Lexi'S Biography
Lexi gained a reputation in her school for being exceptionally smart. She won the Kalizona County 5th grade science fair with a demonstration of how it would be possible to make clean, free power by fusing hydrogen atoms together and capturing the resulting energy to fuel cars, trucks, and buses. She was on a completely different level than the other students. In fact, she had even earned a key to the science lab in the high school that was on the same property as her school. She had a natural curiosity about biology and chemistry and wanted to become a bio-chemical engineer when she got older.
Lexi had recently been going over to the science lab at the high school after family dinner at home. And, on this particular night, she had made sure to lock the lab door after she entered, and even pushed a heavy file cabinet in front of it so no one would interrupt the special experiment she was about to conduct…
She had been working on a way to turn a wild, fierce creature into a tame, loving pet she could keep at home. The creature she had chosen was called a horlock, and she had one locked in a cage, secretly hidden in a sound proof closet at the far end of the lab. The horlock looked like a cross between a wild horse and a giant peacock. It had a long face with huge nostrils and very sharp talons on its rear legs. It had a messy mane on its head and an intimidating, yet very colorful tail plume. Worst of all, this beastly creature had a mean streak and a short temper. She was terrified of the thing. But, Lexi was convinced she could alter a horlock’s internal chemistry and turn it into a tame, lovable pet that she could play with and take on walks. It was going to be her way of showing everyone how cool she really was. It was going to be like, “See, I knew you’d all be jealous once you saw what I could do.”
Lexi had already taken a sample of the horlock’s blood and DNA and reprogrammed the sequence with some chameleon DNA. Her theory was that the calm and friendly personality of chameleons would balance out the wild and fierce personality traits of horlocks. Tonight was the night she was going to put the altered DNA back into the horlock. And, if everything went well, within about 24 hours, she would have a loving and playful horlock as a new pet at home that she could show off in the neighborhood.
As she walked toward the back of the lab, she could hear the unmistakable sound of rain landing on the windows of the lab. It was dark in the room, because she didn’t want to turn on a lot of lights; not tonight anyway. This was not exactly, “Oh, I’m just working on some science fair ideas” type of stuff. This was clearly not an approved use of the lab – in any way. So she wanted to keep things as quiet and as dark as possible. And the storm that was forming outside was probably perfect timing for her secret experiment.
She opened the sound proof closet, which startled the horlock inside the cage, and it let out a long puff of air from its large nostrils. Lexi put on a pair of thick leather gloves that were to protect her from the horlock’s sharp talons and was careful while opening the cage door. She reached into the large cage with one of her gloved hands and grabbed the beast by the mane on the back of its neck. It made a deep groaning sound as she pulled it out of the cage. The horlock was clearly not happy to have someone interrupting its quiet evening. As Lexi walked back to the front of the lab, she could hear the increasing storm activity outside. She could hear rumbling thunder in the distance and the rain was now pelting the windows loudly as the wind grew in intensity.
She placed the big beast up on top of the white countertop that was going to serve as her “operating table”. She had already planned ahead and had some Velcro strips wrapped around the legs of the table. She struggled to get the beast strapped down to the countertop, but eventually was able to get the horlock secured, more or less. Now, all she had to do was simply inject the altered DNA back into the creature with the medical needle…..how hard could that be, right? But before she took the protective leather gloves off, she checked the horlock’s sharp talons one more time.
Now it was “go time”. There was no turning back. Besides, she’d already thoroughly checked her work. Everything was right, everything was good. She removed the gloves and placed them at the end of the white “operating table”. She picked up the medical needle and noticed that her hand was shaking. She hadn’t exactly planned for being this nervous. But she was determined to go through with her plan. So she started to move her other hand over to steady the one holding the needle and that’s the precise time that the bright flash of lightning intruded the darkness, along with the immense boom of thunder that pulsed through the lab. Everything shook. It was almost like an earthquake. Lexi couldn’t do a thing about it……the needle pierced into the fleshy part of her free hand, and her stomach bumped into the plunger, sending some of the contents of the needle into her hand.
She was totally and completely stunned as she stared down at the needle sticking out of her hand. She grabbed it and pulled it out. “What in the world?!?!” “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!!!” She was paralyzed. Just couldn’t move; just couldn’t think. The needle hit the floor and bounced a couple of times.
She felt hysterical and faint and grabbed the edge of the white countertop to steady herself. She closed her eyes and tried to regain some composure. She tried to calm her breathing and slow her heart that was beating out of her chest. She took deep breaths….in and out, in and out. She told herself, “Everything is going to be OK.” “This won’t be a problem.” After a few minutes, she finally felt her body calming down, her breathing improve, and her heart settling a bit. She opened her eyes…..she looked at her hands still gripping the edge of the white countertop……one of them was all white…..the exact same color as the countertop!!! …….Chameleon DNA……..!!!
