"Eddy..? You made Caitlyn's prosthetic?"
Eddy shyly replied.
"Yes"
He made the prosthetic? He makes prosthetics ?? I thought he was a commercial vehicle designer..?
Brett looked at Eddy in awe and with a tinge of suspicion.
---------------------------------------------------
He then quickly turned back towards Caitlyn.
"Oh.. um Caitlyn, this is for you, it's our company promotional bag, a little gift to all our young visitors."
"Oh thank you so much Mr Yang!!"
Caitlyn accepted the bag with both hands and with surprising dexterity, held open the bag with her hands and peered inside. She grinned and stuck her right hand into the bag and took out the stress release ball, showing it to her father as she repetitively squeezed it with her prosthetic hand.
Brett was captivated by the nimbleness of the prosthetic in which Caitlyn was able to show her fine motor skills. Brett was so fascinated he almost wanted to abandon the tour and ask Eddy a thousand questions about Caitlyn's prosthetic. He quickly shook his head to refocus.
"Caitlyn, we are all very excited that you're here. We're really happy that you found interest in the products we make. I'm the chief engineer here and my father is the president of our company. He is also looking forward to meeting you later in the tour."
"So Brett, your father, President Yang, was he the actual engineer featured in the pamphlet about your 3D art pen?"
"Yes Eddy, Caitlyn spotted him correctly. That's him."
"..Daddy....!!"
Eddy turned to look at his daughter. She was holding up a pen.
"Daddy.. it's the 3D art pen...! It was in the goody bag that Mr Yang gave me..!! You can't buy these, remember? We couldn't find them in any of the shops...!!"
Brett smiled.
"That's right. We make them in bulk when requested and provide them for free for schools for the vision impaired students but we don't sell them... but I thought you might appreciate one so I got one out from our secret stash, just for you."
Caitlyn smiled.
"Oh Mr Yang, thank you so much...!! May I please try it? Just a little bit? Please??"
"Caitlyn sweetheart we're here for a tour..."
"That's okay Eddy. I'm thrilled that she is so excited about our product. C'mon in here and you can try your 3D pen."
Caitlyn and Eddy followed Brett into the adjoining meeting room and Brett took out a sketchbook and opened it up on the large table.
"You will get the most interesting textures if you alternate between drawing slowly and quickly – the ink medium... the material that acts as the ink that later puffs up..will also change textures when dried if you stir it up as you draw.. it takes a bit of practice to get used to it."
Brett watched Caitlyn remove the cap of the pen. He widened his eyes when he noticed Caitlyn had held the pen with her right hand and removed the cap with her left.
"Caitlyn.. are you.. right handed..?"
"For writing and drawing, yes, Mr Yang."
Her prosthetic was able to hold the pen and she was able to draw a smiley face and a flower with surprisingly steady pen strokes. Brett looked at Caitlyn's drawing admiringly. He had to shake his head again to refocus.
"So.. I spent a lot of time making the ink that is used in that pen. My father designed the tip of the pen, you see, it was a lot of work to figure out how the ink I made wouldn't clog it up. We had another engineer work with me to design the pen to make it look really cool. It's also practical, you can actually feel all the textures you can achieve on the sides of the pen.
You see, we didn't want a boring looking pen nor we wanted a pen that felt boring. Lots of people worked together to make this pen."
Caitlyn swapped hands and held the pen with her left hand.
"Yes, I see what you mean Mr Yang, this is a really cool pen and people who can't see it can even feel how cool and awesome it is...!!"
Brett grinned.
"Thank you, Caitlyn."
"Mr Yang, do you have to study different things to make different parts of the pen or an artificial heart?"
"Absolutely. We have all sorts of specialists working on different parts of what we make. Because we make a lot of medical devices, we have quite a few biomedical engineers. In addition to the knowledge of the organs we try to replicate, these engineers have knowledge of materials that stay strong and are safe to use inside the body."
"So I should study... biomedical engineering..."
Caitlyn looked up at Brett in awe. Brett smiled.
"That would be a nice area to look into if you are interested in making medical devices. But we actually need a whole bunch of specialists.. electrical engineers, mechanical engineers.. scientists of all sorts of specialties. So whatever engineering course you choose should give you some good foundations. And you gotta keep learning even after university and while you're working. which I find very exciting about this job. Anyway, I think it's great that you are so interested in all this."
Caitlyn carefully placed the cap back onto her 3D pen.
"Thank you for giving me some time to try the 3D pen Mr Yang. I'm ready for the tour now."
Brett smiled.
"Okay, that's great !!"
They were just about to leave the meeting room to enter the workshop when Brett remembered the conversation he had with his father a week ago.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I do need to ask you not to take any photos or make any audiovisual recordings during the tour."
YOU ARE READING
Love, create & innovate - not necessarily in that order
Fanfiction[COMPLETED] Brett, an engineer, who prides himself on being creative and innovative, received a phone call inquiry that will lead him to events that will move him to an extent he never thought possible.
