FreeLife
Forward
This story is set sixty years in the future, where the interface between technology and the human race is about to become invisible. This is a future where most forms of cancer are treatable due to new drugs that were developed by the pharmaceutical industry. Unfortunately this came with a price. A price many could not afford. In the end, what resulted was actually worse than what had occurred before the development of these drugs. The cancers that were not affected by these drugs became uniformly fatal. So much so, that when you were diagnosed with one of these types of cancers, it was an instant death sentence. Despite this, pharmaceutical companies made billions of dollars supposedly curing people of cancer. However, that was not the reality, but a myth perpetrated by both the pharmaceutical industry and the government. The fact is that there were two types of cancer at this point. Sixty-five percent of all cancer cases were of the first type and were instantly cured by these new drugs. The thirty-five percent of cases that remained were not only deadly, but also were increasing in number. This still meant that over 2,500 people in the US would die each day from cancer. This was a fact that the government and pharmaceutical industry did not want the populous to know about. This fact was known only by a select group of cancer scientist and oncologist. As a result of this the government panicked and ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to no longer fund basic cancer research, which was conducted at universities. Most of the money was funneled to scientists who worked for the various companies that had new ideas about curing cancer.
The cancer research done by university cancer researchers basically dried-up, leaving many highly skilled scientists without employment. These scientists began to lobby the congress to re-instate the funding for basic cancer research, but it fell on deaf ears because both houses of congress were controlled by the power of the pharmaceutical lobbyist. These lobbyists paid for political campaigns and made sure that the politicians, who controlled this funding, voted for the companies and against the universities. However, the government was sympathetic to these scientists and developed a new way for them to continue their research, but it too came with a price. So the brightest and the smartest scientist were recruited into at first small start-up laboratories (incubators), which were associated with major universities. Eventually, these laboratories would get brought-out by the large pharmaceutical houses, who would bid on them. As a result they would not only get the smartest scientists, but they would also get the projects they were working on. There was another person on this planet that thought this was wrong and would try to do something about it. His name was Alan Bennet. Alan and his sister Maggie happen to be two of the most intelligent people on the planet. This is their story. As far as cancer is concerned, this was the beginning of the end for this disease and for the first time in history the word “cancer” will be spoken of in the past tense.
Chapter One: Alan and Maggie.
It’s a crisp autumn day and Alan Bennet is in his second year at Harvard. He’s 18 years old and hanging around the homeless people at Harvard Square because that was the way he was brought-up. He grew-up in Swarthmore, PA and his parents attended a church that had homeless people stay for a month. These people, supposedly the dregs of society, needed help and the fortunate of this community wanted to help them. When Alan was 5-years old he volunteered to help. His role was minuscule and consisted of handing-out crackers, cookies, and drinks to people in line, but it was very important to him. The Bennet family was very well off. Alan’s Father was a world renowned Oncologist, who basically wrote the book on the new treatments for leukemia. He was white and his Mother was black and one of Philadelphia’s best defense lawyers. Alan was the smartest student in not only his high school, but also any of the high schools in the state of Pennsylvania. He sailed past all of the students and graduated at 16. He was the kind of person that, despite his intelligence, would hang out with the athletes, druggies, and people that were different from the rest. What he did not like were those people who had money and liked to flaunt it. He thought that this was the way these people made themselves think that they were important. Alan knew that they were just denigrating people who had less than them. He felt they did this just to give themselves the illusion that they were better than other people. Alan had mixed feelings about leaving high school early. He was leaving his friends, and to a certain extent his family, especially when Harvard wanted him to attend. His parents were very proud of his accomplishments in High School and his Dad whose name was Jacob, wanted Alan to be a physician. His Mom Louise, wanted the same, but also wanted Alan to find his own way. When Alan said he wanted to be a biochemist, his parents were kind of mystified because Maggie, his big sister, was well on her way to becoming a premiere chemist.
Yes, Alan was very smart, but his sister Maggie eclipsed him in intelligence and focus. She was two years older than him and, unlike Alan was allowed to attend Stanford at the age of 15. By the time Alan was in that second year at Harvard, Maggie was finishing-up her Bachelor’s degree in chemistry. At that point, she was on her way to Princeton to get her Ph.D. in synthetic biochemistry. They had a really good relationship, but Maggie was just a little more mature than Alan. When they were growing-up Maggie looked after Alan and kept the older kids from making fun of him in junior high, where of course he was a nerd of sorts. However, as they moved into Senior High School Alan, on more than one occasion, got into fights because of what the other guys were saying about his sister. Most of it had to do with sex. The fact was that Maggie was not only the most intelligent and attractive girl in school, but by the time she was in 9th grade she physically looked like she was a 22 year-old woman. Then she was only 15, but as mentioned, very mature and on her way to Stanford. The Junior High School counselors completely dropped the ball because Maggie should have been in twelfth grade at that point. If it weren’t for an educational specialist from Stanford, who noticed Maggie’s test results from an aptitude test the school posted on the Internet, Maggie would have been doomed to spend 3 more boring years in high school. In fact, Maggie was so smart that both her parents were shocked when she was speaking and reading the newspaper at the age of three. Jacob and Louise were two very intelligent people themselves, but for some time did not tell anyone about what Maggie could do. Maggie was beyond a child prodigy, but no one, not even her parents understood what she really was. However Maggie, had it all figured out.
Alan was smart, but when he was at Harvard some of the chemistry classes were tough. He was having a few problems with physical chemistry. He talked to the professors and the TA’s, but there were certain aspects that were not related to chemistry per se, but physics that he had a hard time with. After awhile he relented and gave his sister a call at Princeton. As soon as Maggie picked-up the phone she said,
“Hi, Alan.”
“Hey Sis, why do you keep doing that?” She was waiting that minute for the call because she anticipated that Alan would have this spatial problem. She knew, from when they were in High School, that Alan had problems seeing in 3 dimensions. She got him through all that because Maggie herself at 16, during a Stanford class in physics, had to figure out how to see in 5 dimensions. Of course, she said none of this to Alan. Anyway Alan said to her,
“I’m having this problem with neutrinos. Some of the electron densities of these compounds dictate a certain concentration of neutrino emissions when they are smashed, but I just can’t figure it out and I keep getting the wrong answer.” Maggie started laughing and Alan said,
“Stop laughing Sis.” Maggie immediately stopped laughing and said,
“Alan, please don’t call me Sis again. I hate it. Ok?”
“Alright no problem, but I still need your help.”
So Maggie proceeded to inform Alan of his slight oversight in his mass calculations. Alan took a deep breath and said,
“O’ right I forgot about that. Anyway what’s up with you down there?” Maggie told Alan that she met this Professor at school she liked and that she really liked him a lot.
“Maggie, don’t do anything stupid this time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Now you’re pissing me off. I want to meet him.”
“For what Alan?”
“Did you tell Mom and Dad about him?”
“No.” Alan laughed and said,
“That’s why.” Maggie got really upset and said,
“What are you my guardian or what?”
“No, but you know how you get. All googly-eyed and stuff, then you can’t think straight.”
“Yea, well come on down and when you get here, I’m gonna kick your ass.” Well, that’s all Alan had to hear and said,
“Ok, today is Wednesday, so I’ll be at the station at about noon tomorrow. If you want to kick my ass be there, otherwise I’ll be knocking on your door at one, bye.”
This was a typical interaction between these two. Despite all of this, they loved each other very much. Most people would think that for two siblings with such intelligence that they would be competitive, but the opposite was true. They helped each other every chance they had. It was like they were twins, but they weren’t. Actually they were quite different. Alan really like pets and was a cat person, but Maggie didn’t have patience for them. Alan liked alternative rock and Maggie, classical music. As mentioned before, Alan had a soft spot for the homeless and disenfranchised, where Maggie was quite indifferent on the subject. Since their parents were of different races, their appearance was different. Alan had features of a light-skinned black man, but he could pass for a white man. However, Maggie looked like this amazingly beautiful white woman, who basically was a man-magnet. She preferred black men, but most of the attention she got was from white men. Politically, Alan and Maggie were like night and day. Alan was a sincere liberal Democrat and Maggie was a card-carrying Republican. Alan smoked cigarettes, drank vintage red wines, and single malt scotch. Maggie did none of this and constantly chastised Alan about his habits. She was relentless with her criticisms, but Alan just basically ignored her. Alan knew Maggie had his best interest at heart, but because of their sibling bond and their similar intelligence, Alan seemed at times to surrender to her request for him to stop his degenerate lifestyle. In the end they actually both completely understood each other and would go to the ends of the earth to render assistance. They needed this type of bond because the events that were to follow after this moment in time would demand it.
Alan eventually made his way to Princeton and Maggie, anticipating his arrival not only did not kick his ass, but also arranged for this professor, named Norman, to be at her place when Alan got there precisely at 1PM on the designated day. Alan nor Norman had no idea that Maggie made this arrangement, but as soon as Alan saw Norman sitting at the bay window nook he shook his head because he knew that Maggie had basically manipulated him. Maggie was very good at manipulation with not only Alan, but everyone else she came in contact with. However, she seldom needed to do it. The fact of the matter was that Maggie’s intelligence was so great that she did have a sixth-sense, which allowed her to see into the future. However, she really didn’t know this until later, but used it to let us say, “Tilt the odds”. Alan really thought that they would get into this major conflict, but again when he saw this forty-something professor there, all the steam was let out of his sails. Maggie says,
“Alan this is Norman.”
“Pleased to meet you, Norman.”
“Maggie’s told me a lot about you”, but Alan knew Maggie only told him what he wanted to hear. The two men sat together at first awkwardly, but Alan realized that Norman was a brilliant nuclear physicist and he was somewhat impressed so Alan asked,
“So Norman where do you come from?”
“I’m originally from Chicago, but my father, who was a stockbroker, moved us to New York in the 90’s and that’s where I grew-up.” Norman asked questions about his chemistry major and then said,
“Is there some reason you and you’re sister are both chemist?”
“Well I think we both had this fascination with how chemicals interacted because it’s the basis of life.” Alan continued to go into detail about how he and Maggie would challenge each other chemically to see who would come-up with the correct answer first. Of course this involved authentication by college chemist their parents had found for them to ask questions of during this process. At this point Maggie was very proud of the way Alan was handling the situation and was beaming during this part of their conversation. As for Norman, he was sitting there listening to this 18-year old tell him things that a person 2 times Alan’s age would just begin to understand.
This conversation between the two of them continued when Alan said,
“So do you have any children?” Norman quickly glanced at Maggie and said,
“As a matter of fact, yes I do. I have two boys ages 12 and 15.”
“O’ really, where do they go to school?
“Here in the area.” Alan quickly said, without even acknowledging Maggie’s presence,
“So that sounds like a full-time job?”
“You got that right.” At this point Maggie was bringing them some coffee and said to Alan,
“Al (which he hated being called), I know it’s early in the day.” Alan was smiling because he knew this was a distraction.
“I was in the liquor store the other day and I found this bottle of Glen Ellen single malt scotch, but the thing about it was that it was covered with a thick layer of dust. I thought of you and figured you’d want to try some.” Alan smiled and said,
“Sure Sis.” She knew Alan was pissed off because of way he addressed her.
“That sounds great. Norman, how about you, would you like a shot?”
“What the hell, sure I’m a scotch man also.” Maggie could see the wheels spinning in Alan’s head, but Alan kept his cool. Their conversation took a slight turn when Maggie was trying to explain how she was going about synthesizing this compound that would basically neutralize petroleum. It would turn the oil into carbon dioxide and pure carbon and basic carbon compound could be used for other purposes. Norman again was amazed at the level of intelligence that both of them had, especially as a team. He was lost after the first couple of sentences. Alan and Norman seemed to be getting along pretty well, but Maggie knew she would get an ear-full from Alan after this was all over. Eventually she could see that Alan relaxed and for the moment resigned himself to the situation. The two of them got a bit tipsy and Alan actually left with Norman because he wanted to get back to Boston to feed his two cats Albert and Betty. Norman also had to leave because he had some exams he wanted to grade. That left Maggie alone with her thoughts of the encounter and realized, without even talking to Alan afterwards, that this thing with Norman was probably a bad idea. Alan, on his way back on the train, was really fighting the urge to call Maggie, but he knew exactly what she was thinking about and decided to let her handle it.
While Alan was on the train he was thinking of his girlfriend Tara. They met at Harvard Square at a homeless shelter. As a matter of fact when they both saw each other they thought each was a homeless person. Tara was dressed in this awful garb and her hair was all over the place. Alan was dressed a little better, but had this “lost boy” look about him, except for his eyes. After all Alan was 18-years old, but the kind of 18 year-older you did not want to patronize, as Tara quickly found out. Both, thinking the same thing about each other and this instant attraction, caused quite a memorable first meeting. Despite the fact that Alan was generally shy he decided to say something to the poor homeless girl. So Alan walked up to her and said,
“Are you from Boston or did you come here from another shelter?” Tara looked at him still thinking that he was this homeless kid and said,
“No, actually I’m from Pittsburg.”
“Well how did you manage to wind-up in this shelter? Now Tara was actually beginning to laugh and said something she thought Alan wouldn’t understand,
“Biochemistry.” Alan had this feeling of being confused and excited at the same time and said,
“Cell, bacterial, viral, or fungal?” Tara now had this serious look on her face, as though she was feeling something wasn’t quite right, but wanted to challenge this kid and said,
“Well mostly viral, but lately I’ve been studying cellular translational biochemistry and found it fascinating.” Alan then said,
“Hum, I would have pegged you for a fungal biochemist?” They both laughed, but Tara was unnerved.
“How do you know all of that?” Alan looked around, reached up, moved her hair from her ear, and whispered,
“Second-year chemist at Harvard.” Tara’s beautiful eyebrows elevated. Then she put her hand on Alan’s shoulder and whispered in his ear,
“Second-year biochemistry grad student at Harvard.” Both of them were laughing, but Tara still did not understand how such a young kid could be in his second year of college. However, it would not take too long before she figured that one out.
Tara was your average 22-year old graduate student at Harvard. She was very bright and very resourceful. She was really impressed with this young kid and wanted to find out everything she could about him. Tara had this gift. She was very persuasive not only with men, who found her irresistible, but also with women as well because they found her sisterly in some respects. Tara found her way to the undergrad chemistry department and started a conversation with the secretary there. Of course they started talking about men because the secretary named Jan, who had seen Tara on campus, was about a year older that Tara. Tara said to Jan,
“You know Jan, a couple of days ago I met this young man at a homeless shelter and thought he was homeless until he told me he was a second year chemistry major…” Jan cut her off and said,
“Are you talking about that cutie, Alan Bennet?” Tara smiled and said,
“Yea, I guess that’s him. This guy looks like he’s 15, but has these deep penetrating eyes, and there is something about him that makes him seem like he’s 35 when he talks to you he has this warmth.”
“Yep, that’s Alan.” So of course Jan, who was not supposed to give out information about students, gave Tara everything. Where he came from, who his parents were, and the fact he had a sister, but more importantly where Alan lived on campus. Not so surprising, Alan did the same thing with Tara, but over the Internet. This was one of Alan’s gifts. He could find practically anything he wanted on the net. He knew how to temporarily fool most of the websites into thinking he was a paying customer and basically gathered any information he wanted. He knew Tara’s last name (Simpson) and knew she was from Pittsburg, PA. He was able to get everything about Tara, right down to her campus address (10 Akron Street) and a little more, which had to do with her arrest record. This record was benign for the most part, which included underage drinking, and an arrest at a demonstration for believe it or not, homeless people in her hometown.
Meanwhile back to Maggie and Norman. Norman, who was married, as Alan suspected and knew from their conversation, actually was really a good man, but in no position to be with Maggie. They had met at a faculty dinner given by Princeton’s chemistry department. When they met naturally Norman was impressed by Maggie’s intelligence, but very cautious because of her apparent youth and stunning beauty. One thing led to the next and eventually Norman asked Maggie out on a date. She accepted and found that Norman was very forthcoming about his marriage and the fact that he had two boys. Despite that fact they got along very well and had been out together quite a few times prior to him meeting Alan. They were at that point in their relationship where sex was about to enter into things. Maggie was reluctant to even think about it because it was something that had gotten her in trouble before when she was involved with someone who became obsessed with her. As Maggie’s relationship with Norman entered that phase, this time she needed some help. Not help with the relationship, but help to think about it right. Enter Alan, who always looked out for Maggie and really was non-judgmental, but for some reason was able to see some things she could not, despite the fact that as mentioned before, she could actually see into the future which didn’t help her with men.
In the mean time, Tara made sure she was in the neighborhood of Alan’s apartment, which was on Hancock Street. She noticed that there was this diner less than a block away and figured Alan would come walking by, see her, and start-up a conversation. She definitely did not want to go to any of the buildings or places Alan frequented because she thought that if she did that it would look like she was stalking him, which she was in reality. Anyway, after day 10 at the diner she was really upset that her plan hadn’t worked. She left and was walking up the street and she heard this voice,
“Hey Tara.” Tara turned around and saw Alan approaching her. She had these butterflies in her stomach and they were moving around so much she felt nauseous and wanted to throw-up, but she ran the simulation in her mind and dealt with the stomach acid burning her throat, but she managed to say,
“Hey Alan what are you doing around here?”
“I have a P-chem. mid-term exam tomorrow morning and I thought I’d get some coffee at the diner.”
“That sounds like fun.”
“Which part the coffee or the exam?”
“The exam, silly.”
“Yea, it will be a lot of fun because I have this spatial problem. I can barely see in 3 dimensions, but I have to see in at least 4 or 5 to ace this thing.”
“What?”
“It’s complicated; I’ll tell you about it later. So what are you doing tomorrow?”
“Not much. I have an experiment to finish in the morning and some data I have to reduce, but I should be done by 2.”
“Can I call you at 3?”
“Yea, no problem”, and she walked away as Alan stood there watching her rear end move methodically down the street. The fact of the matter was that Tara was planning to spend the entire day in the lab and was to forget about running into Alan. However, life has this way of rearranging our schedules and Tara really wanted this rearrangement. Besides she planed all of this anyway. Unbeknownst to her, Alan was observing Tara, as she would sit in the dinner. This place he visited frequently until he saw this woman, who would eventually be the love of his life waiting there for him.
Alan of course did very well with his exam and there was a multi-dimensional question that he thought he answered with elegance. He felt really good about the outcome of the exam. He felt so good that he called Tara at 1 o’clock in the afternoon. She was in the lab and after she realized that it was Alan she said,
“How’d it go, did you ace it.”
“I think so. I was thinking we should have dinner together to celebrate.”
“Great, where do you want to meet?”
“What about my place on Hancock. I feel like cooking tonight for someone special.” Tara was taken aback and said,
“Well, aren’t we in a celebratory mood.”
“You got that right.” So Alan gave her the address, time, and asked her if she liked vintage red wine.
“Absolutely, but I have to warn you I’ll get a little silly.” Alan laughed and said,
“Would you prefer Merlot, Burgundy, or Sauvignon?”
“I’m a Merlot girl.” Alan laughed again and said,
“Good choice.” Then he told her to get a cab that he would pay for. Tara was trying her best to not appear so eager, but she was, and then said,
“Alright Alan, I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
“Tara if you don’t want to come it’s alright.”
“No I’m fine. I’ll see you then” and hung-up right away feeling flushed.
Maggie now had this difficult task of telling Norman, who she really liked that their relationship had to end. So that weekend after Alan had come over Maggie invited Norman to come over. It was during the day because Norman had to tell his wife he had to go into the office to get some exams graded for Monday’s class. When Maggie invited Norman over he thought,
“Now is the time that we have sex?” That’s all he thought about because as I had mentioned before Maggie was stunningly beautiful and for a 42 year-old man quite irresistible. He was to show-up at Maggie’s place at 1 o’clock on that Saturday, but of course he showed-up at 12:45 with flowers in hand and hoping that Alan gave her the green light to continue the relationship. He thought that he and Alan actually got along pretty well and figured that Alan wanted Maggie to be protected by an older man who would respect her. For the reasons I mentioned before, about the psychic abilities she had and did not know about, Maggie knew what was about to happen. Without knowing it, she did two things. She dressed in the worse cloths she had in her apartment and did absolutely no housework, which for Maggie was completely out of character. She saw herself doing these things, but it was like walking outside of your apartment without having any knowledge of the weather, then walking into a snow storm or rain downpour, but you just kept going because you had somewhere you had to be. Norman rang the bell and Maggie buzzed him in. At first Norman did not notice her shabby attire and unkempt apartment. He gave her the flowers and Maggie, instead of finding a vase to put them in, just laid them on one of the end tables. Norman gave her a big huge and realized that she was a bit cold. It barely registered because as far as he was concerned, he was there to make love to her. He gave her a kiss, with the same cold result and apparently the same ignorance by Norman. Norman was very upbeat, asking Maggie if she heard from Alan. He continued on about how he thought he and Alan had gotten along. At this point Maggie felt herself become nauseated to the point where she wanted to throw-up, but she didn’t, and Norman continued asking her if she had talked to Alan then Maggie said,
“No, not since he was here Wednesday, but why do you ask?”
“I realize you two are close and I was hoping he approved of me.”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but you guys seemed to hit it off really well.”
“Yea, we did and he’s a cool kid.” In Maggie’s mind, a bomb went off. She was saying to herself,
“Alan is no kid and he’s twice as mature as you, asshole.” That was pretty much it for her because both of them had spent their lives having people not understand them, and for this guy to call Alan a kid was something she could not stand for. The amazing thing as she was thinking this Norman was putting his arm around her trying to kiss her neck and Maggie said,
“Norman stop. I don’t know what you think your doing, but I can’t do this anymore.” Norman looked at her funny and said,
“You don’t want to have sex?” Maggie trying her best to not laugh or hit him then she said,
“Not really. I asked you over to talk about us ending this thing or whatever it is? I’d like to ask you if we could be just friends instead.” Norman, after a really long time and realizing that he only had one option open to him, said,
“Sure, its ok I’d rather know you than just walk away and forget you because we did become friends at first and that’s really important to me.” Maggie shook her head in amazement because she thought Norman would become unruly, but he didn’t and that was a surprise. Because of what he had just said Maggie looked up and said,
“Norman, you know you’re full of surprises. What you just said made me feel really great. Then she put her arms around Norman and gave him a full kiss, put her breast on him and took her hand and messaged his private part. Afterwards, Norman got up and said I have to go to the bathroom. Maggie knew what that meant, but still she had another level of respect for the nuclear physicist professor.
A day before all this happened Alan was preparing for this dinner with Tara. He figured he would cook something healthy and decided to stir-fry some chicken and vegetables. So after the exam was over Alan decided to go to the supermarket that was off of Hancock Street, get what he needed including the Merlot, and give Tara a call an hour before they were to meet at 3PM. Now, the strange thing was that just before Alan met Tara at the homeless shelter on Harvard Square he was reading this journal article about this immune cell called an NK cell that basically was essential to the proper function of the immune system. The interesting part was the fact that this cell basically kept us alive by not changing, but simply reacting. The cell’s function had to do with intercellular pathways the cell was programmed with when it was born. When Tara mentioned an interest in translational biology (which this was) he was amazed. Alan was fascinated by chemistry, but the biochemistry involved with cells that protected us from viral, bacterial, and cancer threats seemed to be an irresistible force he could not ignore. All of this was going through his mind as he picked out broccoli, onions, snow peas, carrots, water chestnuts, celery, mushrooms and the various spices he needed to make this a special Chinese stir-fry delight. Then there was the chicken. He saw the chicken breast they had at the supermarket and decided to go to the local meat market two doors down from his apartment. He had been there before and the owners, a Polish couple, knew him. As soon as he walked in Kristina said,
“Alan, long-time no see babushka, you have a date, yes?” Alan’s slightly brown skin turned red and Kristina was very happy because she knew all about Alan. She knew that he was this vastly intelligent kid or wunderkind, but also knew these types of kids were very innocent and needed a friend from time to time. Alan smiled and said,
“Kristina, how do you know all of this?”
“Well, my little munchkin, I just know these things and I am here to help you out.” Alan couldn’t stop laughing because this big-boned, quite attractive Polish woman, who had some 6th sense he didn’t understand, just figured out what he was doing. He gathered his wits together and said,
“Kristina, I need some fresh chicken breast because as you said, I want to cook for a special guest.” Kristina said,
“No problem my babushka, she will love the taste of this succulent chicken.”
Kristina pulled out this whole chicken, a meat-cleaver, and went to work.
“Alan, are you going to just stand there or tell me about your sweetheart?” Alan snapped to it and said,
“Sorry Kristina. I just had a chemistry exam this morning and I’m a little burnt out.” Kristina said as she was letting the clever do its work,
“A little burnt out? That doesn’t sound like the Alan I know?” He had to laugh at that and said,
“Kristina, I’ll suck it up and cook the best stir-fry I’ve ever cooked for a woman.”
“And does that woman have a name?” Alan shook his head and said,
“Yes it’s Tara. Kristina got really excited and said,
“Babushka, that’s little Tara with the sweet smile?” Alan’s eyes got really big and said,
“Yes, with the brown hair and green eyes.” Kristina’s eyes narrowed and said,
“Yes that’s her and many a young man has tried to get her eye. It figures that it would be you Alan. You both care about the little people. Those men who perused her could care less about the unfortunates, but as for you and Tara, it’s apart of you’re lives.” Alan was saying in his mind,
“How can she know all of this?” She knew it and Alan paid attention to this wise Polish woman. They went on for some time about Kristina’s interactions with Tara. This whole thing seemed like destiny, but Alan being a scientist could not wrap his mind around it. It would be something that would haunt him for almost the rest of his life. Kristina finally had cleaved the chicken breast for Alan and he paid her and said, while shaking his head,
“I’ll let you know how things worked out tonight.” Kristina looked at him with one eye and said,
“Do your best because she’s a keeper.”
“Thanks”, and made a beeline out of there knowing that he just experienced some of his future, but again did not want to face it.
After Norman left Maggie was exhausted. She didn’t know why, but she suspected that it had to do with the fact that she was preparing herself for a struggle breaking off the relationship. That did not happen and still she was quite tiered. It was Saturday about 5PM when Norman left and she said to her self,
“I should be out partying with the rest of the students. Why am I sitting here felling sorry for myself.” Fatigue got the best of her so she decided to take a nap. That nap ended-up lasting until Sunday morning at 10AM. Maggie woke-up sweating and could hear the Mexican neighbors next door. She was kind of surprised she slept so long and sat-up on the edge of the bed. She had these memories of dreams she had during the night, but they were vague and kind of disjointed. Maggie shook the cobwebs from her head and said,
“What the hell was that all about?” She was getting-up to go to the bathroom when her cell phone rang. She was saying to herself as she was going to the living room to find the dam thing,
“Who the hell is this?” After the first step she realized, without answering the phone, that it was Alan. She then said to herself,
“Dam it, figures you’d call me when I had to take a pee.” She picked the phone up without looking at the called ID, answered and said,
“Alan, I have to pee.”
“So what.” Maggie picked up the phone, was in the bathroom peeing and said,
“Well what a pleasure it is to talk to my one and only brother while I’m peeing my ass-off.” Alan burst out laughing, but Maggie was very serious as usual.
“Maggie (he did not bother with the Sis) you alright?”
“Yea, I’m fine, but I’m running out of toilet paper.” As soon as Alan heard that he was mortified because he knew that was not her style.
“Maggie, alright you’re scaring me.” There was a long silence, obviously she was wiping herself of with the little toilet paper she had. Alan heard her flush the toilet, wash her hands and pick-up the phone to say,
“Alan, yesterday I broke-up with Norman.” Alan was very silent and had no response.
“I guess your happy now?” Alan actually put the phone down on the table because he was feeling this sadness not for her, but because she was feeling the same thing at that moment. They’ve always had this emotional link that allowed each of them to feel the other’s emotions.
Alan picked-up the phone, took a deep breath and said,
“Maggie look, I came by and you know what I saw. I wanted to call you and ream you out about what you were doing, but at some point I said to myself, she’ll figure it out. The strange thing is that I didn’t think you would do it so fast.
“Fuck you Alan.”
“Mag (which she loved being called), look I resisted calling you after my visit. The reason was because I liked him, but you knew why I had a problem.”
“Yea’ I know. Thanks for not reaming me out about it.”
“All apart of our friendly sibling service, thank you very much.” Maggie started laughing and said,
“Well you didn’t call me to gloat over my misfortune did you? It’s about a girl isn’t it?” Alan did not know what to say because he was calling her about the two days he spent with Tara and all of a sudden he was confronted with this apparent depression his sister was going through. What he wasn’t really surprised about the fact that she knew he had something special to say to her.
“Alan, did you hear me?”
“Yea, no problem”, but he just couldn’t figure out how she knew he was calling her to talk about Tara.”
“So what’s her name?”
“Tara.”
“She’s going to Harvard right?”
“Yes.” At this point, Maggie was livid about Alan’s short answers and said,
“You know what, Alan?”
“What.”
“You’re pissing me off and I think now it’s my turn to do a field-trip”, and then hung-up. Alan was mortified at the thought of Maggie coming to Harvard because the last time she was up there she seriously pissed off one of Alan’s chemistry professors because she thought Alan should have gotten an A+ instead of a B+ in organic chemistry lab.
Tara did her undergraduate at the University of Pittsburg and worked very hard to graduate at the top of her class. When she got into this Biochemistry program at Harvard it was like everything she worked for had finally come to fruition. She was very serious about Grad School, but Alan had another take on the situation with him and the chemistry department. He was flippant with a lot of the Professors because he basically knew more than they did, but Maggie was the real trouble. As mentioned before, Maggie flew in from Stanford and basically cursed out one of Alan’s Professors because his synthesis of this brand-new compound should have gotten Alan an A+. The Professor in question was taken aback and Alan did not even know anything about this tirade until he talked to Jan. Alan was asking her to pull-up his grades from that semesters exams and Jan says,
“Boy your sister is quite a dynamo; she had Professor Green eating out of her hand.
“What.”
“Your sister was here yesterday and reamed-out Green for giving you a B+ in chem. lab. You didn’t know that?”
“Well I’ll be dammed.” He knew she would be still in the area waiting for him to find her. Alan walked away and said to Jan,
“Thanks, I had no idea.” Jan grimaced and said,
“Opps.” Alan found Maggie in one of Harvard’s premier Hotels. Since Alan could find anything he wanted on-line, he decided to just go up to her room and knock on the door. He knocked and the response was,
“Alan, just come in why don’t you?”
“Yea, I wish you would stop doing that.” She opened the door and took a couple of steps back, but when she looked in Alan’s eyes she could see he was not particularly mad. Alan sat down, looked out the window and said,
“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming to Boston?”
“O’ right, I’m coming to curse out one of your professors and I’m gonna tell you?”
“Good point.” The fact of the matter is that they had not seen each other in a very long time and Alan was basically glad to see his big sister and gave her a big hug.
Maggie sat down and did what she usually does after a long separation, which is get a glass and pour Alan some scotch. Maggie went on to tell Alan how much fun it was for her to wrangle with this professor. She actually had good things to say about him except the part where he was too ridged in his approach. Maggie actually did something Alan had never seen before and took a swig of scotch from his glass and said,
“I told him that the process you used to extract the compound was developed at Dartmouth while he was a student there. This is where Professor Green became unglued.” Alan was having the time of his life sitting there with his sister because he thought this whole thing was so funny. Not particularly what she said, but the expression on her face when she said it. As a matter of fact while she was saying it, Alan had a full mouthful of scotch and had to spit it out when she got to the punch line. Maggie laughed hysterically at the sight of this, but Alan knew Maggie had a good time on her first fieldtrip to Harvard. Alan said,
“Alright, I figured we get something to eat, check out a few bars (Maggie shook her head yes) and tomorrow I give you the grand tour of the campus.” They actually ate dinner at one of the restaurants in the hotel Maggie was staying in. Of course it was a Four Seasons Hotel so they had their pick of places to eat. During dinner Maggie said,
“How are you adjusting to college life?”
“Not bad, but as you know I have a little sleep problem.” Maggie laughed and said,
“Yea, but you never slept that much anyway.”
“I guess I’m talking about the weekends too.”
“Really?”
“I’m volunteering down at the homeless shelter at Harvard Square on the weekends and one day a week.”
“Alan you have to think about your self sometimes, you can’t keep doing this.” Alan knew Maggie would not understand and basically changed the subject and said,
“How’s the weather out there.”
“Absolutely fabulous, but it’s like that every single day.”
Now back to the present. Alan’s just putting down the vidphone after Maggie disconnected and starts to realize he needs to prepare Tara to meet Maggie. The reason for this is that Alan knows Maggie can be quite unintentionally intimidating not only because she stunningly beautiful, but also incredibly smart. He told Tara a few things about Maggie, but definitely not enough for a face-to-face meeting. The next thing Alan did was get right on the phone.
This is just the first chapter, which introduces you to Alan and Maggie. Now that you "kind of" know them, what follows are a series of events that lead to an inevitable conclusion. The ending of this story is the beginning of a cancer-free world, devoid of the death and suffering caused by this disease for a millennium. The full text can be found at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006YVYRRG/ref=yml_dp.
