Love, create & innovate - not necessarily in that order

6. The corporate spy? Eddy II

The trio, Brett, Eddy and Caitlyn entered the engineering workshop. Brett had planned to first show them the things Eddy had said Caitlyn was most interested in, their artificial hearts and heart valves. Brett was interested in Eddy's response to them as well.

"Daddy, this is what I wanted to see, the heart valves... look! they're connected to the peristaltic pump so you can see how they open and close...!!!"

"Oh wow, this is fascinating...!!"

Not only Caitlyn but her father, Eddy appeared to be in awe as they were shown the Yang Industries latest prototypes of their most well known medical devices.

"...How big is a real human heart, Mr Yang?"

"Well Caitlyn, it depends on the person. It's about the size of the person's fist for children.. a bit larger for adults."

Caitlyn clenched her left fist and stared at it.

"..It's quite small.. it must be difficult to operate on it. Daddy? May I have a look at your fist?"

"Hmm?"

Caitlyn held her father's fist with her hands and compared its size to the artificial heart in front of her.

"So this artificial heart was made for someone about my Dad's height?"

"Well, we hadn't customised for size for this prototype. These were made for adults as a one-size-fits-all thing. So even though I think my heart would be a bit smaller than your dad's, if I needed an artificial heart of this model, I'd be getting this size too."

Brett clenched his fist and showed Caitlyn so that she could compare its size with her fathers. Caitlyn held Brett's fist with her soft left hand and brought it close to Eddy's fist, resting on her prosthetic right hand. She let them touch as she compared their sizes.

Brett and Eddy briefly stared at each other, bro-fisting. It was kinda sweet and awkward at the same time. Caitlyn, completely oblivious to what the adults were thinking, kept on comparing.

"Mr Yang... there's quite a size difference. Are you sure this artificial heart won't be too big for you?"

Brett replied;

"There's actually a fair bit of room in the body cavity. This would be fine with my body. And in particular, if the device doesn't have to fit into the chest cavity but is okay in the abdominal cavity, right below the diaphragm... "

"Oh, like VADs, Mr Yang.?"

"Yes...! VADs can be fitted quite nicely down there even for people who are not as tall as your dad.... like me."

Then Caitlyn dropped a bombshell of a comment that made both Brett's and Eddy's hair stand on its ends.

"Daddy, why don't you make these next? You could design these and make them, couldn't you?"

Eddy's response was quick and sharp.

"Caitlyn...!!"

Brett looked at Eddy.

"Eddy..? Why did Caitlyn say that?"

Eddy bit his lower lip.

"Brett.. it's not what you think."

"What do you mean by next? What were you making before?"

"These."

Both men cast their eyes to Caitlyn who stood looking at the two adults as she waved and wriggled her fingers of her prosthetic hand.

"So you were making prosthetics...???"

"Yeah.. then Daddy stopped making them... and then you suddenly said you could now take me to Yang Industries.. when you always said you couldn't because you were too busy..."

Brett's heart began to hurt.

"Eddy... why..."

Eddy raised both his hands opened towards Brett.

"Brett... this is definitely not what you think.... I swear..."

"Eddy..."

"Brett... I swear I am NOT a corporate spy...!"

"Eddy..."

"I....I...."

Eddy ran his hands through his hair in distress.

Caitlyn, concerned about her father's outburst gingerly asked;

"...Daddy..?"

"Son, what's going on?"

"Dad..."

"Hello Caitlyn, I'm Mr Yang's father."

Caitlyn smiled.

"Hello President Yang..!"

When they were about to shake hands, President Yang also froze for a very brief moment, but when he received Caitlyn's double handshake, he just melted. He gave a broad smile as he said;

"Caitlyn, you have beautiful hands."

Eddy turned towards them, he sighed and then glanced back at Brett. Eddy's eyes were teary. His voice shook as he spoke.

"Mr Yang...Brett...I.. don't want to be cross at you, because your response towards Caitlyn's handshake was exactly like your father's.. and I thought it was one of the most beautiful responses I've ever heard."

President Yang then called out to the two young men.

"...Why don't we all move to the practical workshop? You boys can have a coffee there while Caitlyn and I can do some engineering work together. How does that sound?"