A Hair of Delphi - 1 - Introduction

Author's Preface: 


This piece is set in the Lovecraftian World. H.P. Lovecraft was a horror novelist and serialist in the early-to-mid 1900's.


The core reason why I am writing this piece is for the exploration into the Serial sub-genre of writing. Serials are series that rely on a continuing plot that unfolds in a serial fashion, episode by episode. While today, Serials pertain solely to Television or Film, they originally referred to radio-shows and stories published in newspapers and magazines.


There is a certain finesse in writing for a Serial. For one, you have to backtrack and explain things with a brief summary as you start - To catch up readers from the last week's/month's issue, or if they missed that issue all-together. Then you only have so many words to use before your space is used up. Of course, for a monthly serial, the piece would be about three-to-five times longer than a weekly.


I will be working on a weekly schedule in this study. I only get 500-1800 words per segment. I have to make each word count, either to remind the readers, or to enlighten the readers.

So, without further interruption, I leave you with A Hair of Delphi.

What if lost parts of your body carried more than just the physical mass and genetic traits we already know about? What if they held the attitudes—nuances—habits of the owner? What if they held the memories of that person? Of course you would say it's crazy. Impossible. And you would be right. A toe does not contain the synapses to recall a football kick. A skin sample can not hold the hatred of a paper cut. A hair cannot reveal the life of the man.

Or can it? Some of the things I've seen - I don't know what don't know what it all means. But there is something here. Thanks to meticulous notes, I can reassemble the pieces. I need another person's interpretation, however. I need to know whether this is all really happening.

June 19, 1998

My name is Lawrence F. Radcliffe. I am working on my doctoral thesis in Disease Pathology during a semester long sabbatical from my residency at St Mary's Hospital in Arkham, Massachusetts. My personal study is exotic diseases, historical and contemporary. If we discover the correlation between past and present strains, it is likely that we can begin to predict future viral diseases and bacterial growths and create vaccines and antibiotics before they are necessary! Pharmacies will become preventative maintenances, and outbreaks will become virtually nonexistent!

Of course, my work is still in the theoretical stages, hence the sabbatical from finishing my MD. There are some promising theories, though. Specifically: The human hair follicle. We already know the human hair contains a long temporal map of the physical condition of a person. We can extrapolate the diet, exercise, and stress levels of the owner from the hair. And while we cannot yet see what the ailments are in the follicle, we can see periods of health and disease. Between the hair and skin samples of the ill, dying, and deceased, we can begin to understand the correlation and patterns of disease.

I am starting todays study with several samples, including:

• 3 Hair samples from myself;
• One from a month ago;
• One from last week;
• One from this morning.

• 2 Hair samples from my colleague residents at St Mary's.
• One from Dr. Elsinger—Female, age 29, Caucasian, German descent. No known history of illness;
• One from Dr. Benton—Male, age 26, Asian-Caucasian, Chinese-British descent. History:
• Hepatitis C infection 1 year ago on vacation in China.

• 1 Hair sample from a patient at St Mary's
• The name is omitted for protection of the patient—Male, Caucasian, British Descent: History:
• Middle Aged- Ranged 30-45
• Chronic Smoker since 16 years of age
• Herpes Simplex 2—Diagnosed July 1988
• Lung Cancer—Diagnosed June 1996.
• Chemotherapy—Began August 1996; Ended December 1997
• Cancer did not remit—diagnosed terminal December 1997
• Put in Hospice Care at St Mary's December 1997

A colleague in the Genetics Analysis department is allowing me the use of his machine for my hands-on research. Dr. Abernathy is a renowned geneticist that created a scanning device that is leaps and bounds beyond the current crop of genetic research. It uses holographic and VR technology to allow the user to physically contort and manipulate the scan—a phenomenal feat. Dr Abernathy's para-science hobbies brings his name to infamy in the medical world as well. I am worried that the good doctor made his machine for reasons other than seeing gene clusters. When he asked to test his latest improvements on the device on my samples, I made him promise that the machine would be safe for my experiments.

We are to meet at 3. I could use some lunch.