Avocado Remedy

AVACADO REMEDY                 

Eric Hendricks settled in to his task in the genetics lab at Cal Tech. The CEQ8000 DNA sequencer was turned on and analyzing the samples that Eric was feeding into it. The Beckman Coulter CEQ8000 DNA Sequencer had just arrived at the lab. Cal Tech had been selected as one of three beta sites to test the latest and most advanced sequencer on the market. Eric, a biometric engineering student, brushed aside the long lock of his red hair that had fallen across his eye so he could peer into the sequencer’s viewing module. Cal Tech’s role in the test was to develop a base line so that future studies could help identify genetic propensities of various virulent diseases. Eric’s innate scientific curiosity had him interested in more than merely inputting data..

“Hey Ben, check this out.” Eric said. Ben Davis was a grad student supervising a group of Biometric Engineering underclassmen assigned to the DNA project.

 “What have you got?” Ben asked.

 “There’s a strange looking fragment on this strand that keeps reappearing at regular intervals”.

Eric got up so Ben could look into the viewer.

“That is a funny looking fragment.” Ben agreed. “Have you seen any others like it?”

“No. This is the only strand I’ve seen it on. I’ve just started though”.

Ben pondered for a moment. “Let me know if you see any more like it.”

Betsy McDermott was in her deceased aunt’s North Hollywood bungalow, sorting through belongings and accumulated memorabilia. Her aunt, Miranda Tempest, had starred in “B” movies and in a few supporting roles in more acclaimed productions. Miranda Tempest, known to her family and friends back in Boise as Gloria McDermott, was known for her flaming red hair and quirky antics off screen. She had recently died while working on a movie in the Yucatan Peninsula. When the production ended, Miranda remained in Tulum with plans to attend the carnival in Merida. She had died in an accident there.

Betsy was packing a trunk with gowns, shoes, and lingerie that had seen the nightlife highlights of Miranda’s whims and flairs. The trunk was being sent to Miranda’s family back home. A separate suitcase was being packed with certain garments that were in Betsy’s proportion. Some of Miranda’s clothes brought on a befuddled look of wonder. Why would her aunt ever wear this stuff? There were the see through dresses and ultra sheer blouses, the plunging-neckline, leave nothing to the imagination gowns. A few of these made it into the suitcase. “No one needs to know about this” she told herself out loud. “I wonder where I’ll ever be able to wear this stuff. It sure won’t be appropriate at work.” Work for Betsy was at the Los Angeles office of an NGO dealing with providing health care to people in third world countries. She closed the contraband suitcase.

“I can’t believe I had that dream the night she died”, Betsy said.

The packing being finished, the movers having loaded the truck, the keys turned over to the real estate agent, Betsy ventured out into the Los Angeles night scene in one of her aunt’s dresses. She locked the suitcase of ornate garb into her Prius and hailed a cab to take her to one of Miranda Tempest’s usual haunts, the Viper Room on the Sunset Strip.

“Hey Ben, I think I found another fragment” said Joe Rodriguez, another of the biometric students. After Eric had observed the unusual gene, and found more, Ben assigned the entire bio-engineering team to monitor the CEQ8000 to see if more matches to the unusual gene could be found. After a week of all-nighters and nearly constant observations, they had found more of the mystery genes.

The drums were beating. The syncopated sounds were reverberating off the circle of stone columns, echoing back to the grassy center. In the center, dancers were wildly gyrating.

The strangers had appeared one morning a season ago while the people of the clan were working in the fields. They took part in the labors, exhibiting skills that were unknown to the clan. At the end of the day, they were invited to share in the communal meal and were offered pallets in the lodge to sleep, Within a couple of days, they were able to communicate in rudimentary conversations,. The strangers taught clan members skills that had previously been unimaginable.

Evenings were spent around a fire. One evening, one of strangers took two sticks and began beating on a log. Talk stopped and all eyes were focused on the drummer as he began slowly tapping a 4/4 beat. This was a very out of the ordinary fireside practice. After a time, he inserted some back beat and picked up the pace until a full-scale drum solo was under way. The other strangers accompanied with hand claps. Soon, others copied the hand clapping. The next evening, the strangers passed sticks around to some of the men. The log beating was erratic and without any sense of rhythm. Soon, though, a beat was established.

The evenings around the fire had taken on a sense of merriment. After the fire had roared and the coals were glowing, the drumming began. While the first sticks were given to men of the group, this changed on that night. The stranger offered his sticks to a young girl who gladly took them, and to the delight of the women, began to pound the logs along with the men. Most association between the strangers and the clan had been among the men. This gesture led to a few of the clan’s women to join conversations with the strangers. There were also more intimate associations. The nightly percussion routine continued with marked improvement.

On each equinox and solstice there was a gathering of the area’s tribes. of. There was a circle of large erect stones with flat stones lying across the tops. The strangers smiled knowingly at each other as they approached the stone monument. It was the autumnal equinox, the first gathering since the strangers had arrived. The clan brought sticks and various percussive pieces. The members of the other tribes were at first stunned, and then amused and impressed by the clan’s performance. As the drumming began, other members of the tribe jumped up and flailed, twirled, and gyrated to the rhythmic beat. Soon, members of the other tribes joined them in what appeared to be a rudimentary version of the Wah Watusi, a dance popular in the early part of the 1960’s. Before the next solstice, the men had departed. Left behind were those who had taken advantage of their tutelage in craftsmanship. Left behind were the women who had befriended them.

Oh, those redheads. Thomas Jefferson. Chuck Norris. Dylan Thomas. Ginger Baker. There’s a rumor that Genghis Khan was a redhead.

“I’m going cross eyed from looking through these files” Eric complained. “We’ve finally lined up donor records with DNA sample cards. I think we can start to match them.”

“Great” Ben said. “Can you find the donor of the strand you first found the mutant gene in?”

“Let’s see, strand 10425, came from a Gloria McDermott.”

“Michael Hardy was the professor in charge of the research. He called to request the records of Gloria McDermott. He found that she was an accident victim that had her remains transferred from Mexico. He gave the news to the group.

“There’s no record of any diseases from this one” he said with a very disappointed look. “Guess we haven’t found a link to a disease. Let’s keep looking, though”.

Betsy walked into the Viper Room in Amanda’s hunter green low-cut dress. Heads turned as she walked into the room.

“Miranda?” a voice called.

As Betsy came closer, he saw that he was mistaken.

“I’m sorry” he said. “I thought you were Miranda Tempest.”

“I’m her niece” Betsy confessed.

“Your hair, your clothes, you look so much like her.”

“This is actually her dress,”

The band was playing a subdued jazzy tune with a strong bass beat. There were dancers on the floor. Betsy glanced toward them.

“Anyone up for a dance?” she boldly asked. Miranda’s dress brought out a bold side of her that she had not known existed. Betsy liked it.

Betsy began a gyration that again turned heads.

“You even dance like Miranda” someone said. “Did you learn to dance from her?”

“No, this is how I’ve always danced” she replied.

Her moves were reminiscent of the Wah Watusi, a dance popular in the early half of the 1960’s.

“Hey, Professor Hardy, since we don’t know if any of these accident victims had a disease, maybe we should talk to their relatives. They may know if there’s medical history we can find out about.” Last night’s dream was still on his mind. It was the same dream he had had many nights before. No connection had been found so far between the gene strand donors and any specific disease.

Eric knocked on Professor Hardy’s office door.

“Enter. What’ve you got?”

“I have local addresses for families of three people with the gene

“Let’s make plans for a road trip to visit the relatives. You and Ben can get right on it.”

“OK professor” Eric affirmed.

“Is this the McDermott residence?” Ben inquired.

“Yes, it is” Betsy answered. “Can I help you?”

“I’m Ben Davis and this is Eric Hendricks. We’re from the Cal Tech Genetics Laboratory. We’ve been doing some research and we’d like to get some information about Gloria McDermott.”

“I’m her niece. What would you like to know?”

“Did she have any type of disease? Anything like cancer or diabetes?”

“No” Betsy answered. “Nothing I know of. She was an actress and in perfect health. She died from an accident in Mexico.”

“How about any family medical history of disease?” Ben asked.

“No” Betsy said. “What is this about?”

“We found something in our genetic research and just want to know if it’s related to any type of disease.”

 “Oh” Betsy said. “Can I do anything to help?” She was looking straight at Eric and smiling.

“Well,” Ben said. “You could give us a DNA sample to see if we find something similar to what showed up in your aunt.”

“Thank you” Ben said as they were ready to leave. “We’ll let you know if we find anything from our research.”

“I couldn’t tell if she was flirting with you or vice versa” Ben observed when they were in the car.

“Maybe both” Eric responded. “She seems as smart as she is pretty.”

“OK, Romeo, let’s get to the next stop.”

Jody Maguire had lived with her parents in Anaheim when her accident took place. Sam and Eric went to the house on Katella Avenue and spoke with Jody’s mother, Alice. She agreed to let a swab from her cheek be tested.

“Another redhead” Eric noted. “Seems like everyone’s a redhead these days.”

“You and your red hair are taking over the world” Sam added.

“Jason’s brother had brown hair, though” Eric remembered.

“He’s about the only normal person we talked to” Sam said.

“Normal? Are you implying that redheads aren’t normal?” Eric was laughing.

“Knowing you, I rest my case”.

“Like you’re the model of normality” Eric chided.

“Touche, let’s get back to the lab.”

Oh, those redheads. Thomas Jefferson. Chuck Norris. Dylan Thomas. Ginger Baker. There’s a rumor that Genghis Khan was a redhead.

“Hello” Betsy answered her cell phone

“This is Eric from the Cal Tech lab. You gave us the DNA sample a last week.”

“Oh yeah, you’re the red headed guy that was here” she recalled.

“That’s me. I’d like to talk to you about the tests we ran.”

“Is something wrong?” she asked. “Do I have a disease?”

“No, nothing like that. I just wanted to let you know about what we’ve been studying.”

“Is this some excuse to ask me out?” she asked, somewhat relieved.

“Well, I thought I was being more subtle” he confessed. “Are you free for a cup of coffee or lunch or anything?”

“Lunch would be nice” she agreed. I’m free Sunday.”

At lunch, Eric told Betsy about his work with genetic research.

Betsy talked about her work with the NGO.

“You said that you belong in an earlier time” Betsy mentioned, remembering Eric’s comment on the phone. “I have dreams about living in ancient times.”

“I do too” Eric said. “I dream about Stonehenge. The same dream comes regularly.”

“My dreams are also about Stonehenge” Betsy added. They come and go, every so often.”

“I’m at Stonehenge back when it was all together’ Eric said. I hear drums and see people dancing. Same dream every time

 “My aunt was the only one I talked about my dream with” Betsy said. She had the same dreams. I had the dream the night she died.”

Just then, Betsy noticed the three men walking into the diner. The look on her face caused Eric to turn to see what caught her attention.

She leaned across the table, put her face close to Eric’s and whispered, “These look just like the people in my dream.”

Eric’s face had the same surprised look.

“They’re in my dream too” Eric said.

They were trying not to stare.

One of the men nodded and smiled. “Hello” he said.

“Hi” they both answered.

The waitress was taking their orders. Betsy had ordered a cob salad. Eric was having a burger.

“You should get avocado with those” the guy said.

Betsy and Eric just stared with open mouths. The three familiar strangers smiled at them.

A waitress led them to a table. She took their order. Betsy and Eric sat quietly, glancing toward the table where the three redheads sat.

The men finished eating, paid the check, and got up to leave. They had to pass the table Betsy and Eric were sitting at.

As they passed, one looked from Eric to Betsy. “Have a great day” he said.

“I see you got the avocado. Enjoy it” another said. They left.

Betsy met Eric at the Cal Tech Grille on Thursday.

“That thing on Sunday has been about the only thing on my mind” Betsy shared.

“Mine too” Eric agreed. “But I don’t have a clue about what’s going on. And I can’t stop thinking about avocados.”.

 “We’ve both seen those guys in our dreams. I think we’re in this together” Betsy said.

Eric nodded in agreement.

“I can’t help but think we’ll be seeing them again” Betsy mentioned.

“I don’t think it’s an if. It’s a where and when” Eric added.

Betsy changed the subject. “I’m going to this club on Sunset tomorrow. Wanna join me?”

“You bet.”

“I’ll pick you up at 7.”

“So, where are we going?” he asked.

“It’s called the Viper Room. It’s a place my aunt hung out”

Betsy parked the Prius in a lot a couple of blocks from the Viper Room.

“Do you dance?” Betsy asked when they were seated.

“Got the happiest feet in town” Eric answered.

As Betsy and Eric hit the floor, their steps nearly matched those that Miranda ad been known for. Their steps were reminiscent of the Wah Watusi, a dance popular in the early half of the 1960’s.

Eric suddenly stopped mid-step.

Betsy noticed and looked toward where Eric’s eyes were pointed. She also stopped abruptly.

The three men with the red beards waved.

Eric took Betsy’s hand. They walked cautiously toward the corner booth where the three were sitting.

“Who are you?” Eric asked.

“We’re here to help. Eric, you’ve been analyzing DNA. You’ve been looking at a gene that appears different. That gene is a distraction to your work.. You’ve discovered that it is unique to those of us with red hair. There are other things that your CEQ8000 can tell you.

“You know about my work?” Eric asked.

“Of course” the red bearded stranger answered. If you will come with us, we can help you understand much that will benefit your research.”

Eric and Betsy left the Viper Room with the three redheaded strangers. They followed in Betsy’s car to a house on Mulholland Drive. Over glasses of Malbec and chips with guacamole, the strangers revealed things that would revolutionize the medical profession.

The next day Eric was in the Cal Tech genetics lab. He identified some genetic configurations that could predict cancer, diabetes and heart disease. He put his findings into a thesis for presentation to the scientific community.

A year later, the Ginger Society was formed. The mission was to provide cures and prevention for diseases that had plagued society for the past hundred years.. There was a cure for all types of cancer that consisted of a mixture of produce and herbs with no need for chemo or surgery. The CEQ8000 was used to identify people who could benefit from the treatments the Ginger Society provided. The Beckman Coulter Company donated sequencers to help in the distribution of the formulas. Betsy used her NGO connections to place the sequencers in areas of greatest need.

The Ginger Society consisted of a clinical lab and distribution operation. The formulas for each of the remedies began with a base of avocado and lime. Different herbs were added for the specific needs of the diseases to be confronted. Eric, with the help of some of his Cal Tech classmates, saw to the operation of the clinic. Betsy oversaw the distribution of the various treatments provided by the clinic. Their open-source formulas had been made public with the understanding that all treatments would forever be administered at no cost.

Eric and Betsy continued going to the Viper Room. Their dance steps continued to be reminiscent of the Wah Watusi, a dance popular in the early half of the 1960’s.

The strangers did not reappear.

Genghis Khan rode his steed at the front of his horde of Mongols. He was wearing a red turban. His hair was black.