He stood on the back porch of his parents’ house, barefoot, taking in the fresh air as he drank a cup of coffee. As a teenager, he never liked the taste of the stuff. Once he got to Johns- Hopkins, however, that was a different story. He had to find ways to stay up on the late shifts when he had to work. He wasn’t happy about the nasty habit, but he’d gotten used to it. His father joined him. “Looks like I’m going to have to invest in a bigger coffee pot, huh?” he asked as he sat down at the patio table.
Jake looked over his shoulder at his father. “No kidding. Between you, Malachai, Logan, and me- we’ll demolish a pot of coffee”, he said with chuckle.
“Sit and talk with me, Jacob. I have a question for you.”
His father pulled a chair out from the table and he took a seat. “What’s on your mind, Dad?”
“This has been bothering me for a while. Why neurology? I know at the end of high school you were talking Pediatrics. What changed your mind?”
Jake took a drink of his coffee, which he took straight and black first thing in the morning, and nodded. “I understand your confusion, Dad. One minute I’m thinking that I want to be a children’s doctor and the next I decide I’m going to be a brain doctor. I see what you’re getting at. The answer is simple. Remember Shawn?”
“That red- headed kid you always had over that got into a motorcycle wreck a while back?”
“One in the same. He’s the reason that I went into neurology. During the wreck, he suffered a traumatic brain injury that’s caused him all kinds of problems. I want to see if there’s a way to fix it. I know what’s wrong and I want to change it.”
“Last time I checked, brain cells can’t be regrown. Once they’re dead, they’re gone.”
“Yeah, the brain’s funny that way. But, maybe there’s another way. A way to mechanically makes those nerves fire. Or, maybe stem cells are the answer. They’ve thought that about cancer and AIDS; why not traumatic brain injury?”
His father nodded. “I guess that makes sense. So, when you finally start looking at the different hospitals that are offering you’re a job, what are you looking for?”
“I want a place that will be open minded to new ideas and the opportunity to test theories as well as a decent salary. I may be a recent graduate, but I didn’t work my way through the Johns Hopkins School of Neurology just to be looked at like I don’t know what I’m talking about. Now, I understand that I have to earn a really good salary by changing and saving lives.”
“What are some of the places offering your work?”
“The Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Loyola wants me back, University of Texas is offering me a job AND a teaching position, St. Jude’s says they’re willing to send me to school to be a pediatric neurologist, Northern Colorado Medical Center in Denver is looking for a Neurological Chief of Attendings. To be perfectly frank with you, Dad, there’s not a hospital in the country that doesn’t want me. I’m even getting emails from hospitals in Alaska.”
“What are you going to do?”
“First, I’m going to take my head off and screw it back on straight with a little hard earned and well deserved R&R; about a month’s worth. Then, I’m going to start looking into these job offers and figure out which one’s I’m interested in. I’ll probably call them all and talk to whomever’s in charge in order to set up a date to interview. While I’m on the phone, I’ll get my answers. Narrow it down to a small list of maybe five or six, then interview with them. The other’s I’ll call to cancel about a week before the interview. From there, I’ll make the decision.”
“What about family?”
“Me starting a family?”
“No. Us here?”
“I’d LOVE nothing more than to stay close by, and that’s of course something I’ll consider when making my decision, but if the money in Orlando is better than here in Denver, then where will I be going?”
“What was that about the Department of Veterans’ Affairs?”
“The Federal Government in all their infinite wisdom and glory knows about my desire to work with those with traumatic brain injury and they want me to work for them researching it.”
“When you talk to them, ask them about funding for the research and test subjects for any treatment developed. It will give you a bargaining chip. They want you to conduct the research, you need the following.”
David studies his son’s expression for a moment. He’d seen that look before on his own face. It was a mix of concern and uncertainty; insecurity over the unknown. “Do you have a theory?”
“Stem Cells are the key, I know they are. I just don’t have any idea as to how to prove it. It’s going to drive me mad.”
“Just take a little bit to get your head together, AND THEN work on getting to a place where you can prove your theory.”
Jacob smiled at his father. “Thanks, Dad. I needed this talk. I’m glad you asked your question. It’s given me a lot to think about, but not until after my vacation. Does Reckless Disregard or Disturbed have a show coming up anytime soon?”
“Disturbed, no. We just finished a publicity tour before your graduation. You brother and sister, I couldn’t tell you. You’d have to ask them.”
“I’ll do that. Thanks again, Dad.”
---------------
Jake laid in the living room floor with a bunch of his old school books, both digital copies on his iPad and hard copies, his laptop, and a couple of notebooks. He had a single ear bud in one ear and the other was hanging down, brushing against the floor. He was singing along to the music he was listening to as he did research. “I won’t stand another minute of your questioning me; you hear me, bitch, stop, the interrogations over! I can’t handle the feeling of your pestering me; how would you like to meet my favorite fist? No, you can’t renege, I love to see you beg; I dream this moment as your RUN AWAY! You would only separate me from all I believe this moment in brutality, you’re the one who kept on pushing till I made you BLEED!” He tried to be quiet because he knew his parents were preoccupied. His father was getting his weekly massage. It was a tradition that had started twelve years before after the Utopians had fallen from power. It was one of the ways that the Draiman parents spent a little bit of time peacefully away from chaos of raising the seven children they had left at home. When they first moved into, or back into in his parents and older brother’s cases, the house they were in, there were eight children. A little less than a year later, two more arrived. He and Jordan were eight. And so there were ten.
Jake was obsessing over getting together enough research on stem cells to make his theory plausible. If he took the job with the VA, he’d need to have a decent presentation already put together to show the Director of Veterans’ Affairs that he had an idea of what he was talking about so that he could propose his theory.
Malachai and Mandy walked in to see him lying in the living room floor, wearing only a pair of silk basketball shorts. “Jake, what the hell are you doing?” Mandy asked her brother in law.
“Research.”
“On?”
“None ya damn.” He picked up his pen and jotted down a few notes, then went back to reading the website on his computer screen.
“You gonna start working anywhere anytime soon?” Malachai asked.
“Nope. Mom and Dad have both said I can stay here to clear my head and get some research done before I start weeding out the job requests.”
“Requests?” Mandy asked. “What do you mean; requests?”
“I’ve been asked by what seems every major hospital in the country to come work for them. Some of them are willing to help me with a research I’m wanting to head up.”
“Trying to take medicine by storm, Jake?” Malachai asked.
“No, just trying to do what I love to do; help people. You inspire them, I fix them.”
“And Mom helps them relax and facilitates health.”
“What does Dad do?” Mandy asked.
“The same things Jordan and I do, but better. He’s been doing it longer.”
“I know THAT’S right”, Jake said with a grin.
---------------
“The blood became alive, when I was trapped inside, and I can feel the dark passenger coming, my mother’s blood and mine uniquely intertwined, help me father put your memory from my mind, my hunger to destroy when I was just a boy, it pulled me deeper into something that I now enjoy, the ritual begins, evil will meet its end, in your destruction I will finally feel whole again…” Jake sang along to the music again after Malachai and Mandy had decided not to bother him anymore. The things he was finding were interesting, but now he had to figure out how to apply them to neurology and treating traumatic brain injury. If only there was a way to program a person’s stem cells to develop into a certain kind of brain tissue, or to go into a certain section of the brain. We need to see if there is one for what I have in mind to work, he thought as he found a new song to listen to. He loved his father’s music. He couldn’t understand it, but the music helped him think.
Brie came down the stairs from giving her husband an hour and a half massage, something that never happened. Jake had moved to the couch from the floor and was trying to sort through all his notes to put it into a half ass coherent and cohesive proposition. All the writing classes he’s taken in high school were paying off. Brie looked at her son. “What are you up to, son?”
“While you and Dad were upstairs I decided to sprawl out in the floor in here and do some research on something I’m wanting to try to treat traumatic brain injuries.”
“What might that be, son?”
“Stem cells. If there were a way to use a person’s stem cells to re-knit the brain tissue together, or to create a copy of that portion of the brain that’s been damaged, then you could completely reverse a traumatic brain injury. And think of what else you could do with it. Possibly cure blindness, hearing loss- you name it. The possibilities are endless.”
“Going for the gusto, huh?”
“It’s the only thing I know how to do, Mom. I go hard or I go home. There’s no such thing as half assed when it comes to me.”
“That means your father and I taught you well. You do everything all the way. You don’t put half of your heart into it; you put your whole heart, mind, and soul into what you’re doing. You tend to take after both your father and me in that regard. Always giving 150% of everything you do.”
He couldn’t help but smile at his mother. “Thanks Mom.”
“Jacob, have I ever told you that you have your father’s smile?”
“No!” he said sarcastically.
She smiled and laid her hands gently against her son’s cheeks. “Looking like your father isn’t such a bad thing, Jake. You’re father’s a good man and so are you. Don’t ever forget that.” She stood and placed a kiss on his forehead before leaving the room to grab her husband a bottle of water. “I’m going to go fill out my notes and change the sheets on my massage table. If you should want to talk again, let me or your father know. We’d both be willing to lend you an ear.”
“Thanks, Mom. I’ll keep that in mind.” After she’d left the room and headed back up the stairs, he shut the lid on his laptop and rubbed long fingered hands over his face. He wondered if he’d find a woman like his mother. Lord knew that he needed the stability. I honestly hope that I find someone who can keep me sane like Mom does Dad. I’m know that I could really use that kind of reassurance right now. It’s one thing to get it from my mother, but an entirely different one to have it from a woman of my choosing that I’ve given my heart to. Granted, like my brother before me, I’m no virgin. I’ve had my share of one night stands. I want someone who will always be there like Mom and Dad are for each other. I could really use a love like that.
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He’d finally exhausted his brain so he stretched out on the couch and took a nap until his siblings came home from school. At first glance, his youngest brother and sister thought he was their father; then they saw that he had a little bit of hair on his head. “Jessi, that’s Jake. Dad’s bald, remember?”
“Oh, yeah. I thought that Jake had shaved his head like Dad.”
“NO. Jake just keeps his hair cut short.”
“Kinda like Malachai keeps his hair long she that he can spike it into some fucking looking thing for going on stage.”
“Exactly.”
“I wear my hair short because the curls drive me crazy, but I don’t want to look exactly like Dad and so I don’t shave my head completely bald. Now, both of you keep it down before I fly up off this couch and knock your heads together to test some of my theories on you”, Jake groaned. When they walked into the house he was laying on his back with an arm thrown over his eyes. When he finished chiding his baby brother and sister, he rolled onto his side and went back to sleep.
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