The Iris Epidemic

The Mask

After that day it got busier than i expected. I lost the routine with my wife at the farm but i did everything in my power to work on it the best it could.

My mornings would be mostly free up to help my family on the farm and a little later it was always time to start getting down to the town quickly for the rest of the day. Sometimes it would be around very early the next morning before i was able to make my way back home. Witch in fact, made the waking morning difficult for me to endure. Early mornings and very late evenings became a regular thing and not much of rest time was used for sleeping. 4 to 5 hours max? But that was on a good night when i could sleep.

While having lack of sleep, i also learned a ton… and im mean a ton of stuff about i guess as we are called doctors, later to be known as a plague Doctor. It was something foreign to me forsure and working with the other doctors made me feel pretty pathetic but i eventually felt more settled, the more i got use to things. That's excluding the part of watching people struggle and die in front of your eyes, but… that was the life back then.

I learned different ‘cures’ from the other doctor's which seems to vary per doctor i practiced with. Some would use different herbs and strong scented flowers for patients. It was to try and ward off the plague with scents that could act as a forcefield since it was questioned that the plague was airborne. It was just given to the infected to wear or put in their pockets. The only good i found for this effort was to mask the stench off of the existing human body that either infected or not…

Others were more daring than just giving leaves and flowers to the infected.. and my good pal Mr. Jacques was the man that taught me how to do bloodletting. It bothered me at first to do it. But eventually it started to be a regular practice to give false hope to the infected. Well, the infected with the money. And maybe. Just maybe it would’ve worked but it didn't really.

When i refer to the wealthy for this procedure, i mean the cost to be bloodletted by these little blood sucking leeches was rather expensive. Also the whole procedure was rather a simple explanation . You put leeches on the infected area and you let them do the job.  If you did not have the money for these creatures, you could get bloodletted by slit wrists. Mind you, that wasn't much of an effective way either.

Another type of ‘cure’ i learnt was that it was an act of god. That he was punishing us about our ways and we had to plead and pray for forgiveness. This was the only thing i saw related to this until i witness some really, i mean really, insane behavior….

“BRING OUT THE WHIP!”

They would say, and that was that, people would begin to whip each other or themselves to gain some sort of forgiveness….

i'm not much of religious man and even if i was i feel like that was not quite the way to be cured. There had to be some science to it. Or. Or antibiotic to help eradicate it or help prevent it from infecting others. But what is it? How would you begin to make it?

There was too many things going in the air to make a stable plan of cure.

It seems that many have not stopped to actually sit down with themselves and think about it thoroughly. For abit, away from all the chaos outside our sheltered homes and cloaks that were not yet infected. Maybe something would just click and figure it out, or maybe, as i use to think sometimes, this was what was gonna kill us all and like for an meteor to hit earth all we can do is sit and watch it all unravel.

Anyways...there was one exciting positive  thing happening at that time and that was my little creation.  The making of a mask. It when learning about all the herbs and remedies used to possibly cure the infected i wondered if it would be good for not only the patients but for us as well. You can't have town doctors dying when others are seeking help.

So, as word of the wise, care for yourself before you care for others.

I remember feeling the sense of curiosity through the weeks. Learning so much, working so much on the farm and this new creation that could be one major step into helping this epidemic. I was exhausted, but i kept going. And before i knew it this day that comes up next is when all smile i've ever had were stitched up and removed from myself. This was when reality it really bad...

________________________________

Picture Dave's well organized tailors shop again. The gradients of all the grays,blues and blacks nicely folded and hold out for many customers to browse. Mid day and some customers are in and out trying in clothes as Dave helped if his customers needed assistants. I. Myself. I was in the back behind a curtain in a separate part of the shop working the mask. Sitting down on a wooden carved chair the was a little loose, id catch myself rocking the thing continuously because of my restlessness. Leaning over and looking closely at the stitching of the leather i look at my roughly sketched out  drawings. This mask was oddly shaped but for a good reason in deed.

I visioned a mask as the head of a raven, like the one i saw weeks ago. It would start out with a with a whole leather exterior because i wasn't looking for style at that time. Holes were carefully cut out of the shape for the eyes to later be protected by a clear glass goggle like appearance. Since without cloaks we had a hood i didnt spend alot of time covering the back of the head because of lack of materials and it would of been areadly  covered by the cloak. With that all said, i was only at the base of shaping the leather around my skeleton of the mask. Let's just say… there was a lot to be done.

I remember my sketches of my idea of the small storage self part of the mask. It was with in the beak of the mask witch went over the nose and mouth and it could store and hold any herbs you need that day. This was a experiment to see if  it would filter the air we were surrounded in and if the Illness was airborn it could block it from us breathing it in. But my friend. I was far from that part of the mask that day.

Though I'm quite certain i could've gotten the things i needed without Dave’s help. He was quite intrigued of my intuition to start making this mask and he was always trying to find a way to be apart of it. Or at least  most of what i did. I guess it was almost like having your number one fan,glued right up to your side wanting to be you side kick. Some ways it was nice but other times… oh boy. It was bothersome..

But, I did sincerely enjoyed it for the most part. I felt like i was one to do something about the Plague. That i was the one to unravel the cords to the cure of this unknown illness, to be the one know as Dr!

….

My thoughts fell silent as there was commotion at the door of the tailor shop, suddenly.