Excerpt: In Search of Destiny (working title)

December 22 1988

Dear Diary

It’s been a trying day at the University today. My studies are beginning to show some strong results and Dr Destiny himself has congratulated me. As it turns out, the extra hydrocarbons I added to the formula reduce the nasal intake. I administered the antidote to a few lab-rats, specimen numbers 4, 6 and 7. It seems that Professor Norris had taken the others for his own experiments.

Professor Norris or Professor Nuts, as the students refer to him, has an obsession with the gene pool. He enjoys examining living cells and how they behave. I believe that Nuts wants to examine the difference between ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ genes, as he believes that rich and poor people are fundamentally different from each other.

Although the nasal intake had decreased, it seems that there were some rather unusual side-effects from the formula. Specimen 4 became aggressive and attacked the other rats. Specimen 6 had a very unusual reaction, as its fur changed colour dramatically to a lime shade of green. My colleagues were puzzled by the strange anomaly but the good Dr Destiny, my mentor and friend, laughed off the difference. He felt that this looked like the comical stereotype of someone with the cold, and that my cold formula simply revealed the symptoms. He believed that the formula simply reacted to a foreign gene of the specimen.

Specimen 7 gave me hope. The rat, after a small period of time, ceased sniffing and sneezing completely. Although the formula seems temperamental I appear to be working along the right lines. Further research will need to be accomplished on the subtle differences between specimens 4, 6 and 7.

The Doctors research seems to be also bearing fruit. It is rather silly that he refuses to be called Professor Destiny despite all his qualifications. The man must have every single type of scientific honour or degree and yet still be only thirty nine years of age. But he insists that we call him by the doctor title, as he insists on calling us as well. It is gratifying not to be treated as a research student but as an equal and we are all grateful for his presence. I had the good fortune of meeting his wife yesterday; she seemed a delightful woman, kind and good-natured yet unafraid of a bit of pleasant sarcastic jokery on my research. And of course the Doctor is famous for bringing his year old baby daughter Jane to the workplace to show her ‘the ins and outs of human medicine’. It appears lost on the Doctor that Jane as an infant cannot comprehend this matter!

I am becoming rather sceptical though of Professor Norris. His unethical approach to science has earned him few friends within the facility. He is too distant a man, not involving himself in the camaraderie of the other men and women. He has lacked respect in some areas, by insulting the work of Gertrude Versity. The only man he will talk to is the Doctor himself. We see him as a leech of a man, hanging on to the greatest scientific mind of his day. Perhaps ‘Nuts’ feels that he can gain knowledge as great as the Doctor, by simply hanging around him, requesting more assistance than anyone despite his own Professorship. ‘Nuts’ clearly feels that his own research is all that matters. Perhaps this is something one needs in order to succeed in such a competitive arena, and perhaps I would believe this was true if not for the involvement of Dr Destiny himself.

I wonder what he’s really doing in the University.

And a note for future research then. I have suggested to the Doctor that we examine the differences between the rat specimens. There should be nothing too great, the rats were all male and aged similarly. I believe that it is likely that blood type is the cause of the changes. Even if this is the cause then I will have to compensate to the blood types present in specimens 4 and 6. I thank the heavens though for the breakthrough in specimen 7. This rat has shown that a fully adaptable cure to the common cold could be just months away.

Signing off

Benjamin ‘Bambi’ Lawson
Research student at the University of Newcastle.