TRAVEL TRACER
This week I am taking on the role of travel tracer. In the ninety or so pages that we have read this week, the main character of the novel, Mattie, has been extremely nomadic.
Primarily, the novel starts with the protagonist, Mattie, wandering around the countryside with her grandfather. This area of the countryside is very barren, with sparse trees and dying and decaying grass. The eather is extremely hot and the sun is scorching the land. The ground is dry and there is a lack of water. Mattie and her grandfather ended up in this wasteland because Mattie's mother had caught the plague and sent them to a family they know in the country, the Ludington's. Unfortunately, due to the unfit state of the grandfather, they were not allowed to pass into other inhabited places for fear of the plague. This left Mattie and her grandfather struggling to survive in the country in the boiling hot summer weather. Mattie has to look after herself and her grandfather, trying to scavenge food and trying to stay in the shade. It is a difficult task, and through the heat and the lack of food, Mattie catches the fever and grows delirious.
The action suddenly changes scene. Mattie wakes up in ‘Bush Hill’, a hospital for fever victims. Mattie is alive and surviving, in good health. This hospital is infamous for being dangerous and revolting, but Mattie finds that it isn't so. The hospital is extremely clean and french methods of medical health are being employed, ensuring quicker and better relief for victims. There is a main hospital and also a barn which are all cleaned and prepared so that all of the victims can recover - which actually works. This hospital is actually a very nice place, and Mattie stays there for days, finally recovering from the Fever. In the time that Mattie and her grandfather were at the hospital, Mattie’s grandfather seems to have fallen in love. He has spent most of his time with one of the main nurses at the hospital, and when Mattie and her father leave to go back to the city, the two share an emotional goodbye.
After the encounter, the two travel back to the city where they used to live, searching for Mattie's mother and their maid Eliza. Sadly, when they reach their home, they find out that the whole place has been robbed. They're home used to be a very popular coffee shop filled with happy customers. It was an extremely happy place, but when they return to the house, they find it completely ransacked. It is empty, and the only thing that is in the house is shattered glass and broken wood. Where there used to be happiness is emptiness and sadness. Worst of all, there is no food and there is no way of getting any. Mattie and her grandfather are terrified of this prospect and look to find more food. The grandfather is old and weak, so he can’t really help, and he spends much of his time lying down. One night, two robbers come to the house to look for anything else they can scavenge from the house. Molly can’t really help, and neither can her grandfather, and she knows this. As the thieves ransack the house, stealing her valued possessions, Mattie gets angry. She goes and tries to confront the thieves, which awakens her grandfather. He joins the commotion, but bearing a gun. The thieves attack him, and he dies.
Scared and alone she runs out into the streets. She doesn’t know what she can do, considering she has no family and no home.
Until next time, she is alone and she is stranded in the streets.
Thanks for reading :)
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