Page 227 of Incompatible

"Let me know when you need me for another job."

I step out of the car and head into the building where my apartment is located.

It’s on the side that faces the neighborhood of single-family houses where Alex’s house is, and from my window, I can see his place about six hundred fifty feet away, half hidden behind arborvitae.

I catch the faint square of his window on the upper floor, the blinds drawn, but I know Alex is home.

My heart tightens a little.

The academic year is only just beginning at the college where he works.

On Tuesday, during orientation day, I’ll be performing there, and I’m curious whether Alex will be somewhere in the crowd watching me from afar.

I fix my eyes on the pale light seeping through the blinds.

I close my eyes.

Alex…

I turn his name over in my mind, my heart pierced by a wave of love so vast that nothing else inside me exists.

Alex, I miss you so much. You are my greatest dream, my only love.

ALEX

Present day

Blue walks up to the bed where I’m lying, holding a small device in his hand, and I don’t even bother trying to guess what it’s for.

I’m hooked up to IVs, my head spinning a little like it always does after a procedure.

"I have good news," he says as he looks at the tiny screen, giving me a faint smile.

"Finally, it took long enough," I say dryly.

"Oh, put that sarcasm somewhere no one will ever find it, science doesn’t work overnight, it’s a delicate lengthy process," Blue says with his usual crooked smile.

The clinical trials ward of the genetics department is empty today, the two beds next to mine aren’t occupied by anyone, I’m the only person being experimented on today, and I’m also a regular here, someone the whole institute knows by name.

For the past four years I’ve been coming here almost every week, every two at most, whenever the research team working on compatibility studies needs to run tests on me.

"We have a breakthrough, we finally have a breakthrough," Blue says seriously as he sits beside me.

"The histamine markers are going down with Compatron therapy combined with phototherapy. The drop is slow but steady, and I think ten months, a year at most, and your problems will disappear."

For a second my breath stops, but then I just have to grumble a bit in impatience, and, frowning, I ask, "Why so long?"

Blue sighs.

"You’re not a scientist, Alex, but I can tell you briefly that if we gave you higher doses the effect might be the opposite of what we want, you could say that giving it in small amounts tricks your immune system, with a bigger dose it may find a way to bypass it. It’s a bit like how, in ancient times, kings would poison themselves with arsenic, taking it in small doses to build immunity to larger ones. I can’t give you too much too early or I’ll kill you."

"Will the side effects be similar to arsenic too?"

Blue makes a particular face but tries to stay patient with me, which is obvious.

"The arsenic comparison was just an example, Alex, don’t take it too seriously. It’s simply an analogy that sometimes giving small doses of a toxin makes the body develop an unexpected mechanism it doesn’t normally have. Do you understand what I mean? Yes, you’ll have side effects, the therapy might weaken you at times, but long-term your problem should be solved. Lab tests show that your tissue, when steadily exposed to Compatron, stops producing that violent burst of v-histamine that appears whenever it comes in contact with Bay’s DNA."

"So… there’s hope?"