{"id":124,"date":"2014-12-02T19:01:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T19:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/?p=124"},"modified":"2014-12-02T19:01:08","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T19:01:08","slug":"silicon-on-silk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/silicon-on-silk\/","title":{"rendered":"Silicon on Silk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"405<\/a>Yvette knew it was a crazy idea.\u00a0 How could anyone think a microchip, injected into a person’s body, could seek and destroy cancer cells?\u00a0 Still, there was nothing to lose.\u00a0 They’d cut off her boyfriend’s leg if it failed anyway.\u00a0 But, it worked.\u00a0 And it worked agin on her aunt.\u00a0 Then, when she tried to tell people her secret, no one believed her.\u00a0 Only her old friend, Elena, now deeply involved in the local gang and drug scene, offered any help at all.\u00a0 Together, they set off on an adventure to prove to the world that cancer was conquered.<\/p>\n

[toggle title_open=”Close Excerpt 1″ title_closed=”Excerpt 1″ hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]<\/p>\n

Chapter 1<\/h2>\n

The envelope sat alone on the narrow table in the entry hall, face up, clearly showing the University of California at Santa Barbara Graduate School of Engineering logo in the upper left hand corner. Gabriella\u2019s mother walked past it several times that sunny, San Diego spring day. Each time she did, she smiled and thought how proud she was of her eldest daughter. Even if that envelope didn\u2019t hold what Gabby hoped it would, consideration was an achievement.<\/p>\n

Gabby parked in the driveway a little after six, came in through the garage, and plopped down in a chair at the kitchen table. \u201cThat\u2019s it Ma. I did it. Today was the last class at San Diego State. Finals next week and I\u2019m done.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should be happy.\u201d \u201cJust exhausted. Wow! My favorite. That really smells good. Something special happening tonight?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe.\u201d Maria Cabrera wiped her hands on her apron, retrieved the envelope from the hall, and set it in front of her daughter.<\/p>\n

Gabriella picked it up. Her hands shook so much she needed both of them to hold it still enough to read.<\/p>\n

\u201cAren\u2019t you going to open it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m scared, Ma. What if \u2026\u201d the hard bang of the front door slamming shut caused her to jerk her head around.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, Gabby. Hi, Ma. Hey, that smells good, what\u2019s up?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many times do I have to tell you not to slam the door?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGotta celebrate. Won both the hundred and two-twenty today. Blew those Morse High girls away. They don\u2019t call me Corvette for nothing. Whatcha got there Gabby?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe letter from UCSB.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell open it,\u201d Yvette said. \u201cYou\u2019ve been waiting for it forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabriella carefully slit open the envelope and removed the tri-folded letter. She unfolded it. As she read she began to slowly rise from her chair. Then, she leapt into the air, tossed the letter toward the ceiling, and screamed, \u201cI\u2019m in! They accepted me! And they gave me a technician\u2019s job for twenty hours a week too. Woo-Hoo!\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette wrapped her arms around her sister and gave her a bear hug.<\/p>\n

Gabby collected the letter from the floor. \u201cI can\u2019t believe it. Me, in the Micro-Electronics department. Man. And my job\u2019s in the Detector lab. How great is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Both young women grabbed their phones and started texting. Maria picked up the handset with the twenty-foot extension cord, and began dialing. Less than an hour later Uncle Pedro and Auntie Beth arrived carrying a casserole overflowing with enchiladas. By dusk the Cabrera house was crawling with friends, neighbors, and relatives. Uncles Jack, Roberto, Dan, and Ben were playing Mariachi music around the fire pit. Laughter echoed everywhere.<\/p>\n

Only Yvette and her six-foot-nine boyfriend, Daryl, sat quietly together. Every few minutes Yvette repositioned the ice pack on his outstretched leg. \u201cMy knee just hurts all the time. They say it\u2019s just growing pains, but I know something\u2019s wrong. It started hurting really bad at basketball camp. I just know there\u2019s a problem in there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be okay. Don\u2019t worry.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s not broken. There\u2019s something else. I wish they\u2019d find out what. I hate not knowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Seven weeks after her junior year ended, Yvette was still working for her Aunt Blanca. \u201cYou\u2019re amazing,\u201d Blanca told her that Monday morning. \u201cNo other high school kid has lasted this long. Keep up the good work. Only three more weeks until school starts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette sighed, got out of her aunt\u2019s car, and walked toward the first house of the day. She\u2019d been on a crew that cleaned four houses a day, six days a week, all summer. \u201cFAST AND THOROUGH\u2019 was the motto, and fast and thorough was what she was during her work day. Tired was what she was every night.<\/p>\n

That night, after finishing the day with the largest, most knick-knacky house of her entire schedule, she collapsed in a chaise lounge under the pepper tree in her backyard. Her phone rested on her lap, but she laid her head back and closed her eyes rather than start texting. The Laker\u2019s theme song ring she\u2019d programmed for Daryl shook her out of her reverie.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello. How\u2019d it go at the doctor?\u201d \u201cCancer. They found bone cancer. Osteosarcoma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette screamed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey may have to chop my leg off at the knee.\u201d Yvette screamed and sobbed at the same time. Her mother pushed open the screen door and ran to her youngest daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201c \u2018Vette. \u2018Vette, are you there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria snatched the phone out of Yvette\u2019s shaking hands. \u201cHello. Who is this?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s me. Daryl.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong? Yvette\u2019s collapsed into a crying blob.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me its cancer. They may have to chop my leg off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria sank into a chair next to Yvette. \u201cOh no. I knew you were in pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette grabbed the phone back from her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, Mrs. Cabrera. But it\u2019s a good thing I was. Without the pain it may have gone on much longer without being detected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDaryl. Say it isn\u2019t so. Say you\u2019re joking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish I was. The pain was the thing. There\u2019s something special about cancer cells that cause them to hurt, at least when they\u2019re in joints and organs. It feels like acid or something was poured in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAcid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I don\u2019t know that it\u2019s acid, but that\u2019s what it reminds me of after watching all those scary movies.\u201d \u201cWhat are you going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe doctor is going to try some stuff, he says there\u2019s not much anyone can do, except get lucky or cut the leg off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette screamed again.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

A week before the fall quarter started, Gabby drove home for a weekend with her family. Yvette sprawled on the living room couch, waiting for her sister, and trying to recover from her last day of house cleaning until Saturday. After a noisy reunion, the dinner dishes were cleared, washed, and put away, Gabby got a box out of her duffel bag, and sat with her mother and sister at the kitchen table.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys won\u2019t believe the cool project they\u2019ve got me working on in the Detector Lab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabby took a small bottle, sealed with a plastic cap, out of the box. \u201cMa, \u2018Vette, this is the greatest invention of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on Gabby. All Time?\u201d Yvette said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTop ten anyway.\u201d Gabby held the bottle up to the light. \u201cSee these little flecks in there? Well, those are special micro-circuits, not only in what they do, but how they\u2019re made.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVery nice, honey,\u201d Maria cooed.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, those circuits are built on silk. Silicon micro-circuits on a silk substrate. We call it \u2018Silicon on Silk\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo.\u201d Yvette looked half interested, half bored.<\/p>\n

\u201cSO! You see, silk dissolves in blood. Sooooo, you put these into the blood stream and they go around measuring things, or detecting things, and the body just naturally gets rid of them a couple days later. Just like if you get some dirt or something in a cut. Isn\u2019t that cool?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess,\u201d Yvette said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow these here, they even have some iron on them, so once they\u2019re in the blood stream you can use a magnet to steer them to the place you\u2019re interested in. Steerable Silicon on Silk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s good, because?\u201d Yvette asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d Gabby hesitated. \u201cThese ones were supposed to detect acid, and when they did, emit a short stream of electrons that an external meter could detect. They didn\u2019t detect acid particularly well, and the electron beam killed the cells it hit, but it did earn it a name.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me guess,\u201d Yvette said. \u201cStreaming Steerable Silicon on Silk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHey, \u2018Vette, very good. You\u2019re right. The whole unit is called SSSS, pronounced sis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still not clear on the concept,\u201d Yvette said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a research tool. First, you inject one of these into the blood, and steer it to a spot in the body. Then, if what the device is programmed to find gets found, it emits a stream of electrons. It\u2019s as easy as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me see if I\u2019ve got it now,\u201d Yvette said. \u201cFirst you shoot up, then you take it to a place that hurts, then it goes ZAP, and then the hurt is gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. Kinda. Sure.\u201d Gabby said. Yvette jerked bolt upright in her chair. \u201cReally?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cReally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette looked in the box. She counted five bottles in it, each holding six micro-circuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been up there two months now,\u201d Gabby said, \u201cand already I can make these. In fact I made every one of these.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maria said, \u201cYou made these?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Ma. The lab\u2019s kinda like a special kitchen. I just follow the recipe, and then bake them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goodness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese don\u2019t work quite the way the professor wants them to. We\u2019ll be starting a new design next week. That was lucky for me. It gave me time to learn without pressure. They all liked what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of you,\u201d Maria said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince these are obsolete, I get to keep them as souvenirs. Cool, huh? The people at the Detector Lab are really great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabby put the sixth bottle back in the box. \u201cFor now, I\u2019ll keep them here in my closet. My place in Goleta doesn\u2019t even have room for an extra pair of shoes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette took the box, carried it to the bedroom she and Gabby shared for sixteen years, and carefully put it on the closet\u2019s top shelf. When she returned to the kitchen, she heard her sister saying, \u201cThe thing is, Ma, all this is a super-secret. Nobody can say anything about any of it. But, I may get to write up some of the technical descriptions for the patents. How about that?\u201d[\/toggle]<\/p>\n

[toggle title_open=”Close Excerpt 2″ title_closed=”Excerpt 2″ hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ read_more_text=”Read More” read_less_text=”Read Less” include_excerpt_html=”no”]<\/p>\n

Chapter 2<\/h2>\n

It took Yvette until lunch on Monday to find Elena. Once good friends, they\u2019d drifted apart when Elena began dating a member of the Verde Cruz gang. Now all Yvette could be sure of was that Elena would know where to get what she needed.<\/p>\n

Yvette finally saw her old friend when Elena walked into the cafeteria. Yvette slid into line next to her just before the pile of trays next to the salad bar. \u201cHi, Vette, been awhile. How ya doin\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMovin\u2019 fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard. You were all-city last spring, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. Got lucky. You still runnin\u2019 with the Verde Cruz guys?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStill am. Once you start it\u2019s hard to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither spoke again until they\u2019d each picked up a tray and set them on the three stainless steel bars in front of the Jell-O. \u201cEl, I need a little help. Can I ask you a favor?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna shoot-up. Can you get me a needle?\u201d<\/p>\n

The shorter girl turned and looked up into her old friend\u2019s eyes. \u201cDon\u2019t do it. Especially you. Don\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what you think. Really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never is. Don\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe needle has to pass an object a hundredth of an inch wide. I think I need a special needle.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right. They call those gutters. Weird for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette reached under the protective glass cover and slipped a Taco Salad onto her tray. \u201cCan you get it? I\u2019ll pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elena laughed. \u201cGear is free. You pay for what\u2019s inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUm, I\u2019ll be doing my own insides.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOooooh, bad idea, Vette. You\u2019re likely to kill yourself. Better to have a good supplier.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you get me what I need, even if I don\u2019t buy anything?\u201d \u201cFor you, Vette, sure. Meet me and Roberto in the parking lot after school tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Yvette arrived at the lot the next afternoon with her backpack slung over her shoulder and a leather briefcase big enough to hold two three-ring-binders in her hand. On her second scan of the cars in the lot she saw Elena leaning against the trunk of a candy-apple red, lowered, and flamed \u201957 Chevy. Yvette waved, and then walked through a row of parked cars to meet her friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, El.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHi Vette. I\u2019ve got what you asked for, but I really gotta tell you again, it\u2019s a really bad idea to make your own.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGot it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elena held out a dark green, velvet box, about the size needed for a necklace. \u201cNice,\u201d Yvette said.<\/p>\n

Elena smiled. \u201cGreen velvet, the mark of the Verde Cruz. Everything\u2019s first class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette opened the box. Inside lay a milky, plastic syringe with gradations marked in CCs on one side. With the plunger depressed, it was about four inches long. Yvette snapped the box shut.<\/p>\n

Elena then held out a second green velvet box, this one about the size needed for a bracelet. Yvette opened it to find three shiny silver needles, each embedded into a milky, plastic, threaded, circular block.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome assembly required,\u201d Elena said. \u201cYou fill the syringe through the opening, and then screw the needle into it. Every time you use the needle you clean it. Boil it. The plastic won\u2019t melt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette examined the tip of one of the needles. It was cut on a diagonal, pointed and sharp, but with a large slot for the liquid to flow through. \u201cThat should do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s what you asked for.\u201d Looks like I\u2019ll need a pretty good vein for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, full-on mainline. Be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Daryl and Yvette sat side-by-side in the back of Daryl\u2019s pick-up, leaning against the cab, their legs stretched out toward the tailgate. The Sycamore above them showed the first signs of fall in the yellow late afternoon sun. The happy squeals and laughs from the children playing on the climber at the other end of the parking lot washed over them. Yvette leaned over, kissed her boyfriend, and said, \u201cAre you ready?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette slid down until her lap was next to Daryl\u2019s aching knee. She unzipped the leather case, took out the larger green velvet box, a small bottle of water, a pair of tweezers, and one of the bottles holding the Silicon on Silk micro-circuits. She propped the syringe, open end up, between her legs. She carefully picked up a micro-circuit with the tweezers and dropped one, and then a second, into the syringe. Then she poured enough water in to reach the 100CC mark. The tiny pieces of silk floated on the water. Slowly, making sure not to spill the liquid in the syringe, she removed a needle from the smaller case, and screwed it onto the syringe.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, I\u2019ve got that part right. I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daryl nodded.<\/p>\n

Then she took a cotton ball out of the case and handed it to Daryl. \u201cWhen I pull the needle out, you press this down on the spot, and hold it there until the bleeding stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette then took a small horseshoe magnet out of the case, removed the iron bar held between the magnet\u2019s two legs, and balanced the magnet on her lap. Next she removed a bungee cord from the case, wrapped it around Daryl\u2019s thigh a few inches above his knee, twisted the ends together, and handed them to Daryl.<\/p>\n

\u201cRoll over. The vein we want is on the back of your knee.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tall boy rolled onto his side, exposing the back of his knee below his basketball shorts to Yvette.<\/p>\n

\u201cGood. Now twist and tighten the bungee cord. When I see the vein, I\u2019m going to stick the needle into it. Go on, twist.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a few seconds, Yvette pushed the needle into a blue line in Daryl\u2019s leg, and prayed. With one hand she held the magnet against the skin, keeping it just below where she thought the tip of the needle should be. With the other hand, she slowly depressed the plunger until it was empty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay, release the bungee and be ready to hold the cotton.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few seconds later, Daryl said, \u201cReady.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette gently pulled the needle out of the leg. \u201cGot it,\u201d Daryl said. Yvette then slowly slid the magnet along the back of Daryl\u2019s leg until she came to the knee joint. Once there, she counted to ten, moved the magnet a half inch, counted to ten again, and repeated the procedure until the ends of the magnet had rested on every square inch of the knee. As she moved from spot to spot, she watched a purple blood bruise slowly spread across Daryl\u2019s knee and creep up his thigh. \u201cDid you feel anything? It looks ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNope, didn\u2019t feel a thing.\u201d Daryl leaned back against the cab.<\/p>\n

Yvette unscrewed the needle, put it back in its box, put the syringe in its box, put the bar back across the magnet\u2019s legs, and then put everything back into the leather case. When she slumped back against the cab, he put his arms around her, held her until she stopped shaking, and then gave her a long, gentle kiss.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you know how to do all that?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t. I made it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you really think it\u2019ll work?\u201d She looked into his eyes. \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe neither.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yvette added, \u201cBut no harm done. Those micro-circuits will dissolve and go away in a couple of days, no matter what.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Yvette\u2019s phone began blaring the Laker\u2019s theme song three hours before Daryl was to pick her up for the evening\u2019s football game. \u201cHey, Vette, get on down to the gym. You\u2019ve got to see this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ten minutes later Yvette walked into the gym, passed the practicing girls\u2019 volleyball teams, and entered the side of the auxiliary gym area set aside for basketball. One group of boys were playing five-on-five, full court. Several other players sat by courtside awaiting their turn. Yvette leaned against the wall and watched.<\/p>\n

Daryl, a full six-inches taller than anyone else, and almost a foot taller than the boy guarding him, dribbled beyond the three point line waving a play to his teammates. He took one step right, passed, spun, took two giant steps down the lane, caught the return pass, stopped, and shot a five-foot jumper.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo close!\u201d yelled his defender.<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry.\u201d \u201cHey, man. You\u2019re too tall. You gotta stay outside to make things fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSorry. It\u2019s been awhile.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Daryl\u2019s team made their eleventh basket, the losers left the court, and Daryl rushed over to Yvette. \u201cDid you see that? Did you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. A little awkward, but not bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, not that. I\u2019m out here. No pain, nothing. Everything\u2019s fine again. Isn\u2019t that great? Gotta get back out there. Pick you up at seven.\u201d[\/toggle]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yvette knew it was a crazy idea.\u00a0 How could anyone think a microchip, injected into a person’s body, could seek and destroy cancer cells?\u00a0 Still, there was nothing to lose.\u00a0 They’d cut off her boyfriend’s leg if it failed anyway.\u00a0 But, it worked.\u00a0 And it worked agin on her aunt.\u00a0 Then, when she tried to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teen-fiction","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125,"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions\/125"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dlakewriter.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}