It's only 14. I have just finished the lunch
with Rodrigo. Just finished. It’s my first day in Mexico city. I am supposed
now to go to the castle, to visit it, while Rodrigo ends his week (it was
Friday), and then to meet him again around 17. It's only 14. I walk slowly
through the wood of Chapultepec, enjoying the sunny day. Sunny, warm, sure..
but why am I feeling so cold now? Maybe it's just fatigue.. but a shiver runs
through my back. A shiver? I realized something is wrong.. As soon as I manage
to cross Paseo de la Reforma (not an easy task), I find myself looking for a
bench where I can stay few seconds, the time to recover from a sudden hit of
fatigue. Uff... Cold and warm at the same time.. I am definitely not feeling
good. I hold my face with my hands, a bit bended forward, but something else is
wrong.. It takes me a while to realize that my face feels different. Very
different. At first I don't get what's wrong: I keep touching myself, grabbing
my skin to understand what's wrong.. It does not look elastic anymore.. it's..
like.. unsensitive. I start, vaguely, to get scared. My eyes also start to feel
weird. If I close them, or move them, they hurt. Not too much, but I prefer not
to move them. I decide to stand up, I am afraid I will never move from that
bench if I don't do something. I start walking very fast, in no direction,
touching my face and pushing my brain at top speed to figure out a reason of
what's going on. Jet lag? Come on Andrea, you can do better than that! Sun?
Insect? Tropical something hitting you? The food? Damn it, the food.. What did
I eat? It was Mariscos, fish, crab. The crab. I already ate it before, I am not
allergic. Or maybe I didn't. Did I? Shit, it hurts. My face is weird. People are
looking at me. I take a few photos of myself to be able to look at me. There
are no mirrors, no cars, no windows, I am in the middle of the wood somewhere
in Chapultepec, not many people around, it's just too hot to go around,
probably. I am feeling cold. The photos don't look good at all. Shit, something
is badly wrong. Don't stop, keep moving, go somewhere, reach people. Check your
wallet, still there. Ok. Phone. Ok, is there. Should I call Rodri? What can he
do? Maybe a message would be fine, I don't want to disturb him while he is
working.
"sorry
to bother you.. I may have a problem. when you can, could you give me a call?
thanks!"
Rodri will
tell me later that he thought they robbed me or something. His call reaches me 10
seconds later. I tell him that I am feeling puffy, not very good. He asks me
for a pic with the phone. I send him. He replies
with a sharp "shit!". Super efficiently, he tells me where to find a
pharmacy and what to pick up to fight the allergic reaction. What I will do is
laying on a bench for the next 2 hours under some shadows kindly provided by a
tree, feeling too tired to move but not too bad to feel the urge to do
something. I am just scared because I have no idea what I have, how long it
will last, and what is going to happen if I go to a Mexican hospital. I should
be insured, but I don't have much desire to visit an hospital in Mexico city.
Anyway, I have the feeling it will get better, besides the eyes that are puffy
and swollen: but however knowing that Rodrigo knows is somehow reassuring.
After few time Gloria (that I haven't met before yet) calls me, and we meet. We
decide to meet in front of the Anthropologic Museum: she is with a colleague
from work, and be introduced to them for the first time, without having never
met them before, with my face looking that funnily weird and sick, is something
I will never forget. "Ehy, Gloria! Hi, Rodrigo told me about you. Yes, I
am Andrea, nice to meet you. I don't know if Rodrigo told you, but actually I
don't feel very good and... oh, you know. Pharmacy, immediately. Taxi. Perfect,
good, thanks a lot for being here. It's awesome. Thanks.". She brings me
to the pharmacy, looks for a taxi, it’s hard to find, and the one we get is too
expensive, so we decide to walk (it was only 15 minutes, not too bad). She buys
medicines for me and, when Rodrigo gets out of work, they bring me home. I feel
like having friends is the most important thing in life, and in that moment I
love them and feel super grateful, even though my stomach is not part of my
body anymore, and is fighting for its independence. As soon as I get home, I
throw up the hell out of me (I was pretty sure I didn't eat that many mariscos..
they should have multiplied in my stomach...). The father of Rodri takes very
good care of me, as well as Rodri and all of them. It took me one night of full
sleep, 4 days of funny puffiness, and voilà, I am almost as new. The morning I
wake up, the next day, the nicely clumsy hug of the father is something that
feel my heart nicely: I already feel way better.
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