“You’ll be heading to your MRI next,” she informs me while she labels my vials of blood. “Go ahead and finish your juice though. They’re still prepping it for you.”
“I need an MRI? Do you know why?”
“It’s part of the neurological exam. You'll be getting an EEG done too. The device that will monitor your brain activity needs a baseline reading to work from. It’s pretty amazing how it works.”
“I’m sure it is. It’s just a little scary when it’s my brain activity.”
“Oh, sorry,” she winces. “I guess I never thought of it that way. It will be most interesting to see how it works with Miss Carver’s brain, actually. We don’t know if her hardware, for lack of a better word, is different than ours.”
“What happens if it is?”
“It’s possible that our monitoring equipment won’t be able to track her as well as it will you, or maybe even not at all.”
A quick knock sounds at the door, derailing my train of thought before it has time to cause damage. The door creaks as it slowly slides open. A man's head peaks into the room. “Miss Owens, I’m Dr. Nolan. I’m here to take you down to imaging.”
He opens the door all the way and I see a wheelchair sitting outside. “I’d prefer to walk,” I abruptly announce.
“I’m sure you would, but I am required to transport you in the chair. It’s a bit of a distance and you’ve just given a fair amount of blood. My apologies for any inconvenience.”
From across the room I hear Dr. Milton clear his throat loudly and meaningfully. I concede with a look and a nod, knowing that arguing is futile. “I actually have another outfit I’ll need you to change into before we head down. No metal is allowed in the imaging room.”
He reaches for a folded pair of gray scrubs and a white sports bra that rest on the seat of the chair. Handing them to me he says, “I’ll wait right here for you.”
I quickly change into the clothing provided and toss my hospital gown into a used linen bin before heading out into the hallway to meet Dr. Nolan. The security team surrounds him.
I take a seat in the chair and he pushes me down a never-ending maze of hallways to a door marked with large cautionary labels warning of the effects of the room. A security officer opens the door for us and we proceed inside the room. They don't follow us in, however, taking heed of the ‘absolutely no metal past this point’ warning sign.
“Alright,” Dr. Nolan begins while locking the wheels on the chair in place. “This enormous piece of machinery here is our MRI machine. All you have to do for this is lie still. The first part of the exam takes about forty-five minutes. We do a full scan of your brain and get a baseline reading for our monitoring system. Once we have all of the images we need, we will move into the second part of the exam.
"You'll have tiny little wires connected to different parts of your scalp. A computer system will record the electrical activity of your brain. We will also place these virtual imaging glasses on you.”
He opens a small black box on a shelf and pulls out the glasses, showing them to me.
“They’re made completely of plastic pieces. Once you have the glasses on, we will project certain images of various situations into the lenses. The machine will record the responses your brain has to the images, giving us an insight into what your typical reactions are. The images will take you through a full range of emotions to see how your brain’s wiring responds to each situation. All of the data we collect will be able to be programmed into the monitoring system.”
He extends a hand to help me out of the chair. “Go ahead and get comfortable on the table. I’m going to grab you some blankets. It’s gets pretty cold when you’re lying completely still.”
I climb on the table and take a deep breath. My stomach burns with nervous energy. I lay back on the bed, adjusting my scrubs and the pillow under my head until I am as comfortable as I can possibly be.
“These blankets are warm from the heating cabinet,” Dr. Nolan begins, “they’ll calm your nerves a little.”
As he drapes the first white blanket over my body, a rush of soothing warmth flows over me. The