A Charitable Journey

It was a sweltering day in Zambia Africa of 2013. We were on our way up the Zambezi River to help my Aunt and her team mates with preparations for a charity rafting event. It perplexed me that she would do this having been blinded sometime ago. Although this seemed hard knew she had a reason. I just wanted to support her.

"Well it's hot!" Charlie said.

"Stop Whining! We are almost there." I snapped. We went up the river landing near the starting point. . There we ran into Melanie sitting near the boat patting her bulbous belly. Her eyes which would normally be glazed over were hidden by contacts given the illusion of normalcy. She grabbed her cane and came up to us. Feeling my face she caught me in a hug.

"Angel you made it. I'd thought you were going to miss the start." She said

"Sorry I had to get someone." I said stepping aside to reveal her Seeing Eye dog Mary.

"Who?" She asked. Mary ran up to her and licked her hand. She only had time to pet her a few times before the call went out. Taking a hold of Mary's leash, she left for her canoe. There we were parted and the canoeing started. We moved down the river quickly. Soon night fell. With that we stopped to camp.

"Aunt Mel how was the ride?" I asked walking up to her.

"It was tiring Angel. I'd love to rest." She said breathlessly. As the night set we all started to dig pits for out tents. After a rousing a game of shovel tug a war with Greg resulting him to slip into hippo poo, I helped her with her tent. After an hour of set up, the tent was ready. With that we were ready for bed.

"Shall we head to bed Angel?" She asked

"Yeah, goodnight Aunt Mel." I said sleepily.

"Goodnight Angel." She said.

The next day

The next day dawned with a feeling of dread. After we set out, the team seemed unsettled. Aunt Mel seemed particularly unsettled. Upon hearing the rush of the rapids, she tried to hold back the tears of fear she was feeling, but she couldn't and ending up crying. That's when they stopped walking up to the boat. Seeing her like this I could tell she need help.

"Aunt Mel are you ok?" I asked

"Angel, I don't think I can do this." She sobbed.

"Of course you can." I said pulling her into a hug. As the team cleared the first rapids something horrible went wrong, the boat Melanie and Jack were in flipped and they fell into the water and got trapped underneath it. As the boat washed down the river, I went with the guide Sven to rescue them. Unfortunately Mel was the only one we could see. Jack was still in the water somewhere.

"Aunt Mel are you ok? That's croc infested" I asked as I pulled her out of the water.

"Yes Angel I think I'm ok." She sobbed fearfully.

"We gotta find Jack." I said.

"I know, I think I heard him pass me as we flipped." She sobbed fearfully. As we pulled her out of the water se looked down at her belly and felt around. From her expression I could tell something was wrong.

"Aunt Mel what's wrong?" I asked.

"Angel I can't feel the baby moving." She sobbed.

"It's probably in shock." I said.

"I hope so." She replied meekly. She continued to search for the baby. After a minute we all sighed in relief. The baby was fine.

"I'm worried, Jack never came up." She said.

"I should go help." I said.

"No I'll go." Sven said. He went to save Jack. Suddenly Melanie screamed. I noticed she was holding her knee. I knew immediately, her knee was acting up, she needed help. With that I set to work.

"Angel I think I bashed my knee. Can you help please?" She asked.

"Yeah it looks like a sprain Aunt Mel." I said.

"You really are an angel." She said.