Empty Synapse

     It was strange that my dad looked tired.  Usually when he's on a case, he becomes driven.  But I could see he was stuck.  He came and talked to me about the bodies that came in.  It all started the same, neurological disfunction and then slowly communication between all cells stopped and finally death.  It started out as a loss of communication between the neurons or nerve cells.  For some reason the chemical communicators or neurotransmitters were not spreading through the synapse.  The synapse is the space between the neurons and it is in this space where chemicals are released and messages transmitted.  He suggested botulism and they tested for it.  But everything came out negative.  They suited up not knowing anything other than all the victims lived within a five mile radius of the hospital. They performed autopsies and ran tests and control tests. Nothing, Nada, Zilch!  He worked for a microbiology lab that often helped the CDC with local food contamination issues.  He had quite a reputation for solving where the origin and what the vector was for most local airborne or food borne problems in Star Valley.  But today he had no clue where to go from here.
     I went to my room and left my dad unloading a packed brief case full of the laboratory results he accumulated during the day.  Surely he would be able to piece the puzzle together with all that data and find the vector in this array of miscellaneous papers.  He always said that if you remain calm and look at the clues the answers would surface.  Just never give up was his motto.
     I was thinking about space and how important space actually was.  What looked like nothing between the neurons was actually filled with everything the neuron needed to make the organism react, move and feel. Our cells needed to communicate to function as tissues which make up organs which make up organ systems which make up the organism.  Without communication we're just an island of single cells.  But evolution has caused our cells to become so specialized that cells cannot function alone in our bodies. The chemical neurotransmitters released by enzyme interactions and ion channels opening and closing was the only reason we sent signals through our nervous system.

BeaNspirations:
Hey dear friends, would you like to try and make an ending to this story.  Outrageous ideas welcomed. I'm visualizing this whole scenario and seeing nerve cells with it's one eyed head like ganglion and long tail like axon.  What would make it unable to connect with other nerve cells?  Have the Azuki BeaNs come in and help with this dilemma. Happy writing!

Prefix:
Neuro- means nerves!