Australian Tea Party
By Sandra Pavlic
Translation from Slovenian language (original: Avstralska čajanka, by Sandra Pavlič, 2005)
Copyright 2015 Sandra Pavlic
There were days we would all just coughing and there were nights when we would all stay beside Kerry’s bed and wonder if she will survive the night. We met a lot of doctors, but sadly not too much different diagnosis. Diagnosis: viral infection. I didn’t know that viral can take a month, neither the doctors. But she had no other symptoms. She was healthy after 3 days of lying in bed, but when she went to school she came home again sick with high fever. It all started when we moved to Sydney about a month ago.
We were living in a friendly, domestic environment in the suburbs of London. It was the day when I finished my maternity. Will agreed to work from home so he was making some adjustments. As a reporter he would miss a day or two from home, but now he will write stuff that other journalist would discover. While he was adjusting to home, I was adjusting to being back in work to advertising company Hechstone London After a week being in the company my boss called me to his office.
“Caroline, I noticed your good work. I’ve been noticing them for some time now and I would like to award you with heading you to our main company Hechstone in Sydney.”
“But, what will I do there? My whole life is here in London. I can’t just leave.” I refused.
“I understand. I thought you’d be happy. I give you one week to decide. Please decide very carefully as this would be a huge career step for you.” he tried to be understanding.
“I will. Thank you.” I thanked him.
After a long conversation with will I accepted the offer and less than one month we were moved to Sydney. When a taxi driver was taking us to the city I saw a selling house. I liked it and I bagged the taxi driver to stop for a moment. We stepped out and view the house. I immediately liked the path it was taking me to the house. Around it there was a flower bed and grass around it. It was just so lovely. I couldn’t see much more because we were in a hurry to get to the town.
“We will come to the house again tomorrow. I can already see our children growing there.” I suggested.
“Ok, fine. It wasn’t that bad.” said Will.
“Cool. So you support me when I say that an apartment isn’t appropriate for children.”
“I do.” But we were wrong, really wrong.
The next day after work I went straight to the house on Sun street 3, where my dream house stood. I stopped outside a house and looked at it. I already imagined where I could plant some flowers, in the middle of the lawn there would be a swing for Mike…. I rang the doorbell and a real estate agent Janet showed me in. She showed me the whole house.
“How come no one lives here?” I was curious as a customer.
“There was an old lady living here, but because of her illness she moved to retirement home. Her family decided to sell her house.” Janet explained.
“I see.”
I really liked the house but before I decided it is important for me that my husband can see it. I arrange another meeting with Janet which would be appropriate for Will. Will also said the house was lovely and appropriate for our children. We bought the place with saving’s from our past year. We quickly moved from an apartment to the charming house. Then the story began.
Not more than two months later I received a call from Kerry’s school: “Good morning Miss Ward, this is Nelly Hal, your daughter’s teacher.” she introduced herself.
“Good morning. Is something wrong?” I asked.
“Your daughter was vomiting and we sent her to school’s clinic where she was also diagnosed with high fever. Did you know she was sick?”
“No, not at all. She was fine in the morning.”
“Well, she is certainly sick now.” Nelly told me.
“OK, I will be there soon to pick her up.”
I ended the meeting I was in, apologized to everyone and went to the school. My daughter didn’t look well; her face was green from being sick. I drove her home. She vomited several times that day and I put her on the small diet. I gave her a medicine to calm the fever and stayed by her bed until she fell asleep. I went too went to sleep when I saw that Kerry slept OK.
I was woken up in the middle of the night by a light. I barely opened my eyes to see who it was, although I was certain it was Will going to the kitchen. But it was Kerry. She looked sick and frightened as she had seen a ghost.
“Kerry, what is wrong?” I was scared for her.
“Mum, I am cold. Is there any blanket left?” I was relieved, although a cold was not a good thing, because she was already covered with three fattest sheets.
“I will look, honey.” I told her and stood up. I insisted that she measure the fever again. I did everything I could to put the fever down, but it didn’t come down from 39°C. In spite arguing with Will I changed my clothes and drove my baby girl to the doctors. He checked her throat, listened to her lung and checked her blood and then said: “I am sorry, but there is not much I can do. Although she has a high fever, if there is an illness it will show in a couple of days.”
“I understand Doctor Hall, but still...” I was worried.
“Yes. I understand. I can prescribe you a stronger medicine to calm down the fever, but that is all I can do for now. She doesn’t need a cough medicine because she doesn’t cough or sneeze, she doesn’t have a sore throat either.” he explained after he checked those things.
“So, she doesn’t have any real symptoms.” I was even more worried.
“That is correct.”
We came home empty handed. I couldn’t sleep any more that night. I called her school in the morning and apologized Kerry from her class. I wanted to stay at home, but my husband insisted I go to work.
It was a real nightmare in the office. Apparently not only my daughter went ill but also my boss, that is why I had to do his work as well. First a representer of a toys company knocked on the door. From his words our companies agreed when their advertising will be finished and he wanted to check how it is going. I had nothing to do with this commercial so I had no idea about how it is going.
“If you want we can look at the studio how much work is done.” I offered.
“That would be nice.”
When I rescued myself from him I was called to the studio. I checked what it was.
“We are sorry… Some actors had some comments about the commercial. They say that it doesn’t show what they are trying to show.”
“I must say this is the best written commercial so far, so I don’t see any problems.”
“Yes, written… “Didn’t agree director.
“As a product itself it must also show our, actually my beauty.” said one of the actors.
“I don’t have time for arguing right now, so you will agree with me if you want to make some money. Otherwise you know where the doors are.” I said rudely.
She loosened after a while. I wanted to take a cup of tea but another customer was already at the door.
“We assume you recently moved here from England.” the customer was speaking to me between doors.
“Yes, how did you guess?”
“From your tea bag. No offenses but you don’t drink the best tea.”
“Hm… Let me guess. You are from a company that makes the best tea.”
“Well, I don’t know if it is the best but it is the newest – blackberry’s tea.”
“I see.” I was interested.
“Yes. I am Cynthia Nilsonne, the representer of tea’s production New. We want to ask you for your help in advertising our newest tea.”
Two hours passed with conversation about their tea, about
the advert and how we could make people drink this tea. When Cynthia said goodbye I received a phone call from home.
“Almost 41°C. Can you come home?” For the first time I had to cancel on my family. I felt guilty although I left instructions for Will. I left two hours early anyway.
“I tried everything, but nothing is working.” Will was worried.
“Is she still feeling sick?”
“Yes.”
I called the doctor again.
“Good afternoon, this is Caroline Ward. May I speak to the doctor please?”
“At the moment he is stitching a wound to a patient. Is it urgent?”
“Yes very. My daughter has a high fever and we can’t calm it down. We’ve tried everything including the medicine the doctor gave us.” I explained.
“Wait a minute. Ward you said. Kerry Ward is ill, right?”
“Yes.”
“I have her char with me. The on call doctor suggested further blood test. Do you agree?”
“Yes of course.”
“I’ve read somewhere that a sudden move can impact on children differently. Maybe you could also talk to the child psychologist?”
“Thank you for the advice.”
At least we were given another chance for Kerry to get better, or at least to find out why she is ill. I looked in yellow pages for child psychologist right away. I called someone and we agree that he would come the next day. We still tried everything we could that day but the fever didn’t drop. The psychologist came the next morning and we have to let them be alone. He spent one hour but didn’t find anything.
“I have to disappoint you. Her illness is not coming from her mental state I can come late if you want, but I think it would not help at all.”
“Thank you for taking your time.”
“Goodbye.”
So we are back to square one.
Every day was the same. Sleepless nights, fiers for Kerrry, every day job… But today it will be different. Even the clouds in sky and wind gave us a sign that something will change. We were still waiting for the report. At the morning at around 9 o’clock Kerry’s doctor called.
“Good morning. I have her reports. Would you come to our office please.” said the doctor.
“Yes, we are on our way.” We changed clothes and went straight to the office. Fortunately for us the doctor took us before anyone else.
“Here it is. It is not pleasant for me to tell you, but we’ve discovered that your daughter is under influence of some fungus. I don’t understand why only she is suffering from it but I think the rest of the family has it as well.” explained the doctor.
“So, what can we do?”
“I know a doctor who thinks the best case is to change the scenery.” he explained us.
“Again? We just moved here a couple of months ago.”
“Yes I know. He has a clinic outside Sydney, 100 kilometres outside.”
“But, that is far.”
“Yes I know.”
“And you agree with this doctor?” I asked.
“I do. I know a few cases that were treated on that farm. It was successful every time.” he explained.
“A farm you say.” was curious Will.
“Some kind of farm, yes.” The doctor gave us that doctor’s phone number.
“Oh, and I called the inspection. They will inspect the house tomorrow. There is a good chance they will tear it down so you will have to look for another home.” he told us when we were getting to the door.
“Thank you for your information.” said Will.
Will and I looked at each other and I knew… Although we are not happy about farms we had to call the doctor. He said we would get further information over fax.
Australian Tea Party Page 1
