Each Tuesday, rather than a POSSIBLY
IRRITATING ESSAY, I'd like to both challenge you and lend a helping hand. I
generate more speculative and teen story ideas than I can ever use. My family
rolls its collective eyes when I say, "Hang on a second! I just have to
write down this idea..." Here, I'll include the initial inspiration
(quote, website, podcast, etc.) and then a thought or two that came to mind.
These will simply be seeds -- plant, nurture, fertilize, chemically treat,
irradiate, test or stress them as you see fit. I only ask if you let me know if
anything comes of them.
H Trope: the attack
of the killer ALGAE
Current Event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT4LY2KcOrs
Jefferson Benson
looked up from the microscope and said, “What do you mean, ‘it looks like it’s
spreading’?”
Terace Miller
shook her head, “I didn’t say that. It IS spreading.” She held out her hand. A
thin patina of greenish-brown made the skin on her forearm look wet.
Jefferson leaned
back. “What happened?”
“I was working
late – I’ve got to have the slides examined and summary prepped for Dr. Hester by
tomorrow at the latest. She said she wanted it today.”
“So?”
“So, I worked
until about four this morning then fell asleep at the computer.”
“How’d you get
algae skin from that?”
She slugged him in
the shoulder with her uninfected arm. “I dozed off – slept sideways. My back
was to the microscope and my arm was against a dish with a sample of the algae
in it.”
“It crawled out of
the dish?” he looked at her, scowling.
“Algae can’t
crawl, idiot!”
“Hey! Just because
my master’s thesis is in the histology tapeworms doesn’t mean I’m ignorant
about plants!”
“It just means
you’re plain ignorant,” Terace said. “Listen, for whatever reason, the algae
got on my arm. I washed it off, but it grew back.”
“What?”
“It grew back in
about an hour. Even after I swabbed it with alcohol and betadine.”
“You try salt water?”
“What?”
“Isn’t your algae
a freshwater variety?” She blinked at him in surprise. “Hey!” he exclaimed. “I
listen to what you talk about!”
“You just never…”
she looked down at her arm, brushing over the slick spot. “I don’t know. I used
the other things so I’m sort of afraid of trying saltwater. Besides, the same
species has been found in freshwater aquariums and off the coast of
California.”
“Really?”
She nodded slowly,
stared at the slimy patch for a moment, then said, “What if the algae has taken
up a commensal relationship with epithelial cells?”
“You mean like
lichen?”
She pursed her
lips, looked him in the eye and nodded slowly.
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