Desta-4-Chapter-One

Desta was over the moon. He was in seventh grade in 1966, near the end of second semester, when he received the good news. His brother, Asse’ged, and his wife, Lulit, would move to Bahir Dar, a lakeside city in northern Ethiopia, to give Desta a secure home when he attended high school the following year, and continued to search for King Solomon’s Coin of Magic and Fortune.

Desta imagined his good fortune and life story as a newspaper headline: “Nomadic Shepherd Boy Gets Big Break!” If he lived in a media-rich country, people in the street would offer congratulatory handshakes, and his classmates would cheer for him.

Even if a reporter had approached him, Desta would have declined, preferring to keep the celebration close to his heart, which had endured so much and kept him going no matter the circumstances.

Having lived with many strangers and kinsfolk during his early schooling in four different towns, his big brother’s offer was not something Desta took lightly. He had long craved a secure, stable home with loving relatives. He’d often wished his family valued him enough to make such sacrifices on his behalf.

Knowing that his beloved brother and wife would uproot their lives and move to the city of Desta’s dreams made him buzz with joy. He felt like a desert traveler sighting an oasis. Desta counted the weeks and months until he sighted his own oasis of comfort.

Or so he thought.

Five days after Asse’ged’s good tidings, he fell ill, and the family was summoned home. He had rabies, a disease with no cure or mercy. Water is the disease’s nemesis, making Asse’ged react violently to the mere mention of it. He died of dehydration and heart failure within days. Desta was grief-stricken.

With the loss of his beloved brother, Desta’s hopes for a comfortable home in Bahir Dar vanished.

When it finally came time to pursue high school and the second coin, Desta had little choice but to move on, and once again seek out strangers to give him shelter for part-time work.

He walked a day and a half along unfamiliar trails and caravan roads. The guiding, protective image of the coin on his chest, inscribed by his grandfather’s spirit, and Desta’s sheer resolve were the engine that would propel him to the city of his desires.

Before nightfall, he spotted a house from the caravan road, where he could stay the night as yegzi-abhare ingida—a guest of God—common practice in a countryside without travelers’ inns. To Desta’s surprise, upon introducing himself, the young couple readily took him in. The next day, as Desta continued his journey, he wondered if he could offer himself in Bahir Dar as a guest of God and save his money. But he had never heard of townspeople’s accepting and giving shelter and food to strangers.

He had only the clothes on his back and barely enough money for school supplies and a month’s worth of food. In his travel satchel he carried his scroll, some of his writing things, and the book he was awarded at the completion of eighth grade.

He knew no one in the city and didn’t expect familiar faces at school. Most classmates in Finote Selam had gone on to study in Debre Marcos, the provincial capital, with the only other high school in the province. Yet this bleak, strange city by Lake Tana had drawn Desta like a moth to a flame.

New towns, with all of their sights and people to investigate, had fueled Desta’s wonder and excitement since he was little. He explored them as he might search for a gem in a field of rocks, turning over each until finding the prize. In Desta’s case, he had to seek out many people to find the one willing to give him room and board for part-time work.

That morning, Desta also considered something as he walked a countryside veiled with a patchwork of teff, barley, and corn fields: The unknown can be daunting and full of pitfalls. But is it worse than what I have already gone through?

He mulled over all the things he had faced since birth. He’d been two months premature. His family thought him a curse for asking too many questions they couldn’t answer. He overcame their neglect and abuse. He lived through crippling grief when his pet dog, Kooli, died, and sorrow for the departure of his beloved sister, Hibist, after she married.

Later, when he moved to town to attend modern school, he endured the death of an adoring aunt and uncle who had taken him in. He’d been forced to move on, living in two different towns, only with strangers. A succession of hosts had starved, evicted, and abandoned him, even treated him like a servant. And yet, Desta stayed true to his goals—earning an education and finding the Coin of Magic and Fortune.

That morning, as he walked, sometimes in the company of travelers with pack animals, Desta continued to think about life in Bahir Dar. Would it be so miserable that he’d quit school and return home, like in Dangila? Or would he be compelled to abandon school and work to support himself, as he nearly did in Debre Marcos a year ago? Desta would have to find the answers in Bahir Dar.

IT SEEMED THE STARS had aligned once Desta reached the city of his dreams. He had arrived early in the morning, registered at high school, and was returning to town when he ran into Kalyon Petrov, a Bulgarian physician he had met at Debre Marcos Hospital the year before. The doctor had just gotten to town to begin work at Bahir Dar’s hospital when Desta spotted him on the street.

After becoming reacquainted, they dined together that evening at a nearby restaurant. During their discourse, they discussed each other’s circumstances—Dr. Petrov, a single man in need of an assistant; Desta, a student seeking food and shelter for part-time work. It was a perfect fit, and they formed an alliance. Dr. Petrov paid for their dinner and they left. And to make it convenient for Desta the doctor offered space in his hotel room for the night. On their way to the hotel, they stopped at a general store, where the doctor purchased canned goods as well as pens and tablets for writing. Desta bought his school supplies.

That night Desta recited his forgiveness to those who had wronged him and gratitude to all who treated him kindly in the previous years. His effort to capture the moments and thoughts and feelings onto a notebook transmuted into a nickname he had adopted for himself: To Whom the Lions Bow. He put his writing things away. He covered his face and descended into another realm.