Only Child

This week we meet the Smites. The Smites have dough. A large portfolio. And an almost desperate need to travel, even during the height of the Covid scare in the late summer of 2020 when they decide to take a little trip to the Bahamas. 

While up at MIT their only child, David, works eighteen hours a day on his messenger RNA research in the hope of finding a vaccine for the dreaded virus

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the ten Minute Storyteller. That's me Bill Simpson,
your host, narrator and author. We hear at the ten
Minute Storyteller endeavor to entertain you with tall tales or
rendered swiftly and with the utmost empathy. We pledge to

(00:25):
pack as much entertainment, emotion, and exploration into the human
condition as ten minutes will permit. Mini novels on steroids.
This week we meet the Smites. The Smites have do

(00:46):
a large portfolio and an almost desperate need to travel,
even during the height of the COVID scare back in
the late summer of twenty twenty, when they decide to
take a little trip down to the Bahamas. While up
at Mit, their only child, David, works eighteen hours a

(01:08):
day on his messenger RNA research in the hope of
finding a vaccine for the dreaded virus. Only child over
the roar of the plane's engine, she shouted, do you
think we're going to die? We're not going to die, Hu,

(01:31):
We're not going to die. I think we're going to die. No, No,
I think he's going to figure out a way out
of this. Just try and relax. The thirty year old
six seater Beach Bonanza, owned and operated by Half Ass
Island Airways of Freeport, bounces around in the sky like

(01:53):
a beach ball on a stormy sea. I told you,
I told you we should have taken that damn mailboat.
I know, Sweets, I know you've mentioned it a time
or two. Just try and take it easy. They wanted
to go from Exuma to Beminy a pleasant four hour

(02:14):
mailboat ride through calm, turquoise blue Caribbean waters, or a
quick twenty minute island jumper. He pushed for the island
jumper on half Ass Island Airways. We'll be at Big
Mics in time for lunch. Big Mics where the fish

(02:34):
tacos were insanely delish and the salty margarita's to kill for.
He knew if he got a couple of those big
margaritas into his wife, she'd be an absolute tiger. Once
they checked into their room at Beminy's Big Game Club,
where they had a membership and first DIBs on the

(02:54):
waterfront suites. Not that the Big Game Club or anywhere
else they'd stayed or eaten on this trip was crowded.
They could have any room and any table they desired.
Seven months into the COVID nineteen scare, just about nobody
was traveling. The Smites had spent a couple months holed

(03:16):
up in their Central Park West duplex, and when that
grew claustrophobic, they'd skidaddled in their range rover out to
their digs in the Hamptons, where they'd remained until departing
for this little island hopping getaway a few days ago.
Like so many, the Smites were scared to death of

(03:38):
the virus, but they also possessed an almost fanatical need
to travel. Sitting still made them nervous, drove them to
states of extreme anxiety and depression, and so when their son,
a chemist who worked up at MIT, told them a
vaccine was still months away, they decided to gopher broke

(04:02):
and fly to Eluthra, then Eluthra to Ezuma, and now
Ezuma to Beminy. Although right now Beminy and Big Mics
looks like a stretch, that antique beach Bonanza spelled Beach
Bacch on the Half Ass Island Airways website is in

(04:25):
a heap of trouble. Early this morning, a powerful tempest
had developed out in the Atlantic one hundred miles southeast
of Ezuma. Very warm water, super humid late summer air,
and a hot, stiff breeze blowing across the ocean from
Africa had all mixed together to form a massive, fast

(04:48):
moving electrical storm. Nature, in other words, was on the
move and feeling really volatile. At the small international airport
terminal on a Zuma, the young pilot assured the middle
aged American couple that the storm was still well out
to the southeast, that if they boarded and buckled up asap,

(05:11):
they'd be safe and sound on bemony lickety split. Two
bad bored and buckled turned into almost twenty minutes on
the tarmac, fussing first with refueling and then with flap
and rudder problems. The beach, as any idiot might suspect,

(05:32):
had a plethora of mechanical problems, so by the time
they taxied, the wind had shifted and the Bonanza had
to take off to the southeast instead of to the northwest,
which meant the thunderstorm was just about smacking their faces
as they lifted off the runway. But the pilot, a

(05:54):
cocky Bahamian kid who'd only recently started to shave and
who'd been a star striker on the national soccer team,
banked that Bonanza hard left and quickly got their journey
pointed in the right direction. It's all good, mon, he
shouted back to his two white knuckled passengers. We'll be

(06:15):
out running and no problem, good christ said Missus Smite.
Just relax, honey, said mister Smite. It'll be okay, sweets,
it'll be okay. Well that was about ten minutes ago,
and now there's somewhere west of Andros where the pilot
had considered landing, but air traffic control told him the

(06:36):
winds were way too intense. Best to head due west
toward the Florida Keys to escape the path and the
wrath of the storm. But right now there's no escape
in sight. The creaky old Bonanza is at the mercy
of fifty mile an hour winds and seventy five mile
an hour gusts. Rain splatters the windows, and lighting bolts

(07:00):
tear through the black sky at the edges of the wings.
It's almost high noon, but so dark out there, it
could be the middle of the night. We're definitely going
to die, shouts Missus Smite. Mister Smite is not one
hundred percent confident they won't, but he bucks up, squeezes

(07:22):
his wife's hand and assures her all will be well,
just a little bump in the road, well in the sky.
They married back in their late twenties, soulmates, selfish, self absorbed,
very late boomers, desirous of living an affluent, decadent lifestyle

(07:43):
filled with well paying jobs, a luxurious midtown apartment, a
stable of fancy cars, dinners out at only the finest restaurants,
and of course, lots of travel to only the most
expensive and exotic locale. Duel. Six figure incomes and copious

(08:03):
amounts of cash made all their dreams come true. They
did not want children, both from divorced, disaffected parents. They
generally viewed children as painful, demanding, and expensive. In addition,
children destroyed your independence and any possible hope of day

(08:27):
to day autonomy. Now, the Smites have always had a
very aggressive and colorful sex life, so back in their
prime they took great pains to avoid pregnancy, alas when
she was thirty two when he was thirty four, a
pregnancy nevertheless occurred. At first, they were like, no problem,

(08:51):
we'll get an abortion. Shed a few tears and move on.
Nothing to it, well, almost nothing. As the date of
the pro pro grew closer, a strong maternal instinct began
to overwhelm Missus Smite. She could not go through with it.
She feared the abortion would destroy her carefully constructed emotional

(09:16):
and mental well being. And so a young Smite arrived
in the world. They named him David Allen after his grandfathers,
and they loved him, but well, not much enough. They
believed it was enough. But mostly David Allen Smite was
left in the care of others, grandparents, Nanni's o pair's babysitters,

(09:39):
next door neighbors, teachers. David went to Dalton through eighth grade,
then up to Shout in Wallingford for high school, before
enrolling at MIT in Cambridge. He majored in chemistry, earned
both a bachelor's and a master's degrees, and went to
work for the university on m RN research. Mom and

(10:03):
Dad took a little interest in any of this. They
found their son's intellectual pursuits utter Dollsville, and of course
they were busy with banking and finance, buying fine artwork
and eating at eleven Madison helicoptering out to the Hamptons
and jetting off to Crete, Fiji and the Forest of Knives.

(10:26):
While Mom and Dad scratched the surface of their shallow lives, David,
whom they had nearly aborted, immersed himself in the extraordinary
world of messenger RNA. He slowly and deliberately began to
understand how ribonucleic acid might be used to produce powerful

(10:49):
vaccines without replicating the virus. With properly coded messenger RNA youngs.
Mite reasoned it might be possible to teach the cells
in the body how to create an immune response against
an invading virus. So when COVID nineteen popped up in

(11:11):
China in twenty nineteen, David Smite had Big Pharma pounding
on his Mit office door in Building two, just across
from Hayden Library, pounding on his door. In the months ahead,
David worked sixteen and eighteen hours a day and ultimately

(11:32):
played a prominent role in the development of Maderna's COVID
nineteen vaccine that saved the lives of millions and slowly
began to strangle the original virus and its subsequent variance.
Now virtually no one knows David Smite's name, but an

(11:53):
unsung hero. The brilliant young chemist most certainly is an
only child. David is also about to become a twenty
nine year old orphan. The cocky young Bahamian pilot struggles
to control Half ass Island Airways absurdly old beach bonanza.

(12:15):
A tremendous blast of wind strikes the fuselage. The plane
wobbles and gets tossed sideways. The pilot smashes the side
of his head so hard against the cockpit window he
is rendered unconscious. His hands fall from the yoke, his
feet slip from the petals. The plane begins to spin

(12:36):
and tumble. The sensation of the airplane falling causes Missus
Smite to scream. Mister Smite screams even louder. This they
both believe cannot possibly be happening, not possible, not to them,
not to the Smites. They've lived such lovely, privileged lives.

(13:00):
But when mister Smite throws back the thin curtain separating
the cabin from the cockpit, he knows in an instant
they are all entirely and completely fucked. The pilot has
slumped to the floor. The beach Bonanza is falling out
of the sky, and before the Smites can even say goodbye,

(13:23):
the airplane, moving it well over one hundred and twenty
five miles an hour, slams into the Atlantic Ocean fifty
two nautical miles southeast of Miami Beach and disintegrates upon impact, instantly,
killing all aboard Half ass Island Airways Flight thirteen no

(13:44):
longer bound for beminy, sad and tragic. Yes, but at
least those Smites gave the world David Allen smite. Yep,
at least they did that. Hey, thanks for listening to

(14:09):
this original audio presentation of Only Child, narrated, of course
by the author. If you enjoy today's story, please take
a few seconds to rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast,
and then go to Thomas William Simpson dot com for
additional information about the author and to view his extensive canon.

(14:35):
The Ten Minute Storyteller is produced by Andrew Plaglici and
Josh Colotney and as part of the Elvis Durand Podcast
Network in partnership with iHeart Productions. Until next time, this
is Bill Simpson, your ten Minute Storyteller.