Memory Lane...(Part Nine)

"Authorities are calling it a case of mistaken identity with a deadly twist. I'm Jenna St. James with Action Six news reporting from outside the former home of Samantha Johnson, a single mother trying to find her way in this world working two jobs and supplementing her income by selling something no one should ever have to sell...her memories..."

"AND roll background reel!"

Jenna watched the monitor as her location shot faded into the pre-taped package they had been working on all week. What a crazy story. And of course they were going to do what they could to make it even more dramatic. It was sort of her signature storytelling motif. But honestly with this one there wasn't much to add, just some dramatic music, a few fade outs and a shot of the children at the funeral that she was particularly proud of. Very emotional without being exploitative at all. At least in her opinion.

The trial was going to be a whole series on its own, she hoped. Right now the killer was still being evaluated for mental fitness, but Jenna was hopeful there wouldn't be a plea deal or guilty by reason of insanity pre-trial motion. She already had the courtroom scenes planned out in her head. She had the perfect black business suit to wear. Serious, yet still very sexy. Not that she thought she needed to be sexy, but it was television, it didn't hurt to be sexy.

She turned her attention back to the monitor and heard herself...."Samantha arrived home after a long day at work to find Alicia McGovern sitting on her front porch. Security cameras show Samantha approaching Alicia appearing to ask her if she could help her with anything...then the encounter escalated..."

Of course they didn't know how friendly Samantha was, there was no sound on the tape, just a grainy image. But there was no reason to portray her as anything less than a saint. Alicia was the villian. Just waiting on Samantha's porch for her. Calmly drinking a cup tea. Samantha's favorite brand of tea. Wearing clothing that looked like it could have been taken out of Samantha's closet. If Jenna had seen someone at her house doing basically a cosplay of her she wouldn't have been friendly that's for sure. But Jenna had cultivated a distinct look for her career. To see someone else mimic that? She would have...Oh here was a good part, she really liked how she had cast her voice just a touch lower here she felt it gave her more gravitas.

"When the police arrived Alicia McGovern had not moved. She was sitting on the porch with the phone she had used to call 911 in her hand. The gun a few feet away where she had calmly placed it after brutally murdering Samantha Johnson, mother of two..."

She loved that part. Brutally murdered. Not that there was any other way to murder someone, really. Brutal and murder sort of went together. But it still gave a good punch to the story. And adding again that Samantha was a mother. That was important. There were people who were very uncomfortable with the idea of selling memories, and she didn't want them to turn on her victim. Not when there was a News & Documentary Emmy in play.

She watched for awhile longer waiting for her big moment.

"...this sleepy California suburb was about to be rocked, not just by the brutal murder of one of their own but by the claim from Alicia McGovern that SHE was the real Samantha Johnson and she had shot the imposter in self-defense and she had the memories to prove it..."

She was pretty positive this was her year. She might as well start shopping for her award show dress right now.

May Recap!

The end of May already! Can you believe it? This part of the year always feels like the downhill part. Even more so than the end of the year for some reason. It's like one day it's winter and the next summer is over! But...here we are...end of May. Time to see where I am with the goals.

Let's start with Fitness/Weight since that's my struggle point and the one I was the most disappointed with last month. We added Saturday back in to the rotation as a "when we are not busy" day. By shifting it to the late morning instead of trying to go at 8 when they open we actually made it easier on ourselves. So on Saturdays where we aren't busy with other things there will be an added gym trip. And with that added gym trip I...lost a pound from the end of April which puts me back at flat for the year. So...yay?

I am at that crossroads still where the actual goal for 2019 is burning in my head but the reality of how hard it is to get my weight to budge from where it's stuck (except to go up, I was WAY up at one point this month) is making me crazy. I am not sure if I want to put a BIG push on in June to see if I can get it to move if I am really strict or understand that I don't want to live my life being really strict so just accept this. The problem I am having with the accept this portion is that we insist on having mirrors in the world. Especially at the gym where I spend 5-6 days a week, there are a LOT of mirrors. So...

So anyway. Fitness is good. Weight is still an issue. Mentally struggling with it is about normal, which is to say not normal at all.

Reading! I was three books behind last month and so made an effort to catch up and am now 4 books behind. Well, okay then. I'm sure I will catch up soon. I mean it's reading, how could I not? Especially when fall comes and we are flying more, I can polish a book off on a weekend trip easy peasy. The Discworld books I am finally caught up and on track with. I read a Rincewind one and a Witches one this month. Rincewind is not my favorite character, I don't know why but I don't enjoy his stories nearly as much. But the Witches are my favorite so it all balanced out.

Writing! Counting this blog and the one I am planning on writing right after this I am ahead by 4 total and 5 in my fiction. Not bad at all. I also did two submissions this month so I'm ahead there. Three out of four are done. One of them was a rhyming poetry thing that I did because I know I am bad at that (and it is truly awful) so I thought maybe lessening the hope would be good. But then I got notice of one in an area that I think I am good at and so I sent in two stories to them as well. They were things I had already put up here and the poem is SO bad so there won't be any extra blogs out of them, but there are done so that's good. One more to go.

MasterClass! Took the Gordon Ramsay one I was talking about. It wasn't my favorite. He says "literally" as a verbal tic. Literally going to cut this open. Literally cook it for 30 minutes. At least he doesn't mean figuratively, but it was a lot of literally. And every flavor is "to die for." He also didn't really seem to have a plan when he started as to what he wanted to teach. The parts where he talked about his personal story were very interesting. But I literally will never make sea urchin scrambled eggs that are to die for so...  BUT I did write 9 fiction pieces this month so we will see if it was watching much better writers talk about writing that was killing me. Next month is Judy Blume so if I fall in to another drought I will spend the balance of the year watching randos.

Monthly Museum/Attraction! We went to the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, The Natural History Museum and The Zoo while we were back in Albuquerque so killed it. The Pueblo Center was the most interesting. I recommend it. It also gave me something to think about concerning that cultural appropriation hurdle I talk about. The Zia symbol that is on the New Mexico flag, and on a large percentage of New Mexicans was lifted from the Zia Pueblo and they were never consulted on how they felt about their religious symbol being used like that. And it's everywhere in New Mexico. I am not kidding about it being on New Mexicans. I have considered getting a Zia tattoo myself. It's a cultural touchstone for New Mexicans. But it was stolen. So what is the statute of limitations on appropriation? And when does it become broader culture than its origins? And does that matter? Like I said, it was interesting.

Long Term! Got that deck work scheduled. Whew. I was going to count it as a win anyway because I sent in requests for estimates (which were ignored) and Brent actually got three people to do estimates (trying not to think it's because his email was from a man, but this is the second time it's happened) but then the guy today actually came in with a great price so I got it scheduled. Hopefully the weather will co-operate and we will get it done next month.

What's on tap for next month?

I don't know. I need to schedule some long term stuff but I've not thought about it!

Deck work done (weather depending)
And...well I guess I've got a few hours to figure it out and put it on my calendar! Wish me luck!

So there is May. Hold on tight, kiddies, we are rushing on through the summer now!

This Is My Worry Blog...

I'm almost convinced that Donald Trump will be re-elected in 2020.

I watched Robert Mueller this morning give his very carefully worded because he's a lawyer speech and then watched "the other side" react to what I had listened to in the comments sections of three different news sources. And let me tell you...they did not hear the same things at all. It's kind of crazy.

And I don't understand it.

When Barr gave his speech after he got the report I posted that we should all be glad that there was no collusion and no obstruction and that I really wanted to see the report (which I thought that there was no way it would be released) to see what happened, because I didn't understand how there couldn't be obstruction at least. But I trusted that Barr was telling the truth.

I was wrong. I mean really wrong. He wasn't telling the truth. Not even a little bit. He was telling what he wanted to be the truth. So I changed my mind about what the Mueller Report actually said, because now I could see what it actually said not what Barr and Trump want it to have said.

Now, to be fair, I've only read about half of it. I've read the summaries that the Mueller team provided, which are incredibly handy. I've read specific parts when people have referenced them to see if they did in fact say what I was being told they said. Fool me once... But I haven't read every word. The redactions drive me to distraction.

What I read first were the quotes that Barr pulled out to put in his summary. Because even when I believed what he was telling me I said it bothered me that he pulled half sentences. I wanted to see the other half. Now I understand why he pulled half sentences, the whole thing made what he was saying seem like...well...wrong. Which it was.

And you add that to the chorus of voices still saying that his taxes don't matter, and the money he is making off of his private companies doesn't matter, and the campaign finance fraud doesn't matter, and the history of tax cheating (really good article on that that NOBODY read), and ...well...

So there is that part. The whole Donald Trump is incredibly dishonest and you can't see it or don't care part.

Then there is the part where I see fear mongering as a bad thing and there is a whole segment of our population that sees it as a reason to vote for him. They are scared, he made them scared, and somehow they think he can make them safe? I just don't understand it.

Then there is the part where all certain voters care about is Roe v. Wade. I tried SO DAMN HARD last cycle to make people on the left understand the importance of the Supreme Court and got nowhere. And we've lost it, folks. If we make it through 2020 with just this much damage to the institution (and yes, I LIKE BEER and I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE is damage) we should count ourselves lucky. IF we get a Democrat in office and don't get McConnell out of the Senate...well...do you think he would let a justice get approved if he could stop it? Spoiler alert...we already know he won't.

So anyway...Roe v. Wade means conservative voters will vote for the Republican no matter what. They feel like it's a holy thing to do. Who the fuck cares about all of the other hateful and hurtful things if they can get that done?

And then there are the voters who feel about regulations the same way. Get rid of them. All of them. Who cares about safety, the environment, people? Honestly folks, there is profit to be had here and how are we supposed to maximize it if you can't underpay, overwork, drill in the ocean without inspections and cut down all the trees? Who cares about the future when I can make a buck today?

So yeah...

I'm worried.

#VoteBlueNoMatterWho
#2020AnybodyButTrump

Memory Lane....(Part Eight)

"Dr. Lane, was it your decision to keep Ms. Firestone in the dark about what you were looking for?"

"Yes. It was my decision. It was the correct decision if we wanted to be able to get an accurate read on the situation."

"Yes, I saw you said that before. Can you explain to me why that is?"

"If we cloned a few other memories and they were normal run of the mill things then we would have one problem to look for, if we saw the same issue with those memories we would have another. But if she was aware there was a potential problem then there is no telling what we would have seen."

"Why is that?"

"Memory is malleable. Everyone thinks that what they remember is what happened, but it's not. And the more often you recall a memory the more it's changed from what happened to what you think happened."

"I find that hard to believe."

"Most people do. But that doesn't make it any less true. For instance this right here? If you were to write down your memory of this session right after it ended you would get it mostly right, but even then it would be slightly different than what that," Dane pointed to the camera, "would show as to what really happened. And over time? It would change more and more. You might change who asked what question. You might bring in another person who wasn't actually here but who you thought of at some point while recalling this memory. And you would swear that what you remembered was the truth. Even in watching the video replay, you would be confused because it didn't match with your recall. Memory shifts each and every time you recall it. It's why someone might not think they are lying when they are clearly lying and why eyewitnesses to crimes aren't actually all that reliable."

"That seems to be a cynical world view."

"It's not. Not at all. It's been known for a very long time, people just don't want to believe it about themselves so they don't want to believe it about other people. We all like to think we are good drivers and have excellent memories."

Detective Green shuffled through some papers then slid one across the table to Dr. Lane, "Do you recognize this?"

Dane glanced at the paper, "It appears to be a printout of email correspondence with my office manager."

Detective Green read from one of the sheets, "'Dane, I think we are morally obligated to tell Jean what we suspect.'" Detective Green looked up from the sheet, "Your name is really Dane Lane?"

Dane nodded and smiled, "Yes, my mother is Jane and thought it would be fun if all of her children also rhymed. My brother Zane goes by his middle name and my sister Elaine goes by Elly. I'm the only one who embraced it."

"So the company name..."

"Is a play on words. It's my company and it's a common enough phrase that it is easy for people to understand what we do and to remember it."

"Hunh. Okay. So why did you not agree with..." Detective Green made a show of looking at the paper for the name though Dane was pretty sure she had all of those conversations memorized, "...why did you not agree with Gloria's assessment that it was your moral obligation to tell Ms. Firestone what you suspected?"

"As I told you before I needed to know what our real issue was. Or more correctly what the real issue was. Was it a computer issue? Was it that Jean had not been truthful with us about her history with memory cloning and experiencing or was there something else going on? The only way to get good data was to not corrupt the experience of remembering for Jean."

"So what did you tell her?"

"We told her that there was a glitch in the system and we were trying to track it. Because she had just done a trial memory clone and worked for the company she would be able to help us out."

"And what did you find?"

Dane smiled, "Exactly what you read in those email exchanges. The three memories we had Jean share, ones she chose at random, were all tagged the same way. They weren't normal memories, they were given to her."

Detective Green tidied the pile of papers in front of her. "Tell me, Dr. Lane, do you regret what happened next?"

"No."

"A woman is dead, Dr. Lane."

"I understand that. And I am deeply saddened by that. But regret would imply that I did something wrong.  And in going over what happened hundreds of times trying to see what we should have done differently, I cannot say I would have changed anything I did."

"Even being familiar with the California case?"

"At the time I did not think there was a connection. They are very different after all."

"Memory manipulation leads to death of a woman. I'm not sure that's all that different."

Dane leaned back in his chair, "Do you want my help or are you just trying to make me flustered? Because I am willing to help, but I don't fluster easily."

"I'm sorry you think I am trying to fluster you. I just am trying to get to the bottom of all of this."

"And I would like to help in that regard."

"Then shall we continue? Tell me what you know about the California case."

Don't Make It Worse...

I'm allergic to bandaids. Or more accurately I'm allergic to the adhesive in bandaids. For a long time I thought it was a latex allergy. You hear about those and there are a ton of latex free products out there so you think this is the common thing it must be this. But it's not. It's the adhesive. If I use a bandaid or medical tape on my skin I get an itchy, oozy, raw, wound in the shape of the bandaid.

Basically I make the original problem bigger and much worse.

So anytime I get a cut that needs covered it's a complicated process to protect it. For instance when I grated my knuckle a few weeks ago I had to wrap the finger in gauze, not just place a square of it on the wound but wrap the whole finger tip then wrap that with the cling tape to hold it in place then wrap all of that with medical tape once I had the four or so layers of gauze and cling to protect my skin and I had to make sure that the tape did not go to the edge of the gauze, there has to be a protective edge so the adhesive from the tape doesn't touch my finger even a little bit or yep, itchy, oozy, raw, wound. A medical tech called it a bandage sleeve once. And that's what it is. A bandage sleeve.

It would be much easier to just pull a bandaid from a box and slap it on there. And cheaper. And less of a process afterwards to make sure I have all of the supplies I will need for next time. Gauze, gauze pads, cling wrap, sensitive skin tape, tape. For awhile I could use NewSkin. Which burns like a mother fucker but works really well. Then my Borg allergies were like...oh no...we got this too. And now that's out.

So I'm careful. Or as careful as someone as easily distracted and less than graceful as I am can be. I have Kevlar gloves that I generally wear when cutting things, especially butternut squash. Seriously butternut squash is TOUGH to cut without nicking yourself. And by nicking I mean slicing your fingers to shreds. Thank goodness for Kevlar gloves. And I'm careful because I know that a bandaid isn't really a solution. Even a bandage sleeve. If I can lessen the chances of a cut I lessen the hassle of treating it.

Did you know when we (using the USA we here) last hardened our borders our government knew what they were doing was a bad idea? They understood that adding fencing to certain areas where crossing was easier was not going to stop the crossings it was going to funnel people to the more inhospitable areas of the border. There were studies and reports done showing that people would die in the desert and they still went ahead with the fencing and the hardening of the easy areas because SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE! So it got to be harder to cross the border which led to 1. People just staying in the US instead of crossing back and forth because 2. You were much more likely to die on the trip.

People still came. They just stayed. Or they died trying. It didn't fix the problem. It just made it worse.

The new proposed wall will do the same. It won't stop people from coming. We have armed guards who do not view those crossing as actual human people deserving a baseline respect of human life (see recent news stories) at the border right now and people are still coming. We have horrible facilities where those that are allowed over are jammed in to and people are still coming. We are forcing some of them to stay in tents in Mexico and People. Are. Still. Coming.

Clearly there are bigger issues here. I've talked about it before, we need to figure out why they are coming (hint, the violence and poverty in their countries) and we need to try and stop that flow. Why us? Well because we are responsible for a large part of it. The drugs they are growing and manufacturing is leading to the violence. The drugs that are being shipped north to us. Our demand. We also played around in the politics in Central America for years. We've not helped. Now we need to. We need to see what can be done to make them not want to flee their own countries. Because honestly you know they would want to stay there if it was safe and they could find jobs. Right? Who would walk the thousands of miles, risk their health or life, to come to a country that vocally wants them to leave?

But the Trump administration wants a wall. A BIG BEAUTIFUL WALL. So much so that the president hung a plaque commemorating the first section of HIS wall on a section of repaired fencing authorized by Obama. You can't even make this shit up.  And while fighting for his wall he also cut funding to programs in Central America that were designed to help keep people there. The reasoning being that people were still coming. So if the people we are helping aren't enough we won't help anyone That's the message.

Fixing the border issue is complicated. We have a huge backlog of people waiting to have their immigration hearings. Which the Trump administration is changing the rules about who gets in so people who have been waiting for YEARS can now find themselves shuffled to the back of the line, or out of the line all together. It's a mess. But there isn't a quick fix. We need to find the root cause and start there, then we need to clear up the peripheral damage that has been done over years and years of issues. Trump didn't start it, but he is actively making it worse.

Did you know that the best way to prevent abortion is to prevent unwanted pregnancy? Seriously. Why are there unwanted pregnancies? Well there is lack of education about birth control. A lot of people don't understand their options. And there is lack of access to birth control. If you have good birth control you have fewer unplanned pregnancies.

Another reason a pregnancy might be unwanted is money. It's expensive to have a child let alone raise one. Better health insurance can help. Also better wages. Lifting people out of poverty would help a lot.

So how can we limit abortions? Well, go back and read those things again. Better education, better access and better wages. Is it easy to get all of those pieces moving? No, not at all. It's not a simple fix. But we can work toward that goal without making the problem bigger than it originally was. Teach our kids about options that are not just abstinence based. If you want to teach your own child that abstinence is your religion, then go ahead, but let the schools teach the full spectrum. And honestly you should as well. You can frame it around "when you are married" if that's your choice, but tell them what they will need to do to prevent a pregnancy.

Insurance coverage for birth control. We had that. Then the religious groups said no, we don't approve of that so you can't have that. Which is what they are doing with abortion as well. We don't approve of abortion and also we don't approve of giving you access to a way of preventing it before you ever would need one. You know, by not getting pregnant in the first place.

Living wages. Raising people out of poverty. Having an unexpected pregnancy when you can afford to add another child to your family is a life change, having one when you can barely afford what you are already dealing with is a potential catastrophe. If you have kids right now that you are already raising and you are on the fine edge of poverty an additional mouth to feed can tip you over. Which means the children you already have are now facing a whole added layer of problems. And the mantra of "don't have kids if you can't afford to feed them" should make you glare at that pro-life poser. Because if they are in that camp they don't care about the lives of these kids, they only care right up until they are born. That is pro-pregnancy, not pro-life.

And making abortion illegal doesn't actually stop abortion. There will be unsafe methods of terminating a pregnancy that will come back around. The home methods, poisons, "accidental" falls, untested internet drugs. The wealthy will be able to afford the fees that doctors here willing to take the risk will charge or just fly to someplace else where it's legal and have it done. So rich women will be fine, poor women will be faced with taking a risk with their health or having a child they don't want and can't get help supporting after it's born. It will just make the problem worse. Not better.

Now there will always be some cases where a pregnancy will be terminated. For a multitude of reasons that aren't any of our business. But one of the saddest things ever is when a parent has to end a very much wanted pregnancy. Making it illegal to do so won't make that better. Forcing a family to continue a pregnancy that is not going to result in a living child? That's just cruel beyond measure in my opinion.

Big problems have complicated solutions and ignoring what the root cause is doesn't help. And putting a patchwork of quick fixes that actually make it worse? That's crazy.

If we want to fix the problem at the border we need to fix the problem before it ever reaches the border.

If we want to reduce the number of abortions we need to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

I'm allergic to bandaids.

We should all be allergic to bandaids.

Memory Lane...(Part Seven)

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Alice and Dane stood near the computer screen while Gloria leaned in the door frame listening to their conversation.

"There, that. Is that what I think it is?"

Dane leaned in and looked at the code on the screen. "It's definitely extra isn't it?"

"Yeah. That's a marker right?"

"What does that mean? A marker?" Asked Gloria.

"You know how this works right? The cloning of memory?"

Gloria gave a sort of circular nod, "Pretty much. The brain works on electrical impulses, when you clone a memory you record those impulses and the program converts that to code to store. Then when you have someone who wants to have the Experience it converts the code back to electrical impulses which are close to but not exactly like the original memory. Right?"

Dane nodded, "That's pretty good. This part here," he tapped the computer, "is an extra bit of coding I programmed in to the formula. It's added when you save the files. It's a way of marking it as a cloned memory. It doesn't affect the way the conversion happens, but gives a proprietary marker on these files."

"Okay. So?" Gloria was lost now. Why were they in the lab with a nervous Alice looking at something that was automatically done by their computer systems? "I don't understand what the issue...oh wait." Understanding suddenly came to her, "These are the California files aren't they? They shouldn't have those markers because they weren't our files."

Alice shook her head. "No. I mean, yes, I mean no. The California files all have the marker as well. Just a different one. All of the companies that bought our system have a marker that shows the technology is ours but the company doing the cloning owns the file. Every company that bought the system from Memory Lane got a custom marker included in the algorithm."

"Wouldn't all of that extra code cause trouble eventually?"

"No, not really. It's not actionable code. See here, look," Alice pointed to the string of code on her computer again, "See that symbol? That's the end of the memory. Everything before that would be an experience, everything after it is basically just record keeping. When it's converted from code to an experience the extra part works sort of like transitional time. The experience stops and the Experiencer comes back to their own reality. That's this marker code firing. The brain doesn't process it as memory or anything but time really. It's just there as a buffer."

"Okay, then I'm still not seeing what the issue is. If these files are marked with the California code and we purchased their entire catalog then we just need to add a note somewhere that these markers are now our markers, right?"

Dane nodded, "We're actually deleting the end code and resaving the files with our own codes. That's been part of the sorting process. It has also given us a chance to weed out substandard files. They weren't always the cleanest with their copying. I would have been embarassed to offer some of these files as experiences."

Gloria shrugged, "Okay, but I'm still not understanding the issue here. The file has a marker, it's not our marker but it's not unexpected, you've been cleaning up all of these files anyway and..."

Dane held up his hand, "You're right. The California files having a marker isn't unexpected. This isn't the marker from the California company."

"Oh... crap. You mean they have files they didn't clone themselves? Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. Now we will have to figure out who owned them and how they came in to our possession and if we even have a legal right to them and if we are liable for..."

Alice was shaking her head, "These aren't from the California files."

"What?"

"Look at the screen again. Not just the code."

Dane peered at the screen closely then took a step back to take in the whole thing. "This is an unsaved file."

"Yep."

Gloria held up a hand, "Hold on, you just told me that the marker is added when you save the file."

Alice nodded.

"So how is that possible?"

"There have been instances where a memory was accidentally deleted..." Dane started.

"Oh yes, of course, and then the donor just gets the memory as an experience without the 'this isn't real' lecture, I knew that."

"Except...that should happen from the raw file. We know if there is a problem before they ever leave the office. They wouldn't get a tagged file, it wouldn't have ever been saved. If there is a problem with donation there can be a problem with the experience so we just give it back, so to speak."

"Okay." Gloria was trying to process everything they had talked about. They were looking at a file that had a tag that had never been saved. It wasn't theirs and it wasn't from the California purchase so..."Where did this come from?"

Alice grimaced, "This is why I think we might have a bigger problem. It came from someone who swears they have never made a donation or even had an experience. This is from Jean."

Memory Lane....(Part Six)

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"Gloria? Do you have a minute?"

"Sure, Alice, come on in."

Alice sat down in the chair across from Gloria's desk. "I'm not exactly sure how to say what I need to say."

Gloria closed down the spreadsheet she had been working on and gave Alice her full attention, "Well that's one heck of a way to start."

"I think I might be in an ethically gray area here. There is a confidentiality agreement around donations but at the same time I have a blanket permission to talk about training items so I'm not entirely sure where this falls."

"Okay. Would you feel more comfortable speaking to Dane?"

Alice chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, "I think when he gets back he will have to be brought in. Because I'm not entirely sure that what I think I saw I actually saw. But, I also feel like you should be made aware of what I think I saw because if it's true, well I'm not entirely sure what it means but I don't think it's going to be good."

Gloria sat quietly for a moment. Then she checked her watch and pulled out her phone and double checked her text messages. "Okay, so, answer one question before we go any further. Will it hurt to wait for two more hours? If Dane is going to need to be brought in anyway we should probably wait and have you start with him."

Alice kept chewing on her lip. "Probably? I guess? I mean, that makes sense I guess..."

Gloria was starting to really get rattled. Alice was one of their most competent and qualified Memory Techs. She had been in research labs studying neurological electrical impulses for a decade after medical school before coming to work for them. To see her this bothered was unsettling.

"Okay. That's what we will do then. Do you feel like you can work this afternoon or would you rather take a break until we can meet with Dane? I know you have to be really focused during donations and..."

"I think I might need some time. We've only got one appointment this afternoon anway, it's why I was working with," Alice paused and then shook her head, "I'll tell you when Dane is here."

"Okay, you take a break. I'll get Claude to handle the afternoon and you and I can meet back here with Dane at," Gloria looked at her calendar then opened a program on her phone to look at Dane's schedule as well, "Let's say at four, how does that sound?"

"That's perfect. Thank you."

After Alice left her office Gloria called the lab to ask Claude to cover the afternoon appointment. "Alice has some personal business to attend to so if you could handle the donation that would be great....Oh...and Claude, what was Alice working on before she had to leave, do you know? Is it anything that needs finished? Oh...okay. So nothing pressing. Thanks."

Gloria hung up the phone and tapped her pen on her desk thinking. Alice had been working on training Jean in lab procedures. What had she stumbled upon that was so bad? Maybe something related to the catalog they got from the California issue? That would make sense. They were still cleaning all of that up.

Well nothing to do but wait for Dane to get back.

She reopened the spreadsheet on her computer and got back to work.