Robin woke up with a smile on his face. He knew this would be a memorable moment of his life. He checked his watch. “Thirty minutes to go”. He got surprised at how he managed to sleep soundly. He remembered Miss Kelly’s words ” Make sure you will be here by half past seven in the morning. The plane will take off at eight so we should be at the airport by quarter to”. A warm smile formed on his lips with the thought of boarding a plane for the first time. He had always studied about deserts, but today he would see one. He rushed to the bathroom whistling happily. Five minutes later he was on his way to the airport. He could not stop smiling as he remembered how he tricked his father to pay for him.
He was the last one. He knew Miss Kelly was mad at him. She ignored him and went ahead to brief on their trip. A five minutes briefing seemed like an eternity to him. “Any questions?” the teacher asked. “When are we going to leave?” asked Robin. Fury was evident on Miss Kelly’s face. He was the last one and yet he seemed to be more anxious to leave. Time to board the plane. He looked for her. He knew he had to sit next to her. “Hey, Robin!” There, she was as beautiful and elegant as ever. She was at her best today. She looked stunning. At normal times, he would make her shy, but today the best he could say was “Hi!” “Let’s get in,” she pulled him to the plane. Monica was her name. They were in the same grade. He loved her. Not at one time did he visualize a world without her. She was unbelievable. Monica loved him too. He was stubborn, and she loved his rawness. Five minutes later the plane took off. The Sahara Desert was their destination. Everyone was eager to see what the teacher always seemed to exaggerate. According to their geography teacher, the journey would take four fours but according to airport time schedule the journey would take six hours. To some that seemed like an eternity, but to him that was a short time. When he was with her, time seemed to fly. Almost every student in the plane had never traveled by plane. That was a day to be written to their diaries.
It was a thrilling experience being four hundred and fifty feet above the ground. If only they knew what was in store for them. Some strange noises started to come from the engine. Nobody seemed to be scared by them, but when they became too much, panic came. “Everybody fasten your seat belts. We seem to be having a mechanical problem, and it seems like we will take an emergency landing,” warned the voice controller. The pilot knew that an emergency landing was not possible, but due to professionalism he wanted the students to stay calm. He knew that the plane would crash within a short time. The students were advised to take parachutes. The pilot tried all he could do. He knew whatever he was doing was in vain. The students were in a state of shock.
Robin knew he had to save himself and Monica. He rushed to where the parachutes were. He picked two. He had to move fast. He tripped and fell, but nothing could stop him. The engine was on fire now. Majority of the students had not used a parachute before. Robin took one and helped his girlfriend with the other one. The plane was rapidly catching fire. Any moment from now and the plane would blow off. Monica put a note in the pocket of his khaki shirt. She could not come out. Her leg was stuck.
The plane exploded. He saw the explosion coming. He had to let her go. What was once a plane now was some metals in frame. He had to make sure that he landed safely. He landed on a hot piece of metal. Five minutes later he regained conscious. The pain was piercing. Never in his entire life had he suffered such pain. He had a fracture in his left leg. It took much of his strength for him to stand. He looked all around him, and he could see nothing but sand. That is when he discovered he was in the middle of a desert. His heart sank. He knew crying would not help him. He checked the time. It was eleven in the morning. He checked his pockets to fetch his mobile phone and remembered that it was in the bag, which was on the plane. He sat there silently. He saw everything that happened, the sound, the voice controller, the fire. He remembered Monica; she was gone, gone forever. He cried for his lost love. He remembered the note in his pocket. He looked at it and read slowly:
“Robin my love,
If I could open my heart for you to see the love and affection I have for you, then you would understand why I wrote this note late. I loved you form the very start. I was glad that you chose to be with me, and I vowed to do anything to protect our love. I always insisted that we use protection, but it always fell on deaf ears. Since I could not deny you anything I decided to do things your way. I tested HIV+ four years ago. I decided to break the news to you today because the excitement today was high and it could not hurt you much. When we get back from this trip, I would advise you to go for testing. I hope you can find a place in your heart to forgive me. When we get back, I will explain things to you and make you understand. Good bye for now.
With love, Monica”.
It could not hurt more. He remembered the frequent visits she had to her doctor and all long she claimed it was the flu. He remembered his own visits to clinics and nothing was diagnosed yet he still felt weak. He never thought he could contract HIV. What made it was, he got it from someone who claimed to have undying love for him. He read the note again. He knew whom he was to blame. If he could have taken heed of her advice to use protection, this could not have happened to him. She is dead now. Why did she have to die before he got all the answers he needed to know? He had to get out of that place as soon as possible. He did not know where to go. He was in the middle of a desert. He dozed off.
He was woken up by an excruciating pain. He remembered the events of the day. “Aaaaaaaaarghhhhh!!!!!” He screamed in pain. There were scorpions everywhere, and they attacked him. Pain after pain. The night was chilly. He remembered his geography teacher teaching them about cold deserts and how the scorpions attacked the invaders. For once he believed his teacher. He got an idea and covered himself with the parachute. He was hungry. The last meal he had was the previous dinner which he did not take a lot due to excitement. He still did not take any breakfast. Pangs of hunger attacked him from all directions. He regretted coming to that trip. He blamed the teacher who organized that trip. He wished his father did not pay. He hated himself for having insisted to go. He regretted and blamed everybody including himself. He remembered his comfy bed, the extensive television set in the house, good food, he remembered”¦”¦a scorpion bit him and took him away from the world of fantasy. He had to deal with the fact that he was in the middle of a desert.
He saw smoke. That meant he could get help. He got hope now. He tried to walk with his fractured leg holding him back, but he had no option. The more he seemed to get near the smoke the more the distance seemed to increase. He struggled and made it there after six solid hours. What he saw there made him believe wherever he was coming from was closer to heaven if not heaven. People here were emaciated. They had nothing to eat. The whole place was dry. Everybody in the village came to see the white boy who some thought he had come to relief them; little did they know the tragedy that had occurred to him.
An old man who seemed to understand his problems took him to his house and saved him from the fierce gazes of the villagers. He tried to think what was in their minds. The old man, whom he heard the villagers called Fazul, gave him some roast yam and dry maize. He chewed with difficulties. Swallowing seemed more of a task to him than chewing. He did not take much. Fazul was hospitable enough to give him something to eat and somewhere to sleep though he did not have in abundance. The “bed” was not the comfortable place he used to have. He remembered his dog back home was in a better place than him. Sleeping was a problem to him, since he was experiencing pain in his fractured leg and scorpions’ bites. Fazul had to come to his rescue again as his leg began to swell. He did not know what was done to his leg, but the pain was gone.
Later that night, he was woken up by screams. Raiders had attacked them. He looked in surprise as he saw the houses being torched by the merciless raiders. People were cut with machetes. He hid behind a bush as the raiders came fetching people from their houses. Then he saw Fazul being dragged. He was devastated. This was the only man hospitable to him. He was in for great shock as he watched Fazul head being chopped off. His world crumbled again. Why did he have to lose only people that meant much to him? He lost his love in a plane crash, and fourteen hours later, he lost a friend he had just found.
Two hours later everything settled down. The small village he found was now gone, burnt down by merciless raiders. Here, he was alone again. Nowhere to go, no one around him. Then he heard some faint voices. Three old women had managed to hide from the ruthless killers. They seemed weak. He was injured. He had to help them. They did not know English, and he was new to their language. He had to communicate with them. He had to find a way. He had to forget his old life and adapt to his new one. He had AIDS, and he had to take proper care of himself to stay longer. Feeding the old women was his priority.