Green Table

ONE

The orange dust and dark Colorado clay kicked up at the old Ford truck as it made its way across the scorching desert road. Her soft hand flicked up and gently slid the tape into the player, her fingertips left marks through the thin layer of dust that coasted the withered stereo. Loretta Lynn, These Boots are Made for Walking started to pour out the speakers. She cranked the knob, gradually turning up the volume.

The song had become one of Renae's favorites, it reminded her of her mother. It had been one of her favorites. She was young, hardly old enough to remember it. Now she tried to listen to it as often as she could. It filled her with a sense of empowerment in the male dominated world, especially in the world of bio engineering. That she was unfortunately all too familiar with and was constantly reminded of it. In fact, it had become her life goal to beat the stigma. As she sang along her long muddy brown hair whipped in all directions from the jets of the A/C; sweat dripped off the bridge of her nose and around her cheeks to her chin. It was set to full blast, yet there was just no way of beating the desert heat. All this enduring, the melting heat of the sun, the long car drive, the unknown all for a chance to work.

Renae Foster had graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the last year, earning her PhD in Genetic Engineering. Her specialization in DNA recreation, being quite good at it too. Earning her recondition and praise from many professors over the years. She did this all by the age of thirty. It earned her a page in Science Magazine, which accredited her for being one of the few young women to become a Dr. before thirty-five. Diligent was the way her colleges would describe her, yet most based on her appearance saw her as gullible; a silly woman only dipping her fingers in something much bigger than herself.

It didn't bother her that others thought of her like this. It only made her more driven to show what she was capable of. Show she was much more than a pretty face. Although being that soft face at the lab helped her gain a better standing with the male scientists, sometimes they would spill equations she had yet to think of, once she would try them it only help progress her own investigations even further. It wasn't something she was proud of, but she has always been able to figure out the solutions they posed to her.

It was true not many women ventured into the science of Biotechnology, in all honesty only few had even made a name for themselves. All their work had been groundbreaking. She often tried to remember it was a woman who in the forties, named Barbara McClintock discovered genes could be mobile. At the time this type of thinking was completely taboo. Her finding was that a chromosome breakage, in the locus made it jump and switch positions now known as Jumping Genes. * The discovery of this led to the discovery of how viruses multiplied and can be dangerous in human beings, but also made it possible to find a way to combat illness. This discovery helped understand asexual cells and beings.

The world of biology and genetics had changed drastically since then, now we could split and clone cells. Making clones through studying and reproduction of asexual cells from amphibians thanks to Briggs and Kings' discoveries. * Science was only blossoming more each passing decade. Making Renae excited to see what she could contribute to the science community herself. That was something she was always dreaming of, how she could progress the world. But that was a whole new issue in itself; even with her credentials staggering high, and a more than excelling grade report, BioTech companies just didn't want a female in the workspace yet.

On more than one occasion she had been told, "Dr. Foster you would make a great addition to this company, we just aren't fashion forward yet" And with a shrug they would continue; "You'd be too distracting for the other scientists." This always made her blood boil, Renae knew how to play the part of a polite young lady, and she understood that the world hadn't caught up with her way of thinking yet. Yet that didn't stop her from wanting to be seen as much more than a house asset. It was a goal to breach the same barrier her mother did at her age. And she hoped maybe some little girl could look up to her too.