Dr. Zachary Klein

Two women. Two loves. Two deaths.

I’m a Jew. And an atheist. Where does that leave me? Whom do I dump my sorrow on? Whom do I blame?

Doctors are supposed to be healers. That’s medical school lie number one. What we are, are dispensers of hokum churned out by pharmaceutical companies for the benefit of stockholders. Sometimes we ease pain. More often than not, though, we dispense a pill or pump a vein full of morphine. Unfortunately, the pain and illness still wreak havoc. All we’ve done is rendered the poor sick bastard incapable of caring.

Sure, sometimes we get lucky. But if death insists on its due, we’re simply handmaidens.

No, I didn’t cause Katrina’s death. But I sure was impotent in the face of disease.

And sweet Murmur Lee? I was impotent all right, in ways great and small.