Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It was around this time that I came down with something akin to flu. It was odd because the
symptoms were flu-like in that I felt very achy and tired with a headache and a high tem-
perature, yet I didn't have the sore throat or stuffed up nose. I remained in bed for a couple
of days, feeling very miserable. I was hardly able to go to the bathroom without feeling
utterly exhausted.
Dee came around one time and knocked on the boat, “Jonathan, where are you? We haven't
seen you for days.”
I went out to greet her, smiling feebly and blinking in the bright sunlight, “Hello Dee, I
don't know what's wrong but I feel sick as a dog.”
I described the symptoms to her, and she clucked in sympathy.
“I'll bring you some soup the next time I'm down, probably tomorrow,” she said softly and,
smiling her Dee smile, took off.
As good as her word, she arrived the next day with a pot of Kalamungai chicken soup. We
had a good laugh about it, but she insisted that if it was flu, this soup would cure it. During
the course of that day and the next, I managed to eat all the soup but felt no better. I had
absolutely no energy and was getting very weak. Dee looked in later the next day and was
quite surprised to see the state I was in.
The following day I had a visit from Susan. She quietly came down below where I was half
sleeping on my bunk. I was startled and tried to get up, embarrassed at looking so awful in
front of this beautiful woman. She had a scarf wrapped around her head as she had the first
day I met her. I seldom saw her without one.
I learned something about her this day. She wasn't just a lovely creature; she had a genuine
heart and was motherly and earthy in a serene and very feminine way. She sat down next to
me without saying much. She felt my temperature and shook her head in surprise. “You are
very hot, Jonathan; Dee told me you were pretty sick; how long have you been like this?”
“God, I think about four days now,” I said feebly, my voice cracking. I was feeling quite
delirious.
I had had a bad case of malaria when I was in the army doing active service in southwest
Africa in my mid-twenties. I felt a similarity in the symptoms and said as much.
“We don't have malaria on these islands though, Jon.”
Susan had wet a towel with cold water, and she now sat down next to me again and wrapped
it around my forehead. It felt better, and I relaxed in her company. She spoke softly and
