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Gin of Eve
Easing the blue canister out of the metal straps, Morgan Reed lifts the container holding it out in front of him. Approaching the long black table in the back corner of the Lab, the Associate Professor of Chemistry sets the oblong shape down stepping back about three feet before taking a long sigh.
He began his position at Charlotte University in North Carolina after completing two Master degrees in Chemistry and Biology at Tulane. He had just finished teaching his second full semester of classes and was preparing his notes for the summer Lab beginning June 7th.
Pulling his micro cassette recorder from his lab coat, he jerks out a skinny wrist and checks his Timex reading out loud, "2:27 a.m. Friday. June 4th. The experiment was a 96% success. It has all the makings of achieving my original theories. However, I am going to have to add--. Oh, no! Alex! Genevieve?"
Suddenly, clouds of smoke and the wail of sirens fill the tiny space. Morgan shoves the recorder in a drawer as he ducks underneath the lab table tucking his long legs underneath him. Before his glasses fog up, he counts three men dressed in yellow rubber suits, helmets, and smog masks. Two of them grab the blue canister shoving it into a long metal case. A few seconds later, a loud roar fills the Lab.
Alexandra Reed rolls over in bed at the telephone's incessant intrusion, muttering, "Who the--? It's nearly 4 a.m." Grabbing the phone off the nightstand, she sneezes then says in a congested voice, "Morgan, honey is that you? You know I've told you--."
"Uh, Professor Reed? This is Claude Johnson, President of Charlotte University. I have some bad news."
"What?"
"Your husband has been killed."
"What! When? What happened?"
"Why don't you come on down to the Lab and I can tell you more then."
"Yeah, okay. Thank you."
Hanging up the phone, she crawls out of bed grabbing a gray T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Pulling them on, she flips on the bathroom light shielding her eyes for a few seconds with her hands. Combing her long brown hair, she stares into the mirror until deciding her eyes look more blue than green. Slipping on a pair of moccasins, she grabs her car keys, purse, and a handful of Kleenex and whistles. A minute later, a Collie greets her at the door. "It's just you and me now, Edison. Morgan's experiments have finally done it."
Wearing a suit, Claude Johnson steps out of the way as Alexandra, also a Professor at Charlotte U and a Tulane graduate, and Edison bound into the Laboratory. "Ah, Alex. I'm really sorry about--coughing into a Kleenex, Alex says, "Just tell me President Johnson did one of Morgan's experiments finally do him in?"
Looking down at her, the big man scratches a few strands of thinning black hair before saying, "I know Morgan's gotten you out of bed more than once for some odd event or.... well, whatever, but this time it's serious, Alex. This time there was a small explosion in the Lab -- as you can see it took out a few tables, part of the inner wall, and ruined some equipment. We don't know what he was working on and because of the damage there's no way to tell if he set it off or if someone else did. ....His experiments were always going wrong."
"I know, but this was something even his Lab Assistant knows nothing of -- no notes, nothing. Just a few words on a tape that managed to survive the blast."
"What? Let me hear it!"
Pulling out a tape player from his breast pocket, he snaps the play button and they hear, "2:27 a.m. Friday. June 4th. The experiment was a 96% success. It has all the makings of achieving my original theories. However, I am going to have to add--. Oh, no! Alex! Genevieve?"
Claude waits a few minutes before asking, "What do you make of that?"
"Sounds like all his experiments. But, who the hell is Genevieve?"
Stumbling for words, Claude squeaks out, "We thought, perhaps, that you'd know -- maybe it's your middle name or his mother's--."
"No! All those late hours -- all those experiments -- maybe he wasn't working on anything at all."
"No, he had to be," a small voice belonging to Ty Young mumbles from behind a group of Policemen and Firemen. "Mrs. Reed, I was his Assistant and there wasn't nothing funny going on with the Professor. He told me he'd made some big discovery -- if he was right it could change the world. I know he always said stuff like that, but this time I believed him."
Alex watches as the plump young man wearing an Einstein T-shirt and jeans pulls off his glasses and wipes his eyes. Suddenly, she bolts out of the Lab running down the hall into the Ladies Room. Stumbling into the first stall, she falls to her knees and throws up as tears slide down her cheeks."
At 6:37 a.m., Alex finally sits down next to Ty at a table in the now empty Lab. "I didn't think those Policemen would ever get through questioning you."
"I guess they have to rule me out as a suspect -- make sure I didn't try to cash in early on Morgan's life insurance or something."
Running discolored fingers through his mop of greasy blonde hair, Ty says, "Do they think it was an accident?"
"I think so. There's not enough evidence to suspect a crime, and without knowing what he was working on they're unsure if anything is missing. Besides, with the Lab half destroyed it looks like something simply went out of control."
"That's what happened with most of his crazy experiments," Ty mumbles. Standing up so fast he knocks over the stool he was sitting on, Ty grabs two lab coats off the wall. He pulls on one and tosses the other to Alex. "Look, Mrs. Reed. The Professor helped me out a lot -- if it weren't for him I wouldn't finally be passing Chemistry or two semesters shy of my degree. If you'll help me, maybe we can figure out what he was doing -- on the tape it sounds like he hadn't got it to work."
"I don't know, Ty. There's not much point in doing anything now. If it weren't for President Johnson's offer to make all the arrangements for Morgan, I don't know how I'd be dealing with any of this."
"C'mon you have to help me. You can't just give up. You can't let his work be in vain."
"I'm not. President Johnson and the Police will find--."
"Are you kiddin' me? You've been an English Professor here long enough to know President Johnson's only worried about Publicity and hiring another Chemistry Professor, and the Police don't take it seriously. The questions they asked you about Genevieve made it sound like they thought he was having an affair. You gotta try, Mrs. Reed. For Morgan."
Alex stares at the disheveled young man a few minutes before saying, "Okay, I'll try."
At 10:11 a.m., Ty looks up from the vials of liquid mixtures concocted in shades of red, blue, aqua, and green. "Mrs. Reed, did you find anything?"
"Call me Alex," she replies wiping her eyes and nose with a Kleenex.
"Okay, Alex. Did you find--."
Closing a spiral notebook she drops it onto a pile of papers scattered on Morgan's desk, which had also survived the explosion. "I can't read the chemical notations, but it doesn't seem like he was working on anything other than class experiments, or the usual...."
"Yeah, I know his usual lame brain ideas like using alcohol to run cars, or vegetation as a substitute for butter."
"Did you have a hint as to what he was doing?"
"No. He only said that you'd given him the idea."
"Me? That's odd. We rarely talked about his experiments -- then again we barely talked at all -- he was always sleeping when I was home, and then...."
"Do you remember anything you talked about lately?"
"Only that we'd talked about going away on vacation before the summer term started -- somewhere up in the Blue Ridge mountains near the ski resorts in Boone where it would be ten to twenty degrees cooler than the summer heat in Charlotte. He had just read an article on the Garden of Eden and its original location. Supposedly, the Garden was at the center spot where four rivers from all four directions meet. According to the article, somewhere in Watauga County there's a place where four rivers from four directions meet -- the French Broad, the New, and I don't remember the others."
"Isn't Boone in Watauga county?"
"Yes."
"And, he was gonna take you there?"
"Yes. But what would that have to do with his experiment? You don't think he was trying to locate the Garden of Eden?"
"No. But maybe that's why he said that name -- Genevieve. Maybe he was referring to Eve."
"The Eve?"
"Yeah."
"But why?"
"What did Eve do that changed history?"
"Eat an apple."
"Yeah, an apple."
"So Morgan was experimenting on an apple?"
"Sounds plausible. Not just an apple, though. Something else."
"A snake?"
"No. He never touched animals -- was against using them for
experiments."
"So am I," Alex says reaching down to pet Edison on the head.
"So what then, Ty?"
"Aren't there usually at least four seeds in an apple?"
"Yeah, I guess. I don't eat many."
"Think of where they meet -- just like the four rivers."
"At the core -- so if he took the core of the apple and...."
"Think about the rest of the name -- Gen-e-vieve, gin of eve."
"Gin? An apple core and gin? That's almost too way out there for Morgan."
"But wait a minute, Alex," Ty says racing for the blackboard.
"If you take the core elements of the apple, gin and water from the rivers what do you get?"
"I haven't a clue."
"Neither do I. That's why I'm barely passing Chemistry and working as Morgan's Assistant."
"But what about all that stuff you scribbled on the blackboard?"
"What? H2O? That's the only one I know. But, here's a wild thought -- what if he took out the apple's core, poured gin inside it -- the chemical reaction causing water to separate creating -- what?"
"Wait a minute."
"What, Alex?"
"I think we're missing something."
"Yeah," Ty says shaking his head.
"Let's approach this by looking at the word gin."
"What about it?"
"Gin isn't only a drink. It can also refer to a gin, like a cotton gin used for separating seeds and waste."
"We got that with the apple -- he used the core, maybe the insides, too, but not the seeds."
"Right. Gin can also be archaic for begginen or beginning."
"We got that with the Garden -- the beginning of time."
"Gin can also be a trap or a machine for moving heavy weights."
"So he found something to move a heavy weight, maybe literal or figurative, and it could trap.... something."
"Then we have Gin the liquor -- made from grain mash and juniper berries."
"Yeah, and where can you find junipers?"
"In the mountains of North Carolina," Alex says smiling.
At 3:22 p.m., Alex, Edison and Ty pull off highway 321 turning south on the Blue Ridge Parkway towards Asheville. The blue jeep twists and turns on the two lane scenic highway for several minutes, before Ty shouts, "Pull over! Over there. Right by Price Lake. There's gotta be some junipers there."
A few minutes later, the three of them hike down a muddy path into the woods until Ty spots a small bush. Scrambling up the hill, he picks several berries dropping them into a large plastic container filled with a blended mixture of an apple core and some water. Pulling out a spoon from his pocket, Ty begins to mash the berries into the mixture. Staring at his completion, Alex says, "So, what do we do now?"
"Test it."
At 5:49 p.m., Alex, Ty and Edison reenter Morgan's lab setting the container carefully on a table.
"So, how do we do this, Ty?"
"I'm not sure. Remember I'm barely passing Chemistry."
"Right. Then I guess we'll just have to see what happens," Alex replies opening the container and swallowing a mouthful of the gray mush.
"Oh, no. Alex! You should never test on yourself."
Alex eyes flutter for a minute and her body begins to sway as she grabs Ty's shirt to steady herself.
"Alex? Mrs. Reed? Are you okay? Are you--?"
"Wow! Ty, that's fantastic. I feel great -- my head -- it's clear -- no more congestion. No more coughing. No more sneezing. No more--."
"You mean, the Professor found the cure to the common--."
"I think so."
"Are you gonna tell President Johnson or the Police?"
Looking at the young man for several minutes, Alex finally replies, "Think about it, Ty. If we tell them what we've discovered our lives could be in danger, especially if the explosion that killed Morgan wasn't an accident. Plus, if this really works we could use it to help people -- maybe free them from the trap of the most common sickness today. That's what Morgan would've wanted."
Six months later on December 9th, Ty reaches into his campus mailbox #226. Pulling out junk mail, he starts to throw it away when he notices a postcard amidst the pile. Staring at a colorful view of Coober Pedy, Australia, Ty flips the card reading the description, "Coober Pedy. Also called White Man's Hole in the Ground by the Aborigines due to the opal mine dwellers who carve homes for themselves underground." Scribbled underneath is "Internet. Gin of Eve." Smiling, Ty pushes through a crowd of students into the Quad and whistles.
A few seconds later, a Collie runs across the grass barking. "Hey, Edison. Alex is okay. She's gonna do something the Professor would've liked -- she's gonna put the cure on the Internet. What do you think about that?" Edison barks then licks Ty's hands. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Ty replies smiling.
L.B. Sedlacek is an award winning poet who has had poetry appear in Grit, Would That It Were, The Horsethief's Journal, The Artemis Journal,
Facets Literary Magazine, Lutheran Digest, Between Kisses, muse apprentice guild, sidereality, and Iodine with work upcoming in Coppertales,
Poetry Motel, Harford Poetry and Literary Society Journal, Hadrosaur Tales, HazMat Review, Snake Nation Review, and The Foliate Oak. LB's poetry
chapbook Alexandra's Wreck was published by Kitty Litter Press (www.kittylitterpress.com) in 2002 and LB was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize in poetry. LB's short fiction has appeared in Duct Tape Press, The Outer Rim, Ascent Magazine, Bovine Free Wyoming, Nuvein Magazine, and The Unlikely Unknown. mailto:LBSedlacek@aol.com
L.B. Sedlacek has had poetry and short stories published in The Outer Rim, Penny-A-Liner, Storyfoam, Starry Night Review, Black Creek Review,
Footprints, Blue Collar Review, Muse's Kiss, Paumanok Review, and Sidewalk's End. He is also the Editor of Pop Poets and its e-zine Pop Gun.
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