Mosquitoes Don’t Bite Me by Pendred Noyce

Author:Pendred Noyce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tumblehome Inc
Published: 2017-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

We set up the boxes in the corner next to Nick, and one at a time, families came up from the tables to try their luck. First we asked them if they’d ever had malaria, or if mosquitoes liked to bite them. After they signed a form saying they consented to the test, we took their temperature and then had them put their hands in the box.

“But what if someone has malaria and doesn’t know it?” I asked. “Like what if they’re in that period between fevers where their temperature is normal, but they still have parasites in their blood? Won’t our mosquitoes spread it from one person to another?”

“That’s a really good question,” Daniel said. “I’m glad you’re thinking about the safety of our subjects. But it should be all right for two reasons. First, once a mosquito takes a blood meal, it won’t bite again for at least a few days. Second, remember your malaria life cycle. It takes ten to fourteen days for the malaria parasite to change inside the mosquito to a form that can infect a new person. The parasite also has to move from the mosquito’s stomach to its salivary glands. By the time that happens we’ll get rid of these mosquitoes and be using new ones.”

After that I felt better about the evening. If people were scared or reluctant, I went first, showing them how easy it was. It was funny. Some people said mosquitoes never bit them but they had gotten malaria anyway, which I was pretty sure was impossible. One teenaged boy said, “I think I have malaria right now. See how I am sweating?” Him we let stand aside. None of the people were too happy about putting their arms in the box, but they went through with it so they could hurry back to their big family reunion dinner.

My father brought one elderly lady to the corner and said, “Nala, this is your grandmother.”

The old lady had eyebrows as black as my father’s, but slim and curved where his were thick and straight. The skin of her face was smooth even though she only had a few teeth left. She squeezed both my cheeks in her hands and wobbled them. “So beautiful!” she said. “So strong and beautiful!”

I guess she was strong too, because mosquitoes didn’t bite her.

People reacted in different ways to the mosquito test. When mosquitoes didn’t land on him, the boy who had been so noisy thrust both fists in the air and leaped side to side, chanting, “Yes, yes, yes! Stronger than mosquitoes, yes, yes yes!” When mosquitoes landed on them, the children usually squealed, and some of the little ones started to cry and buried their faces against their mothers’ blouses. Usually the men, once bitten, pulled their hands out quickly, sometimes with a curse. The women were more likely to leave their hands stoically in place until Daniel told them in a soft voice they could pull free.

A tall, thin man in a white shirt and khakis who had been watching from the poolside door came over to be tested.

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