| General Fiction posted October 28, 2025 | Chapters: |
...26 27 -28- 29... 
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The aftermath of Lettie's fall
A chapter in the book Beating the Devil
Beating the Devil - Chapter 28
by Jim Wile
| Background A cancer researcher invents an early cancer detection system. |
Recap of Chapter 27: The team gives a walkthrough of the investigational new drug application to Paul Rieke, whom they invited to critique it. In the middle of the presentation, Mal gets a call from Tanya saying that Lettie has fallen and broken her hip. Mal leaves to join his family at the hospital.
On the way to the airport, Abby asks Brian a key question: If their new system detects cancer in some of the trial subjects, would an oncologist be willing to do exploratory surgery if their own tests can’t find any evidence of cancer?
Chapter 28
Mal had arrived at the hospital at 11:30 and met Tanya and Sammy in the surgical waiting room. Lettie was in pre-op now and would be operated on within the hour.
Since it was a simple fracture of the femoral head, the surgery would involve repositioning the fractured bone fragments and stabilizing them with screws.
By 3:30 PM, the surgery was complete, and the family was admitted into the recovery room, where they found Lettie sitting up in bed and sipping water.
“Momma, you look pretty good,” said Mal. “How do you feel?”
“Like a damn fool. Shoulda been more careful on that icy sidewalk.”
“Well, I’m real sorry it happened. Are you in any pain?”
“Not much. They got me medicated pretty good with your boss’s drug.”
Sammy said, “When can you come home, Gramsy?”
“I don’ know for sure, Sugar. They say it ‘pends on how I do in physical therapy. Maybe just two days here at the hospital, but then they say I gotta go to rehab for a few weeks. So, it be a while ‘til I come home.”
“But who’s going to take care of me after school?”
“Baby, you don’t have to worry about that,” said Mal. “Momma and I will figure something out.”
“Gramsy, what’s rehab?”
“That’s a place where they teach me how to walk again.”
“Did you forget how when you fell down?”
“No, I didn’t forget, but it gonna be a little different ‘til I get used to it again. Gonna have to take it slow for a while and prob’bly need a walker.”
This seemed odd. “You mean somebody will walk you, like, with a leash?”
Lettie laughed at the mental image of that. Mal and Tanya couldn’t help themselves either.
“What’s so funny?” asked Sammy, who wondered why her questions often evoked such a reaction.
“No, Sugar. A walker’s that gizmo over there,” she said, pointing to the walker that had been placed in a corner of the room. “That’ll help me walk ‘til I heal up and get stronger.”
“Oh. Can I visit you at rehab, Gramsy?”
“Sure you can.”
“And maybe Miss Julia and Earl can come visit you too because they go to hospitals and stuff to visit people all the time.”
“Well, that’d be real nice. You tell ‘em I said so.”
“I will.”
Mal called Brian that night to let him know the situation with his mother. He then asked for the day off to stay with Sammy, who would be home because of the snow, and Brian told him no problem. Mal then asked if he could speak to Julia, and Brian handed her the phone.
“Hi, Mal. How is your mom doing?”
“Hey, Julia. She’s doing okay. Listen, I wanted to ask you something. Sammy had a real good idea. She mentioned that you and Earl are now making therapy dog visits. Mom’s going to be at the Atrium Pines Rehab Center starting Friday for a few weeks, and I think she would love a visit from you and Earl. Would that be possible?”
“We haven’t been to that one yet, but I can certainly get in touch with the administration there and ask if we could. I’ll call them tomorrow and let you know.”
“Thanks so much, Julia. I know she would love to visit with y’all.”
Julia phoned the rehab center in the morning and spoke to the head of Volunteer Services.
“My name is Julia Kendrick, and I’m calling to see if you accept visits by therapy dogs. My dog, Earl, and I are registered with Pet Partners.”
“Why, yes, Ms. Kendrick. We have frequent visits from therapy dogs, and our patients love them. For you and Earl to visit, we would need to see your registration card, a list of Earl’s vaccinations, and proof of liability insurance from Pet Partners.”
“I thought I should let you know that my main reason for coming is to visit a friend of mine, Letitia Roberts, who is going to be a patient there in a couple of days. But while we’re there, Earl and I would be happy to visit with other patients too.”
“That would be wonderful, Ms. Kendrick. Why don’t we set up a date, and when you come with Earl, I’ll have you meet with my assistant, who can help arrange your visit.”
“Okay, great.”
This was a Friday, and Julia made arrangements to come on Monday morning.
It was just Brian and Bertie in the lab on Friday. This had been Mal’s week for rat maintenance duties, but Bertie picked up the ball without complaint. Brian decided to help her.
While they worked, she said, “Brian, can I ask a stupid question?”
“Uh, no, Bertie. I don’t think that’s possible, knowing you.”
“Hmm… how about this? If a fly loses its wings, should we call it a walk?”
“Uh… okay, I guess I was wrong. So what’s on your mind?”
“Alright, in the Phase 1 human trials, assuming we get accepted, we’re going to test 100 people, right?”
“Yep.”
“And based on Abby’s biometric analysis, we should expect four to five cases of undiagnosed cancer in this group because we will have screened them for having a family history of either pancreatic, liver, or colon cancer and being really old, like, over 50.” She said this in her perfect deadpan fashion.
“Hey, watch it there, young ‘un. I’m getting pretty close to that myself.”
“Indeed. So, then we give them the pill, and we’re hoping to pick up about four or five who the breathalyzer shows cancer in. Bear with me; I’m getting to my dumb question shortly. Now, everyone who we detected cancer in will presumably get checked out by an oncologist, and some will have their cancer detected by current means and will begin treatment for it. So, here’s the question: What will happen to the people when their condition can’t be picked up by current methods? Would any reputable oncologist just take our word for it that they have the beginnings of cancer in their body? Would they have to wait until the cancer progresses enough to be detected by their means, which might be too late for the patients?”
Brian chuckled. “That’s three questions, not one, but as I predicted, they’re not stupid at all. In fact, Abby asked me that same thing last night, and I’ll give you the same answer. We’ve got to receive guidance on that from the FDA. But I’ve been thinking about it a lot since speaking with Abby, and I think we can make use of another diagnostic tool—a cancer-sniffing dog—to lend credence to our results. They have a similar accuracy to our system.
“Of course, some people may ask, why do we need this new system at all if dogs are just as reliable? And the obvious answer is that there are fewer than 100 of them in the country right now, located in specialized facilities. But we happen to be very lucky because one lives within 45 minutes of here, and I’ve used him before.”
Brian related the story of the earlier sabotage, omitting the identity of the saboteur, and how he had detected it using Maddy and Bo.
“So, if we can duplicate our results by using Bo as an independent diagnostic tool, that might be enough to persuade an oncologist to do further, more invasive tests.”
“Would you do further tests if you were an oncologist?” asked Bertie.
“Me? Yeah, but I’m just a tad biased. Can we find one who would?” He pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows. “I guess we’ll see.”
 Recognized |
Brian Kendrick: A 43-year-old neuroscientist and cancer researcher
Julia Kendrick: Brian's 43-year-old wife. She is also a world-class violinist.
Johnny Kendrick: Their 8-year-old son
Lindsay Kendrick: Their 6-year-old daughter
Earl Kendrick: The Kendrick's chocolate Labrador Retriever
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother
Abby Payne: Brian's partner on the project. She is 67 and a brilliant mathematician.
Malcolm Roberts (Mal): One of Brian's two lab technicians
Tanya Roberts: Mal's wife
Samantha (Sammy) Roberts: Mal's 6-year-old daughter
Letitia Roberts (Lettie): Mal's mother
Larry Posner: One of Brian's two lab technicians
Vivian Delacroix: An oncology professor at Wake Forest University also doing early cancer detection work
Roberta (Bertie) Chen: Brian's new lab technician
Cedric (aka Cecil) Washington: Marie's premier violin student and friend
Maddy McPhail: Owner of Bo
Bo McPhail: Maddy McPhail's cancer-sniffing therapy dog
Dr. Renee Houlihan: Marie's oncologist
Dr. Paul Rieke: Brian's former chemistry professor and mentor, now a good friend
Picture courtesy of Imagen-4-Ultra
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