Disturbance-Loving Species by Peter Chilson

Author:Peter Chilson [Chilson, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

Monday

"FEVER KILLED HAMZA SAIDOU!" Carter was talking to himself in a loud voice as he hiked back to the city. "But I'll probably never know what happened to Salif Moustapha." Then he shouted, "Will I, Salif? I'll never know. You'll never let me know."

He began to cry a little, but he stopped. Crying was useless. It was nearly nine, and the heat pushed on him as he walked back to the city under the awful sun. He'd thanked Yaou and shaken his hand, promising to try to get some medicine to him. Carter felt the lie as he spoke it, unsure of where and how he'd find enough malaria pills for the fifteen people still in the village.

He hurried down the slope. The heat reflected off the ground and burned through the rubber soles of his shoes. Carter saw himself as a small creature crawling across a vast campfire pit burnt to ashen gray and dull brown. The air was so hot, it seared his throat; it hurt to breathe deeply. It occurred to him that he'd never really been out of the city on foot, alone, to see the country for himself and listen to people's stories. There was no escape except to keep walking. He pictured Hamza burning up on a bed in a cool room, with no escape from the heat of sickness, and Salif, perhaps in some desert camp out in the open, sweltering without shade or water. It seemed as if the spirits of both men were following Carter across the plain, back to the city. They would always be following him. They would never let him rest, never let him forget. He drank the rest of his water. He was lightheaded, but not in danger. More water would be available soon enough. For a few moments he savored the sensation that he was floating around in the boy's fever.

The nurse at the dispensary had said Hamza's temperature stayed at about 107 degrees for several hours before he died, cooking his brain and muscle tissue. Carter knew that when body temperature rose above 106 degrees for more than an hour, the internal cell structure broke down, forming skin lesions. The parasites, meanwhile, worked destruction in the liver and muscle tissue, producing spasms. Sometimes, in cases of very high fever, before reaching the critical temperature, the body released adrenaline in an attempt to cool off, producing more chill? and contortions, which only heated the body more. Hamza's thermostat blew. The boiling point arrived. And death.

On the outskirts of the city, Carter stopped at a tea table in the shade of a eucalyptus tree, where an old man mixed coffee and tea drinks from a kettle of water over an open fire. Carter refilled his water bottle from the kettle and let the bottle cool under the table, as much as it could in the heat. He bought a glass of hot Nescafé. Carter remained standing and sipped his coffee, watching a tailor work inside the doorway of his shop across the way.

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