the white tent

he looked far too young to be a doctor- barely out of his teens. his skin was dark and poreless. his neck was thin and his build was slight- so slight, the heat of the jungle hadn't squeezed a drop of sweat out of him. in spite of the oppressive wet heat and his long journey on foot, his shirt was as white and crisp as if he had just stepped out of an air conditioned office. his thick rimmed glasses made him look studious and slightly surprised. all around us were the moans and labored breathing of those who had fallen ill and i felt my last bit of hope fall away when i realized all my desperate pleas to the ministry had been answered by a ragged line of porters being led by one small boy- barely a young man- to save an entire village of dying indigenous people. several of the skinny village dogs sniffed at him and then the large bundles that were being laid carefully on the ground by the porters. 'i need a place to set up my tent' the young man said to me. i pointed dejectedly to a piece of clear ground that had been tamped hard and clean by generations of dancing feet but no foot had touched since the sickness had come. i walked away and found a spot in the forest just out of earshot to sit on a log and cry.

all the blood-work and biopsies we had sent back to the medical center for months had been so badly mishandled and degraded by the heat and humidity that most had been useless. i had called in every favor i'd ever been owed, begged, pleaded- i even stooped so low i brought god into my pleas for help in the hope that fear of a smaller golden cloud castle in the 'after life' would inspire someone to action out of greed or guilt. my only prayer was that they had forgotten i was an atheist. anyway none of it mattered now because all of these people were dying from something unidentified (therefore untreatable) and there was no time left.

i wiped my face clean of tears and walked back into the village. the bright white tent had already been set up and the last of the supplies were being unloaded. the tent was... incredible. it was a fully outfitted lab and field hospital with enough room for several beds. i walked through the flaps of the tent and was almost blinded by the shiny newness of the equipment. 'but how...' i stammered. 'i found the bacteria. we've seen it before, but it has never jumped a species except in a lab. the international community thinks of this as ground zero. i can start treating patients in 20 minutes. we're certain the efficacy of our existing protocols will eliminate the disease in your indigenous population. of course we are expected to stay here and find the reason for the jump.'

almost overnight everyone was healthy again and the big white tent that had saved everyone's life soon became an elephant that no one could even see.