Free Of Beetles and Angels by Mawi Asgedom

real; even the regular market sells fake pills.
    “I return and I treat whomever comes to my clinic. Hippocrates lives among us, and I can refuse no sick person.
    “But my enemies return and even my friends pressure me to choose whom I will treat. Their threats run through my mind all day long:
    “What? You bought more supplies? You must be crazy. You must not like living.
    “The first of the month beckons, and I must enter deeper into Ethiopia to report on how many patients I have treated, to receive updated orders, and of course, to receive my monthly salary. But my friends refuse to let me go, telling me to think of my children:
    “If you want them to grow up fatherless, go ahead and report to headquarters.
    “I cannot risk it, so I stay. But I keep seeing patients. For I, Haileab, the son of Zedengel, am a doctor. I have served my people for more than twenty years, and I will not stop now.
    “Good thing that we have savings. Good thing that we planned ahead. We can survive even without my paycheck.
    “But what use is money if you are not alive? The Dergue approaches with their army. I fear that they will kill me because I did not report to headquarters when I was summoned.
    “They even say that the Dergue has given their army clearance to wipe out all our people. No questions asked. Burn and loot. Rape. Create a race of tortured half-breeds who hate at least half of themselves. Annihilate all those who show the slightest resistance.
    “I have to flee, but what of my family? Can they make it? Can three young children and their mother survive the scorching wilderness? Can I survive it? Can I even flee? Will my friends let me leave? Will my enemies let me leave? Or will they make me join their ranks as an army doctor?
    “If I flee with my family, all will know what I intend, and they will capture all of us. So I must go alone for now. I will pack my mules slowly and pretend that I am going to buy more supplies in Sudan, and then I will stay there.
    “Do not worry, family. I will get settled and then hire a guide for you.
    “How will you get through the border and into Sudan, you ask. The rebel groups will not let you pass? Yes, this is true, for all of you were born in Ethiopia. Do not fear. I will mail you letters of clearance. The rebels are my friends and will let you through.
    “Here, too, is money. With money, you can do much.
    “But exercise great care! Even those who befriend you seek to rob you. Sew the money into your cloth and NEVER take your cloth off. That way, no one can steal it.
    “I must leave now. My community, my people, my family, my wealth, the status that I have earned through decades of service — I leave all of this behind. I go to join the millions — the refugees in Sudan.”

Haileab (left) working at a clinic in Sudan. Haileab would have to find a new line of work in America.

T HE U NMAKING OF A M AN
    “One day, upon awakening from troubled dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin
.”
    — Franz Kafka,
The Metamorphosis
    O ne day, upon awakening, Haileab Asgedom found himself, in America, transformed into a monstrous black beetle.
    He had been an advanced dresser back home in Adi, and he had done everything: stitched head wounds, birthed babies, treated snakebites and malaria.
    But when he came to the States, he couldn’t just stroll down to Central DuPage Hospital and proclaim, “Y’ ALL ARE IN LUCK. G UESS WHO JUST MOVED INTO YOUR COUNTY — THAT’S RIGHT, THE BADDEST ALLPURPOSE STITCHER AND BABYBIRTHER THAT THE BACKWOODS OF T IGRAY EVER DID SEE. J UST SHOW ME THE SURGERY WING, AND I’ LL GIVE YOU A FREE DEMONSTRATION. ”
    No, my father was fortunate to get a job as a janitor at Wheaton College. He worked there for a few months, and then his eyes started to fail. He blamed the bright glare of the snow, but I always thought it had more to do with his glaucoma and the cataracts in his eyes.
    His eyesight departed slowly, and his