A ring a ring o’ roses.
What’s wrong with me? Rashes all over my body, big red spots bulging out of my
skin, atishoo, atishoo! I can’t stop sneezing. The doctor came in to examine
me, but I screamed with terror! He had a huge cone shaped, bird like beak covering
his face. He walked slowly to my bed and leant over me and I could smell the
aroma of fresh thyme and lavender coming from his mask. The doctor asked me to
lift my arms up and he had a look for something, then he turned to my mother
and she gasped. I thought it was weird but when I looked down at my armpits, I could
see a great big purple blotch erupting out of me. Then I could see bright
yellow puss oozing out of the giant spot and the doctor wrapped a cloth around
me. I started crying but then he took me outside and led me to a sewer! He told
me to sit in it for an hour and then to go back to my bed and see if I feel
better in the morning, and then he was gone!
In the morning I woke up and
felt much better! The doctor came in, holding a chicken and asked how I was
feeling. Then he placed the chicken’s bottom on my spots! I said nothing but
squirmed the whole time. Later on the priest came in and I heard him talking to
my mother downstairs. Then I could hear him coming up the stairs as the
floorboards were creaking and he swung the door open. However when the priest
entered, his jolly face turned into a red, scowled angry face. He ran straight
down the stairs again and shouted to my mother “The wicked kid has caught the
plague!” And I could hear my mother crying. When she came upstairs her eyes
were swollen and her face was red. Mother gave me a pocket full of posies to
sleep with to make me better. She rocked me to sleep…
I woke with a sudden thud at
the door and I heard mother answer. I crept halfway down the stairs and saw
some of the locals painting a red cross on the front of the door and the doctor
talking to mother. The floorboards creaked, mother turned and came up to see me.
She sent me to my bed straight away and when I asked what was happening she
told me not to worry. Before I went to bed mother asked me how I was feeling
and I explained I felt much, much better and that tomorrow I wanted to go
outside and play with the other children. Mother replied “Maybe” and kissed me
on the forehead…
The next day when she woke, the girl sneezed
and sneezed and sneezed. Her feeling better had given false hope. Atishoo,
atishoo we all fall down…………………………
She died…
