Underlife
By Robert Finn
He reckoned she might be Californian. As he liked to remind people, he’d lived there for a few years himself — though he tended not to get very specific because the truth was he’d been at high school there for a few years, and that probably didn’t sound as impressive as whatever story people might come up with for themselves if he kept pretty quiet about the details. Relocating out there to be with his dad and then pulling up roots and coming back again had badly messed with his half-hearted attempts to get an education — not to mention how it had mongrelized the slang he used — but it had also left him with just enough of an accent, and maybe a bit of added mystery, so he wasn’t complaining.
The girl had finished her first call and was dialling another. She took a deep breath before putting the phone to her ear, and he could tell it wasn’t a conversation she was looking forward to.
He really should get going, but there was something about this girl besides her looks, and he found himself unable to look away. He watched her get her nerve up before speaking, and he couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for whatever she was going through.
For a moment, he thought about nicking her phone, a Blackberry (natch), but he couldn’t get very excited about the idea, even if there’d been an easy way to make it happen.
Without thinking, he stepped a little closer to her, carefully keeping his eyes ahead like he didn’t see her. He was hoping to catch a hint of whatever perfume she was wearing. He wasn’t, you know, a pervert or anything — it was just that these girls always smelled amazing.
Afterwards, if he were looking back on that day and trying to choose a particular moment, he’d have to say that right then, as he stepped forward, was probably when things started to unravel. It was about the last thing to happen that day that made sense. Everything after that point was like an unpleasant episode from someone else’s life spliced into his, and most of it took place in fast-forward. Even the bits that weren’t a speeded-up nightmare were still like something out of a dream, though at least it was one of his own.
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Robert Finn
Robert Finn graduated from the University of Chicago with an A.B. in biological sciences and intended to pursue a career as a research neuroscientist.
Biography.
After several years in graduate school in the Department of Psychobiology at the University of California, Irvine, he realized that he preferred writing about science to doing it. Robert left with an M.S. degree to pursue a career as a science writer. For several years, he worked full-time at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, doing science writing for Caltech’s research magazine and then for the news media, explaining scientific advances.
Since 1992, Robert has been a full-time freelance writer. He has written hundreds of articles for dozens of publications, including Discover, Men’s Fitness, the Los Angeles Times, and The Scientist, where he is a contributing editor. Although he has written about practically all areas of science, he specializes in biomedicine and science policy. He estimates that he has interviewed nearly 1,000 scientists, physicians, and other experts during his career. Since college, Robert has been fascinated with the drug development process and clinical trials. Several years ago, he worked for a contract research organization, writing chapters for highly technical books for scientists interested in clinical trials. Cancer Clinical Trials is Robert’s first book. He is now working on a book on organ transplants.
Robert Finn
