Chapter 3: A Sick Baby
Indeed, it wasn't easy getting settled into their new home, but in time, Becky and Avery made a few friends in High Wind Gulch with the town doctor named Harold Hare, his assistant Clover Cottontail, Miles Pronghorn, the town baker named Harriet Hedgehog, and even the Sheriff named Clarence HawkTail and his wife Ruby who worked at the restaurant owned by Mrs. Darla Dove. As for the other neighbors in town and the neighborhood, it seemed some were not fully ready to make friends with the new arrivals, with Avery insisting that they needed time to get to know them. They did however manage to make friends with the town blacksmith named Peterson Pelican and Bellamy Bighorn the town carpenter who was kind enough to lend Avery the tools needed to fix up their house a big and come lend him a helping hand, even with the gardening on the half acres, bringing his family to come help as they were professional farmers with crops themselves, letting the buzzards borrow their horse for the plow. Perhaps High Wind Gulch wouldn't be as bad as Becky thought. Not even when Avery took a job at the hat shop to help keep the farming rates going.
But even then, when the two were settled in and starting to get used to their new life where they were at, Becky started to feel sick, unable to eat, and became weak to the point where she fainted, forcing Avery to fetch Dr. Harold Hare and Clover in hopes that her life wasn't in any danger. When he was done checking her, he had happily informed Avery that Becky was going to be alright, and that a baby was on the way. Despite their struggling lifestyle to fit in with the rest of the town, it was happy news for them, and Becky was glad of that, especially when showing the egg wrapped up in cloth, giving instructions on how to keep it warm for the next couple of weeks and come back to him if they find anything wrong.
The hardest thing for Beck to accept was that she was no longer living in Buzzard's Springs with the remainder of the family that fled to that town to escape persecution and oppression. Now she was the wife of a farmer, desperate to make their way into society as he felt it unnecessary to live in hiding from the outer world where there was so much adventure and opportunity for all animals to make a difference. But she did hold onto the promise they made together about packing up if this town did not work out as they had hoped.
As far as both Becky and Avery knew, life often brought hardships to everyone, no matter where they might live. Whether it had anything to do with destroyed crops, folks being killed by floods, tornadoes, blizzards, outlaws, or Indians protecting their territory, it was beyond their control. And they had lost someone special to them in their lives involving friends and family when they were much younger. But they had to learn to be brave when they or someone else in their lives had dealt with dangerous perils such as wild feral animals, thugs, bigots, or angry miners and railroad workers. Now for the sake of their baby, Becky was determined to remain as strong and brave as a family. It may be one of their only hopes for survival.
Once Becky had finished writing in her diary, placing it on the nearby table with the oil lamp beside it, she was preparing to go to sleep when she suddenly heard little Baron crying from the other room.
"Must be time to change his diaper," She yawned, getting off the bed to try and go check up on him, only for Avery to be awake at this point, putting a hand on her shoulder.
"No, you need your rest dear, I'll go check up on our boy," Avery whispered to his wife. "He's probably thirsty or needs to be changed." He threw the blankets off his body and walked his way to where their baby Baron had been sleeping in the nearest room. "Hey there son, what's the matter? Papa's here for you." He pulled up Baron awkwardly into his arms, now feeling rather concerned when his cries sounded to be a sign of him in distress, having burst into tears, and his face being a lovely shade of red. Something didn't feel right.
"There's somethin' wrong with Baron is there?" Becky had then entered the room as Avery handed Baron for her to carry, and then feel his forehead gently. "Oh no, he's burnin' up Avery. We need to go get Dr. Hare right away."
Not wanting to waste a moment, Avery went to change into his daylight clothes quickly and rushed out the door, still a few minutes past midnight and rode on Checkers into town to knock on the doctor's door in his office since he usually slept there in case anyone else needed him. And once Avery knocked on the door, Dr. Hare didn't hesitate to pack everything up and rush on over to the house with Clover tagging along as she always did. The first thing Dr. Hare had done before arriving there was sending Clover to get ice from the icehouse which wasn't too far away luckily.
"The important thing is to get the fever down, but first we got to change him out of his diaper before we start," Dr. Hare advised, going through his suitcase of medicines, ointments, and healing creams. "And once we bring down his fever, he'll have to be carefully watched at all times."
The two worried parents were allowed to pick their crying son out of his crib and change his diaper. When that was taken care of, they carefully placed Baron back in there so that Clover could put the ice around him as Dr. Hare did the examination.
"I mean we shall take turns watching him when we can," Dr. Hare wanted to make it clear.
"Well Dr. Hare, do yah know what our son is sick with?" Avery asked shakily, looking over their child with some ice cubes surrounding him.
"I'm afraid your son has the symptoms of typhus," Dr. Hare answered reluctantly, seeing the two parents bow their head in sadness. "But we have a chance to cure him, as long as me and Clover here inform you on the seriousness of this illness. And in all honesty, there still has yet to be a known medicine made. We can only do what should be done. We don't know what will happen after this once your son comes out of it, but trust in us for now."
"Thank you, Dr. Hare," Becky had her arms around Avery at this time, sick with worry for her son. "Please help Baron, we beg of you."
"I don't understand where our son could have picked up this disease," Avery was puzzled, having heard of typhus before when he was a boy, and how it affected a town, miles from their home, some having died from it.
"First, have you spotted any rats scurrying about several days ago, in or out of your property?" Dr. Hare implied, seeing that Baron would not be covered by too many blankets.
"I chased two rats out of our house a week ago when it looked like they was tryin' to get in through the window, which I remember was halfway opened to let in a bit of fresh air for our son," Avery implied clearly and truthfully. "You don't think…."
"Typhus is carried and passed by fleas, carried by rats, infecting them before moving onto another animal to bite," Dr. Hare had informed them, finding a small red spot on Baron's left arm, but found no other marks on him. "On flea must have jumped in unintentionally and bit your son, taking it's time before the fever broke out. And bad news is that a wire was sent to my office about a typhus epidemic that's happened in the town of Boot Lick. Someone must have visited there before and accidentally brought it here."
"Then why ain't we sick?" Becky was concerned and confused at this.
"I can't be sure about that yet. It's too early to tell."
By then, Dr. Hare had stayed to help treat Baron who had to be quarantined inside the house and take extreme precautions to keep the illness from getting out, setting himself up in the barn with a few piles of clothes, several bottles of alcohol, enough ice to last several more days and a change of blankets. Baron's coughs were thick and raspy, as if he was choking for several minutes on end. None of the usual medicines was easing his symptoms and his parents were extremely concerned and scared for their firstborn son to watch him suffer and see how his fevers had been skyrocketing all the time and never once breaking up. Days and nights, he could only whimper in pain during the treatment.
"It ain't workin' Doctor," Becky had choked, helping with the handling of the ice cubes. "The fever's as high as ever." It still pained her to see Baron whimpering in his crib.
"We can only do what we've done so far ma'am," Dr. Hare had insisted. "Keep giving him fluids as much as he'll take. Now it looks like we'll have to take another strict routine. Whatever touches the boy must be washed in boiling water…..before the rash starts to appear. We wash our hands in soap, water, and rubbing alcohol…. before and after handling the child, it's the only way to prevent the disease from infecting us and spreading outside of town. We don't want High Wind Gulch to become the next town to go under quarantine."
"Doc, if our son does come outta this, will he ever live a normal, healthy life?" Avery had asked Dr. Hare.
"It all depends on how the rash fades away afterward," The town doctor spoke honestly. "But once it appears, we can't let your son touch his face. Look, I understand that the both of you are scared, but you need rest and barely had enough of it."
It's true that Becky and Avery hardly slept enough ever since they found out that Baron was sick, being in a sorry state as Becky had refused to leave his crib, not wanting to think any further that the typhus might send her firstborn son into an early grave. They had to believe that whatever happens after this, their son would live. For now, it was required to follow the doctor's orders.
Time seemed to pass by slowly as Dr. Hare and Clover worked continuously to treat Baron and his symptoms tirelessly to see how much more has improved, taking the same precautions every day, seeing the baby buzzard go through chills, headache, and the rash that started to appear and became sustained after the twelfth day. Clover had continued to do as much as she could to work nearly until dawn until she dozed off, and Dr. Hare let her. It gave him and the parents the opportunity to keep checking for signs of the fever breaking, even though Becky wished that she could hold the baby in her arms to sooth and offer comfort in his time of suffering. She just couldn't risk being contaminated from whatever was left of the disease and spread it outside of town.
Then just when they thought things would never get better for Baron, Avery had informed Dr. Hare in the barn that the fever had broken. If Becky had thought she was crying hard when Baron had nearly fallen into a coma, it was nothing compared to how hard she was crying when hearing from Avery that the fever had broken through. Still, Dr. Hare had to convince everyone that Baron was not entirely out of the woods yet, reminding them that nobody can heal quickly overnight after being sick from a high fever. Baron was still feverish, still coughing, and very weak, but Dr. Hare had assured that the little buzzard chick was going to live after this and will soon sleep peacefully again. After the first sign of the rash, Baron had been contagious for the next ten days or so and would be fully well when they heal up and disappear: now slowly fading. Everyone had to wash up and generally compose themselves after the good news, especially Becky who forced herself to be calm when listening to Baron's cries of protest as it was time to give him medications to help with the pain inside him. All she wanted now was to rush over and pick up her son and tell him it would be ok.
Apparently, she couldn't take it any longer at not having touched her baby since he fell ill, and neither could Avery, and not even Dr. Hare could protest when Baron was lifted in his mother's arms, sniffling, and pressing his feverish face into Becky's night robes. "Oh, don't ever scare me like that again son."
"Thank goodness the little one is gonna live Doc," Clover had remarked. "He's not only a little fighter, but he apparently has shown a will to live."
Becky had smiled tearfully, trying not to clutch Baron too tightly, hearing Avery whisper that they can finally rest easy now as he held onto her. Baron had cuddled up to her and cooed blissfully. "I knew he would not give up so soon."
"I'm surprised that the illness had not taken him, not that I wanted it to," Dr. Hare started hesitantly, disinfecting his hands and the crib. "But there have been many cases where other patients were not so lucky. One can only guess that the heavens sent a message that it was not his time yet."
"I won't pretend that no one has ever died from typhus before Doc," Becky admitted. "But I had to believe that there was a way out for my son to survive."
At times like this is when Becky and Avery were very thankful for having made real friends with Dr. Harold Hare and Clover Cottontail, knowing their son was alive and ready to live through this because of their treatments, love, and care, showing no contempt toward their race as buzzards and didn't know how to thank them properly, other than use simple words for how thankful they had become in seeking the help that Baron needed. Dr. Harold could only insist that he did it because someone needed a helping hand, and he never expected too big a payment. Whatever they could offer, he would take it and wish their child luck on the road to recovery. And when this was almost over, the doctor and his assistant would see to it that they go out and warn other civilians to watch out for those tiny vermin to avoid an outbreak in this town, but never mentioning it too often who the first victims of the plague had been, for the Buzzard family's own protection if anyone dared to bring accusations or point their fingers for their troubles. That was the last thing this innocent family needed.
When it was time for Dr. Hare to head back to his office, he allowed Clover to stay behind as long as she needed and see to it that Baron be given his medicines and plenty of liquids to make sure the fever stays gone and would have to stay inside until the very worst was over as he needed lots of rest. Becky had looked down at the little bundle of brown feathers and fluff tucked in her arms, and he gazed up at his mother, having developed a self-pacifying habit when sucking on the sleeve of his pajamas, and gripping a fold of his other clothing with his hand. His body was still warm and his breathing uncomfortably raspy, but all that mattered to Becky and Avery was that their baby chick was still breathing. He started to whimper a bit from feeling feverish.
"Mama's here son," she instinctively held him closer. His head lolled against her chest sleepily. "Mama and Papa are here."
It took Baron no more than a month to recover from typhus, despite having been born undersized for his age as he was growing when time had passed by. He had taken quite long to learn how to sit up unsupported, to be able to pull himself up, and to crawl, which was unusual since most other babies had been known to learn that earlier. Clover and his parents had noticed he was learning quite a few things at four months old such as knowing the words spoken to him. At five and a half months old, Baron was using certain babbling sounds or chirps in order to communicate different things, even though he couldn't speak clearly yet. He had been prone to staring hard at many objects, as if he was struggling to think hard and deeply on something, while staring at the wall, corner, bed, table, or the window. One odd thing though is that he seemed confused by never knowing when to go left or right, when Becky tried to show him, thinking that he was still too young to understand that and let it slide.
Then one day when Baron had reached seven months old, he seemed to be calling out to his parents when blurting out words like Ma or Pa. Both of them had been shocked to see that at this age, he was barely a year old and now close to speaking what may be his first two words. It happened whenever Baron was reaching out towards them from his crib or the chair at the table. Although they were proud of their firstborn chick, there was one thing he would need when the time was right…. social interaction. So far Baron had been more comfortable around his parents than with anyone else, other than Dr. Hare and Clover Cottontail. During his illness, he had been deathly afraid of how they handled him with some of the tools they used, too young to understand that they were only trying to save his life, wondering how he would fare when the child became older and knew they couldn't just hide him from society forever, not when he needed to learn how to make friends. Still, it was often regarded as normal infant behavior that the parents hoped would come to pass when he learns to get used to other folks, good or bad.
And so, Baron was eight months old when Becky had decided to take him with her on the way over to the general store. She didn't want to leave him home without someone to watch over him, as she walked on over to the general store, being outside for the first time in High Wind Gulch.
AN: Sorry that this chapter took so long. I was having some trouble with how to write for it next and needed help from other movies, TV shows, and books about how most illnesses were handled back in the 1800s. And in truth, epidemics of measles, smallpox, scarlet fever, yellow fever, anthrax, typhus, rocky mountain fever, pneumonia, and cholera. Like the bubonic plague, typhus can come from fleas carried by rats or possums. And they were deadly enough to have killed enough settlers and Native American tribes, having no vaccines or cures back then like we do now. Stay tuned for Chapter 4: First Town Bully.