Whale Shark (3)
Sinclair Obil, professor of nephrology. He was a sharp-featured white middle-aged man wearing horn-rimmed glasses and clothes resembling everyday business attire. Professor Obil scratched his head.
"You're that Asian resident, right?"
I nodded. "Yes, sir."
Wasn't the best way to kick off a conversation... but then again, there was only one Asian doctor at Stanford. It made sense.
The professor nodded gravely. "Thanks to you, we're treating that pyelonephritis patient for multiple endocrine neoplasia. There was even oversecretion in the parathyroid glands."
"Yes."
"I messed up. Should've considered a rare diagnosis from the start. Without you guys, I might've gone after an innocent patient."
"No, Professor."
Professor Obil seemed like the authoritarian type of professor. Even by 1970s standards. But we were doctors, and this was a hospital. When something was clearly revealed in the diagnostic and treatment process, we had no choice but to accept it. Lives were on the line.
"No need to be humble. The other doctors need to step up. Can't have a first-year foreigner outshining everyone—it makes us look bad."
Foreigner? Not really. Still, admitting his mistake meant he was a decent guy. I just nodded appropriately.
"Thank you."
"Yeah, keep up the good work." Professor Obil chuckled heartily as he walked away.
Finally, vacation time. Even resident doctors in America could take a few days off, as long as we rotated to avoid gaps. Advanced countries were different, alright. In Korea at this time, brutal 100-day on-call shifts were probably still the norm.
The sun was rising at dawn. Alice gripped the steering wheel with a delighted expression. A Porsche 911, she'd said. I wasn't familiar with old cars.
Alice was rich, but not to the point of having attendants on constant standby. She rolled down the driver's side window, and her hair fluttered in the wind. Soft-looking brown locks and deep green eyes. There was an air of elegance born from leisure.
"Nice weather."
"Yeah."
"You know you're meeting my family, right? Dad's got a quirky personality, but... he's a good guy, so don't worry."
What was this sudden invitation about? Rich people all had eccentric personalities, though. No reason for them to act like normal folks.
"Uh... what's he like?"
"You'll see."
Alice didn't elaborate. We sat in silence for a few minutes. California's roads were empty.
"How much longer?"
"About an hour to the villa... Hey, rumor has it you're heading to New York for the Lasker Award at year's end. That true?"
I nodded, and Alice gasped in admiration. I'd been shocked to get the invite myself.
"Whoa... Isn't the Lasker for veteran scholars? No way it's real."
"It is."
There was something I'd been meaning to ask Alice. Why was she so obsessed with the ocean?
"We're going to see whale sharks, right?"
Mentioning the sea made her eyes sparkle.
"Right! You can swim?"
"Yeah."
"Good. Everyone should see a whale shark at least once... Oh, we'll need to borrow a full-body wetsuit for you. They should have one."
There had to be a reason she loved it this much. Alice kept her eyes on the road. Soon after, I gazed out the window, and our destination came into view.
The endless blue of the California sea. Warm weather year-round. To a Korean, it was truly blessed land. No yellow dust, monsoons, 30°C summers, smog, winters that froze the capital's pipes, blizzards, hail. Where was all that? If Dangun grandfather had settled here, Koreans would've been Rome's heirs long ago. Instead, he got scammed on real estate.
"We're here!"
Alice smiled. A villa overlooking the California coastline came into sight. No clue how much it cost. Alice's family and a few friends waited in the parking lot. I got out of the car.
"Hello."
I bowed slightly to the group. Alice greeted them warmly, and I took a moment to look around. A man who looked like her father approached me.
She takes after him.
We walked slowly toward the villa.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Alexander Axiotis."
Sounded grandiose, but it was a plain Greek name. We just felt that way because of our familiarity with Greco-Roman myths and legends. Greek descent, huh.
Mr. Axiotis continued. "Alice told me about you. Said there's a genius among her med school classmates who leaves everyone in the dust. That you?"
"Probably."
"Heard you started a pharma company?"
"Ah, no—I licensed a patent to one and got paid."
Alice's father pondered briefly.
"You're not Jewish, right?"
"Uh... no."
"Good. That's a relief."
I was a bit dumbfounded. Prejudiced or not? I obviously looked Asian.
"Pardon?"
As I made a puzzled face, Alice's father launched into an explanation that wasn't quite one. I didn't pay close attention. People could think that way. Doctors had to treat enemy soldiers on the battlefield too... I just listened quietly.
America through and through. It explained a few things I'd found odd about Alice.
Alice's yacht, Setus, cut through the waves toward the open sea. I wore a full-body wetsuit under a shower robe. Colder than expected. The yacht's motor hummed.
"Oh, you're ready."
Alice wore something similar. A form-fitting full-body wetsuit.
"Will we really see a whale shark?"
"Probably some heading south. Not sure about today."
A pod of dolphins curious about the boat swam around Alice's yacht. She waved at them. I watched the dolphins leap, hearing Alice laugh beside me.
"Dolphins."
"Dolphins mean schools of fish. Good luck might bring whale sharks."
Through the dolphin pod, amid the California sea's sparkle, a massive triangle sliced the surface leisurely. A whale shark's fin. They usually swam just below.
Jackpot for Alice's bluebird.
"Found it!"
The Setus cut the motor and raised sails. We prepped to enter the water.
"No diving—we'll swim on the surface toward the shark. It's slow, so easy to catch up."
Snorkel, goggles, wetsuit. Alice entered backward from the stern. We used the triangular fin as our guide toward the whale shark.
It was huge. Bus-sized fish. Overwhelming presence. Now I understood Alice's obsession.
No talking underwater. I gave her a thumbs-up; she smiled with her eyes behind the goggles and nodded.
The whale shark was right there. As we drew near, its massive form's water flow pulled us along. It ignored us entirely, yet... like it was within arm's reach—Alice's bluebird, the whale shark she'd sought so long.
Of course, I didn't touch. Shark skin was sandpaper-rough, could hurt, and we shouldn't bother wildlife.
It felt like something grand awaited at my fingertips.
California, Emeryville. A pharmaceutical company's research lab. Kary Mullis dozed at his desk. A future Nobel winner, unbeknownst to himself.
How to synthesize genes? God's language. There had to be a way to efficiently find and replicate them in a test tube.
Mullis hadn't found the answer yet. That was his puzzle.
Lasker Award...
In that context, the paper by the young doctor rumored for the Lasker was fascinating. It basically solved Mullis's exact problem.
Using bacterial restriction enzymes as tools? Eureka! moment pending.
Mullis could feel it. Eureka was right there! He didn't know what yet.
Maybe visit Stanford. His instincts screamed: world-changing research within reach.