Wednesday, July 21, 2010

SNA

In looking back a little more, I found this paper I wrote for a science fiction class (believe it or not this was a science class...not a writing class... for HCC)... great class because it was a great teacher. Really no way to have failed. Fairly wonderful summer class from way back when. Anyway, we had to write a science fiction short story. Here was my submission...I believe I received an "A" on it...though I always did get "A's" and "B's" on my papers.

There is room for improvement and expansion, but I re-read it, having completely forgotten how it went, and I liked it all over again...I hope you guys enjoy it too! It's kinda long (4 pages printed), but worth it, I think. Anyway, enjoy!


SNA


Dr. Bourge and his colleagues were setting up for an important briefing at the Pentagon. They had finally made the discovery so many had been waiting for. They set up the charts, graphs, and result sheets, and prepared to give a presentation that was sure to shock and amaze anyone watching.
It had taken many years, but Dr. Bourge had finally found the results he’d been searching for for over 10 years. Little by little the press began to move into the room. Dr. Bourge could hear all the clicking and swiping of the cords and wires of the cameras. But no sound could possibly be louder than his own heart racing. He was so excited he could barely breathe.
Finally, he saw the secretary of state come out to the podium to announce him. As the press gave a light applause, Dr. Bourge stepped up to the podium and gripped the edges. He began with a shaky, “Thank you all for coming this morning.”
“My colleagues and I have been conducting stem cell research for the last decade. It has taken us much longer than we planned, but we have come up with some amazing discoveries. We have so far been able to use stem cells to cure Leukemia, Alzheimer’s disease, and even paralysis, in over 30 patients. Every experiment had already begun over 5 years ago. However, considering the fragile nature of the study, we decided to monitor patients for another 5-7 years each.
“We have come out with no recurrences of any of the aforementioned diseases, and we are now comfortable with our conclusions. Pending consent of the United States Supreme Court, curing of such diseases will be possible with the aid of stem-cells.”


*~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Reverend Klein was eating his breakfast rather quietly, compared to his usual morning chatter with his family.
“Is everything alright, Dad?” asked his daughter, Elizabeth.
“Of course, Lizzie,” he answered, “Why do you ask?”
“Well, dad, you’ve been kinda quiet this morning.”
“Oh really? Well maybe it was because of the long evening I had yesterday at the church! You know, my job doesn’t end when I step down from the pulpit at the end of the Sunday service!!”
At this reaction, his little twin children, Janie and Sean, began to cry uncontrollably. Even Elizabeth’s eyes filled with tears. Her father had never been like this before, but since last month, he’d become easily angered.


*~~~~~~~~~~~~~*

Mrs. Richman was everyone’s favorite teacher. She always had a wonderful surprise for all of her students. But today, as had been the case for the last few days, she had no surprise. In fact, the bigger surprise was how she acted today. She came in with a very tired look on her face, and she sounded absolutely drained. She shuffled into the classroom and plopped her purse on the desk. “Please open your books to page 56 and read quietly to yourselves while I read the story aloud.”
Her students sadly opened their books and began to read along. But in the back of everyone’s mind was a worry about what had happened to their beloved teacher. Mrs. Richman was usually so perky. What was going on? Ever since she got back from medical leave, she’d been very different.


*~~~~~~~~~~~~~*


Mr. Madison was working on his project when his supervisor knocked on the door. He came in with a big smile on his face and told Mr. Madison he had some news for him.
“I’ve decided to quit my job!” he exclaimed. He seemed so happy, but Mr. Madison didn’t like what he heard. Mr. Brinkley had always been absolutely in love with his work. It was his first and only love. He wasn’t even married. But this was a side to Mr. Brinkley that Mr. Madison had never seen. Mr. Brinkley’s face was shining, and he had a massive smile across his face. Even his eyes were glistening. Mr. Madison just had to ask.
“And what are you going to do after you quit?” Asked Mr. Madison.
“I’m going to be a teacher!” Said Mr. Brinkley.
Mr. Madison looked Mr. Brinkley square in the eye. There was nothing about his supervisor that was like a teacher. “Why the sudden change of heart?” he asked.
“I don’t know, Bill.” Said Mr. Brinkley. “Just a change in the wind I guess. I’m ready for a new challenge anyway.” He turned and happily stepped out. He even seemed to have a new spring in his step.


*~~~~~~~~~~~~~*


Angela Michaels was cleaning up the dishes after dinner. She was very worried about her husband. He was always home in time for dinner. In fact, more often than not, he was home early enough to help set the table. But today, that was not the case. It was already 10:30, and he hadn’t gotten home or called yet. Then, the phone rang. Angela ran to it and picked it up. “Bryan?” She asked, seemingly out of breath.
But it wasn’t Bryan. It was the hospital. “Mrs. Michaels? This is Dr. Hillbrand. Could you please come to the hospital right away? Your husband has been in an accident.”
Angela was speechless. She didn’t know what to think. Then, she finally came to her senses, and responded to the doctor. “I will be there in no more than 15 minutes.”
She quickly hung up the phone and picked it up again to call her neighbor. Gina was over in 2 minutes flat, and no sooner had she arrived than Angela bolted out the door.
She arrived at the hospital and asked for Dr. Hillbrand. When he came to the waiting room. He said that Bryan had been in an accident involving a drunk driver. “I wish those drunks would just stay off the road.” She said.
“Actually, Mrs. Michaels, your husband was the one who was found to be intoxicated. The other driver is in stable condition, but I can’t say the same for Bryan. He’s lost a lot of blood, and right now he is in the ICU. Please, Mrs. Michaels, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”
But Mrs. Michaels was too shocked to answer any questions. Suddenly everything she held dear seemed to fade away. She felt hopeless with the thought of losing her husband. What if he didn’t make it? What would she do? And why was he drunk? He’d never even stepped into a bar in his entire life. He didn’t even drink wine! He never enjoyed the taste of beer. In fact, in all their marriage, Bryan had never had a drop of alcohol, except for one glass of champagne at their wedding.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~*


Mrs. Richman came home after a long, hard day of work at the school. She had a message on her answering machine from the principle. “Mrs. Richman, this is Principle Jones. I have received some reports about your performance during this week. I’d like you to call me as soon as you get this message. If it’s too late, please just come into my office tomorrow morning, and we can discuss what is to be done about this situation.”
Mrs. Richman was rather worried about this, but it was already 7 o’clock. Even the little mischief makers who stayed in school for detention were home already. She decided to just relax, get a good night’s rest, and go into the office in the morning.
The next morning, the principle was worried. He said that more than three students had come in that week to report Mrs. Richman’s change in behavior. They had said that she was always tired and irritable, which was odd in comparison with the happy, perky, and patient teacher she had always been.
“Mrs. Richman, you’ve been teaching at this school for over 13 years. I’ve known you for seven of them. I’m worried about the way your students are describing you. I would hate to see you leave, but I’m worried that that could be a result if something doesn’t change soon.”
Mrs. Richman was caught off guard. Was the principle telling her she could lose her job? “I’m so sorry. I have just been so tired these days. It’s like all of my energy has been drained out of me. I promise, Principal Jones, I will go see my doctor this weekend.” She said.
“I strongly recommend it.” He said sternly.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~~*


15 doctors had been invited. 3 doctors had presentations. There were also 2 educators and 3 governmental officers present.
The first to speak was Dr. Bourge. “As you all know, my father was the doctor who, along with his colleagues, finalized the processes of using stem cells to heal certain illnesses. However, I have received a few reports and have decided to hold a conference concerning these situations. We will first hear from Dr. Baker.”
Dr. Baker sat up and leaned forward so as to allow everyone present to see him. “I am a therapist in Chicago. I had a patient come into my office about two weeks ago who was having some serious anger management problems. He was a Reverend at a church near my practice, and he had never had any history of poor anger management.”
Next was Dr. Millard. “I have had a patient for 10 years. This patient, let us call her Mrs. Smith, had never had any history of headaches or fatigue. However, last week, she came into my office complaining of these very symptoms. She was found to have migraines and excessive fatigue, and I still don’t know where they came from. Of course, I prescribed some strong pain relievers and asked her not to drink any more decaffeinated coffee. I still thought, though, that I should address the situation, since she had just had a stem cell procedure done to heal her of leukemia. I thought, maybe, that she had not been fully recovered, but I’m still pending a definite diagnosis.”
After these two doctors came two of the educators. “We have been studying the SAT data provided by the students who take the exam. We decided to closely monitor them, and we have found that there were 4000 students whose selected major did not match the scores. In other words, those who are much stronger in math wanted to pursue a career in some other area, one that does not use math, but rather English or writing skills, where they scored far lower. 500 of these students had had stem cells implanted to help with the diseases and disorders this medical breakthrough has been able to heal. 1000 of them had fathers or mothers who had had the same procedure done for some other reason. 1587 of them had had a grandparent receive stem cells.”
3 of the government officials came up next. They announced that 4 of their fellow officials had left their jobs in order to pursue careers that had never interested them, before they had been given stem cells.
Dr. Hillbrand came last. “I had a case last month were a man who had never had a drop of alcohol in his life, ‘except for one glass of champagne at his wedding,’ in his wife’s words, died from a loss of blood and a significant blow to the head after becoming intoxicated and getting into an accident.”
“And what is the common denominator here? All of these people have received stem cells. We are now here to discuss the possible reasons for these occurrences.” Said a solemn Dr. Bourge.
“Couldn’t they just be side effects?” asked Dr. Baker.
“I don’t think so. It seems so strange that nearly everyone has this ‘side effect’ It’s almost like this is a normal outcome, not a strange occurrence.” Responded Dr. Hillbrand.
“Excuse me. If I may speak, I think I may know what is going on here,” came a small voice from a far corner.
Everyone turned to see who had just spoken. They saw a young man with short curly hair. “I believe that we have made a major mistake. One that should never have been made. I believe that we have messed with something that was better left alone.”
“How could you say that?” Said an angry Dr. Baker. “We have seen so many people healed of diseases that we never thought we could heal. Illnesses who’s prescriptions were “make the patient comfortable,” are now easily and quickly healed.”
“Yes, but at what cost? We have seen some prominent government officials leave their jobs for no reason. We have found confusion among the students of our generation. I believe we have meddled with something we never should have. What if we don’t know as much about DNA as we thought?” Said the man.
“What do you mean? And what is your name, anyway?” Asked an interested Dr. Hillbrand.
“Well, to answer your second question first, my name is Andrew. To answer your first question, I believe that there is a whole other side of DNA we haven’t even begun to tap into. Something intangible. How do we decide to become doctors, or teachers, or ministers? How do we develop a love for certain genres of music or films? I believe there is another element we have messed with, and I will henceforth call it SNA.”
“SNA?” asked a puzzled Dr. Bourge.
“Spiritual Neucleic Acid.” Answered Andrew, with a smile.
“Oh great, here we go. Let me guess. We’re messing with God’s plan?” said Dr. Baker.
“I didn’t say this was of God, though I do believe. Let me say, Dr. Baker, that you can’t separate church and state, no matter how much you want to, and you can’t separate someone’s spirit from their body with science.” Answered Andrew.
The entire room fell silent.
“The Bible says that even before you were in your mother’s womb, God had a plan for you. We have allowed unborn children, or embryo’s as you call them, to die as a result from taking stem cells from them to heal these illnesses. My theory is that if we have kept a child from growing up to be what God intended, he is going to achieve his purpose by some other means. This could be the means.”
“So you are saying that we have messed God’s plan and have therefore set ourselves up for disaster and failure.” Said a victorious Dr. Baker.
“Yes I did say that, but this could apply to many other things. How do we know that what makes a murderer a murderer doesn’t happen in his DNA? We don’t know. We never will know, because you can’t see the thoughts of a criminal.” Continued Andrew.
“Then why don’t we just take the children of parents who aren’t prone to crime or some other immoral activity, and use them instead?” asked Dr. Millard.
“We still don’t know much about the difference between genetic predispositions and social elements. We don’t know the effect these have on a person’s actions and personality. Therefore, we can’t guarantee that the embryo would not have grown into a productive and law-abiding citizen.” Answered Andrew. “And did you all notice the increase in symptoms in the children of these stem cell recipients? How far will this go? I believe we have to ask ourselves which is more important; healing these illnesses, or allowing society to continue as it always has and keep the country safe from unknowns.”
The doctors left the meeting very quietly. They were all thinking about what had just happened in that room. They all had to ask themselves, which is more important?

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