Arleigh's Plague

Arliegh was only twelve when her Daddy stopped breathing. Life was already hard for her mother and sister as it was, but after daddy left was when it really started to become difficult. She recalled before he died when the plague first got to him, how she and Joranne, her older sister would sit by the hot stove and watch as the physician soothed Daddy’s fever.

“Arliegh?”

“Yeah?”

“Are you scared?”

“No.”

“But what if daddy dies?”

“Daddy wont die, he’s going to get better you’ll see.”

“I wish I was brave like you Arie.” Joranne sat closer to her little sister wrapping her arms around her. The nightmare lived on even 3 months after his death, when 12 more died from the plague.

No one in all of England quite knew what started the plague, but it spread like fleas on dogs. The symptoms put families on close watch but it couldn’t be stopped. It began with the bleeding of a nose, then a palling of the skin, following a fever. Many people had different symptoms which followed, but it always began with the nose bleed. Arliegh’s daddy had everything including breathing problems and the occasional coughing up of blood. No one survived the plague. Her father Joric Von Iris was one of the first to get the vile illness, when he collected it from a workmate. At that time the plague wasn’t well known, but by the time he was on death row, everyone knew about it.

Arliegh lived with her mother Mary, father Joric, and elder sister Joranne-who was three years older, in the town of Liverpool England. It was early 1870’s and the plague was just what the town needed to add to its lowliness. It began in summer, the days were semi-cloudy but Arliegh didn’t mind. She sat in their small apartment with Mummy and Joranne, when Daddy came home. He stumbled through the front door, Mummy gasped and rushed to him. He was holding his nose and when Mummy pulled his hand away a thick river of blood streamed down his shirt.

“Joranne, quick get me a towel!” Mummy said quickly. Joranne rushed to mummy with a towel which she used to clean Daddy’s nose. Arliegh sat not afraid, but concerned, she didn’t understand. After mummy cleaned daddy up and changed his shirt she went into Joranne and Arliegh’s room to explain that Daddy was just sick. That was only the beginning. Daddy clarified that a workmate had been coughing recently at the mill; he had noticed blood spotting few times on his handkerchief. But now in the present time Daddy was only a memory never to be forgotten. Arliegh remembered his funeral, all the men wearing black suits and the women black gowns. It only added to the pure devastate everyone was in.

Mummy called Arliegh, to walk home, but she sat there staring at Daddy’s cold grave. Her thoughts raced, about a time when her daddy held her on his knee and read to her stories of princes and princesses. How much she loved hearing his thick Scottish accent, “Daddy?”

“Aye, wee one”

“Am I a princess?”

“Aye child you are, you're daddy’s princess.”

“Forever?”

“Well lass that is until your husband, becomes your prince.”

“But Daddy I want to stay with you, I don’t need a prince.”

Joric chuckled, “You may think that way now lassie, but ‘tis going to happen. But don’t worry child I will look after ye, until he comes.”

A tear strolled down Arliegh’s stony face. When daddy died it was like an angel fell from heaven. Daddy died only a month after determining his ailment. Morris Willis, the man who gave Daddy the plague died the week before he, subsequently Mummy and Daddy knew then that he wouldn’t make it. Like many families in Liverpool the Iris’ couldn’t afford proper remedy for Daddy. On the day he died Daddy was laying in his clammy divan, Mummy sat beside him stroking his hand, and Arliegh and Joranne sat in the salon, waiting for their daddy to get well. For a while nothing seemed to change, but then mummy shrieked in terror. Joranne rushed to the bedchamber and saw Mummy on her knees wailing in upset next to daddy. Arliegh walked in the room and stood next to Joranne who was frozen. Mummy ran out of the home, into the way screeching in distain. Joranne and Arliegh stood staring at their lifeless father, but Arliegh didn’t cry.

After his funeral, the nasty spell that had entered Daddy, cast upon Morris Willis’ son and also his wife. It wasn’t before long, that they too became fallen angels. After some time the towns publics, started to see the pattern of the plague, it was highly contagious and killed in about a month’s time. In time what was left of the Iris family started to wonder when they too would get ill and die, like the so many lost. The new decrees in Liverpool became strict. Any person who had the plague must be left in solitary confinement, undoubtedly to die, because that’s what they all did. The dead were to be buried in a sulfur grave and burned, as to not spread infection.

Usually the ill wouldn’t be able to move, but there were a few who went completely mad. They would stride through the streets, sometimes unclothed, and sick with the stench of a corpse. Many were shot, and the civic started to believe the people were becoming like rabid animals. Some evacuated, but others stayed, they wouldn’t leave their homes, which were no longer safe. Arliegh, her mother and sister had a fairly easy time avoiding the plague, since their home was just out of town. Everyday Arliegh would go to the bay and smell the salty, sweet, sea air. It brought back memories of her father. They would sit on a stone and stare out at the endless overcast sea.

“Daddy?”

“Aye.”

“Do you believe in mermaids?”

“Mermaids?” He smiled. “Do you believe in mermaids?”

“No, but sometimes I wish I were a mermaid.”

“When I was young, lass, I saw a mermaid.”

“No.”

“Aye lass, a beaut she was, but as I took a closer look I realized she was only a girl. But she was the prettiest thing I had ever seen and I told myself, ‘that there lass, she shall be mine someday.”

“Did you get ‘er Daddy?”

“Aye and she gave me you,”

Arliegh smiled big “Mummy!” “That’s right lass, ‘twas ye mum,”

Arliegh went back to reality, thinking of Daddy seemed to make the pain hurt and go away at the same time. She sat skipping rocks as her Daddy had taught her. When she returned home she discovered, two others died that afternoon. Life became hard to live, businesses and markets started shutting down, with signs on the doors that read “Down from plague.” It wasn’t safe to go out just at any time because anything could occur.

“Mum?”

“Yes, my wee one?”

“Are we going to evacuate?”

“I don’t know, dear, I was hoping the illness would pass by now. If it gets worse I would intend to, but only to protect my darlings.”

The thought stuck in Arliegh’s thoughts like molasses. Liverpool was their home, plague or no plague. However just as Mummy had said if it meant risking their lives then they would clearly have no choice. Arliegh sat staring at nothing, “Arliegh?”

She shook her head “Yes, Mum?”

“Are you quite alright, your tea is getting cold?”

“Oh sorry, yes I’m alright.” Arliegh was alright but she had mixed thoughts, not just about transporting, but also about the sick ones. Fortunately none of the close friends had been struck by the plague but that didn’t last long. The next week Finley Reedley took in the horrid plague. He was only 13 and was one of Arliegh’s close comrades. It was true that when she first encountered him she took a deep liking for him, but now he was a mere friend. Still though she loved him like a brother and so did her Daddy before he passed. Out of everyone in the whole town Finley was the only one besides Daddy that least deserved to die. And he was going fast.

A close friend and physician in Liverpool closely examined the Iris’ and were astonished to see that none of them had gotten the plague, even with Daddy living with them. Knowing this made Mary Iris more comfortable with helping the sick ones. She even let Arliegh visit Finley, before it was too late. On a windy Wednesday Arliegh strolled over to Finley’s home, wearing heavy layers, as to avoid the homeless’ sickness if their was any left. She also wore it to keep away the cold from her light white skin. When she arrived at Reedley household everyone was weeping bitterly. Willa-his mother was not allowed to be close to him, because she was prone to the sickness, and also pregnant. She had been shipped to Scotland, with her other daughter Lottie. The only ones with Finley were his-father john, and Aunt-Rita, who were willing to help him even if it meant getting sick.

Arliegh walked in the cottage since the door had been cracked open. She took down the shawl on her head as she entered the door. Rita saw her and sniffled as she led Arliegh to Finley. He laid gasping and wheezing for air in a large bed. He looked deceased, his eyes had black circles around them and his face seemed as pale as the clouded sky. Only his lips had color, and they were bright red, as if blood he had coughed up has stained them. John Reedley was in the kitchen preparing a garlic tea for Finley, so Arliegh had plenty of time to accompany him. She sat on a stool next to him in his bed and his eyes wandered until he saw her. Finley tried to say her name but her name came out as a deep raspy burst of wheeze. She smiled in a very feint matter,

“You needn’t be afraid Finley, Daddy would be proud of you for remaining so strong. There have been many fallen angels lately, but being part of the deceased is almost a better place to be, than in this cruel world.” Arliegh sat talking and calming Finley, but then she remembered something her daddy told her before he died. “Before Daddy left, Finley, he told me ‘whenever you’re afraid you can talk to God, because even if I’m not here to listen, God always will be.’ Finley it’s okay to be afraid but whenever you feel alone God will be there even if I, or you family is not.” She held his cold fingers and sat speaking to him for possibly two hours, but soon he began falling in the eternal rest. Arliegh began to cry because she knew his life was ending at that very time. “Finley my heart will never forget you, and neither will God. My dear friend may you finally be somewhere, where there is no death or vileness.” And at that moment his heart stopped beating. The plague was killing everything even Arliegh’s weak heart.

After Finley died, everything else seemed even more so to get worse, but things got to the final point when Arliegh sat on her rock in the bay, and her nose started to bleed. She pulled her fingers from her nose and saw the blood run down her wrist and drip into the cold sea. She gulped hard and then looked at the sea. Her eyes became teary and that was when she became full of remorse for the others. An overwhelming nausea held her and squeezed her stomach creating knots. She felt like vomiting. Quickly she walked home trying to keep the blood from going down her shirt, with her handkerchief. Mummy was knitting a pair of mittens for her when Arliegh came through the door. The sight that Mummy saw made her sick as well, but in a much more gruesome way.

Arliegh gasped harshly, “Mum! Mum! I’m sick, I’m sick mum.” Mary didn’t know what to say and when Joranne came in from the kitchen, she also had no reaction, but to stare. They didn’t know whether to go near her or to stay away from her. Mummy looked toward Joranne and nodded. Joranne went back to the scullery and returned with a damp towel.

As Mary Iris wiped the blood off of Arliegh’s face she told Joranne, “Now, darling I want you to put on a hot kettle and dip one towel in it. With the rest of the water boil garlic, and onions. Understand?”

Joranne nodded and did what she was told as fast as she could. But as she put on the water she couldn’t help but bellow and sob. “Poor Arliegh, pitiable, Arliegh.”

Mary could hear Joranne’s sorrow but did her best to ignore it. She used soft words as she tucked Arliegh tightly in bed. With a cold towel she wrapped it around her head, and wrapped a hot towel around her feet-to draw the fever down from her head. She made Arliegh drink the disgusting tea made of garlic and onion, but Arliegh didn’t hesitate a bit. All that night Arliegh awoke repeatedly, sitting up coughing and hawking blood from her lungs. No one spoke, for everyone knew what was going to happen no matter how hard they tried. For two days this went on and Arliegh’s appearance was lost. Arliegh was always tired, and vomited anything she could bare to take in. The vile plague made her chest feel tight and it hurt to cough. She was so tired of being awake and so tired of the death and coughing. Mummy sat praying with her crying as she prayed.

On the very last night Arliegh woke up from her sleep and stirred her sleeping mother. Mary sat up startled Arliegh needed something. “Mum,” she held her hand, “Be strong Mum, where I am going there is no pain and there is no plague, maybe I will see daddy again. I have peace Mum, peace in my heart.”

—Arliegh’s heart stopped—

She could not fight the battle. But as she went she felt her secure peace fill her body, then numbness and she could no longer feel the sickness. Yes she was so tired of the sick and death, and now she would never have to face it again. She was buried next to her father Joric under a birch tree, in the cemetery. She was close to Joric and Finley, since the families were willing to bury them there.

Arliegh’s plague was cured the month after her death, an unknown American man from New York, discovered it when he visited for a week. The plague could not get into him because he had been drinking the water of America. Yes the sickness was in the water, and even after the people boiled it, the plague had already become contagious, it didn’t mater if you had drank the water or not. The American met Mary and Joranne. After hearing their story of their strong family members who where forever lost, he felt sick, for not arriving earlier. In Arliegh’s honor, he built a statue of a girl preparing to skip a rock to the sea. At the bottom of the statue it had a plaque that read, “Arliegh was probably the strongest girl in Liverpool, and maybe even England, but even the dreadful plague could conquer her. May she rest in the eternal peace and sleep.”

Fin