The Weight of Responsibility

Boleda looks at the muddy water in front of her, filled with urine and excrement. The water appeals to her as she stares at Adana, her older sister, breathlessly plopping a rusty bucket on to the ground. Adana places her hands on her bony thighs, her body emaciated, weak, and obviously exhausted. Boleda looks back at her mother’s shack, held together by cardboard, shreds of plastic, and fragments of clothing, and is nearly trampled by her two younger brothers sprinting Adana’s way. Boleda watches as her siblings’ scrawny figures attack the water, impatiently waiting for them to finish and trusting they had spared her whatever little there is left. Her brothers use their palms to take large gulps. Once they finish, Boleda walks to the nearly empty bucket, while Adana, seeing that her duty was done, trudges back to the shelter of the shack.

Boleda dips a rag in to the murky water inside the bucket and rushes back to the aid of Adana, who is lying on the makeshift bed moaning in pain. Boleda’s movements are quick and anxious as she scurries around the shack in order to assist her sister. Adana had been sick for some time, and Boleda began to become nervous, doing anything she possibly could to prevent her sister from suffering. The family simply couldn’t function without her, and Boleda couldn’t bare the pain of losing someone else, after the traumatic death of her parents. Boleda places the rag on top of Adana’s sweaty head and attempts to calm her down. However, she continues to wail, clutching her forehead and weeping. After a few moments, with a sweep of Adana’s hands moving Boleda’s body away, she vomits on to the floor. Boleda merely stares at the puke and takes the worn rag off of her forehead to clean the throw-up. She throws the rag on to the opposite side of the shack and looks back to her sister, who is on the bed scratching a large, cherry red rash on her arm. Boleda rushes over and nudges her hand away. Adana continues to scratch, ignoring her warning. Boleda becomes frustrated and reminds her that their parents had passed on because of the same large, brown insect. Boleda begins to weep, fearful that Adana was fated to the same destiny. Adana merely turns her head away in grief and removes her hand from the rash.

Adana increasingly worsens, her routine becoming even more bizarre. She awakens early in the morning and periodically falls in to deep streams of unconsciousness. She is useless on her feet, so she lies in bed all day, mostly whimpering and shouting that it feels as if a thousand needles were being injected in to her forehead. However, Boleda clings to hope. She can’t stand to see her sister in pain, knowing what may come next. Boleda had experienced the same years ago, witnessing her parent’s lifeless bodies lying on the same bed that Adana was now inhabiting. Adana had taken care of her parents until their final days, and it was Boleda’s turn to take care of her family. Boleda often lies at Adana’s head when she is sleeping, stroking her rough hair and chanting silent prayers to God. She knows that with God watching over her family, nothing could go wrong.

Boleda witnesses strange, pale white men and women come to her village. They set up large, green tents, and they speak some foreign, incomprehensible language. Boleda is cautious in approaching them, not knowing their purpose in her town. She often passes their camp and sees many, bizarre instruments. There are large metal things, with strange, skinny snakes coming out from all ends. The people that operate the peculiar objects often wear white gloves. They seem to be very busy, often rushing in and out of the tents holding numerous things at once. The white humans are very plump as well. No bones can be seen through their skin, and some of the men’s stomachs protrude outwards. However, Boleda found one woman particularly interesting. She was a beautiful woman, with hair as yellow as stalks of wheat. The most alluring part of her, however, was her eyes, as blue as the morning sky. They entranced Boleda, and she immediately began to desire them. Boleda passes by the stranger’s station often and notices minor changes. They have recently set up a sign that has large, red letters on the top. Boleda concludes that it must be some organization or society from another country. She doesn’t give it much thought. She merely strays from their gaze as she passes by them every day.

After handing her younger brothers small pieces of stale bread, Boleda turns to the house to check on Adana’s condition. She seems to be fine, as relatively normal as someone in her condition can possibly be. She is currently unconscious, drifting away to a land unknown to Boleda. She sits at the head of the makeshift bed and begins her daily routine of praying. However, within a few seconds of prayer, she is interrupted by the sound of a man shouting on the dirt path outside of the shack. She rushes outside, curious about the origin of the noise. A white man stands on the road, and she recognizes him from the tents although she remains puzzled. He speaks in her language. His pronunciation is unbearable but sufficient to understand what he is attempting to say. He claims the tents are a hospital and can cure any sick people. Boleda turns in the direction of her sister and continues to listen to the man. He says there are many needles that can help people and medicines that could potentially save their lives. At the end of his short lecture, he encourages people to stop by the tents immediately. After the man leaves, Boleda rushes back to Adana, working out the decision of visiting the white people in her mind.

She is fearful, frightened to trust people that she doesn’t even know. Butterflies flutter in her stomach as she struggles to carry Adana’s body, calling for her younger brothers’ help. These white people, were they intelligent? Were they reliable? Would they save Adana, or kill her off? Adana didn’t seem to be recovering, so Boleda decided that it was worth the risk, worth it if it meant saving her beloved sister. Boleda’s younger brother grabs Adana’s feet and another holds her head and upper body. They trudge to the tents, the weight of Adana slowing their pace. Boleda is reluctant in handing over her sister at first. However, the white people persuade her, and she finds the heart to let Adana go. Once making it to the inside of the tents, the white people point to one of the contraptions inside of a makeshift house. Several cots line the walls. Boleda’s siblings place Adana’s body on to the seemingly comfortable bed, and they prop her head up. Adana’s eyes open for a split second and they close once again. The man with the broken language walks in to the room and attempts to communicate with Boleda. He asks her what happened to the girl lying on the bed, and Boleda explains the large, brown insect that had bitten her, causing the horrible disease. Once hearing this, the man’s eyes seem to widen, and he looks at her with an incredulous face. He turns to the beautiful, blue-eyed woman and mutters rapidly in a language unknown to Boleda. She can only make out one word that the man repeats over and over again: malaria.

It’s been several weeks since the entrance to the tents. The blue-eyed woman came to the aid of Adana and handed Boleda a strange, cylindrical item. The woman uses the man with the broken language to instruct Boleda on how to open it, and to Boleda’s surprise, she finds small, round things inside the container. She tells Boleda to give Adana two pills each day, one in the morning and one in the evening. Boleda looks in to her sky-blue eyes then looks to the man, signaling him to tell her she would be responsible enough to give the pills. Boleda has no trouble in relying upon the white woman. She has been entranced by her and had come to the conclusion that her word was true. These strange people were going to save her sister, and she would be forever indebted to them. The woman nods her head then turns her attention to the other patients in the room. Boleda hands the pill to Adana to swallow, then continues her routine of stroking Adana’s hair and chanting silent prayers, knowing that both medicines would serve a role in saving her.

She hasn’t improved at all. It is as if Boleda had kept her in the same state she had been in the shack. Adana continued to have migraines, nausea, and a high fever. The white people seemed to be worried about her, and when Boleda eavesdropped on their anxious whispers, the words, “natural resistance,” were constantly repeated. Boleda lay awake numerous nights, constantly concerned for Adana. She was almost sure that she wouldn’t make it, but part of her yearned to believe that the white people’s words weren’t true. She watches as her brothers tend to Adana’s every need, reminding Boleda to give her pills and ensuring that she was not thirsty. They would haul their family’s rusty bucket each day, despite the white people’s refusal to allow Adana to drink it. Instead, they provided her with a clear liquid, to the amazement of Boleda and her brothers. However, Boleda merely watched as her brothers attended to her sister, too exasperated by the worries that everyday life brought her.

Boleda would often drift in a vast sea of fret, watching over Adana as she lay unconscious, waking up for several minutes, then returning to a daze once more, until the day that Adana never woke up. Boleda nudges her and shakes her lifeless body, but her eyes never open. Boleda sits by her sister’s side for hours, refusing to leave her. Numerous doctors and even the blue-eyed woman become concerned. The translator and the woman approach Boleda, attempting to console her. Her brothers soon arrive after their daily water trek. They enter the tent and nudge Adana’s body. They are disbelieving of Adana’s state. However, Boleda is quick to reassure them and offer them a shoulder to weep on. The boys stay in the tents for hours afterwards, Boleda rubbing their backs in comfort and whispering soothing words in their ears. As she wipes away her own tears as well as theirs’, the astounding weight of responsibility finally plummets the final inch to topple Boleda over. However, this time, she is able to cope, refusing to be crushed by the weight’s magnitude. Her sister would be forever mourned, and a great responsibility has now been placed on Boleda. However, she no longer considers it a responsibility to take care of her family but rather a rightful duty, and she would ensure its success until her own final days. Although Adana had passed on, Boleda was sure she would follow in her sister’s footsteps, however frightening it may be to pursue the same fate.