You will find short stories on this site. Most are autobiographical. Some are fiction.

ARROGANCE

This is a story about the arrogance of an individual and its consequence.

While teaching at King Faisal University (KFU) in Saudi Arabia, I had the opportunity to work with several British faculty members. Being aware of the stereotype that Brits have a high opinion of themselves, I was more sensitive to hints of such behavior among my British colleagues. Brits who have persevered through a childhood in their educational system, passed the onerous A-level tests, and most significantly managed to gain entry to and graduation from their strenuous university system, deserve to have an elevated opinion of themselves, and yet of the four Brits, none exhibited arrogance. Professor B was different. He didn’t engage with other faculty. He never took lunch with the rest of us in the cafeteria. Though he and I taught in the same small college I never felt that I knew him. Those who did know him, alluded to him as arrogant.

While teaching in Saudi Arabia, I quickly became aware that an arrogant foreigner would not be a good fit for teaching in a developing country such as Saudi Arabia in the 1980s. But Professor B had managed to stay on the faculty there for several years.

He happened to live in the same compound where my family and I lived for our last two years in the kingdom. This compound, was called “Green Meadows”. It was outside of the small town of Al-Khobar in the desert, a barren landscape of parched low brush and sand.

One of the risks of living in Saudi Arabia, or any of the desert countries on our planet, is being bitten by a female phlebotomine sand fly that had bitten another animal infected with Leishmaniasis. Leishmaniasis is a potentially fatal protozoan infection which attacks the mucosal membranes, internal organs and, in rare cases, the brains of infected individuals. There are many mammals which can act as a vector for Leishmaniasis, dogs are the most common. I have, on two occasions, seen packs of feral dogs, looking like wolves, in the desert near Al-Khobar.

Professor B liked to sleep with his screened bedroom window open. Perhaps Professor B was unaware that sand-flys are tiny, about half the size of a mosquito. Window screens are only partially effective in excluding them. Upon waking one morning in the spring of 1987 he found a string of five insect bites on his chest just above his night shirt. When these seemed to become infected he went to the KFU infirmary where where he asked if they could be sand-fly bites and the possibility of contracting leishmaniasis. The doctor explained “It is it easy to distinguished sand-fly bites from mosquito bites because the fly doesn’t have a proboscis to penetrate the skin, instead they nibble away a tiny patch of skin and lap up the blood which pools in the wound. There is a remote chance that the fly which bit you was infected, but it is best to undergo our standard treatment for sand fly bites, it is a simple treatment which is effective in preventing a Leishmania infection. The procedure is to apply dry ice to each of the bite sites. This freezes and kills the eggs of the protozoan and the tissue immediately surrounding the site. This treatment results in a small boil at each of the sites. These boils heal in a week or two.”

Professor B declined this treatment, explaining “This sounds primitive to me. I am going to be in London in six weeks and will seek treatment there. Our British doctors have extensive experience with diseases of the desert having been in This part of the world for over a century.”

Professor B stayed on in the kingdom until summer break. During this time bites continued to fester. When he returned to London and eventually was able to see a British doctor, he was surprised that the young doctor had no experience with leishmaniasis. The doctor looked up the treatment for what had developed into the full blown case, and found it to be an intravenous infusions of pentavalent antinomies, a toxic medication intended to kill the protozoans with out also killing the patient. The most dangerous side effect is cardiotoxicity and arrhythmias, it is also known to cause toxic damage to the liver and pancreas.

When, in the fall of 1988, I returned to take up my position on the faculty of KFU, I learned that Professor B was too ill to be returning that fall. We were not told whether his prolonged illness was the effect of leishmaniasis or the toxicity of the treatment he was undergoing. Later that fall, we learned that he had died.

END