Chapter Thirty-Eight
JUNK
1
The sky-blue, De Tomaso Pantera rumbled into the underground, King’s Cross, carparking station. It was early evening, Friday, May 14, 2010. The whole parking station shook with the thunder coming out of the four, stainless exhaust pipes. Alex parked ‘The Beast’, which was what he called it, and walked out into the street. It was a perfect, balmy, autumn evening, perfect for his and Sophia’s special date.
That night was the five-year anniversary of their first date. He remembered it like it was yesterday. It was branded into his memory and the thing that stood out more than anything else was their very first kiss. He remembered every nanosecond of it because it was the most perfect, most romantic moment of his life. He remembered how they had a pleasant dinner at Jordon’s Restaurant, in Darling Harbour, and how she enjoyed a couple of champagnes and laughed at all his jokes, and how she let him know that she was a bit of a cheap drunk. He remembered how they walked along the water and how they were surrounded by all the lights everywhere, and how he somehow summoned up the courage to hug her there, in the midst of all the humanity, and kiss her warm, delectable lips, and feel them, like lips he’d never felt before, and he remembered how he heard her whisper, ‘he knows how to kiss’, and how they had been inseparable ever since.
He wore the same dark suit and tie, a rarity for him, and he carried a dozen red roses and a box of chocolates, just like the first time. She wore the same sexy little black dress and high heels, and she made him wait in the street for her, in front of the doorway of her building, just like the first time. It took quite a few dates before she allowed him up into her apartment. He loved that about her.
They retraced all the steps of their first date that night, and by the end of it, they weren’t sure which night was more romantic. After five years, they were more in love with each other than ever. They still lived apart though. He suggested, from time to time, that she move in with him, but she always said, ‘we will see’. She called it ‘shackling up’ and always expressed concern about it because it went against her Lebanese culture. To be truthful, he actually enjoyed the relationship they shared because it gave them both their independence and allowed them space to pursue their own respective interests. But they shared one constant, common longing, and that was to be with one another.
2
It was Sunday, September 23, 2007. It was late at night. Prof. Lloyd was ensconced in his study, buried in paper. His phone rang. He answered it,
‘It’s your money.’
‘Hi, Lloyd?’
‘Alex?’
‘Sorry it’s so late. What time is it?’
‘It’s eleven thirty. Did you call me to ask me the time?’
‘No, Lloyd, I’m sorry, but I’m in a bit of a mind spin. I think that I found something. Did I wake you?’
‘No. Lucky for you I’m reading mid-term papers. Actually, it’s nice to get a break. So, what is so important to call me so late, and where are you?’
‘I’m still at the uni, in the lab. I think that I might have stumbled onto something.’
‘Really?’
‘Yes. I’m so excited.’
‘So, what have you found?’
‘OK, you know how I’ve been working through the thousands of samples we’ve got in store, and how I’ve been looking for repeating sequences in the non-coding DNA?’
‘Yes?’
‘Well, just as it began to look like there were no repetitions, no patterns, I stumbled across one, but not in the way we thought. It was hidden in a miniscule part of the sequence. You could look for it all your life and not find it.’
‘You have got my attention, Alex.’
‘Good, cause you won’t believe what I think I found.’
‘So how did you find it?’
‘Well, I just went on a wild hunch. I took a portion and amplified it. Then I took a portion of that, and amplified it. I did that twenty-three times and what are the odds that I would stumble onto a repeating pattern. It was there, staring me right in the face. There were exactly forty-seven repeats, then the sequence reverted back to apparent randomness.’
‘That’s pretty interesting, Alex, and probably the biggest fluke in the history of genetics. You should buy yourself a lottery ticket. What is your postulation?’
‘Mate, I haven’t told you the whole story. This is going to send shivers down your spine.’
‘Shivers, eh?’
‘Yeah. I checked the file on the person whose DNA I was analysing, and guess what.’
‘What?’
‘He was forty-seven years old when he died.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Absolutely seriously. It completely blew my mind. I’m going to stop now. I am totally rooted. I’ve been working for thirty-six hours straight. I’m going home to bed. I’ll call you tomorrow. You ought to come in and check it out.’
‘I will, Alex. This is huge news. The hairs are still standing on the back of my neck. Go get some sleep. I’ll let Eva know. She’ll be really happy for you.’
3
They couldn’t get together on Monday the 24th, or Tuesday the 25th. They finally all met up in the lab, at uni, in the evening of the 26th. Eva brought dinner in a hamper. There was roast chicken, prosciutto, salami, three cheeses, a jar of olives, salad, two baguettes and three bottles of Brokenwood. Alex brought his iPod player. Sophia was there as well, as Alex had picked her up after work.
They sat on high stools around one of the lab benches, which Eva covered with a white tablecloth. As they ate and drank, they discussed Alexander’s work.
‘To tell you the truth,’ said Alex, ‘I’m actually glad that you guys couldn’t make it the last couple of days. It gave me a chance to progress a little further with my work.’ ‘What else have you found?’ Lloyd asked.
‘Plenty. I continued the amplification process. What I found amazed me, and I reckon it will amaze you as well.’
‘We’re already amazed,’ said Eva.
‘I am not so amazed,’ said Sophia. ‘I must be careful not to drink too much of this wine, though, because it will go straight to my head.’
‘Don’t worry, Sophia,’ said Eva, ‘it is a party after all.’
‘As I zoomed in between two of the repetitions, you wouldn’t believe what emerged.’
‘What?’
‘There were thirteen sub-repetitions between each of the forty-seven repetitions. Do you know what that suggests?’
Lloyd guessed it immediately.
‘Thirteen orbits of the moon in a year.’
‘That was exactly what I thought of as well, Lloyd. Then I figured that if that was the case, then, if I continued the amplification process, I should find …’
Eva butted in, ‘Twenty-eight sub-sub-repetitions, I bet, representing the twentyeight days in a month.’
Alex smiled, ‘Eva is right, that is exactly what I found.’
‘Great work, Alex. Have you come to any conclusions?’
‘It’s too early for that, except that it seems like living organisms are linked to time via the rotation of the Earth around its axis, the orbit of the Moon around the Earth and the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.’
‘I wonder if there are sub-sub-sub-repetitions representing the hours?’ Eva asked.
‘I am beginning to suspect that there might be because of the one-hour, forward time shift I had in the shower. Remember?’
‘How could we forget?’ replied Lloyd. ‘That was what started this whole business in the first place.’
‘Would you like some chicken, Alex?’
‘Yes please, Eva.’
‘That is a lovely necklace, Sophia.’
‘Thank you, Eva. Alex bought it for me for our second anniversary.’
‘Hello, it looks like we have to open another bottle,’ commented Lloyd.
‘There’s just one more thing I found out.’ Everyone looked at Alex.
‘I had a close look at the repeats. There are forty-seven repeats. After the last repeat, there are five sub-repeats. After the last sub-repeat, there are twenty-one sub-subrepeats. Then I had another look at the person’s file, the person whose DNA this is, and found out that he was exactly forty-seven years, one hundred and sixty-one days old when he died. Well, 161 days is 28 times 5, which is 140, plus 21 is 161. Forty-seven, five, twenty-one. That is pretty mind blowing if you ask me.’
Everyone, except for Sophia, sat there completely stunned struggling to come to terms with the implications of the bizarre discovery.
‘Am I missing something?’ she asked. ‘Does this mean that everything is destiny? I knew it was destiny when I met my Alexander.’
No one else spoke. They were all considering the apparent possibility that their moment of death was pre-determined when they were conceived because it was programmed into their junk DNA, and that they could probably find out the year, month and day of their own death by simply performing a DNA analysis on themselves.
…….