My Kafka Baggage
The narrator returned home from a trip and inside his suitcase he found a dead cockroach. The narrator threw everything what was in the suitcase away, as he thought there were many of these vermin, but the dead cockroach was the only one in the baggage. Looking at it the narrator starts feeling sad about its fate, as it was taken away from his tribe. Then his contemplations go around the idea how this cockroach had got into the suitcase.
Symptoms
The narrator’s wife had left for Italy and he was left with his two sons – of eight and ten years old. The narrator could hardly hear as there was some obstacle in his right ear; he thought that it was his allergies to blame, but as it lasted for some time he went to the doctor. The doctor examined his ears, and found in each a cockroach. He said that ear wax was a delicacy for these insects.
Blankets
The next story revealed about narrator’s father stay at the hospital where his right foot and three toes from the left have been cut off. The narrator stayed with his father when he woke up after the surgery. He said he was cold, so the son went to get some blankets to cover him with. He asked a nurse to give some blankets, she did, but the blanket she gave was too thin, so he decided to look for an Indian. He found one in the hallway. The man was waiting for his sister to give birth to her child, their father insisted on everyone to be present as he wanted to hold some old Indian ceremony welcoming a new child into the world.
They happened to have some blankets, and the man went to get some. It was the father who handed the blanket to the narrator, he also sang a song which, as he assured, would heal the narrator’s father. When he returned to his father’s room he hurried to cover his freezing father. As soon as he put the blanket over him, the father started singing. It was not a song sung by strange Indian, but it was also a healing song.
Doctor’s office
In the next story the narrator returns to the problems with his hearing. He went to the hospital, but the doctor told that the ears were clean. The narrator still did not hear well, and the hearing test showed that he heard only thirty per cent. It terrified him as it was not clear what was the reason of his deafness.
Hydrocephalus
Being a child the narrator was very sick, his brains has been damaged and he was supposed to die. But luckily he did not. Till seven years old he suffered different symptoms of the illness, but after this age nothing ever disturbed him. And now at the age of forty-one he goes deaf in his right ear.
Conversation
After having done with the MRI on his head the narrator called his brother-in-law who was babysitting his sons. He inquired whether he had fed them and if everything was ok. Everything was good, so the narrator told he would go shopping and would be back with them soon.
World Phone Conversation, 3 A.M.
Coming back home the narrator watched the film and called his wife. She was very worried about him and said they would come back from Rome, but the narrator assured her he was O.K. and wanted her to stay in Rome longer, as her mother was already old and it might be their last trip together.
Valediction
The narrator’s father died of alcoholism. On his deathbed he told his son to turned down the light, but there was no light in the room. They buried him in the tiny cemetery. As the narrator had been named after his father, he had to stare at the tombstone with his name.
Battle Fatigue
The narrator had many relatives who served in different wars, but mostly he was interested in the story of his grandfather, who served in the Second World War and was killed in action on Okinawa in 1945. His name was Adolph.
After the death of his father the narrator made a research to find whether there were men alive yet who served with his grandfather. There one was found – eighty-five years old Leonard Elmore.
Leonard remembered Adolph very good, but they never called him by this name, they called him Chief. He remembered the day of his death as well, Chief was killed in front of his eyes. He was taking two boys from the field of action and was shot in the back. He did not say anything when was dying, he died in silence.
Orphans
The narrator could not sleep as was afraid to die during the sleep. He did not want his sons to become orphans. The phone rang and his wife informed that in sexteen hours she would be home, he said only “thank you”.
Coffee-shop News
The narrator went to the hospital to get the results of the MRI test. It showed there was a tumor called meningioma in his head. In might be cancer. But to be sure another MRI test should be done in six months. The reason why the narrator was losing his hearing was not clear, and meningioma had nothing to do with it.
Meningioma
The narrator made a research concerning meningioma. In most the cases it is benign. But still it is dangerous as it makes pressure on the brain.
Drugstore Indian
Since no direct influence of the tumor on the narrator’s losing hearing was found, the doctor prescribed him the course of prednisone to cure the ear. He went to the pharmacist to get his medicine. He had to wait thirty minutes, so to kill some time he was wandering around the store. After his medicine was prepared he left for home.
Reunion
The narrator’s wife returned from Rome and he felt much easier when she was near. In six months another MRI test was conducted which showed that the tumor did nor grow, which meant it was benign. In another six months one more test was conducted, the result was the same so the doctor assumed it must have been only the scar from the former surgery. He said his brain was beautiful. The narrator felt really sorry he could not have told his father that a white man had called his brain beautiful, as his father as dead.
