Where's Mommy?

We got on our boat and went straight to our dilapidated hotel. The nearest city was the small port city of Haridwar which is the opening gate to the giant Sunderbans Delta, the biggest swamp in the world. The hotel was about a four-hour boat ride from the dazzling city. We arrived at dusk, peak mosquito time. Going straight to our rooms, the manager, a chubby man wearing pajamas, told Mommy and me that dinner will be served at nine. He also mentioned that we should cover up because there are many mosquitoes in the area.

Right before dinner, I heard Mommy shout, “Ouch, what was that?” By the time I got there the thing had left, leaving a red mark on Mommy’s hand. We went to eat dinner, which, as expected, was Indian food. After dinner, the manager, still in his pajamas,  accompanied us to the room and asked us, “How was dinner?” We lied and said that it was very good, but the food was not to our taste with all the spices they put in it. As we entered our room Mommy screamed again, “Oouch!” This time I saw the thing that bit her, it looked like an oversized mosquito,  but it had a huge red head.

The next morning we woke up very early at around 5 AM to start our daily touring of the Delta. When Mommy woke up she had about 30 of these red marks, all over her body. She didn't know how the strange mosquitoes managed to bite her through the mosquito net. The bites, according to her, were very itchy, and every time she scratched one, the mark would get bigger and bigger.

As we were on our boat sightseeing the murky, dark, and dense forest of the Sundarbans Delta, we suddenly noticed a big nest full of these mosquitoes or whatever they were. We asked the guide about the nest. He said, “What nest? There’s nothing there.” We both looked at each other very confused as the nest was right in front of us. Why couldn’t he see it? We continued exploring the swampland, admiring the different cultures and wildlife of the region, stopping at a local village for lunch.

We ended up spending all of our afternoon in the village, hearing stories about the wildlife of the region. The strange thing was that they didn't even mention anything about mosquitoes or any other type of bug in the area. They said that the Delta was mostly cleared from all mosquitoes over 10 years ago. This made us even more confused since in the hotel the manager had warned us that there were a lot of mosquitoes. There was something confusing and a little bit suspicious about the hotel, especially the manager, I thought to myself.

Once again at dusk, we arrived back at the hotel. The manager, wearing his usual pajamas, asked us about our day. We told him that it was very interesting, but actually, there was something that surprised us. We were told that most of the mosquitoes were cleared out of the swamp over 10 years ago; yet, he had told us that there are still many mosquitoes here. He stared at us as he walked away screaming something in Hindi, not responding. Mommy and I went to the room to shower and change before dinner. Both of us were freaked out by the manager's behavior. There was something off about him.

Suddenly, I looked up and in the middle of our room there was a giant nest of mosquitoes. They all started going towards the direction of Mommy, biting her whole body until she slowly faded away and disappeared. I ran as fast as I could to the reception to tell them that the mosquitoes took Mommy away.

I arrived at the reception crying and I told the manager what had happened. The manager smiled at me wickedly and said, “Your Mama is gone. We took her and now she’s one of us.” Petrified, I asked him, “ Who are you?” He replied in a raspy voice. ”We are the masters of the swamp, the mosquitoes are the leaders of this area, my leaders.” Panicked, I ran away as quickly as I could to the boat, scared that if I stay here any longer the mosquitoes would take me too. I just wanted to find Mommy and leave already.

  I boarded the boat and I started the long journey to Hardiwar. Without Mommy. All on my own. On the way, I squished a mosquito that was constantly buzzing around me. Then out of nowhere it shockingly transformed back into Mommy, but she was all deformed like the mosquito that I had smashed. She was lying on the deck of the boat, gasping for air until she fell still. In that second I realized that when I killed the mosquito I killed Mommy as well. It all happened so fast that I couldn’t even say goodbye to her. By the time I understood what happened Mommy was already not with us.

  

Here is a picture that I took of the Sunderbans swamp this winter break when I was in India.