The Spanish Flu
Since my last novel spans the era including the year 1919, I would have been remiss not to include a reference to the Spanish flu epidemic. As if my
Slogans protagonists hadn't suffered enough with World War One, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Russian Civil War, by Chapter Sixteen, I had thrust them into the midst of a global sickness. The chapter started with a brief history of epidemic and a child's view of its effect.
* * *
Local newspapers called it the Spanish Flu but it was as American as
apple pie. The disease first appeared in a military camp in Kansas
in the spring of 1918 and followed the soldiers on their voyage to
Europe. It gained strength on the crowded troopships and in the
bivouacs and trenches of France. It hopped trains and rode horse
carts into the remotest towns and hamlets and by summer the virus had
spread around the world. The strain made its second sweep across the
United States in August and was still contagious and debilitating,
but growing weaker. By fall the flu was considered no more than a
nuisance and just as English children played ring-around-the-rosy to
commemorate the passing of Black Death, young American girls skipped
rope to the rhythm of:
“Mother had a little bird.
Enza was its name.
She opened up the window
And in flew Enza.”
* * *
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| Makeshift Hospitals |
The Flue Hits Unkurda
But unfortunately the virus was not gone. Within a few months a new and more lethal strain appeared. I scoured newspapers from that period and found several contemporary articles describing the sickness's resurgence
* * *
On the twenty-third of September, the Joliet Herald Evening News'
banner headline dared to state, “Influenza Has Been Checked.”
Less than two weeks later another article confessed, “Doctors Find
2000 Cases of Spanish Flu.” The disease had resurfaced, mutated
and was deadlier. Its march would continue unabated until the next
year. In its wake it would leave nearly one hundred million dead.
* * *
Transporting Flu Patients
Akulina Boriskova is Unkurda's seer and healer. Anticipating the yearly winter sickness, she gathers a supply of local plants which she employs as remedies. Chief among them is an orange flower called
zharok. I'm not really sure if such a plant exists or it could cure flu, but one of the members of my writers' group was a pharmacist and said there was a similar plant with those qualities, but its medicinal qualities were doubtful. I went with it anyway. In the following scene, Akulina having caught the virus, attempts to cure herself.
* * *
Please, don't let me die.
Akulina staggered to the samovar and steadied herself against the
table. She took a deep breath, waited for the swaying to halt and
filled her cup and scooped in the powdered zharok. She was
about to drink the bright orange mix when another wave of nausea
swept over her. Again she had to grasp the table. Once more after
the feeling subsided, she fumbled with the honey pot and added a
small portion to the drink and stirred.
Hold it down, she commanded herself. Hold it and sweat out the
poison.
Akulina lifted the potion to her mouth and sipped. The scalding
liquid flowed past her lips and throat and spread through her body.
* * *
Armed with the healing power of zharok, Akulina's body attacks the virus. I likened her resistance to that of an army defending its homeland.
* * *
The weakness she felt was just one part of her body's response. The
feeling drove her to lie down and conserve her energy. Her system
also forced her temperature to rise to make her a less desirable
host. Every response was designed to blunt the sickness' attack,
even if it meant killing her. Akulina's immune system had deciphered
the invader's latest code and created special cells to search out and
destroy each. Millions of these cells now flooded her blood stream
and sought out its foe in every organ and tissue. There were no
flags or banners leading this campaign; no masses shouting slogans
while they raced into combat, just a single-minded force bent on a
sole objective―save Akulina.
* * *
Nurses Ready for Action
Akulina's Cure
Of course Akulina survives, but she learns many did not.
* * *
“I had to, Papa. I had to help.”
“And you did. Thanks to you there were fewer deaths.”
“How many?”
“Sixteen. But most were because of Simon Petr. He told the
Staroverok the sickness was a sign of the end times and
forbade his people to take the zharok. He said to do so would
be against God's will.”
“Ultia Yauhoraka?”
“She's gone.”
Akulina gasped. “Dead?”
Boris shook his head. “No, not dead. She moved out. Went to
watch over Simon Petr.”
“Will she be back?”
“Who's to say? Maybe rain, maybe snow.”
* * *
Future Virus
The events portrayed in my novel happened just over one hundred years ago. I wonder if a century from now some would-be historical fiction writer will weave today's coronavirus into their novel.
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| Preparing for the Coronavirus 2020 | | |
Assuming, of course, there still are people around a hundred years from now. So wash your hands and hope for the best.
