Plague Thieves
Plague Thieves
Father leaves a note on the breakfast tray the morning Mother passes away.
Dear children,
Burn this note and wash your hands after you read it.
Mother has died. Have mercy on her soul.
Do not come upstairs.
There will be no burial. She must stay where she is.
It is too dangerous for anyone to come to the apartment.
Children, I have the sickness now.
I have the same symptoms as Mother: fever, buboes on my neck, and muscle cramps. I will make a plan to keep you safe.
Mother had you in her thoughts until the end.
She wanted you to know you are loved.
—Father
Lem reads the note aloud. Then, he lights a match and burns Father’s note.
“No!” I exclaim and reach for the burning paper. I want to keep that note. It is my last thread tying me to my mother.
Lem holds the burning paper higher than I can reach.
“We have to burn it, Rose. Father says.”
When it is almost totally burned, he drops it onto the metal scale on Father’s desk.
I drop to my knees and sob.
Plague Thieves speaks of bravery and resourcefulness when, in 1665, the curse of the bubonic plague stalks London. Rose, 12, and her older brother, Lem, are alone, their parents having died of the dread disease. Their father’s last act was to burn their home and business to prevent the contagion from spreading. He told his children to do whatever was necessary to survive, even stealing. The siblings flee with a few valuables to trade for food and three precious bottles of herbal oil believed to protect them from the plague.
Grief stricken, sleeping under a bridge and near starvation, the children find their life to be bleak, and they are reduced to thieving. Worse is to come when Lem suddenly disappears. Rose is alone. Gradually, she is befriended by a mother and daughter, a kindly giant of a lad and two teen boys, all struggling for survival. They become a trusted team. When Lem returns, he speaks of their imminent danger since it is now general knowledge that they are carrying the much coveted antiseptic oil. Only when Rose meets the plague doctor, a fearsome figure wearing a beak-like mask but who cares for the sick, is she provided with a plan for them all to escape London.
Children who have experienced years of the Covid pandemic will easily relate to this story of another epidemic, one set in a far off time and place when medicine was in its infancy and the plague, a death sentence. Told in the first person by Rose, the story, written in a direct, straightforward manner, is gripping. It imaginatively and believably depicts the plight of ordinary people living through a terrible time while simultaneously revealing the best and worst of humanity.
Rose and Lem are credible in their grief, and each is in character as they use their initiative to survive which, for Lem, does not always work out positively. Rose and her friends show their metal despite the very realistic horror and fear they experience. An interesting development involves their meeting with the great scientist, Isaac Newton, who ironically is experiencing his ‘Year of Wonder’ with many of his most famous discoveries and inventions.
Plague Thieves is a captivating read that is historically accurate while capturing the humanity of ordinary people caught up in a situation much larger than themselves. History truly comes alive!!
Aileen Wortley is a retired children’s librarian in Toronto, Ontario.