“I think I’ve discovered something,” Victoria declared to her boss Dr. Klein. Victoria had heard of the “test program” the lab once used about 20 years ago. Just rumors of it really, nothing ‘official’. She asked some of her colleagues about it once, and they in turn responded rather oddly by way of looking at one another and then telling her they’d never heard of it. It was obvious to her that they knew something, but chose not to share it with her. They told her it was an absurd question and she’d do better with focusing on her work and not on some ‘pie in the sky’ program that never existed. The “test program” she had heard about had to do with assisting women with conception that would not have normally been able to conceive. The lab had developed a new serum that aided these women in ensuring pregnancy. The serum made the women sick at first with strange rashes and aggressive behavior, but if they moved passed the first trimester and the pregnancy took, their symptoms subsided and they delivered healthy children. She had also heard that the program was abruptly halted and any note of is existence was scrubbed from the public domain with no explanation. It was if the existence of the program had vanished into thin air. At the time, she followed her coworkers advice and dropped it. But then she had read some articles here and there about some adults that were experiencing episodes of violent behavior, some case were so bad that some people ended up hurting themselves. Some had even killed themselves in a violent rage.
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Victoria stepped into the open door of Gabe’s office. He was at his desk punching away feverishly on his laptop. The sunrays streamed in from the window behind him, casting a sunlit arora around him. She stepped closer to his desk and spoke, “You know,....don’t you?” There was an unmistakeable pause in the question Victoria asked Gabe. He stopped typing on his laptop, looked up, took a deep breath, looked down and began typing again, ignoring her question. Victoria tried again, “How long have you known?” Gabe finally looked up but didn’t meet her eyes. He looked anywhere but in her eyes and replied, “For awhile I suppose, but I didn’t want to believe it’s true.”
Gabe had began to notice changes in his mood and behavior in college. Sometimes he would find himself in a foul mood but, initially didn’t give it much thought. Every college student or person of that age are still moving through the late adolescent stage and into adulthood with more challenges and responsibility. He initially brushed off his moods to stress of college life and/or hormonal changes. The moods however got progressively worse. His foul temperament turned into full on violent outbursts over trivial slights. He had asked his dad if it was normal that he reacted so explosively to minor situations and at the time, his father has brushed it off as “normal guy stuff, nothing to worry about, you’ll just have to learn to control your temper” his dad replied. At the time Gabe accepted that answer from the man he admired and loved so much. After all, his father was his world since he was the only parent he’d ever known. They were a team and Gabe felt if his dad says everything is ok, then it must be.
Breaking Gabe’s far off stare at the memory, Victoria walked over to him and cupped his face in her hands, gently forcing him to look at her. Victoria stared into his eyes searching for a moment, taking in the color of his eyes, searching for the irregular pattern in his irises and noting the anomaly she’s long suspected. “Let me help you, Gabriel” she said.
