by Sean Adelman
They all sat together and ate pastries and scones with their coffee. Jason had a clear view of Pikes Peak though the window and he never tired of it. It wasn’t Mount Rainier but it did strike the same feelings in him. Even if Jason didn’t find a way to help Jeremy medically, he knew in his heart that, at least, he’d brought him a friend. Of all things he could do in the lab, he couldn’t make a friend. After all of the conversation had wound down, Jason volunteered to get Lily from upstairs. As he arrived at the head of the stairs he could hear the muffled sounds of laughter. Lily and Jerry were on the floor rolling in a pile of Uno cards, laughing at some secret joke in such a natural way Jason felt the urge to laugh himself. Lily had grown but was still small for her age. Even though Jerry was only a few years younger, he still looked six or seven.
Jason hit the intercom. “Lily, it’s time to go, sweetie. Say good bye to Jerry.”
“Come on, Dad. Please, can I stay just a little longer?”
“It’s a school night, sweetheart.” As soon as he said it he regretted it. Jerry couldn’t go to school anymore.
“When do I get to come back?”
“When we go downstairs I’ll ask Anne, okay?”
“All right, I’ll see ya soon, Jer.”
“I’m not going anywhere, ha!”
Jason got Lily out of the room and downstairs into the living room. Anne suggested they come back for dinner after the visit to the lab. Jason could tell Lily wasn’t happy with waiting that long, but she did not talk back to Anne which made him happy.
Jason, Lily, and Judy said their goodbyes and made their way to the car. They really didn’t use the car too much since the condo they were provided with was so close to the university. The condo wasn’t too far from the freeway and was just south of Sloan Lake so that they could enjoy the park and still walk to downtown or work most days.
The school situation for Lily had been more complicated. She was an amazing kid who did very well, but she still needed some help. In Seattle, she had a special education teacher, a speech pathologist, an occupational therapist, and a reading specialist. It wasn’t always perfect, but they had things figured out. In Denver they didn’t have room at the closest school for a special education student, so they wanted to bus her a long way away. There were a couple of private schools that she qualified for, so Jason had taken Lily for the first interview. As soon as the principal saw that she had Down syndrome, they declined her admission. After a few weeks of homeschooling, they finally found the Kipp Sunshine Academy, a charter school just south of them. Even though it wasn’t perfect, the principal and teachers really wanted to work with them. Jason paid for a private tutor who helped keep Lily’s subjects organized and worked out like a special education coordinator. There was no bus, but Judy was able to drive or walk her most days. As with most things, they were in a groove now. Gerald still had them meet with his security man every week, but no one had witnessed anything unusual in months.
One of the hardest things for any teenager was making friends. Even though Lily was doing well in school and had some kids she hung out with, she still didn’t have friends that called up for sleepovers, or invited Lily over just to watch movies or hang out. Most of the kids were nice to her, but being nice and being a peer or a friend were different thing all together. Lily was happy, and loved going to school. It was Jason who watched her and worried and wanted more. It was difficult to get out to see Jerry frequently—not just physically but also mentally. Seeing him in that room was increasingly difficult, but they did it for Lily; just as Jerry loved having someone who treated him normally, Jason knew that Lily loved having someone who treated her normally.
Jason broke from his reverie as they pulled into the garage next to his Mustang. Jason wanted to go walk around the lake before settling in for the evening.
“Come on guys, let’s go walk around the lake. The weather’s nice and we haven’t done anything active all day.”
“I’m feeling lazy,” Judy admitted. “Well, okay, as long as you cook tonight.”
Jason was happy that Lily knew she wouldn’t win the debate about a walk and reluctantly got out of the car without complaining. Besides, she liked some of the swings around the lake. Lily grabbed Judy’s hand as they crossed the street walking toward the lake. Jason looked at them as he followed close behind thinking to himself how wonderful it was for Lily to have a female role model. Lily was at that point in life where there were just things that Jason couldn’t help her with. Down syndrome or no Down syndrome, Lily was almost a teenaged girl.
With his head wrapped around all things teenager, Jason followed the girls to the loop that went around Sloan Lake. He didn’t think they would make it very far and was just happy that they were outside with unexpected decent weather. With a little burst of speed, Jason came up alongside of Lily and took her other hand. The path was wide open as there were very few people out tonight. It was cool, but the light fleece jackets they were wearing kept them warm.
As they headed east, Judy wondered aloud, “How far do you want to go?”
“Why don’t we stop at the park up ahead with the swing for Lily, then we can head back?”
With their destination in sight, the skies opened up. The rain that had been rumored all night finally came. It came at Jason and his gang at the halfway point of their walk without rain gear. Judy looked over at Jason and started laughing. Jason knew Lily didn’t know what was so funny, but was happy to return the laughing in kind. With all three of them laughing hysterically, they ran back to the condo. Jason grabbed the towels out of the linen closet while Judy took Lily to the bathroom to get dried off. Jason usually was completely focused on Lily, but tonight he couldn’t help but notice Judy. No makeup, wet hair pasted to her face, she was still beautiful in a way Jason hadn’t noticed. He had been so focused on Lily and the research that life had escaped him. What kind of idiot would have left this woman? This was a thought that would not have occurred to Jason a year ago.
Once everyone was dry, they talked it over and decided to order pizza. Lily snuggled on the couch with Jason while Judy made the call. Judy watched Jason and Lily while she spoke on the phone. She really didn’t know what she was getting into, but she did know she was unhappy and lonely before. Now she was neither. When would Jason wake up and rejoin the human world? She didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. She was happy. After making the call, she joined them on the couch and Jason turned on the TV.
To Jason’s surprise, Dr. Gibson was on the news. The reporter started by saying, “Dr. Gibson, you released some information to us about a trial that, you say, will reshape the course of cancer treatment. Can you please tell us more about it?”
“First, thanks for having me with you today. As everyone knows, our research took a large hit when one of our lead researchers, Dr. Nate Amsler, passed away recently. We had to make some changes and we’re now going to be starting human trials for a vaccine against certain types of cancer.”
“What do you mean? A vaccine for cancer?”
“Yes, we have discovered a gene that helps T cells fight cancer. The specifics I can’t really explain to you in this format, but the potential is that we can actually prevent many of the cancers that now plague us.”
Judy turned to Jason with a look of anger Jason had not seen before. “That snake. He’s sensationalizing Nate’s research.”
“I know, Judy. Nobody else would have released this kind of research on a national television show. That’s why we have journals and reviewers to keep us all even. The only reason he’s doing this is to push up his stock price to make more money. None of what he says has to hold true. With the extra money he can fund whatever projects he needs to keep his investors happy.”
“Have you heard from Debbie lately? It seems like we haven’t seen her since Christmas.”
“No, she talked to Gerald about something when we were over for Christmas dinner. I know she finished some of the classes she was taking and is now a computer security consul
tant.”
“I hope she’s okay. We don’t really have a direct way to contact her since she isn’t really replying to our calls or texts. I know things have been quiet, but I’m still scared. With what happened to Nate I’m worried she is doing something rash.”
“I know.”
The pizza arrived, but the mood for the evening had changed. After eating, Jason felt like it was time to read and go to bed early. Lily didn’t even argue. Jason still read to her almost every night. Tonight she was asleep before he could get the book out. He turned Lily’s light out and saw Judy coming out of the bathroom.
“Good night. Get some sleep. Do you work at the lab or the vet tomorrow?”
“I’m free tomorrow. I was planning on going to the gym after dropping off Lily. Do you want to have lunch?”
Jason tried to remember when she had asked to have lunch with him on a workday. They spent quite a bit of time together in the evening and on weekends, almost always with Lily. She never really made a point of spending time with just him, at least not that he could remember. He spent all his free time with Lily and Judy was part of that, but he never thought about just Judy. Before he could get the thought organized in his meager male brain, his mouth took upon itself to answer Judy. “Sure, what time?”
“How about 12:30? We can meet in the café at the science building.”
“All right then. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow at 12:30.”
“Yeah, well, I thought we’d agreed on that already. Get some sleep, crazy dude.”
The following morning, Jason was up and out before anyone else was awake. He used the walk to the university to organize his thoughts for the day. Ed was meeting with the lab staff and was doing inventory of the animals so he could review everything for the animal populations and the bacterial protein synthesis. They needed to see where they were so they could get their data together for Gerald by the end of the week. Gerald was a good guy who was doing this for all of the right reasons, but he also wanted results. Jason and Ed had been keeping Gerald in the loop but Jerry was sick and Gerald was becoming inpatient. Jason knew he owed it to Gerald and Anne. They had been paying for all of their living expenses and helped get Jason and Judy off the radar when they moved to Denver. He had walked this route so many times that he almost forgot where he was going until he got to the science building.
Ed met Jason in the conference room so they could plan for the day.
“Hey Jason, Gerald called me last night to say he’s coming over this week. I think we have some work to do. I met with the vet last week, and we have several populations to inventory—the cancer group, the immune group, the Alzheimer’s group, and the trisomy 21 group. I need to inventory our populations so we can decide what else we need to check before the end of the week.”
“Thanks, Ed. I suspect we’ll need to do some other tests. I need to look at the blood tests for our populations. Do you want to meet in the animal lab after lunch and we can catch up?”
“It’s a deal.”
With that, Ed took off and Jason sat down at his computer and started pulling up data. Searching through lab results was not the most exciting thing, but Jason knew he was close. Just as he knew the sequencing from Lily’s DNA almost three years ago was going to yield something. The last two years had been spent creating models of certain disorders, on the computer and in mice. They had created and tested different proteins based on the uncoded DNA they’d discovered. The most overwhelming thing they discovered was how normal the labs were. Even the basic stuff. To test for early infection or inflammation they would check a protein called C-reactive protein and they were all normal. The only thing remotely elevated was the level of SNX27 protein in the cerebrospinal fluid of all of the mice who had the uncoded gene inserted and activated. The only significance of SNX27 was that it was necessary for the brain’s neurons to fire properly.
The morning went by so quickly that Jason had barely noticed the time. Fortunately, Jason knew himself well enough to set an alarm for lunch. As his phone alarm went off, he felt himself getting nervous—a little rumbling of his stomach that wasn’t hunger. What is wrong with me? I’m just having lunch with Judy. As he headed down to the lobby, he calmed himself in preparation for a nice lunch with his friend. Judy was already sitting at one of the outside café tables sipping on what appeared to be a cappuccino. It was still a little cool outside, but she was wearing a dress with a sweater and some long boots.
“Hey, Judy, you started without me.”
“Nah, I just didn’t get coffee this morning so we’re even now. Come sit down. I know you don’t have much time.”
“I’m meeting with Ed after lunch.”
“Do you really think there’s a chance, Jason? It’s just you and me. I want to know if you think we can help Jerry.”
“I honestly don’t know. I do feel, though…I feel we’re on the verge. I just don’t know if we will be in time for Jerry.”
Jason started when he realized she was wearing makeup. She almost never wore makeup. It was subtle, certainly—not gaudy—and if he hadn’t seen her almost every day for the last few years he may not have even noticed.
It was a small café with mainly baked goods and some sandwiches. Jason picked up one of the menus and asked Judy, “What are you having?”
“I just wanted a half of the club. With the coffee, that’ll be plenty.”
“How about I split a whole one with you? I want one of the peanut butter cookies as well.”
“Okay, deal.”
Jason told Judy about what information they had so far and what he and Ed would review this afternoon. She would be in the lab tomorrow, so would need to know before then what the plan was. The conversation slowed to a comfortable pace as Jason and Judy finished their lunch.
As they nibbled on their peanut butter cookies, Judy said, “Jason, I wanted to talk about Jerry without Lily around. Well, I guess that’s true, but I actually did just want to have lunch with you.” She paused.
“I hope I didn’t overstep my bounds. I don’t expect anything, Jason. I just wanted you to know, well...this time with you and Lily has been the best I can remember. I know I’m not Rachel, but I can’t tell you what it means to be there for Lily.”
Judy kept her eyes on Jason for a few more seconds, and when he didn’t respond, she stared down at her shoes. Jason sat in stunned silence for what seemed like hours. He was unsure of what he was supposed to do. He felt something stirring inside him that he didn’t think would ever be possible again. Before he could answer, his phone rang.
“Jason, where are you?” said Ed.
“Having lunch downstairs.”
“Come on, dude. Get your butt to the lab. We have stuff to talk about.”
“All right, I’ll be up in a minute.”
“It’s okay,” Judy cut in. “I knew we didn’t have much time for lunch.”
Jason reached across the table and put his hand on hers. Without saying a word he got up, reached down to sweep a few stray hairs out of Judy’s eye, and smiled. He turned to leave before she could respond. Jason was thankful for the distraction so he didn’t have to think about Judy for a little while.
Ed was waiting for Jason when he got up to the lab. It was very clean and modern, but it was still an animal lab. They had a wonderful group of veterinarians who made sure the animals were very well cared for and everything was humane, so it was definitely nicer than many of the labs he had worked in before.
“Jason, I’ve finally read your data from this morning. Let’s go take a look at the animals so we can talk.”
Ed took him around the corner to where they kept their study populations.
“This is the first study population we inserted the gene into, the immunodeficiency population. We’ve exposed them to several different varieties of bacteria, viral vectors, and parasites. We have all of our experimental mice doing just fine. A couple contracted a short term febrile illness, nothing that required treatment. The control group without our
gene has lost all but two of the mice.”
“You said only a couple of the experimental group contracted anything?”
“Yes, about 25% of the experimental mice contracted any signs of illness. Including a slight fever and changes in their blood chemistries, only two ever became clinically ill so that we could detect, and even then just barely.”
“Impressive.”
“Now the cancer population. None of our experimental groups have contracted a solid tumor, such as a sarcoma, that is detectable in any way. In contrast, 75% of our control group has sarcomas of various types, most of which are terminal. Both our cancer and immune experimental groups that have our gene seem normal in every other way. Our last disease population is the Alzheimer’s model. Only two of our mice with our gene have showed delayed mental function, but no progression. In the control group, 80% of them show some delay, all of which seem to be progressive. Half of those have since expired.”
“I don’t know, Ed. It seems we are onto something. Do you want to hear my theory?”
“In just a sec, Jason. I saved the most interesting information for last. Here is the experimental group for the trisomy population. What do you notice? Before you answer, look at the control.”