Plague Chronicle

194-, Spring

Freedom! Independence! Oh, how I dreamt of these things through all those months we spent in the locked down and plague poisoned Oran.

            As the deaths kept decreasing in number and plague seemed to ebb away, hope returned to me and my parents. I have to say things have been getting better between us, whether the reason is the talk we had or the decline of deaths and the state of peril we are in, but either one makes me happy enough. So, since hope returned to my parents they decided to take action and get us out of the town, although I was certainly confused why. The plague was dying out and our lives were no longer in danger, but they planned our trip thoroughly and made sure I knew that we were to start as soon as the “iron curtain” came falling down. At first I felt something stir in me, like I didn’t want to go and leave my friends and my school, but then I realized that things would not be the same anyway. My friends would no longer be the naïve, ignorant and unconcerned about their lives as before, although on the surface I doubt they will change, something underneath will, just like it did in me. I also clearly understood that every street and every shop on my way to school and back would remind me of the horrors I did not want to relive again, so I did not argue with my parents on this one and tried to cooperate.

            As soon as the people were one again allowed to travel as we wished, my parents and I left for the docks. Our tickets for the big steamship were bought ahead of time, so we had no trouble boarding and arranging our luggage. As I sat on the ship and looked at Oran, I realized that my life will never be the same, because of the move and new place we would live in, but also because of what happened over the past year and what we lived through.

On board the ship when we were crossing the Alboran sea over to the peace and comfort of Spain, I sat and wondered what would happen if the ship sank. Ships sink all the time and everywhere, but what a waste it would be if I sunk here and now. My drowning would mean that all that suffering, pain and hardships I went through during plague would have no meaning. But on the other side, people are always dying and suffering, the only thing that changes is the set of the stage on which we all act. At one time or another, our performances, plays, comedies or tragedies will end. They will end the same way. The only thing we can hope for is to learn something from the ordeals we go through and refine ourselves in a way that might bring a peace into our lives and contentment with the life we lived. This is what I hope for sitting on the window seat of our two story house in Almeria, Spain miles from Oran, a town that conceivably taught me something, but that is yet to be resolved.