The Units

by Jamie Mackay

  ***

  Tatum had one more day in the work week and then just shy of three weeks until her trip home. She knew it would go slowly, but thoughts of seeing her family would keep her busy while she did her time. Besides, Friday would be her first full day on the Research Unit and she couldn't wait to find out more about what she might be able to get going on the research side. Secretly Tatum was hoping that most of her research work would focus on Autism, but she knew she needed to be slow and strategic in her requests. Still, her internship would last only the year, so she couldn't wait too long.

  Friday morning Tatum got up early and her run felt great. Knowing she would soon see her family had given her a renewed energy, something she seemed to have lost on the last night she talked to Jake. She looked forward to her coffee time and letting Milligan know about her exciting news.

  "I get to go home for the long weekend!" she yelled out to her friend before he even had a chance to give her a cup.

  "That's great. I guess you must have figured out who to ask for time off, hey? Dr. Glaser I presume? And he said yes?"

  "You bet," she answered. "He's a pretty supportive guy actually. Sent me a nice response about how family comes first and all that."

  "Good," responded Milligan, "I'm glad, cause he's right. Family does come first. I'll miss my coffee buddy though."

  "I'll be back," Tatum said lightly, "and with a whole bunch of new coffee gossip to share."

  Milligan and Tatum laughed.

  Tatum walked quickly to work that morning. It was cooler than it had been and she knew today would be a first in the research lab, something she'd been looking forward to for a while.

  "Good Morning Lisa," said Tatum as she entered the front door. "Can you buzz me in?"

  "Good Morning Dr. O'Neill," said the front desk clerk of U6 while she pushed the security button. "First full day today, hey?" the friendly clerk asked Tatum.

  "Yup, think I'll survive?" she asked as a joke.

  "Most do," said Lisa.

  Most? thought Tatum.

  .

  Unit Six was different from the other units that Tatum was familiar with, so she stopped several times to ask someone in a white coat the way to the Assessment Lab. Finally, she found the doorway into her new Friday home.

  "Good Morning Garry," she called out to the research lead, the guy in charge when Dr. Fraser or Dr. Glaser weren't around.

  "Hi Tatum. First full day today. Where should we start?"

  "I'd like to start with a full review of the lab protocols for each study that's currently going on. That way, something I could help with might jump out at us. Would that work?"

  "You bet. I'm pretty anxious to figure out somewhere to get you going. I get overwhelmed. It's nice to have someone on board that knows what she's doing and is actually gonna spend some time in here."

  Tatum suspected he was referring to the lack of actual guidance and supervision he likely got from his two research supervisors. Tatum was pretty sure she knew the drill. Dr. Fraser would blow in, remind Garry how important he was and how his knowledge was invaluable to the lab, and then Dr. Glaser would blow in, offer assistance and then find a dark corner and catch a few winks.

  Garry led Tatum down the hallway to an empty office.

  "You can put your stuff in here. No one has been assigned to this space in a long time."

  "Thanks," said Tatum as she looked around.

  The office was definitely brighter and newer than her primary office, too bad I couldn't switch, she thought.

  "Let's start with the norming study," guided Garry. He took Tatum into the first of three pods in the lab.

  The norming study was designed to complete nearly two thousand Canadian assessments using the Stanford Binet intelligence test.

  "The Stanford is used all over our school districts," explained Garry, "but we have to use American norms. We have the Canadian norms for the Weschler tests, so this is the next step."

  "Who's doing all those assessments?" Tatum asked.

  "We have research assistants that are trained to be reliable on administration, but one of the jobs that I'd like for you to do is to complete some review and training with the assistants. Nothing like learning from someone who uses it clinically. It's just not quite the same to do it for research - a bit more canned."

  Tatum nodded, she knew exactly what he meant.

  "We typically see about 2 or 3 kids per day on this study. We could save some time on Fridays for you to work with them on rapport building and such. Does that sound alright with you?"

  Tatum nodded again. Teaching research assistants was something she was prepared to do, but it was far from her first choice.

  "What about the process studies?" Tatum asked Garry. "Same kind of thing?"

  "Yeah, that's what I was thinking. None of us are registered clinicians, so I was hoping your main role for these two studies could be to do some supervision. We seem to lack a bit in that department around here." Garry didn't need to explain, Tatum knew exactly what he meant.

  "Glad to help," she said to the Research Associate, "although I'm still learning too, you know?"

  "Yah, I know you're an intern, but I'm perfectly happy with that," said Garry smiling. Tatum suspected for him any supervision would be good supervision.

  .

  Finally Garry led Tatum to the third pod in the Assessment lab, the pod where the more novel research was taking place. In the third pod, the research was exploratory, focused generally on attempting to develop new diagnostic techniques. Essentially, it seemed to Tatum like the third section functioned less like a traditional lab and more like a think tank.

  "So basically, these RAs just review the literature and then provide the groundwork for new ideas?" asked Tatum.

  "Yup," answered Garry.

  Well now, this is more like it, she thought as she ventured through the groups of offices that housed people working diligently at their computers.

  "Is there anyone working on anything to do with Autism diagnosis?"

  "Not yet, but I suspect it's coming," Garry winked at Tatum knowingly.

  "What about observational space for exploratory stuff? she asked.

  "Most of the space is spoken for, but if you have something specific in mind, I will certainly see what I can do," Garry promised.

  .

  Lunchtime came quickly. Tatum had been so focused on her new role she hadn't noticed the morning pass by. Garry had gone back to his desk having said something about needing to catch up on what he'd missed that morning. Tatum, free for an hour, made her usual trek down to the cafeteria where she chose a submarine sandwich and chocolate milk. Larry was standing at the door as she entered Unit Three.

  "Hi Tatum, staying for lunch today?"

  "You bet. I promised James a whole hour today, and I'm good for my word."

  "I bet you are," said Larry. "How's your week been?"

  "Okay, looking forward to the weekend though," answered Tatum wishing that Larry would go about his business and leave her to hers.

  "Want some coffee?" Larry asked.

  "No thanks, not today. Gotta get over to say hi." Tatum walked abruptly over to James hoping that Larry would get the message that she was done with their conversation.

  He followed her for a few steps and then finally turned back and returned to his charts.

  "Hey James. It's me," said Tatum. "I've got a sub sandwich and chocolate milk today. It will take me a bit to get through the whole thing, can I stay awhile? What'd you have for lunch? Something good I hope. It's not fun when you don't like what's on the menu, is it? I talked to my supervisor yesterday; they gave me some time off so I'm going to get to go home and see Michael before his surgery. I'm so happy about that. Also, my mom and dad said they'd buy my ticket, so I don't have to worry about the cost of the flight. That's a real relief."

  James was an excellent listener. Tatum rattled on, and James watched his fingers. She talked for nearly the whole hour and made sure, on several occasi
ons during her conversation, that she explained she'd be gone for a few days around the September long weekend. She wanted James to be well prepared for her absence.

  It was nearing an hour so Tatum was starting to get ready for her return to work.

  "Well, time for me to get back to work," Tatum said. "It's Friday so I'm in the Research Unit."

  James' hands stopped dead.

  .

  Tatum left Unit Three once again completely confused by her friend's response to her mention of Unit Six. On her previous visit, his response had only fueled her intense curiousity about what was happening in the Research Building. Not having been allowed access had made her convinced there was something she shouldn't see. But since then, she'd had access to the Unit and could think of no reason why the only response James ever demonstrated was his immediate lack of stereotyped movement on mention of the sixth building.

  Knowing she needed to go back outdoors to work her way around to the Research Unit entrance, Tatum returned to U1 on her way. It was Friday and she had no plans.

  "Hey Marja, got any plans tonight?" Tatum asked the front desk clerk.

  "Not really. Bob and I were probably just gonna watch a movie. Why? What have you got in mind?"

  "Well, remember you said you'd like to see what I did with the apartment? I thought I could show you. Maybe order a pizza or something?"

  "That sounds nice Tatum, thanks. I'll just call Bob. Make sure he's got something else to do. Probably see it as a blessing; a night to go play pool with his buddies. Can I just call you after I get ahold of him?"

  "Sure thing. I'm over in the Assessment Lab this afternoon. Call me there."

  "Will do," she answered as Tatum started out of U1 into the midday heat.

  .

  Tatum went back to the lab and busied herself studying procedural manuals for the norming and process studies.

  If I'm supposed to supervise these people, I'd better know what they're doing, she thought in an effort to convince herself that the dry reading was worthwhile.

  Finally, the phone rang. It was Marja.

  "Hi Tatum, it's Marja."

  "Hey Marja."

  "Bob says he's good, he'll go to the pub. I'm in for pizza. When do you want me to meet you?"

  "How about right after work? Or, do you want to go home first?"

  "Nope. I'm good. After work sounds great. Meet me here when you're done?"

  "Perfect, see you around five."

  .

  Tatum and Marja rode to Regency Apartments in Marja's car. Marja seemed a bit uncomfortable.

  "Are you okay?" Tatum asked.

  "I don't usually get invited to have pizza with the doctors," said Marja, "I'm not really sure what to say."

  "Really?" said Tatum. "Is there some kind of unspoken line that we're crossing?"

  "I don't think anything official," said Marja, "just traditional."

  "Well, it's time that tradition was broken," said Tatum definitively with a smile. "We're here."

  .

  Tatum led Marja up to apartment 203 and gave her a tour. She told her work colleague all about the new furnishings, the cleaning and the polishing and finally about the re-finished floors.

  "Yah, I heard about that," said Marja.

  Tatum knew full well the reference was to Jake, not the floors.

  Marja wondered through the apartment, admiring the tasteful improvements Tatum had completed and they made small talk until both women were hungry for dinner.

  "Ready for some food," Tatum asked.

  "Please. Pizza would be great," answered Marja.

  By the time the pizza arrived, a couple of beer had eased the apprehension and personalized the conversation.

  "So, you've started in U6 now, hey?" Marja asked Tatum.

  "Yeah, my first full day was today. Sounds like I will mostly be doing supervision of research assistants. I appreciate the lab experience, but I was hoping for something a bit more ground-breaking." Tatum smirked at her own use of the term 'ground-breaking'. "I guess I might get some opportunity to create some new stuff, but it's going to be hard to get new stuff going with all my clinical commitments and now supervising the RAs. Oh well, I guess it's all experience."

  "Won't your pay go way up too?" Marja asked.

  "Pay go way up? Tatum asked. "Why would that happen? My pay is just the fellowship amount; it's not determined by the hospital."

  Now Tatum was curious. "Do the researchers make better money?"

  "Oh, I don't know if it's for real," said Marja, "it's just a rumour that's always filtered around the Units. That some of the docs that do research make some kind of bonus or something. Probably just another WMI tall-tale. God, that place is awful for gossip. You'll figure that out."

  "Are you kidding?" Tatum said with a smile. "I went out with Jake Mackinley. I may have things to learn about WMI yet, but I know the power of the Wainwright rumour mill first hand."

  .

  As the evening progressed, the mood became more comfortable. Tatum and Marja finished their pizza and shared a girls' night in front of a made-for-TV movie before Marja left to return to Bob. Tatum enjoyed the girl time, and even the movie was not half-bad. That is, what she saw of it. Her mind constantly darted back to Marja's comment about rumours of bonuses in the Research Unit.