta soeur. ( I don't know, but probably it's the plague. I will go to your house tomorrow morning and cure your sister.)"
With this news, I left the Presberthy, but didn't go home. Not yet. Instead, I turned up the road, and headed to the church.
The doors to the church were open. The sun shined through the stained glass, producing rays of light everywhere I looked.
"Est-ce que tu alle ici pour prierai parecque ton membre de famille avais la peste noire? (Have you come here to pray because one of your family members has the black plague?)"
"Oui, comment tu savoir? (Yes, how did you know?)" I asked, baffled that he knew the reason.
"Dieu parle avec moi. Il dit que tu est la cause de cette terrible chose qui passe. Il y a pas d'un point de prierai. Tout la monde mourirons, parceque to commitiere un sin terrible. (God spoke with me. He said that you are the cause of this horrible thing that has passed. There is no point in praying. The whole world will die because you committed a terrible sin.)" The priest said, arms flailing in the air and his chubby face red with anger.
"Sorterai mon eglise. Je te deteste. (Leave my church. I hate you.)" He spat at me.
I ran out of the church, tears in my eyes. He must be lying! It can't be my fault. How could my sin have been so horrible as to put all these lives in danger?
-ocean10kv
Author's Note: Vocabulary:
Presberthy: A building that is sort of like a doctors office . . . a physician/member of the church (priest/pope) tends to people who are sick.
Physician: Doctor. Works in Presberthy. Usually a man . . .
