| General Fiction posted August 8, 2025 | Chapters: |
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The Kendrick family meets Maddy and Bo
A chapter in the book Beating the Devil
Beating the Devil - Chapter 2
by Jim Wile
| Background A cancer researcher invents an early cancer detection system. |
Recap of Prologue and Chapter 1: The prologue shows us an unknown person in a storeroom injecting acetone via a syringe into a selected number of sealed filters.
Chapter 1 begins with an exasperated Brian Kendrick, who cannot figure out why his test data is showing an increased number of cancer markers in his 100 lab rats. He suspects there are many false positives. He has been developing an early cancer detection system but is stumped by the results of his most recent test. His wife, Julia, comes down to his basement lab and begins massaging his shoulders. She tells him of an article she read about a therapy dog who can sniff cancer in people, and she suggests that maybe he could use the dog to verify if the suspected false positives really have cancer.
After reading the article himself and contacting the dog’s owner and trainer, Brian arranges with Madison McPhail, who lives nearby, to have the family come visit the dog.
Chapter 2
The next day, the whole family piled into their SUV and made the 45-minute drive to Madison McPhail’s home in Forest City.
The route passes through Shelby, North Carolina, a small town near the South Carolina border, which is the site of an unfortunate event in the life of the Kendrick family. Five years ago, when Johnny was only a year old, he had been kidnapped and held in a house in Shelby. It was at a time when Brian had begun the phase-2 human trials of his fabulously successful, opioid-strength but non-addictive painkiller, Glyptophan. He had created the drug by himself at home in his basement laboratory.
Big Pharma, in an attempt to suppress this drug because it promised to replace their opioid cash cows, escalated their continual harassment of Brian and his family. They attempted to make him abandon his human trials. Their plan was foiled, and Johnny was rescued by none other than his Aunt Fran, who is an FBI field agent, her confidential informant friend Dana, and the most unlikely person of all—Johnny’s grandmother, Marie.
In a daring raid on the house, one of the kidnappers was killed while the other was clobbered unconscious by a baseball bat-wielding Marie, a tiny slip of a woman. Following that incident, arrests of the perpetrators were made, and Big Pharma gave up its harassment attempts. Glyptophan was approved by the FDA two years ago and has been a big seller ever since.
When the Kendricks arrived at the McPhail’s house, Madison McPhail greeted them from her front porch. Her house is a quaint Victorian cottage, small and very ornate. Madison is 60-ish and on the plump side.
Brian introduced his family to her. “Miz McPhail, thanks so much for agreeing to meet with me and allowing the whole brood to come. They’ve been very excited to meet Bo.”
“Please, call me Maddy, Brian. Bo loves children, and I’m sure he’ll enjoy meeting your two. Shall we all go inside?”
She led them into the front parlor, where Bo, a six-year-old cream-colored Labrador retriever with a friendly, smiling face, was sitting in the middle of the floor. Johnny and Lindsay went right over to him. Bo seemed delighted by the company and licked both their faces as they scratched his head and neck.
Brian and Julia sat down on the sofa, facing Maddy, who sat across from them in a club chair.
Julia said, “I was fascinated by that magazine article where you described what the therapy dog program was all about and how you and Bo participate in it. How did you happen to get started with it?”
“I have a friend who told me about it and how gratifying it is to be able to bring comfort and cheer to people who may be in difficult circumstances and need a little cheering up. I can give you some information about it if you’re interested in joining.”
“Well, we don’t even have a dog… yet, anyway. But that may change soon. The kids have been begging us to get one.”
They looked over at the kids. Bo had lain down and rolled on his back, exposing his belly while they rubbed it. Johnny and Lindsay were chattering away, and Bo seemed to genuinely enjoy all the attention.
“He’s still a big baby,” said Maddy. “The folks we visit just love him.”
“So how did you first realize he could smell cancer?” Brian asked.
“It’s interesting how that came about. A couple years ago, a friend of mine was visiting us, and Bo would not leave her alone. He continually sniffed at her crotch, something he never does ordinarily. It got embarrassing. We eventually had to lock him in the kitchen, where he began to whine.
“Well, a few months later, my friend called and told me she had just been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. We talked about Bo and how we thought maybe he could smell it somehow.
“When we joined Pet Partners, I asked them about this, and they told me that some dogs indeed could smell the odor of cancer with noses that are 10,000 to 100,000 times more sensitive than human noses.”
“And I think you mentioned that you’re now working on formally training him to do this?” asked Brian.
“Not formally, no. There are programs for that, but I’ve just been working with him at home.”
“Where do you get your samples for him to sniff?”
“I’ve gotten a few samples from the North Carolina Research Campus in Kannapolis, but I’ve also gotten some from my friend with the ovarian cancer, as well as my brother-in-law, who has prostate cancer.”
“What’s your motivation for training him, Maddy?” asked Julia.
“It’s probably more selfish than anything. Breast cancer runs in my family. My mother died of it, as well as my older sister. I would love for Bo to detect it in me if I were to develop it. But you never can tell how handy it might come in with all the patients we meet.”
Julia looked at her ruefully. “My mother has breast cancer and is currently in remission. It was largely her contracting it that inspired Brian to begin this project of early detection. By the time she was diagnosed, she was already at stage 4. If only there had been a Bo in her life.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Julia. I hope she still has many more years ahead of her to enjoy these grandchildren.”
“Thank you. I hope so too.”
“You know, Julia, as I look at you, you look awfully familiar to me.”
Brian said, “Are you a fan of classical music by any chance?”
“That’s what it is! Are you the Julia Kendrick who is the famous violin soloist? If so, I have one of your CDs with your picture on the cover.”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“My goodness! I’m sitting here talking with one of the world’s premier violinists. Would you mind signing the cover of the CD for me? I’d be so honored if you would. I just love the way you play.”
“Thank you so much, Maddy. I’d be very happy to sign it.”
She left the room to retrieve the CD.
While she was gone, Johnny came over to the sofa and said, “I want a dog just like Bo. He’s so much fun, Dad.”
“He does seem like a great dog.”
They looked over and saw Lindsay playing tug-of-war with Bo and one of his dog toys. He was very calm with her and wasn’t getting worked up, even though Lindsay was squealing with delight.
When Madison returned, she handed Julia the cover she’d extracted from the jewel case, and she signed it. “I will treasure this always, Julia. Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
“Are you still playing, dear, now that you have two young ones?”
“I haven’t been touring since Johnny was born, but I do still play professionally… with a little bluegrass band, if you can believe it. I’m their fiddler and banjo player.”
“Isn’t that something! A world-class violinist who fiddles in a bluegrass band.”
“She plays the banjo better than the violin,” put in Johnny.
The grownups laughed.
“You just think that because you like the banjo better. Always have,” said Julia.
Brian said, “She’s teaching him to play. He’s pretty darn good already.”
“And she’s teaching me the violin,” said Lindsay.
“Oh, that’s so wonderful to have a musical family like that,” said Maddy, beaming.
As the kids continued playing with Bo, her attention shifted back to Brian’s project. “So, now tell me again how you think Bo might help you, Brian.”
“I would use him to verify my results because it appears we are getting a number of false positives for cancer markers. Let me describe just briefly how my early cancer detection system works.
“I’ll be fabricating a pill that uses nanoparticles to target various forms of cancer in the body. If the nanoparticles find cancer cells to bind to, they will trigger a release of volatile organic compounds—those VOCs we talked about on the phone—which would then become detectable through a breath analyzer. The idea is for people who are predisposed to developing cancer, or really for anyone who wants to and can afford it, to take the pill on a monthly basis and then use a home breath analyzer to detect the extra volume of cancer-induced VOCs. If present at a certain level, that would indicate the beginnings of cancer.
“We all have stray mutated cells floating around our bodies that can become cancerous, but a healthy immune system destroys most of these. However, when there are enough of these abnormal cells and they begin to cluster, that’s the beginning of a cancer.
“Now, we don’t want the system to pick up every single abnormal cell but only when they reach a threshold level; otherwise, there would be many false positives due to cells that will eventually be attacked and killed by our immune systems. False positives scare people into thinking they have cancer when they really don’t.”
“So, you would like Bo to sniff your rats that tested positive and determine if they really have cancer?”
“Exactly, except that we’ll have him sniff all hundred rats. He would be a double-check against our breath analyzers to see if they are functioning correctly or if our threshold values need to be adjusted to be less sensitive.”
“And how do you envision he would do this?”
“Well, he wouldn’t interact with the rats directly. That would frighten them into releasing stress-related VOCs that could compromise the results. Instead, we would collect breath samples from each rat, and Bo would sniff these. My big question for you is, does he have a distinct way of indicating he’s detected cancer?”
“We’ve been working on that in our testing. He whines when he detects it. That’s what he’s always done when we visit a cancer patient at the hospital. He whines when he first meets them and sniffs them. Then he stops and is just his natural, wonderful, comforting doggy self. But he always whines a little at first, so that’s what I’ve been using as his signal.”
“And how well is he doing in your work with him?”
“He’s improving all the time.”
“Do you think he’s ready enough to give it a try?”
“He’s not perfect, but I think it’s worth a try.”
“Would later this week be too soon?” asked Brian.
“That would be just fine. How would it work?”
“You’re the one who’s been training him and knows how to handle him, so it would make sense for you to conduct the test. I will have all the samples ready for Bo in three days. How would 10:00 AM on Thursday work?
“We’ll see you then, Brian. This is exciting!”
 Recognized |
Brian Kendrick: A 41-year-old neuroscientist and cancer researcher
Julia Kendrick: Brian's 41-year-old wife. She is also a world-class violinist.
Johnny Kendrick: Their 6-year-old son
Lindsay Kendrick: Their 3-year-old daughter
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother
Madison (Maddy) McPhail: Owner of Bo
Bo: Maddy McPhail's cancer-sniffing therapy dog
Picture courtesy of GPT-Image-1
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© Copyright 2025. Jim Wile All rights reserved.
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