Decoding Annie Parker

- Excuse me, Dr. King? - I'm-I'm sorry.

I don't have any more time. I'm already late for my plane.

My name's Annie Parker.

Oh.

I read your letters.

- I-I-I heard you were in town.

Uh, I tried to catch your lecture, but...

you know, the traffic was horrible.

- I'm sorry. - It's okay.

It was a bit dry. My jokes didn't play very well.

- That's a pretty necklace. - Thank you.

It was my mom's. I had it restrung recently.

- You know, she- - Hey, I'm sorry.

I really do have to go. I hope we can speak again.

All the best.

- Oh, you might feel some discomfort.

Just relax.

- There are great mysteries out there.

Strange and magical,

hidden in codes.

Did you ever wonder...

if you knew those codes,

could you change your future?

Slap.

Snap.

- That's my big sister Joan and I.

She knew things.

- That's where Death hides when he comes to the house.

He sleeps most of the time.

But you should be very quiet when you're up here

so you don't wake him up.

Young Did Mommy wake him up?

Yes, she did.

She blew it, and now we don't have a mommy anymore.

And he'll get us too if we're not careful,

like he did Grandma and Aunt Lil.

Snap.

Snap.

And this is my story.

That's me, not as confident as I should be,

so I would make up for it by making bad choices.

That's my sister Joan all grown up.

And that's Joan's best friend Louise,

who my dad said was trouble with a capital T,

which made Joan, who was always good, like her even more.

That's Paul, who was sweet and funny.

We fell in love and got engaged when I was only 18-

always a good idea- and later got married

because he was sweet but also because he had a great ass

which was like a piece of pneumatic machinery.

Thumpity, thumpity, thumpity thump.

Thumpity, thumpity thump.

He was going to be a musician, which is hard,

so until then, he was working as a... pool cleaner.

In Toronto.

My dad died suddenly in 1972.

I guess that's where we should start.

- Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer,

the sound of my voice.

- You ready to go? - I need another minute.

- I'm gonna stay here. - Okay.

- People behave oddly around the bereaved.

Hey.

They can't help themselves.

- Sorry. - That's okay.

- You're, like, one of the main mourners?

Excuse me?

- I don't mean in a bad way.

So...

what are you doing after this?

After this is the wake.

Right.

But after that?

- So you think your mother suffered?

My wife went through 18 months of agony.

- To lose your mother and your father.

I can't imagine how lonely that must be.

- Every day it was worse. That's suffering.

Just to be by yourself.

It must be so painful...

so lonely.

She was wrong, of course.

My parents were gone, but I had my sister, Joan.

And we didn't know what trouble we were in.

- So I have to ask, Dr. King.

What's the story with the clock there?

- The clock is marked at every 12 minutes.

That's how often a woman will die

of breast cancer in this country.

- Well, that's- - One in nine.

Two million over the next 20 years.

- Potentially, but- - Maybe your wife.

Your daughter.

- I think what, uh, what Dr. King means

is that the disease, along with a potential cure,

is of interest to a vast number of people- a cross section-

- I'm sorry, Allen. I just- - Cross-

- I wanna be clear about this, Dr. King.

You believe that there may be

a genetic link to some breast cancers?

I do.

- Even though virtually no one else believes this to be true?

That's correct.

- And to prove your theory, you're going to have to examine the, uh...

- Human genome. - The human genome, which-which has-

- 100,000 genes. - Or so, give or take a few.

- And, uh, and how many... how many women are... are in your study?

- We began with several thousand. - Not so many.

- And you'd have to interview them all, yes?

Most, uh, yes.

- 100,000 genes, uh, several thousand women,

and... and no certain outcome?

- Of course, we're already well into our research.

- Oh, well, how-how far along are you?

Um...

So, seventy...

four.

No, no. Um...

six more.

Uh-huh.

So, 80... huh...

Um...

Right. Well, thank you, uh...

Thank you so much for your time and your hospitality.

We'll, uh, we'll be in touch. And we're obviously very interested

in-in helping you with something so important,

so...

I can't see it, Allen. I'm sorry.

Can't see it?

- We're looking at something like 20 years here.

- Yeah, but Dr. King thinks- - Dr. King thinks.

She thinks. Nobody else thinks.

What is it about people like Mary-Claire King

that think the world owes them a living, huh?

She's like that, uh, that grasshopper with his little violin.

- Pardon? - Grasshopper.

You know, he plays his little violin.

He says, "The world owes me a living. "

Give him a PhD, there's your doctor friend right there.

- You're comparing one of our most brilliant geneticists

to a cartoon grasshopper?

The answer's no, Allen.

So let's leave it alone, huh?

Sorry.

- He didn't like me, did he?

He...

No. - wol'm-I'm sure that...

- when it- - What did he say?

- He compared you to an animated grasshopper.

Did he?

Goodness.

Well, that's sort of charming in a way.

- Did you tell him about the- - No, I-

- He wasn't having any of it. - We could-

Okay. I see.

So thank you...

coming out.

- What will you do? - What will I do?

My work.

I'll do my work.

Wow. Sweet.

Yeah, yeah. I know.

But we were young, and we had lots of time on our hands.

That is playing with your food, which is bad.

- These are your sister Joanie's tomatoes,

so, technically, I'm playing with Joanie's food.

I'm playing with Joanie's tomatoes.

- I think he has a point. - I don't like tomatoes.

- wol don't like tomatoes. - I do have a point.

- I like tomatoes. - No, you don't.

- You do? I didn't know that. - Then you can have my tomatoes.

Paul, give Louise my tomatoes.

- No, I don't need any tomatoes. I just-

You guys are so cute together.

And I hear the thumpity thump is-

Joan!

Louise!

- The what? The thumpity what?

- I think they probably- - I can't believe you told her.

- I didn't know it was a secret. - Nothing.

I told them you were good at vegetable animals. Really good.

- I like to think that my work speaks for itself.

- So lifelike. - I can't believe you told her.

- This is gonna go down in history as the greatest vegetable animal

- ... of all time, ever. - I didn't tell her much.

- Of all time. Do you see this dinosaur

that I've created in this restaurant?

- Excuse me. Look at this. - No.

It's not a real dinosaur.

It's a triceratops

made of fruit and vegetables.

Don't be afraid. It's gentle.

- See? - We call him Larry.

You smell like fruit, Larry.

- You smell like cantaloupe. - I'm sorry you're a prude.

Let's conclude.

We have a proposition, a thesis of sorts,

that certain breast cancers are inherited.

No one else believes this. We do.

To prove it, we have to do four things. Sarah?