The room was filled with the stench of vinegar.
Sighing, Henry sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Beside him a sleeping woman gently snored, twitching slightly in her sleep. He pulled the covers up to her chin and slid out of bed. The room was dark, with curtains pulled over the window. A sliver of light fell across his face.
Henry looked at the glowing red alarm on his nightstand. 7:59. A minute before the day started. The vinegar smell had served well as an early wakeup call.
When Henry pondered crawling back into the covers for another precious sixty seconds, the alarm rudely interrupted his yearning for sleep, and the beautiful woman groaned and sat up. She gave him a tired smile.
"Good morning, love," she yawned. Henry came to her side and planted a kiss on her cheek. She smiled before sniffing and wrinkling her nose. "What is that smell?"
"That would be my potion."
Agnes chuckled. "Well, I'd appreciate it if your future brews weren't so pungent, my dear wizard."
"No promises." Henry smiled tiredly.
Agnes jumped out of bed, and smoothed back her red-brown hair. She approached the dresser and gathered together some clothes. Slowly she began to change, rubbing sleep from her eyes.
"We're learning about apathy in one of my classes today," she said after a few moments of struggling with her blouse. Henry grunted in acknowledgement. "It should be interesting."
"That's nice," Henry said.
"Yes, it is." Agnes paused and looked at him. "Hopefully my students will learn something. Their last exam was positively disturbing."
"I'm sure," Henry said, pulling on a grey turtleneck sweater. He ran a hand through his mussed hair and pulled it back into a bun. Agnes eyed him affectionately before finally finishing dressing, crossing the room, and wrapping her arms around her husband.
"Almost as disturbing as your test results," she teased. Henry rolled his eyes and pressed his lips to the top of her head.
"With you teaching, they'll all become famous psychologists."
Agnes pulled away from the embrace and gave him a half-smile. "I'm not sure about that. I will still try to educate them, but there isn't much hope."
Henry shrugged. "There's always hope."
Agnes waved her hand to chase off the stench, which was only growing stronger. "About that smell..."
Henry's eyes brightened. "Ah! Yes! That's reminds me, today's the day!"
His wife raised an eyebrow, and made her way out the door. Henry chased after her, pulling on some jeans. "My medicine, the new mixture. I've left it long enough now, it should finally be ready. My project will finally be finished, Agnes!"
Agnes entered the kitchen with an eager Henry at her heels. She opened the cupboard and retrieved a mug and her signature morning tea. Her husband continued blabbering on about his new elixir, the one drug to stop all problems.
Henry Jekalle had a plan. For many years, he had slaved away in his laboratory, both at home and at work in Jekalle Pharmaceutical Labs, striving toward his one goal- to perfect the brain. His drugs helped with lethargy, depression, anxiety- They practically stopped mental illness. If you felt down, you could take a Jekalle Dopamine Pill and you'd be all sunshine and daisies, no strings attached. And the best thing was, his drugs weren't even addictive. He had fixed that too. If you took Jekalle drugs, you became perfect. If you bought enough, that is.
And now Dr. Jekalle had made his magnum opus, the one drug to fix it all. He called it his magic potion. It was supposed to completely erase all flaws from the mind, leaving behind only the good characteristics.
"So your potion is done?" Agnes asked, pouring hot water into her cup. Henry leaned against the counter.
"I'm fairly certain it is," he replied. "Soon I'll have gotten rid of mental illness."
"But then we psychologists will lose our jobs!" Agnes said, faking an aghast expression. Henry shrunk back. "I'm kidding. I'm so proud of you, love. You will finally get the fame and fortune you deserve."
"We," Henry corrected her. "We will get the fame and fortune we deserve."
Agnes took a sip of her tea, glancing away. She approached the window and pulled back the drapes, letting sunshine pour into the room.
"Yes, we," she said after a few moments. "Now please, handle that smell."
"Of course," Henry said. He straightened and walked over to the door next to the fridge, and flung it open. A wave of smells hit him. He coughed, and turned to his wife, a mischievous smile spreading on his face.
"Ugh, I'm leaving for class," Agnes said, wincing at the sudden increase of odors. "I'll see you tonight. Don't overwork yourself."
Henry pinched his nose. "It isn't that bad."
Agnes grunted and left the room. Henry laughed and walked through the open doorway into his lab.
Henry's personal laboratory was a lot more secretive than his lab at the company building. In that one, scientists came and went, taking notes, taking inventory, and compressing pills. But in this one, not even Agnes could come in. The walls were lined with shelves holding different chemicals, and several cupboards crammed with pill bottles filled whatever room was left. A desk extended from one side of the room to the other, stacked with organized paperwork and glass bottles. Different machines Henry used to safely mix and test his drugs were tucked under the desk and beakers full of differently colored liquids shone under a lamp on one corner of the desk.
Henry carefully closed the door behind him, and sat down in his chair, cracking his knuckles. He reached for one of the beakers and retrieved a container from a cupboard near his desk, and slowly poured the beakers's contents in. The vinegary smell wafted around him. But for all Henry cared it reeked of roses.
He grabbed some chemicals from the shelves, using a dropper to add it to the mixture. The liquid started bubbling, steam curling out of the sides. Henry put the container down and retrieved a hot pad from the kitchen. After a couple hours of adding more chemicals and checking his formula, he stopped and grinned. It was ready.
He stood, gently swirling the mixture in its container. The smell slowly started to decrease in its strength, and finally ceased. He sniffed at the container. Nothing.
"The glory we deserve," Henry whispered to himself. "The erasure of disappointment."
Henry Jekalle had a plan.
The liquid in that container was going to fix everything.
Once Henry took a single sip, he would no longer have any flaws, any obstacles to true perfection. He would become everything he had ever wanted to be.
For a long time, Henry had been immune to his own meds. No matter how many pills he took, inexplicably they would seem to have no effect. He still woke up every morning dreading the rest of the day. He still had dark moods where he didn't want to talk to anyone. He still let Agnes down by not working hard enough for their life together.
He was still an angry, distracted, boring man.
But he had designed the formula so intricately there was no way it couldn't alter his mind enough to fix everything that was wrong with him.
He lifted the container to his lips, but before he could take his first swig, an impatient rapping at the door interrupted him.
"Doctor? Doctor Jekalle?"
Henry set down the glass with an angry clink.
"Usually burglars don't introduce themselves!" He said angrily, standing and marching to the door. He yanked it open.
"Doctor Jekalle," said the impatient woman standing in his kitchen. "You forgot your appointment."
The woman who had broken into his house was his secretary, Ms. Shawnee Acothley. Her mouth was pulled into a lipless line, but other than that her expression was blank. She stretched to look over his shoulder. He closed the door behind him.
"Ms. Acothley, I told you to use the house keys only for an emergency," Henry said in annoyance.
"This was an emergency," she replied simply. "You weren't answering your phone and you weren't in your office. And today you were supposed to speak with Dr. Cortez?"
"Right, right," Henry said. He held the bridge of his nose. "Raul Cortez?"
"Who else?" Ms. Acothley swiveled around. "I had to reschedule it. What in the world were you doing in there?"
"Research, experimentation, the works."
"Well, please call next time you're planning to work from home," she said. She tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear as she walked away, eying her surroundings. Henry followed close behind, trying to hurry her out of his door.
Henry opened the door for her, and she turned, staring him directly in the eyes. She smiled slightly.
"Well." She ducked her head. "I hope whatever you're working on in there is worth it."
It was all Henry could do to keep himself from letting his whole project come tumbling from his mouth. He nodded curtly. "Thank you, Shawnee. As you can see, I am still alive, and now aware of my missed appointment."
She nodded slowly. He cleared his throat.
"I also have work to do," he hinted. She nodded again and quickly walked down the steps. Henry closed the door behind her and sighed.
Right, Raul Cortez. A faint memory of a man with a shaggy black mane of hair came to him. That could wait. He turned to go back into his laboratory, but yet again he was interrupted, this time by his phone's ringtone. He groaned and retrieved it from the counter.
"What's the matter, Agnes?" He muttered, sitting down.
"Henry," Agnes' voice answered. "Could you pick up some groceries for dinner tonight? I forgot to get them yesterday."
He sighed exaggeratedly.
Agnes laughed. "I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Yes, dear," Henry replied. "Now go teach those dratted college kids about apathy."
She laughed again, and the call ended. Henry checked the new message Agnes sent him with the grocery list. He glanced at his lab door.
Soon. Soon he'd be perfect.
