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Do you know any of your sister’s colleagues’ names?
The message board shows first names and comments. To the right, I can see that multiple people are accessing the board as I type. Multiple people, people I don’t know, are reading all of my responses. My unhelpful, woefully inadequate responses.
So many of my conversations with my sister were pointless.
Why didn’t I ask more questions when we spoke?
The weather. Jinx, my rescue cat. My school kids. Frustrating crap that came up during her move. When she first moved, I’d ask if she met anyone.
She never did. Said most of her colleagues were married. Referred to her boss as “my boss.” She liked him, although he’d frustrated her, too. She complained about his frequent mansplaining and that he desperately needed a nose wax.
She had a relationship with one colleague. Not a direct boss but a level higher. She refused to have sex with him until she got confirmation from HR that she wouldn’t be breaking any rules. But he moved to Switzerland months ago. I asked if she’d keep dating him, and she’d told me it was just sex. I’ve never known if Sloane is really as unemotional as she claims, or if she says things like that so I won’t worry about her.
Sage
Her direct boss was Dr. Haussler. She dated a colleague named William, but he moved away around six months ago.
Somewhere out there, people I’d never met were reading and processing. Probably searching for Dr. Haussler online. There’d only be one of those in the world, right? And that was her boss at the beginning.
Kairi
Do you know the first name?
Sage
No. And I’m not 100% that’s still her boss.
I never asked. Why would I? Do normal people ask for the first names of people they’ll probably never meet in person? Do normal people know the names of their siblings’ colleagues?
Sage
Sloane is a clinical researcher. Her field is generative cell therapy. Her passion is organ bioengineering.
Her work is way over my head. Light years. At least, that’s always been my assumption. I both hated and loved that my sister put her career behind my illness. Or at least, for years, I looked at it that way. Jimmy helped me see it differently.
Your experiences inspired her interest in cell therapy. Stop reading into it. Don’t put her choices on your shoulders.
Of course, it was her experience, too. She didn’t live in a hospital like me, but she spent far more time in a hospital than the average kid. Her luck of the draw with a sick sibling. Really, my entire family’s poor luck.
Kairi
Was she happy at her job?
I stare at the question.
Happy? Obsessed is more like it.
I sent her photos of my back yard, of plants, Jinx, Jimmy…of anything to remind her a world existed outside the lab. She sent me letters.
Sage
Her boss pushed what she called anti-aging research. Still in her field, but it didn’t match up with what she expected based on the job description.
Sloane didn’t go into details. But in one of our video calls, we debated it. Me saying that anti-aging research helped to lengthen lifespans, and it was worthwhile. After all, some called it longevity research. Sloane believed investing in lab-grown organs could save more lives and generate billions in profit, unlike what she called “the wrinkle initiative.”
Kairi
Anti-aging research like skin care? Creams?
