The Treat Meant

She looks at it and glazes over, the chewing gum smacking rhythmically in 
her mouth.

‘What the fuck’s a sheep got to do with it?’ she says, her broad, pseudo patois
as aggressive as ever.

The Doctor inhales to sigh, then catches himself. There is a lot of money at
stake here. He smiles broadly.

‘Well Dolly was the first creature ever to be created from a adult stem
cell. So she wasn’t created through the usual way, through intercourse, she was
man made. It just so happens that she was a sheep.’

After a second, she nods.

‘And it was that stem cell technology that led us to this point. You
see, thirty years ago a couple of very clever doctors went looking for a way to
actually create new organs, so that people could have replacement hearts,
lungs, livers, and the like. So that, rather than waiting for someone to die or
donate a kidney, they could simply grow a nice new one in a laboratory.’

She sucks her teeth. ‘Man, dat’s disgustin’, innit.’

‘Not if you’re lying in a hospital bed and you need the organ it isn’t.’

‘So what’s dat got to do with me keepin’ me yout’?’

A huge consultation monitor fills the wall behind the Doctor’s desk. It’s
scale is intended to impress the wealthy clients that he deals with. On occasion,
it also serves the purpose of informing them.

He presses a button on a clear Perspex keyboard and another image joins that
of the sheep on the screen. It shows two other men in white coats.

‘These two rather clever gentlemen are from Japan; Professor Kyoei Kokoro
and Professor Jujatsu.’

‘For real.’

‘Quite. Anyway, they took that fundamental technology and they played with
it a little. You see, they ran some tests on older cells – older skin cells to
be exact – and using what is now known as the Soki Shibo Technique, they
managed to make the old cells young again. By over twenty years!’

‘Alright,’ she says, enthusiastically making a gesture with her hand. ‘Sign
me up for dat shit, innit.’

The doctor sits back down at his desk and, leaning forward on his elbows, he
puts his fingers together in the shape of a triangle in front of him. It is the
universal sign of a master mind at work.

‘Yes,’ he says, staring hard at her for the first time, ‘but just to be
clear, this is experimental technology. It is not strictly legal in this
country. Any procedure that takes place would have to be done so in another
country, outside of all legislation and legal restriction.’

She shrugs. ‘I get ya’, s’a road trip ting.’

‘Also, you need to understand that there are risks.’

‘What kinda’ risks?’

‘Well,’ he says evenly, ‘there have been some cases where the treatment has
led to cancers, unusually high cases, in fact-’

‘But it works, right?’ she says.

Heard about this on the news this morning. Not really a giant leap when it comes to writing the story above.

Good looks, eh? Who’d have ’em? Well, certainly not me. I’ve always maintained that I was lucky to have not been blessed with them. You can’t lose what you never had!

Now hair, on the other hand…

The Doctor nods. ‘It does.’

‘Then sign me up.’

——————————-

‘How did it go?’ The Colleague asked.

The Doctor hit send on the confirmation and then turned to face him.

‘Another one signed up,’ he said.

‘And you explained the risks?’

‘Of course.’

The Colleague shook his head. ‘Astonishing, what is that now? Fifty in a
month?’

‘More.’

‘And how many have rejected it?’

‘Less than ten percent.’

They thought about that number for a second.

‘Unbelievable.’

‘And it’s not just women,’ The Doctor said. ‘If anything the men are more
receptive to the risk.’

‘Beauty is power.’

‘Beauty is indeed power,’ The Doctor echoed.

‘Gotta die of something, right?’

‘That certainly seems to be their ethos. How many more appointments have I
got this week?’

‘Not sure, but your diary is booked out three months in advance.’

‘I saw that. Pretty soon I’ll need a holiday.’

The Colleague smiled. ‘The amount of money we’re making, pretty soon you’ll
be able to buy your own island.’

The Doctor laughed.

‘The amount of laws we’re breaking, pretty soon I’ll need to live on one!’

The Colleague turned to go, but stopped at the door.

‘By the way,’ he said, ‘Your own appointment is scheduled in a month.’

Heard about this on the news this morning. Not really a giant leap when it comes to writing the story above.

Good looks, eh? Who’d have ’em? Well, certainly not me. I’ve always maintained that I was lucky to have not been blessed with them. You can’t lose what you never had!

Now hair, on the other hand…