Zygote

By Kathy Williamson

She needed a job. She liked working with kids, and this seemed to be the best of both worldsliving at a camp for orphaned children, plus benefits! But it turned out to be so much more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 14, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524508869

Kathy Williamson

The author worked in the entertainment industry as well as the medical field in California.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 by Kathy Williamson.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2016909617

ISBN:   Hardcover   978-1-5245-0888-3

Softcover   978-1-5245-0887-6

eBook   978-1-5245-0886-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the

product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance

to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 06/10/2016

Xlibris

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

CHAPTER 1

T he walls were green. Not a cheerful Kelly green or a somber forest green. They were more like things you would see in a hospital like this. Puke green; snot green pus green. Not a happy c olor.

She sat on the drab beige plastic sofa waiting for her turn. The job paid well but they required you pass a physical so here she was watching the kid on the other couch cough his lungs out.

Bad cold. The mom seemed to sense her hesitancy being in a room with sick people.

She nodded. I'm just here for a physical. Hope I don't take anything else home.

The mom smiled thinly, Me too.

At least the waiting room wasn't full. Her, the kid, the mom, Shouldn't be all day. she thought.

She watched the clock on the wall tick the minutes away. It was a cat with eyes and tail that moved every second. One, two, three, four. Suddenly the cat clock blasted, MEOW! She jumped and nearly feel off her sofa. The kid started to cough and then threw up all over the tile floor. Yes, definitely puke green.

Mrs Johnson. The nurse startled her out of her thoughts. Follow me

She walked down a long hallway after the figure in pink. The nurse motioned to the scale on the floor. She dutifully stepped on as it blinked happily away. Liar. Yes she had put on weight but not that much. It stopped just shy of 189 pounds.

The nurse got her temp and bp. All the annoying poking and prodding that goes along with a physical. Stupid really. She ran 2 miles every day. She was a hard worker, a good worker and... And that was the key word. Was. Now she was trying to get a job, again. The great economy our president bragged about was a lie.

The nurse showed her into an exam room. More puke green walls. Beige exam table, beige cupboards around a stainless steel sink. Couldn't they add just a hint of color. Had anyone told them pink and puke green with beige can cause sickness, maybe even cancer? She laughed at the thought.

Hospitals had not fared well since government took over health care 20 years earlier. She remembered passing two on the way over today. Once everyone wanted to be a doctor, a nurse. Not now. Over 25% of the doctors had retired. They could not make a living at it anymore. Salary caps they had said, forced then out. The hospitals, like the store malls told the tale. Ghosts and rats were all that roamed their halls.

The door opened and a man no older than her son walked in. She was shocked when he introduced himself as Dr. Jason Ellis. He smiled at her. Obviously he'd seen this reaction before.

Twenty-four. Graduated early. Interned a year and here I am. He smiled again.

She hated a strange man to touch her but she calmed herself and let him proceed. He was gentle. His hands were soft but. He sure seemed to handling her left breast longer than the right. She said a quick prayer he'd finish up, like, now!

When was your last mammagram and pap smear.

The terrible two. First they mash the girls between two metal plates then x ray them one at a time. All the while the person possessing such delicate flowers is trying hard not to scream and run. But she can't. They are held by the devil's cold metal hand.

Then you are strapped on a cot with your feet in the air while someone not your husband, lover or friend gets real close to her. They smile as you fart in their face.

They stick a probe inside and snip a small sample to examine. It doesn't hurt, they tell you as you double over in pain.

Too bad there isn't something just as fun for a man's physical. Mash his weanie in the devil's claw and cut a chunk out of his balls to check for cancer. Nope, never happen. She smiled again at the thought.

After it was all said and done the same nurse, Pinkie led her back to the exam room. Dr. Niño came in a few minutes later scowling as he read her chart.

Slight mass on left breast. he said half to himself.

Her mind went racing back. Her mom had a double mastectomy. Instead of two little doves gracing her chest, she had two tortured, crevices. Always oozing; always painful.

She said a little prayer again, this time more earnest. Don't let it be cancer, Lord. I'm only 42.

Mrs Johnson? It was the boy doctor. He looked concerned. There are new proceedures if it is cancer. The damaged tissue is removed and a, uh, uh, new tissue replaces it. We've gotten so good at it that most people cannot even tell.

CHAPTER 2

The board meeting will come to order The gavel smacked the podium with a resounding crack.

We have alot to discuss today. Our hospital, like most since the government took over health care, earlier this year is operating in the red. Deeply, deeply in the red.

Everyone was silent. Even before the change, A Loving Place had folded followed by the Green Cross Clinic and Hospital. Now they were next. The once thriving Bane Hospital and Research Center would be next. It was only a matter of time.

We were on the cutting edge of reproductive health. We were the blessing couples who could not have children were praying for. We were the pioneers in invitro fertilization. We cannot let the huge advances in science we have developed be thrown away.

"As you know we have been hard at work trying to cut back on expenses without raising costs, keeping the dream of a family alive. However with each successful family created comes a conundrum.

We harvest no less than 10 eggs from the woman each cycle. Those eggs, all ten, are exposed to the man's sperm. Some start to multiply and grow. We let the family decide how many and which ones they want implanted. The rest are stored for further use."

"We currently have over ten thousand of these zygotes in storage. Ten thousand. The cost is astronomical. The problem is we don't know who most of them belong to. We have tried to contact the parents of record, to no avail. The few we have contacted don't want them.

Our attorneys assure us that if we make a dilligent effort to track down the owners, if you will, and no one comes forward, they become our property. The property of this hospital. Ladys and gentlemen, that leads to the next point.

More people are living longer. Organ donations have dropped markedly. We can replace most major organs but we need a matching donor. Pediatric donations are almost non existant.

The reason I have called you here today is to discuss a solution that might raise some eyebrows but will definitely save lives.

There was silence again as the members of the board processed what he was saying.

That is our job, to save lives. To make lives better. To improve lives. To do no harm.

He paused. This was going easier than expected. If they approved this proposal, Bane Research Hospital could be in the black within a few years

He leaned back and spoke to the nurse behind him. Bring them in.

The board members watched the nurse leave, wondering what was going on. Still trying to process what the chair had said. They all had a 6 figure salary and all that goes with it. Jobs like that were hard to find.

A door opened. Ten children, ages three to twelve entered with the nurse following behind.

Ladies and gentlemen. This is our solution.

Total Silence! Was he really suggesting? No, he couldn't.

"As you know,