Missed Bit 1? Check it out here.
“Felicia,” a tall woman with mousy hair and glasses on the tip of her nose called from an open door. “You can come in here now.”
Slowly, she got up from her chair, handed over the clipboard of questions, and followed the woman into another room.
The office was small and crowded. The woman wore a purple dress and a white lab coat. She found herself wondering what her qualifications were exactly.
“I’m just going to ask you some more questions before you move on to the next phase of the trial,” she said with a plastered smile.
“All right,” Felicia nodded, fiddling with her fingers and jiggling her right leg.
Most of the questions were the exact same as the ones she had answered in the original paperwork. The woman said she just had to be sure she had answered all of them correctly. It was important to the success of their clinical trial.
“Lastly, do you wish to have children?”
“I mean, I don’t know,” Felicia said with a crack in her voice. “I haven’t yet, but I might.”
“If this experiment alters your genetic makeup in any way, will you be all right if it affects your future children?”
Huh? That question boggled her mind. What did they mean her “genetic makeup”?
“Like changes to my hair color or my sensitivity to dairy?” she asked, raising a brow.
“Yes, exactly, or your species,” she said in a nonchalant manner, bouncing the pen on her lip.
“That’s the second time species has been mentioned. What do you mean? Is this experiment going to turn me into an alien or something?”
“No, of course not. It’s just that … well … a few participants had rare and unexpected side effects and our lawyers made us update the paperwork. It’s as simple as that,” she said in airy and unemotional tones.
Everyone’s body is different, Felicia thought, and there’s fine print and warnings everywhere—even on hot coffee cups.
“OK,” Felicia said, putting aside her angst and soothing herself with her rationalizations. At her last doctor’s checkup, she was healthy, and there was no way she believed she would fall victim to any side effects. Those people probably weren’t in the best of health anyway. Everything would be OK. “The rate is five thousand for each session, is that right?”
When Felicia walked into the screening room, there were at least forty people. Everyone had their own chair evenly spaced out in the room. The back wall had a table that held breakfast treats, like doughnuts, bagels, and assorted spreads. There was a large coffee pot that had been half drained.
She didn’t know how long they would have to sit, so she opted out of coffee. Finding a seat toward the front, she smiled at the kid next to her. He looked no older than sixteen and had dyed his short hair green. His pants were baggy and his t-shirt said, “Don’t talk to me.” She was more than happy to comply with his request.
A man in a lab coat walked to the front of the room with three nurses in tow. They each had a tray filled with needles.
“Thank you for your participation. Just by being here, you are helping us to push the boundaries of science for the good of humanity. Now, let’s get started. Each of you will receive a shot from a nurse, and then you’ll be free to read, grab some more breakfast, and just relax. As part of our protocol, we need to keep you here for an hour or so for observation. It’s all just part of the process. Does anyone have any questions?”
Someone on Felicia’s row raised her hand. She was an older lady wearing a polka dot dress. A cane rested against her leg. “Is—Is this dangerous?”
“It can be,” the man said matter-of-factly. “You’ve all signed waivers, but at this point, you’re free to go if you don’t feel safe.”
The woman nodded, but she didn’t move.
“If no one else has any questions, we’ll get started.”
Felicia’s insides quivered. She didn’t care for shots. She had always wanted a tattoo but never got one because she could not stand the idea of repeated needles digging under her skin. The nurses started at the front of the room and walked down the rows pushing their trays full of needles.
It went quickly and when her turn came, she scrunched her eyes closed.
“OK, sweetie,” the nurse said, “you’re done, just relax.”
After twenty minutes passed, Felicia was sleepy. She found herself wishing she had gotten a cup of coffee after all. When she tried to raise her hand to ask if she could get one, her arm would not move.