Isabelle's Story (standard:other, 2056 words)
Author: kathyg	Added: Nov 25 2008	Views/Reads: 3041/2103	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A sample chapter of my story "Rose Cottage" ...I hope you like it. Feedback welcome

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

when we took the train north to Rose Cottage?  Mama whispered and 
smiled weakly. 

“Oh, yes!  I do remember!” 

Mama struggled to speak.  “I feel that you and Pierre will be safe
staying at Rose Cottage until your Papa returns.  Your Aunt Claire and 
Marie will meet you at the train station in Portland.  You remember 
Marie, don't you Isabelle?” 

“Yes, Mama, I do.” 

“I love you Isabelle and I know you will be strong for me.  Papa is
overseas and I know he would want you and Pierre to be safe.  Please do 
as I ask and don't look back.  Just tell Pierre I love him and be 
brave.  Goodbye my darling little girl!  I wish I could kiss you but I 
am very sick!” , 

Mama whispered, the tears streaming down her cheeks. 

Mama's tears broke my heart.  As I looked at her, it seemed like the
very last time.  I   probably was right. 

The air was thick with antiseptic, ether and other hospital scents that
were making me choke.  I passed by some sailors in the waiting room 
area.  Pierre was sitting by one of the them, looking lost and afraid.  
The sailor seemed to be trying to calm Pierre, but he remained silent. 

Isabelle noticed one sailor opening a newspaper. 

“Could you read some of this newspaper article to me?”  , Isabelle 

asked the sailor.  “I can't read all the big words yet.” 

He smiled, ruffled up her hair, and started to read the headlines of the
Boston Globe Newspaper: 

“INFLUENZA OUTBREAK!!  The Head of the Department of Health, issued a
statement warning all Massachusetts citizens and perhaps those up and 
down the Atlantic Coast, to heed the warning and that precautions are 
taken, the disease in all probability will spread to the civilian 
population of the city.” 

Isabelle gasped at the words the sailor was reading.  She looked around
the waiting room area and watched Pierre getting restless in his seat.  
Pierre is only five years old, too young to understand what is 
happening.  She must protect him as Mama said.  Who knows when and if 
Papa will come home from the Great War! 

“Papa, where are you when we need you so!”  , Isabelle cries out,
putting her head in her hands. 

“These are troubling days!  Not ony do we have to stand by helplessly as
we watch many people die before our own eyes, we have to live with the 
knowledge that we can become very sick with this deadly influenza at 
any time!  My own Mama is lying in that hospital bed exposed to the 
influenza!  Why do I have to leave her behind to die here all alone?” 

“I can't leave her here!  She needs me!  Why can't these doctors cure my
Mama and let us bring her to Rose Cottage with us?  This deadly 
influenza is cutting a path right across my heart, my home and tearing 
up my family!”, 

Isabelle cries out to no one in particular. 

A doctor walks into the waiting room area and Isabelle waves him over t
her. 

“What is happening here with all these people coughing and looking so
blue in the face?  What is this influenza I hear so much about?  Will 
my Mama survive?” ,   Isabelle starts to cry, even as she speaks. 

The doctor sat down next to Isabelle and reaches into his pocket for a
handkerchief   to wipe away her tears. 

“Now, your Mama will be okay, child!  Don't you worry!  We will beat
this influenza yet!  You need to put your mask right back on so you 
don't 

get  sick, you hear me young lady?” 

“Yes, I hear you, Doctor!”  , Isabelle says softly, as she wipes her
tears away.  She tied her mask back on tightly. 

The doctor smiled and held her hand for a moment. 

“See, child”  , the Doctor continued, “ many people are being sent out
of Boston because of the outbreak of influenza.  It is killng people by 
the hundreds.  I see many people walking around with masks on and it is 
very frightening.” 

Isabelle took a deep breath, her lips quivered as she tried to speak. 

“My Papa is overseas fighting in the Great War.  Mama is lying in a
hospital bed here.  She is coughing up blood, turning blue in the face 
and having trouble breathing.” 

The doctor held Isabelle's hand gently as he spoke to her. 

“I think it is a good idea for you and your brother to leave Boston. 
How old is your little brother?” 

“His name is Pierre and he is five years old!” 

“He looks scared,”   the doctor observed carefully. 

“Pierre has not said one single word since we put Mama in the carriage 

this morning.  He just clings to me!” 

The doctor walked over to where Pierre was sitting, holding his toy 

soldier tightly. 

“Brave little soldier!  Can I see it? ,”  the doctor asked. 

Pierre just looked up at the doctor and said nothing. 

“Don't be afraid, child.  Your big sister, Isabelle will make sure you
are safe.  Promise me you will listen to her and don't give her any 
trouble, you hear me?” 

Pierre nodded his head silently. 

“I like your toy soldier, Pierre.  Your Papa is brave too, just like
your toy soldier.”  The doctor said as he touched Pierre's hair softly. 
“Everything will be okay if you go away with Isabelle for a little 
while.  Take the train and go north.  Can you guess what I have in my 
pocket, Pierre?” 

The doctor pulled out a peppermint candy and gave it to Pierre. 
Pierre's eyes lit up for the first time and a little smile bloomed on 
his lips. 

“Thank you!,  “ said Pierre as he popped the candy into his mouth. 

The doctor smiled and turned back to Isabelle. 

“Where are you going to stay?” , he asked her. 

“Rose Cottage.  It is in Portland, Maine.   Mama told me to buy a ticket


for the B & M train leaving for Portland as soon as possible.,” 
Isabelle replied, her lips quivering. 

“Yes, I know how hard it is to leave your Mama behind like this.  She is
trying to protect you from harm.  I wish I could sugar coat this but 
the harsh reality is not pretty, my dear.  The influenza is spreading 
quickly and is creating a situation that gives you no other choice but 
to leave quickly!  The future is uncertain for all of us!  Take Pierre 
away and be strong, Isabelle!” 

The doctor spoke bluntly and told Isabelle the plain truth of reality
and Isabelle knew now that she must act. 

“I have been hearing rumors of an unusual epidemic”, the doctor 
continued, “taking place from across the bay at Commonwealth Pier.  I, 
too, have been to Germany, and I have seen many of the brave American 
soldiers coming back very sick and have brought with them the dreaded 
influenza from across the ocean.  As news spread about an illness 
sweeping through the large sailors barracks, known as the Receiving 
Ship, one must consider how to fight an invisible enemy just making its 
presence known even here in Boston, where we are this very moment!” 

Little did Isabelle know how this “epidemic” would change her life and
Pierre's forever! 

“You see, Isabelle,” the doctor said softly, “this new epidemic called
influenza has doctors overwhelmed, puzzled, and baffled.  The symptoms 
seem like no common flu—a nuisance ailment resulting in sniffles, aches 
a low fever and a few days bed rest.  Rather, many of the sailors come 
into the hospitals, many displaying a bluish complexion with purple 
blisters, succumbed to hoarse, hacking coughs, barely supplying enough 
oxygen to keep them alive.  The doctors are absolutely clueless to what 
this is!  It is no ordinary flu and it is spreading like wildfire!  
More shocking is the doctors have found within the bodies of the dead:  
lungs soaked with a bloody, foaming liquid that seeps out from the 
physician's scalpel.  What that fluid contained, what caused it to 
drown the lungs is a perplexing mystery!” 

Isabelle gasped at the doctor's words.  She must listen and try to save
Pierre form certain death. 

“I leave Mama behind with a heavy heart, as I know I will never see her
again in this lifetime.  Perhaps Papa will never see her again in this 
lifetime.  Perhaps Papa will return from the horror of the Great War.  
I pray he does. 

Until we meet again, I must be off to the train station with little
Pierre on a journey north to Rose Cottage.” 


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