| General Fiction posted September 9, 2024 | Chapters: |
...34 35 -36- 37... 
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Brian and Julia begin a life together
A chapter in the book DUEL with the DEVIL
DUEL with the DEVIL - Chapter 36
by Jim Wile
| Background A brilliant young chemist creates a new painkilling drug with unknown benefits and pitfalls. |
Recap of Chapter 35: This chapter gives a brief recap of some of the highlights of Brian and Julia’s undergrad years. Brian’s new spinal cord stimulator did a good job for his pain. He did well in his biochemistry major and graduated with high honors. Julia also did well at Juilliard, becoming the top violin student.
There was one incident in their sophomore year that was unpleasant at the time but probably served Julia well in the long run. Her mother, Doktor Schmidt, wins a job in the New York Philharmonic and moves in with Julia for two weeks while her apartment was being readied. She drives Julia nuts, constantly criticizing her preparations for a violin concerto Julia was to play. Julia calls Brian one day near the end of the stay when she can’t take it anymore, and Brian drives up to rescue her by taking her to a hotel and letting her mother stay at her apartment. Dr. Schmidt threatens to withhold Julia’s financial support if she leaves with Brian, and this is the final straw for Julia, who tells her, in essence, to shove it.
Chapter 36
Following the four years of separation during our undergrad years, Julia and I got married right after graduation in a small ceremony. Only Daniel, Kimi, Fran, and her husband, Mike Pekarsky, Julia’s two roommates, the Rieke’s, and Julia’s father were invited to attend.
Let me fill you in on a few of the highlights since then.
Julia and I moved into graduate student housing at Triangle Towers in Cleveland, Ohio. It was within easy walking distance of both Case Western Reserve University, where I was in a master’s program in biochemistry, and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where Julia was in a master’s program in violin performance. The two shared the same campus.
On the recommendation of her Juilliard teacher, Arnold Rathbun, Julia had applied and had been accepted with a full ride scholarship to CIM where her new teacher, who was an old friend of Rathbun’s, welcomed her as her student. Like Juilliard, CIM was among the elite music schools in the country.
Lucky for me, Case Western Reserve University, or CWRU (pronounced “crew”), was also a very good school, and I had gotten a hefty scholarship to study there.
Julia did splendidly at CIM. She was so good that she had been selected to be the student soloist in a violin concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the top orchestras in the nation. What an honor, and it served to gain her some prestige in the music world.
She had decided that rather than seek a permanent position in an orchestra, she wanted to be a soloist who would be a guest performer in orchestras around the country. She was that good and could make a good living doing this.
As Julia grew older and spent more time around people, she became less introverted. Although she would rarely initiate conversations with others, she could hold her own with people who engaged her. People naturally gravitated towards her because she was so positive and pleasant to be around.
She hired an agent to help arrange her bookings. They began modestly with regional orchestras, but as she became better known in the violin world, she started getting soloist jobs with increasingly larger orchestras.
On the advice of her agent, she entered and won several competitions. One such was the Indianapolis International Violin Competition, one of the most prominent ones in North America. The acclaim she gained from this led to even bigger engagements around the country. She had just begun to travel internationally as well. Julia Kendrick was on her way to becoming one of the premier violin soloists in the world.
How did her travels affect our relationship? I realized early on that her talent was such that she wouldn’t be satisfied in the violin section of just one orchestra, even if she were concert master, which she would undoubtedly be. It just wouldn’t be enough of a challenge for her. She was a born soloist, and I accepted it. Our love for each other was so strong that we were able to survive and even thrive in the times apart, which were rarely for very long—usually for no more than two weeks at a time.
I myself was heavily immersed in my studies and work, which began even in my graduate years. In addition to the scholarship money I received, I needed to work to pay for living expenses, and I was hired as a teaching assistant in the Chemistry Department at CWRU. I was rated very highly by my students for my ability to explain difficult concepts. My time with Dr. Rieke had taught me a lot about how to make the complex more understandable. Perhaps teaching would be in my future someday?
Following grad school, Julia and I moved back to North Carolina, to Charlotte, the largest city in the state. Charlotte is a major air travel hub, which made Julia’s travel plans much simpler. It is also the home of a midsize pharmaceutical company called Detry Pharmaceutical, where I got a job as a research scientist in the R&D Department.
From my early lab days working with Dr. Rieke on his experiments with gene editing technology, I had developed an intense interest in this fascinating, relatively new field in biochemistry. But I had an equally abiding passion for the fields of neurobiology and neurochemistry, which study both pain transmission and mood alteration. The hormones known as endorphins play a key role in both of these areas.
I’ve never given up the goal that Julia and I had talked about of finding a non-addictive painkiller that was able to divorce pleasure from its analgesic effect.
Unfortunately, my work at Detry was not concerned with this. I was working on a project that was doing research in the area of memory in hopes of finding a cure for senility—specifically Alzheimer’s disease. The project was heavily involved with gene therapy, which is the introduction of genetic material to an organism to replace a defective or missing gene with a healthy version of the gene.
I had a strong feeling that if I were ever to attempt to develop a non-addictive painkiller, it would require both of my areas of interest: gene therapy and neurobiology. I also had a strong feeling that I would do this on my own one day—not working for Detry or any other pharmaceutical company, but as an independent contractor.
Why? Because I wanted to experiment on myself, and I knew Detry wouldn’t allow that. I was impatient and wouldn’t want to follow well-established and, what I felt to be, ponderous protocols. I wanted to fast-track it, and I could only do that on my own.
My back was starting to hurt again, despite the continued use of the buzzer in my spine. That’s what I called it because it gave forth a constant vibration sensation, which I didn’t mind so much, but given my druthers, I’d druther not have to put up with it. Also, I didn’t know whether the analgesic effect had a specific lifespan. The pain I felt was still moderate enough, but it was slowly creeping back.
And so, I bided my time at Detry, learned as much as I could, and waited for the day when I could branch out on my own and work independently.
Charlotte, North Carolina
2016
I drove to Charlotte Airport and waited for Julia’s flight from Seattle to arrive. During her two-week absence, she performed at six concerts across four cities: Los Angeles, Oakland, San Francisco, and Seattle.
She always had luggage checked for a trip of this length, so I parked the car and waited for her in the baggage claim area.
I watched her come down the escalator armed with a carry-on bag and her violin, which never left her side. She smiled when she caught my eye, and when she came up to me, I kissed her hello and took her carry-on bag from her. It was 9:30 PM, and she looked happy but fatigued. It’s a long day of travel from the west coast.
“So, how was your concert last night in Seattle?” I asked her.
“It went well, but I’m so tired; I just want to get home and get into the hot tub and relax, then snuggle with you in bed. I can never sleep on a plane.”
“You think you might be up for a little more than just snuggling?”
“Of course, but then it will be right to sleep.”
“It’s so good to have you home, Jules. Did you have anything to eat on the plane?”
“Yeah, I’m good. After we get my bags, let’s just go straight home.”
“You got it, Sweetie.”
We lived in a house in a nice neighborhood on the south side of the city, not too close to downtown. We were both making good money and could afford a nice home. It wasn’t a large house, perhaps 2,200 square feet of living space with just two bedrooms, but it had an unfinished attic, where one day soon I planned to have at least a portion of it finished and create my laboratory.
After a long delay at baggage claim and a 20-minute drive home, it was 10:30 by the time we pulled into the garage. Julia went into the house and started running the water in the large jetted tub in our master bathroom, while I brought in her luggage. She didn’t feel like unpacking it tonight and just hopped in the tub when it was full enough. She turned the jets on and relaxed in the pulsating warm water.
I let her luxuriate in it for a while by herself, but I soon stripped down and joined her in there. This tub was one of the features we loved about our house, and it was Julia’s perfect refuge after a long day of travel. After she’d soaked for a while, we started fooling around, which led to a quick exit from the tub, a frantic drying off, and a quick hop into our king-size bed, where we completed what we’d started in the tub.
We followed this same pattern after each of her trips. We were young, had active libidos, and being tired wasn’t enough to forego this ritual of her return. I didn’t know if it would always be this way as we got older, but for now, it was a ritual we both very much looked forward to.
That night was no exception, but after one brief and intense bout of sex, she had had enough for the day, and we lay there cuddling until both of us fell asleep in each other’s arms. I missed her terribly when she was gone, but it was almost worth it for those moments when she returned.
 Recognized |
Brian Kendrick: The narrator of the story. At the beginning of the story, he is 12 years old and in 6th grade in Kernersville, North Carolina. The story traces his life into his 30s.
Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife whom he met at rehab when they were 16. She becomes a premier violinist.
Francine (Fran) Kendrick: Brian's older sister. She is 18 at the beginning of the story and goes to junior college, where she studies law enforcement.
Rafael Ortiz (Raffi): Youth therapy group leader at the rehab facility.
Robert Entwistle: Julia's father.
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother.
Mike Pekarsky: Fran's boyfriend who she met on her Caribbean cruise.
Daniel Molebatsi: Brian's undergrad college roommate. He is from Botswana and is a business major.
Dr. Paul Rieke: Brian's organic chemistry professor.
Kimiko Yamada (Kimi): Brian's organic chemistry lab partner. She is from Japan and also resides in his and Daniel's dorm.
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