Jenna rushed excitedly down the sidewalk. It was her first solo scan day, and she couldn’t wait to get to work. As she dashed past the long side of her building to get to the staff security entrance on the north side, her coffee and ice bounced around inside its plastic cup. She met Tony, the security guard, with a cheerful greeting, and hurried through the metal detector to the elevator beyond. She fought to slow her pace as she exited onto her floor, very aware of how fast her heart raced. She dumped her bag at her desk, booted her computer, and quickly logged into her account.

“It’s only Thursday,” Felicity said from the adjacent desk. “Why so energetic?”

“Oh,” Jenna replied breathlessly. “Hi, Felicity. It’s my first solo scan day and I’m just really excited.”

“Oh, good for you,” Felicity said with a smile. “What time?”

“We have indoc set for 9:40 so we can get started right at 10:00,” answered Jenna.

Felicity looked down at her clock and laughed.

“It’s only 8:15,” she chuckled. “You’ve got some waiting to do.”

“Well, yeah,” Jenna replied sheepishly. “But it’ll be here before you know it.”

Sure enough, Jenna had barely caught up with some late emails from the day before when a reminder flashed across her screen.

“Ooh!” she squealed and pulled her ID from her computer.

“Go get ‘em, tiger!” Felicity called.

Jenna arrived at the visitor station at 9:17. Maureen, the receptionist, greeted Jenna over her giant mug of black coffee. She had a visitor badge prepped for Jenna’s donor and all the form work collated on a clipboard.

“Oh, thank you, Maureen,” Jenna said apologetically. “But I have all this pre-completed electronically.”

Maureen set her mug down, pulled the papers from the clipboard, and promptly dropped them in a bin for shredding, then picked her mug back up and cradled it in both hands.

“I’m really sorry,” Jenna added. “I really do appreciate it.”

Maureen pursed her lips and held up one hand in a nonchalant gesture.

“Don’t worry about it, kid,” she said in her coarse and nasally voice. “Did you take care of this electronically, too?”

She picked up the visitor badge and held it just out of Jenna’s reach.

“Oh, I didn’t know we could do electronic badges,” Jenna replied.

“You can’t,” Maureen said dryly, and held the badge where Jenna could reach it.

Behind her, Jenna heard Tony stand up and greet someone at security. She turned to see her donor, a Mr. Robert Ternal, cautiously walk through the metal detector and wait for his personal effects to finish on the conveyor belt. Mr. Ternal was tall, maybe 6’-3”, she guessed, had sandy blonde hair, and kept his piercing blue eyes fixed on Jenna. His frame was slender for an older man. His pants appeared nearly folded over where his belt was pulled tight.

Jenna stood and waited at the visitor station with her hand extended prematurely. She held it out awkwardly for a full minute before Mr. Ternal could finish resituating his wallet and keys. When he saw her standing there, he made an effort to close the gap quickly using his long legs.

“I’m sorry,” he said in a quiet but firm voice. “I didn’t mean to leave you hanging there.”

“Oh, no,” Jenna said quickly. “It’s my fault. Hi, Mr. Ternal. I’m Jenna. This is your visitor badge.”

“Rob is fine,” said Mr. Ternal, and he clipped the badge to the lapel of his tweed jacket.

“Thank you, Maureen,” Jenna called as she directed Mr. Ternal to the elevator. He looked up and around the glass railing that lined the floors in the atrium above.

“Nice building,” he said quietly. “Lots of natural light.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jenna agreed. “Unfortunately, I’m taking you downstairs.”

They entered the elevator and she pressed B2.

“Two basements?” Mr. Ternal commented.

“I was surprised too,” Jenna agreed. “I guess some of it is for security reasons. The more sensitive equipment is down there.”

He nodded understandingly but didn’t say much else.

The elevator dinged as it gently shuddered to a stop. The doors opened to reveal a very dark corridor. Only some soft red emergency lights glowed. Jenna froze. This was her first time coming down here on her own. Mr. Ternal casually stuck his hand out and waved. Even this meager motion was enough to trigger the occupancy sensor. The lights in the hallway slowly brightened to full-on as Jenna and Mr. Ternal stepped off the elevator and walked down to the scanning lab.

“We’ll be in room 3 there,” Jenna said. She pointed and indicated for Mr. Ternal to continue while she paused to check out and unlock a secure tablet.

Mr. Ternal stood just inside room 3, holding the glass door open for Jenna.

“Thank you,” she said, practically bouncing into the room. “You can sit right here in this chair. Is that comfortable enough? We can make some adjustments here. It looks like our last donor wasn’t quite as tall as you.”

Mr. Ternal lowered himself into the chair. His movements were slow and stiff. In the stillness of the unoccupied laboratory, Jenna could now hear how labored his breathing was. The chair squeaked under his shifting weight. It was a really nice camel-colored leather chair in three segments, like a very posh dentist’s chair.

“Can I get you a water or anything like that?” she asked.

Mr. Ternal shook his head from side to side but said nothing.

“I’m just going to go through some standard procedures here,” Jenna added. “Even though we’ve got the lab to ourselves.”

She pressed and dragged some settings on the tablet and the glass door and matching partitions went opaque.

“Isn’t that so cool?” she asked absentmindedly.

“Yes,” said Mr. Ternal quietly. “It’s actually just a low-voltage charge across a reactive film that’s embedded in the glass. This clouded setting is what it looks like without the voltage applied. It’s designed to fail to privacy mode.”

“Oh, yeah,” Jenna said, looking at her notes, “I totally forgot you’re an electrical engineer. This must be right up your alley.”

“Well, actually,” Mr. Ternal replied, “I specialize in arc flash hazard abatement. This lower voltage doesn’t really exhibit that level of risk.”

“Oh, now I see that,” said Jenna. “So that brings us to our disclosures and preparations. I just want to talk through the process and make sure that you’re comfortable with everything before we proceed. All of this is standard, totally safe, and is completed with other donors multiple times a week. What’s going to happen is I’m going to apply two small contacts to your temples and then read a list of targeted terminology, phrases, and keywords. These triggers have been specifically designed to excite your memories, knowledge, and experience associated with Arc Flash Hazard, Safety, and Mitigation.”

Mr. Ternal took in a slow breath and puffed it out as a sigh.

“Any questions so far?” Jenna asked. “Still ok to proceed.”

“No questions,” Mr. Ternal said quietly. “Proceed.”

Matt Hebert is an engineer and self-published author. His dopamine-fueled creative pursuits have spanned from chicken keeping, sand sculpture, acting, and public speaking, but writing is nearest and dearest to his heart. He lives in Bellevue with his wife and two daughters. You can find him on Instagram at @jerkofalltradeshebert or email him at matt.hebert.books@gmail.com

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