Tsengu's illness.

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The monk said “He was born when the clouds were coming from the east to old mountains and Saturn’s orbital tangent was parallel to the wind. You should keep a black dog for your new born son’s good health” thus the Janhint’s bought Jenji, black Labrador for Tsengu’s first birthday.

For the last six years Tsengu Janhint had been coughing. One could hear him breathing, since the spasm in his chest echoed his breath. It was a part of his life now. With time the inconvenience dilutes away to become simply a foul smell lingering in the air which you stop noticing eventually. Tsengu knew how to deal with his respiratory problem most of the time except while sleeping, when he got chest infection attacks, and on those nights he just spend hours coughing.

The rest of the family was as good as the kids running in the energy drink advertisement. Mom, Shalingy Janhint was worried about her son’s health. She bugged her husband everyday for not taking Tsengu to Brenkoos, the metropolitan up north to one of ‘the expensive doctors’. But Tsengu’s father, Arawsut Janhint, architect by profession, believed that the old traditional medicines of his country would cure his son, as his paternal cousin in Penking had a severe problem of the same sort, and was cured by the traditional pathy. Younger brother Philong Janhint never coughed in the last six years, since he was four. Though he coughed to get attention from his parents or to irritate his three year older brother. He was one active chap always running with Jenji. Even Jenji, the darling of the family, commonly referred as Jenji Janhint was healthy in his thirteen years in spite of the fact that he was never vaccinated fully. When Jenji’s booster vaccination was due, Arawsut had fallen down from a wooden slab on one of his sites and had broken a bone in his feet. The attention was diverted to the head of the family who laid for two months on the bed with right leg in plaster hung to the fan. Nobody took Jenji to Brenkoos for vaccination. At that time, it was thought that Jenji would get sick. Shalingy was betting on parvo and Arawsut on distemper. One week later, to their surprise Tsengu got a chest infection.

Initially, he was taken to many doctors nearby. But when his symptoms resembled to those of Arawsut’s paternal cousin’s, Arawsut felt that Tsengu will be cured on his own. But Shalingy felt that her son should be cured immediately since she didn’t like the way Arawsut’s paternal cousin coughed.

Tsengu loved when his parents argued over his illness. He thought everybody has an illness. His parents had the illness of arguing. Philong had an illness of sucking his thumb when sleeping. And Jenji had a sickness of barking.

When Tsengu turned thirteen, Arawsut suggested that he should be admitted to a boarding school in Brenkoos. Shalingy was not very excited about Tsengu leaving home, feeling he was too young to live alone and needed care for the chest infection. But the fact that he will be closer to ‘the expensive doctors’ and will be taken care by the school comforted her in the back of her mind. Philong was upset that Tsengu always gets to do new things and go to newer places. (He hated when his mother gave him Tsengu’s clothes to him to wear). Jenji barked.

Parents were not allowed to come and visit there kids for the first two months of the school year. Arawsut was cleaning his car while Shalingy was stuffing fruits, candies and clothes in the trunk. The family was excited to visit Tsengu in his boarding school after two months. Philong was sitting on the stair and was crying as his parents didn’t want Jenji to come along.

Tsengu was sitting in the waiting room. He heard the engine of his dad’s car and looked in the window. He ran out to greet his parents who were delighted to see there son after two months. They went out to a restaurant nearby to eat. Tsengu wanted spring roles with shrimp and coconut sauce. Shalingy said that it is not good for his throat and his chest. Tsengu felt a little disappointed as he was expecting a treat of his choice. His dad looked at him in a surprise. He got up came close to Tsengu and put his ear on his chest. He said to Shalingy that he is breathing without the chest creating any noise. Shalingy felt that too. Philong looked at them with his mouth open. Shalingy let him eat spring roll with shrimp and coconut sauce and told Arawsut that they should take him to a doctor to see if he is cured. Arawsut said that he knew that Philong is cured because his cousin in Penking got normal when he was thirteen.

In the winter break Tsengu returned home to spend the vacation. Shalingy was very happy that her son is mature enough to live alone and Arawsut was excited that if the chest infection was a hereditary defect in his family, it would pass with age. But in the middle of a night Tsengu got up coughing and struggling to breath. Jenji was sleeping next to him. He jumped up in shock waking everybody up. Shalingy felt helpless and Arawsut confused. Tsengu chest was swollen, but later he managed to sleep. Next morning Janhint family got up early, gathered some food in the car and went to Brenkoos to visit ‘an expensive doctor’.
By evening the results were collected from three different laboratories and it was found that Tsengu was allergic to canine dander. One of the least existing allergies caused by the fallen hair of dogs. But the allergens coming from a Labrador was even less probable.

Shalingy thought that they should give Jenji to Arawsut’s relatives in Penking as she didn’t want the allergens to cause any further inconvenience to Tsengu. Arawsut believed that they should keep Jenji as he might have helped Tsengu develop resistance to many other allergies and illnesses causing elements and will do so further in future. They argued while coming back in the car and Tsengu looked at them and giggled at their illness.