12,400 ish
“Not that I’ve seen,” Amanda said. She started to pull her hair out of her own pony band. She leaned her head forward so her long hair was hanging over her face. She shook her head slightly.
“Cousin It?” she offered, softly. She was dying to lighten the mood but a reference to an old TV show wasn’t going to work, and she knew it.
“Heh,” Thomas replied as he ran his hand through Amanda’s hair. “No, don’t see any.”
Amanda flipped her hair back and retied it. She locked eyes with Miriam.
Madeline spoke up. “Sam, the Tower has been putting the normal nanites into the vaccinations for a few years now. Didn’t Miriam get her shots?”
Sam sighed. “She got her newborn and 3 month shots, but when it was time for her 4 year old ones, Maggie was just so sick, and we had a family meeting…”
“Family argument,” Miriam corrected, smiling faintly.
“Yes, argument, actually, since Miriam felt the slight risk of her getting a mild form of the measles and whatnot after the shot was greater than the risk of her getting the measles in the first place…”
“I didn’t get them. I was more likely to catch it from the vaccine and give it to Mom than to catch it at school or wherever.”
“And now you know who won the argument.” Finished Sam.
Miriam looked intently at Thomas and Madeline. “So, what’s the deal with white hair?”
Thomas and Madeline looked at each other. Madeline answered.
“White hair means that the scalp is running out of melanine, what colors the hair. And colors frekles and turns tanned skin darker. When a person gets older, they lose more of the melanin, and their hair turns gray, but it’s actually white…”
“Actually, it’s clear, the light just refracts,” Thomas offered.
“Well, yes, its clear, looks white individually, and in a hair full of dark hair, the blending appears to make the hair look gray.”
“But I’m not old, so..” Miriam prompted.
“Right,” said Thomas. “You’re not. There is other causes of white hair. Stress, physical illness, like what probably was going on with Amanda., and,” Thomas looked at Madeline.
“Poison.”
“Someone is poisoning our Miriam?” Sam instinctively reached down and pulled Miriam into his lap.
“The environment is. Actually, the Tower scientists are, through the polluntion and the messing with the nature of matter.” Answered Madeine.
“They should be called alchemists, not scientists,” Jory sneered. “Trying to turn iron into gold by messing with the atomic numbers on the periodic table, building nanites for immortality, and couching it all in the mystial language of potitical correctiness and environmentally friend packageing.”
“Don’t hold back, Dad. Tell us how you really feel,” smirked Amanda.