Izzy's 2nd tests
It was close to midnight now, Austin was already back in his bed nodding off in between texts with Mia trying hard to stay awake, neither relenting, nor wanting to, to the drowsiness of a weeknight’s power.
The weekend had its own opposite power, repelling sleep and cares and good decisions, putting everything off until Sunday evening or even better Monday morning. This wasn’t the weekend, however, this was a Thursday night, a weekend-eve if you will, and there were still classes and tasks and jobs looming on the horizon, pulling them towards slumber.
Izzy, however, was already standing in the midst of the horizon wholeheartedly pursuing these tasks. Halfway through the thirteen tests, a few different than from before since the boy’s blood type had in fact been O- instead of AB+, but still seeing all positive results.
She was dumbfounded, she was sure that the mix up was the clear cause of the unanimous positive results earlier this evening. Not only had these samples passed with flying colors on tests that weren’t even meant for his type, which she would have most certainly bet another paycheck against, here they were doing the same on the type specific ones as well.
A thought occurred to her that she could run this blood through the gambit of every single test the lab had in its possession and it would still have the same result, positive. Then another thought battled this one back inside her brain.
Whoa Nelly, you’re barely half way through this round, still seven more to go, let’s not get our hopes up just yet.
Just over an hour later, however, her hopes were up. Impossibly high up in fact. Test after test, the results were all the same as before, all conclusively positive. Her hands were buzzing with nervous excitement, nails chattering against the phone like her teeth on that fall night skinny dipping in the pacific with her asshole of an ex-boyfriend, as she forced her fumbling fingers to call the Good Doctor.
Even now as she listened to ring after ring, unbearably impatient with great news, she grew pissed at the thought of herself thinking of her ex. Maybe long distance didn’t work twenty years ago, in the time of dial up modems, regular definition television, which was basically a world in black and white if you thought about it, and no texting, never mind sexting.
In today’s world though you had whatever face you wanted to see, right at the touch of a button thanks to Facetime, Skype, and a hundred other apps just like it. So when you got right down to the meat of it, that meant that son of a bitch didn’t want to push a button and see her face is all.
Beso mi culo, hijo de puta!
Just as she thought this, thinking the voice-mail was about to kick on, the doctor answered her phone, groggily, “This better be good, Iz!”
The thoughts of her ex diminished rapidly, “Oh it’s better than good Dr. Greer, I’m pretty sure its friggin’ fantastic.”
The Doctor is Human After All
It had been nearly two months since Catherine Greer received that midnight call from one of her newly hired lab techs. If her family thought all she did was work before, these last fifty nine days would prove otherwise. The lab was no longer just a lab, it had become her living room. Her office turned into the bedroom, the microscope became her television, the blood cells her favorite show.
Not that it mattered really, her life had always been about work, especially for the last fifteen years give or take. So the last two months came as no surprise. Well that’s not entirely true, it had been a huge surprise. Catherine had been trying to decipher a cure for Breast Cancer for the better part of two decades, in one facet or another. Recently using this K Prize Foundation as a springboard to help her achieve that goal.
The search for this cure began to infect her life slowly at first. In the early days it was just a couple of late nights a week, a working weekend once a month here and there. Her husband understood, even felt she needed it in some ways, but that was at the beginning. She didn’t realize at the time that it was happening. There was no Dear John letter or forced family intervention to make her see the light.
Eventually her need to find the cure, in whatever form it was hiding in, enveloped every aspect of her life. Making time for her family, or what was left of it, had become the exception instead of the rule. Not long after that she lost hold of any semblance of a normal life entirely.
She didn’t see herself as a failure, even though she felt she came close to it over the last fifteen years. She used a quote given by Thomas Edison from when he was creating the bulb to continually tell herself (at first weekly, now twice sometimes thrice a day) I haven’t failed at finding the cure, I have just found 3,275 ways not to cure Cancer.
It wasn’t until last week as a matter of fact that she had really pondered how obsessed she had been with this search. The new techs she had hired, were talking about some show, while she was pouring her fifth cup of coffee for the day. When she had turned to them to ask about what show they were talking about, at first they looked absolutely stunned.
For one it probably had been the first time she had said anything to them that didn’t involve giving orders, but then they were shocked to find out that she had never heard of this “Walking Dead” before. They looked at her like she was an alien being, and started to describe to her what it was about.
Apparently the sixth season premiere was the night before and everyone in the world seemed to be talking about it. Could she really have been so secluded in her daily life to not even have an iota of a memory of what the rest of the Western world seemed to be engulfed by?
It had all but consumed her thoughts the next week that passed, not of just a mere TV show, but how utterly alone she was now. Not just alone even, but walled off, on her own free will, a prisoner chained to herself. Finally, it nagged at her id and ego so much, that weekend she re-subscribed to Netflix and started watching the first season of the zombie show.
She remembered she had started a subscription with them almost a decade ago, right before she plunged into the mouth of madness known as her work. She ended up paying ten bucks a month in order to have a Sleepless in Seattle DVD sit on her entertainment center for a year. This was before they finally realized she wasn’t going to send it back and automatically charged her credit card another twenty bucks for the purchase. So all in all she paid close to a hundred and fifty bucks to fall asleep to a movie a few times then do nothing but collect dust, and sometimes at dusk during the summer, project a reflected rainbow on the ceiling.
Next thing she knew it was Monday morning, and for the first time in forever, she had been late to work at the lab. Of course, no one said anything, she was the boss, who would dare?
The next few days, she came in late and left early, going to the movies, even spent a night out on Sixth Street. It made her feel alive, like she was finally seeing what it was like to have a life, to not only worry about her studies or her career or her dying kid. It made her remember what life was like before all of that, when it was just her and her husband, before they were married even, when everything had the carefree tilt of a child masquerading around as an adult.
She wasn’t about to let what happened after she left her husband, happen again. This time she would be more careful, if she did meet someone, she would be sure to use protection.
Hell who am I kidding? Im old enough to be a grandmother, I doubt I could even have a kid if I actually planned on it for once, she thought to herself as she sat alone at the bar, peeling off the label to a Michelob Ultra. Catherine watched a group of three girls make fools of themselves, trying to keep up with the bartender leading a dance on top of the bar.
Back when she had a life, she had watched a movie about this chain of bars called Coyote Ugly. It was about a bar where girls danced to choreographed routines dressed like Daisy Duke. A bar that got its namesake for when someone gets so drunk, they go home with someone who they think looks like a model, only to wake up and realize the person they slept with was so ugly they would chew off their own arm, like a trapped coyote.
&nbs
p; Harking back to the saying that a 10 at two a.m., more times than not turns into a 2 at ten a.m. Her snide, snobby group of so called friends back then no doubt would have said that was sexist, and an insult to feminism. That first year after she split, though, that saying seemed to hold true more so for the men she encountered than the women.
She didn’t have to worry about protection this time around, however. She hadn’t talked to a single soul besides the bartender when she needed to order another bottle. Didn’t even try to. Tonight wasn’t about getting attention from a stranger, tonight was just about not working. Not trying to rectify a problem that couldn’t be solved.
So what if she was actually able to find a cure for cancer. It wouldn’t bring her baby back now would it? Could it? After almost eighteen years had passed, the pain was still so fresh in her heart. She could still feel her chest tightening even as her daughter’s hand loosened around hers, as if her ribs were about to squeeze the life right out of her body. Her lungs crushed so tightly, they almost began listening to her thoughts that kept telling them over and over again to stop breathing, her heart to stop beating.
Tonight was about remembering, and forgetting. She just never remembered to get around to the forgetting part. Just being in this bar made her think about her and her husband curled up on the couch under a green and white fleece blanket with a huge NY Jets helmet in the center, watching Coyote Ugly. This in turn started bringing back more memories of her ex, her family and the dreams they once shared before everything was ripped from their hearts.
On the fourth night of this new way of living without work, she was diving into some Ben and Jerry’s Chubby Hubby, and starting season two of Breaking Bad, now that one she had heard of. Five minutes in to the show, she got the call from Isabelle.
Of course, she thought over and over on her drive back to the Blood Center where her little lab took up a few hundred square feet of space.
Of course, something would happen when I’m not there.
Catherine Greer kept telling herself that she was sure Izzy had made a mistake, she knew firsthand there were a thousand different ways to make one. But there was still this small feeling trying to crowd out those other negative thoughts, maybe, just maybe it’s not a mistake.
When she arrived at the lab not twenty minutes after she got the call, the first thing she did was read over the results of each test. She told Izzy to just sit and wait at first, she didn’t want to be corrupted by a story of what happened or why. She only wanted proof.
After seeing the first few reports, everything as it should be, nothing unchecked, no mistake outwardly visible, nothing shining into her eye, she sent Izzy to get them a coffee.
“We might be here for a bit,” Dr. Greer said not taking her eyes off the screen.
They stayed at the lab a lot longer than just a bit however. For two days straight Dr. Greer kept pouring over each and every report, quadruple checking anything her eyes landed on. She sent Isabelle home once the rays of sun broke through windows in the hallway outside of their lab that first morning, illuminating the motes and dust floating in the air. After all by then she had already been there going on twenty three hours, besides this wasn’t her baby, the way it was Catherine Greer’s.
The only hiccup she could find, didn’t come from the stack of papers on her desk or the files opened on her computer screen. It came an hour before sun up that first day, just before she sent Isabelle off for rest. Izzy had finally broken down and given her the whole story. Everything from the time Austin and his scraggly friend walked in right up to the moment she called her.
Handing over the reports on paper, emailing the digital ones, Izzy thought she was about to be fired for what occurred. Most other places probably would have let her go, but this was Dr. Greer’s world, and Catherine knew she would have done the exact same thing in her shoes.
Hell I probably would have offered the poor sap five hundred bucks instead of two just to get his ass up here, she thought as she reminisced about that night two months ago.
It had been 59 days as of this morning, and finally the day had come where Austin Kyle was able to give blood again. He had already given the allowed amount, 450ml which was just under a pint, after that second withdrawal that first night. So Dr. Greer was forced to wait the full fifty six days to draw his blood again.
The human body is able to replenish this amount in roughly 24 hours or so, but it still takes its toll on the body well after that. Giving blood too often can cause iron deficiency in a person’s blood, making them just steps away from becoming anemic.
She could have had him come in before now, but she wanted everything to be on the level this time around, all p’s and q’s minded, unlike the last time she thought she was close to a cure. She guaranteed Austin another two thousand dollars for every time he came in to have his blood drawn, so basically a thousand dollars a month.
It was a lot, she knew that and maybe more than she could afford right now, but with the results she had seen, she wanted to make sure he didn’t just up and leave the study.
Most of the time she figured she might as well be looking for the Holy Grail, something she would probably have better luck actually finding. Discovering the cure for cancer felt like a pipe dream at times, but the last two months it felt close, possibly within reach, only if just so.
She wasn’t about to let the only person who matched anything close to what she had been looking for in the last fifteen years walk away. Before Austin Kyle showed up, she might as well have been on a fool’s errand, about to give up hope of ever finding a solution. So two thousand per visit? Easy peasy lemon-squeezy.
Austin wasn’t scheduled to show up until 4:30pm today, still thirty minutes away. Catherine had been unable to sleep the last few nights as the appointment grew closer. She was on the brink of something colossal.
So like a kid the night before Christmas or a trip to Disney world, her thoughts were full of things to come, instead of the things that have already happened, or could never happen. Her dreams, those at night and the ones that were flashing through her mind during the day, now closely mirrored a reality that might actually be attainable.
She still hadn’t ascertained why his blood was able to receive positive results on every single test it was put through. Some tests were the same across the board but the blood type specific tests were as such for a reason. If this boy’s blood was able to do the same thing again, under her supervision of course this time around, then there was more to the story than even she could see at this particular moment.
Thinking on what the significant impact this could be on her research now was giving her the ants in her pants feeling. Her knees were bouncing up and down, heel-toe, heel-toe, so fast they seemed to be vibrating more than just bouncing, her hands were starting to shake and quiver with excitement.
Get a hold of yourself Doc, still miles to go.
Catherine was going to bounce herself right through the ceiling if she sat here any longer waiting, “Hey Isabelle, I’m going to make a run to Starbuck’s real quick, want anything?” She asked as she quickly stood from her chair so fast, that it went rocketing behind her crashing into another desk.
For a moment Izzy just sat there in disbelief, “Um yeah, I’ll take a vanilla frap,” she said with arched eyebrows, not sure of what was going on, “thank you Dr. Greer.”
“K, I’ll be right back then,” she said as she made a bee line for the door.
Austin's Type Test
Austin was a few minutes early for a change, thinking his dad would be proud for once, as he passed through the set of revolving doors at the main entrance of the Austin Blood Center. When Izzy had called him last week to setup the appointment, he had almost forgot all about this place. Of course the last visit was right after his first kiss with Mia, which of course he was likely to never forget.
After a week or two passed, and he never heard anything from them Austin figured they weren’t able to find what they looking for in him or
Brian. Then when she offered him two thousand dollars for each visit from now on instead of the two hundred he got on the last visit, he almost shit a brick right there in his apartment. He would have been a fool not to accept it, a couple grand for a half hour or so of sitting there, done and done.
During this conversation last week he was on the phone in his room, while Brian had been in the living room playing Gears of War on the Xbox one, and Austin thought Brian would be right there beside him shitting another brick when he told him about it, but before they hung up, Izzy had mentioned that he wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about this. Driving the point home further she added that at his appointment they would have him sign several non-disclosure agreements saying just that, along with other papers saying that the K prize had exclusive rights to withdrawing his blood from here on out.
Austin had never heard of anyone signing away their rights for blood, oil and wind and water rights from a piece of land sure, but blood? Then again he knew nothing about the medical world, so he figured this too must be a normal thing when it came to research, which unknown to him at the time, it of course was not.
Austin was a horrific liar, luckily he didn’t have to lie just yet because Brian was too busy concentrating on not dying in the game to even notice Austin was in the apartment much less ask him about the call he just received.
Now as he was walking up to the K Prize door, he was trying to come up with things to tell Brian and Mia about where he had been for when he gets back. All of the lies he thought of were pretty shabby stand-ins for the truth, but he guessed he would cross that bridge of matches when he got to the edge of the river.
As he placed his hand on the door handle and swung it open, Dr. Greer startled him when she shouted out behind him.
“Hey great timing, Mr. Kyle.”
He turned around to see a tall older lady with grey frizzy hair pulled back tight into a bun, glasses on top of her head worn like a black and clear tiara, a long bright white lab coat holding two Starbuck’s cups and a bag pinched between her grip and one of the cups, bustling down the hallway straight at him.
The Heart of It All (HeartSick Series Book 1) Page 12
