Survivor Island: Second Elimination and Third Challenge

[auraesque]

The write_away community has spoken, and the Huckleberry Blue Bandits won the second challenge. Unfortunately, that means that two players from the Twelfth Yellow Knights and Gatsby Green Team must be eliminated.

eunuch_dreams and dark_math_girl, your teams have voted, and you must leave the island

Comments

Re: Viola

[jennafern]

Two days later, Viola dropped out of school.

“Oui!” the young boy said and flashed a gap-toothed grin.

Viola chuckled and handed him a small red lollipop. He snatched it up as if it were the best present he’d ever received, hugged her, and then skipped off singing a song she’d never heard before. A year ago she never expected to know any local African songs, now she knew and loved three. When she had time, she’d ask her roommate Anju if she knew that one.

She draped the stethoscope proudly around her neck, but the truth was, she wasn’t a doctor. That didn’t stop her from helping the hundreds of mothers with malnourished children.

The sun was long gone by the time Viola got back to her residence. She wasn’t sure what to call it. Hardly a house or a hut, residence was a charming way to say shit hole. She threw her bag down and crashed on her bed.

“Rough day?” a sweet English accented voice called.

“Oui,” Viola replied dejectedly. Anju walked in yawning, wearing green scrubs. Her thick chocolate hair was pulled back, ‘it’s not a ponytail’ she said when they first met, ‘I have enough hair to make a horse’s tail.’ They became instant friends. And a friend in a place like this was paramount to sanity. “Not as bad as yesterday though.”

“Did Massemba break through his fever?” she asked, settling into a rickety wooden chair to put on her shoes.

“Yeah,” Viola smiled. “He’s a trooper.”

“Everyone here is.” Anju sighed softly and tied her laces. “Even you. I mean technically you’re not even supposed to treat people, but no one is going to turn down help, not here, not anywhere on this damn continent. Not for a long time. When do you have to be up?”

Viola groaned. She didn’t want to go to the ‘office’; she wanted to help the way a doctor would. Even now, thousands of miles away from everything, Viola didn’t regret leaving medical school. She packed up her things, took the tuition she’d gotten back from the University, signed up with Doctors Without Boarders and never looked back. She volunteered as an administrative coordinator, but when she arrived in the Congo and the physicians learned of her experience, Viola was given a taste of exactly what doctors are capable of accomplishing. Her time here had changed her in many ways, but she knew as soon as her time was up, she’d be moving back to the states and finish her schooling. “Four hours, I think.”

“You’re stretching yourself too thin. Get some sleep; I’ll see you later. Oh, there’s a letter for you.” Anju crinkled her fingers and vanished into the African night.

Eventually Viola got up from the cot and found the enveloped lying on the table. There was no return address and the postmark was from New York. I don’t know anyone there.

After she read the first line, she stumbled back to the cot, shocked. Several minutes later she found one of surgeons in the village.

“Dr. Benton, can I borrow your sat-phone?” Viola begged.

“Sure, it’s in the closet, is everything okay?”

She shook her head. “Both of my parents are in the hospital.”