62
KEI.LIE:
Shame
on me then: angels
are boring.
Doesn't do you
justice.
FRANCIS:
If you
say so.
You're
the story
seller.
KELLIE: Not any more.
What?
FRANCIS:
KELLIE:
I'm
done.
How do you get one of those
tests
anyway?
Tests?
FRANCIS:
KELLIE: For the breast
cancer
FRANCIS:
blood
It's a simple
KELLIE: Okay.
gene?
test.
I'll call my doctor.
I wouldn't.
FRANCIS:
KELLIE: What?
FRANCIS: Do it anonymously. If your insurance finds out, they
could drop you. Then you could be on your own if you were to
develop the cancer... Unfortunately, we haven't worked that
problem of genetic testing out yet.
KELLIE: Great. So much for angels.
.
.
ffMl-r
Lights shift.
Kellie walks center and holds up a small dark
vial. )
KELLIE: This is me. My blood. ~llions of little racing genomes
riddling little hamburger recipes for little 01' meatloaf me.
Could be you. And if they carry the misspelling that 01' Doc
Collins discovered then there's an 85% chance I'll get cancer.
Soon. Not fifty-fifty. That's a coin toss. No. Toss this coin
ten times and eight or nine times it comes up Big C. Could be me.
Unless I get the surgery, chop my prettyStill. I was twelve when she went through all that chemo,
and surgery and radiation and dying. I got no interest in that.
I get the surgery, my chances go down to one pe1;cent. One
bad penny in a hundred. I can live with those kinds of odds.
This is me. Dithering. About a spelling test. Only takes a
little blood. But they don't give you the test without
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63
counseling.
So then there's me surrounded by women some who've
tested some who've even done the surgery some like me still
dithering all talking sharing crying propping each other up
getting each other through.
Women.
I've missed them.
So strong.
You have no idea.
I had no idea, all wrapped up in this story of
would be angel men.
Talking with them brought home how done I was
with my story my stupid need for a stupid prize before I died.
I
was done wi th that.
Sure.
Talk about idiotic irony.
I was in the waiting room of the
public clinic to give them this when what should come on C-SPAN
but a special broadcast of a ceremony in the East Room.
There he
was, our embattled chief executive, talking earnestly and
eloquently about Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether
Lewis and how
they, in that very room, had spread out a map of the American
frontier, but that today they were gathered to celebrate a vastly
~
more significantmap.
The prose was quite inspiringactually.
.
FRANCIS:
My team offered
some
KELLIE:
I had a feeling.
Then President Clinton
two distinguished
guests.
~~I
language.
handed
the podium
(Lights up on .Francis
Presidential
podium.)
standing
to the first
of his
at the
FRANCIS:
Mr. President, distinguished
Ambassadors,
ladies and
gentlemen. It is truly a humbling and profound experience to be
asked to speak here this morning.
Alexander Pope wrote, "Know then thyself. Presume not God to
scan. The proper study of mankind is man." What more powerful form
of study of mankind could there be than to read our own
instruction book?
Today, we deliver, ahead of schedule again, the revelation of
the first draft of the human book of life, previously known only
to God.
It's a happy day for the world. It is humbling for me and
awe-inspiring.
I particularly
welcome the opportunity
to celebrate this
moment jointly with our scientific colleagues at Celera Genomics,
and I wish to express my personal gratitude to Dr. Craig Venter
for his openness in the process that led to this joint
announcement.
I congratulate
him and his team on the~r work.
I'm happy that today, the only race we are talking about is
the human race.
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