07:55
Faizan
My brother was dying, the realization of it hit me like a sharp pain, a deep ache and tightening constriction around my chest.
The panic came after, especially in my mother's voice desperately begging my father to try again as the monsoon let loose and torrents of rain made a loud rattling sound on the metal roofing of our house.
My father had already attempted several times with no luck carrying poor Frank back into the house soaked and dripping, while my brother was shivering shifting from cold to burning up as the fever grew worse with the infection now gripping him stronger each moment.
We had kept the young orangutan orphaned from his mother and then brought to us by one of the plantation workers who found him wandering aimlessly in the jungle.
Frank was especially fond of him and played with him sometimes for hours as the irony of it hit me, here Frank was slowly losing the battle with the infection that had started simply by him ignoring that cut on the bottom of his foot from a nail or something else sharp, and then stepping in the apes feces.
He never mentioned anything until the pain came in throbbing bursts, and a faint red line started inching its way up his leg.
For almost 5 days now the rains kept coming, sometimes as soft fine muggy sprinkles to the heavy downpour sounding like the heavens were dumping tiny marbles on the tin roof.
After several attempts at navigating the only dirt road now turned into a quicksand like mud up to 3 feet deep from the monsoon and barely making it back, my fathers desperation grew.
He already had to abandon one of the vehicles left stranded in the thick mud, only the proper placing of planks saved his own jeep from the same fate.
And so they had returned frantically removing Franks clothing to strip off any leeches attached to his frail shaking little body.
My mother's sobs continued well into the night as my father tried to soak my brother's foot in a tub of salty water to try to slow down and draw out the infection.
The panic came after, especially in my mother's voice desperately begging my father to try again as the monsoon let loose and torrents of rain made a loud rattling sound on the metal roofing of our house.
My father had already attempted several times with no luck carrying poor Frank back into the house soaked and dripping, while my brother was shivering shifting from cold to burning up as the fever grew worse with the infection now gripping him stronger each moment.
We had kept the young orangutan orphaned from his mother and then brought to us by one of the plantation workers who found him wandering aimlessly in the jungle.
Frank was especially fond of him and played with him sometimes for hours as the irony of it hit me, here Frank was slowly losing the battle with the infection that had started simply by him ignoring that cut on the bottom of his foot from a nail or something else sharp, and then stepping in the apes feces.
He never mentioned anything until the pain came in throbbing bursts, and a faint red line started inching its way up his leg.
For almost 5 days now the rains kept coming, sometimes as soft fine muggy sprinkles to the heavy downpour sounding like the heavens were dumping tiny marbles on the tin roof.
After several attempts at navigating the only dirt road now turned into a quicksand like mud up to 3 feet deep from the monsoon and barely making it back, my fathers desperation grew.
He already had to abandon one of the vehicles left stranded in the thick mud, only the proper placing of planks saved his own jeep from the same fate.
And so they had returned frantically removing Franks clothing to strip off any leeches attached to his frail shaking little body.
My mother's sobs continued well into the night as my father tried to soak my brother's foot in a tub of salty water to try to slow down and draw out the infection.
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