Short story - Confid

Confid

    Finished at last, thought Dr. Hobson as he held up the small bottle of cloudy green liquid. The project had taken him 2 years of using the labs equipment for his own pet project. If they had found out what he was doing, he would have been sacked on the spot. But he had falsely labelled the test tubes as amino acid samples (which was what he was supposed to be testing) and he had memorized data rather than keep lab reports. If he had told the company the truth; they either wouldn't have believed him or they would have let him proceed and then taken most of the credit (and profit) if he succeeded.
   But it was too late for them to interfere now. Dr. Hobson had decided the product in the tiny bottle was to be called Confid: the liquid was 10ml of pure, undiluted human confidence. It would make him one of the best know (and one of the richest) scientists in the world. He had scheduled an appointment with a marketing manger at R.B.C. Pharmaceuticals, who were based in the building down the street. He would pitch Confid to them. They would market it and he would insist on at least 15% (no, maybe at least 20%) royalties on each bottle sold.
    Dr. Hobson realized that he would have a hard time convincing the marketing manager of what he had achieved. Bottling human confidence sounded impossible, and they would assumed he was a nutcase. Which was why he was taking his latest batch with him: One drop and they would feel their confidence levels sky rocket, two drops and they would feel on top of the world. Nevertheless Dr. Hobson was nervous about his upcoming meeting. What if they refused to even try the liquid? Or what if the confidence level of high earning marketing managers was so high they didn't notice the effect of Confid? He was really starting to worry now, he took the dropper out of the bottle and squeezed the end so a drop of Confid fell on to his finger. He liked it off, and after the familiar delay of a few seconds, he stared to feel much better. They would believe him, the potential profit to be made selling the drug to the under confident was to great to ignore.
    Striding down the corridor Dr. Hobson beamed happily at his fellow lab workers who in turn exchanged glances with each other. Dr Hobson's mood seemed to alternate between slightly secretive depression, and inane (maybe insane) happiness. But the artificially confident Dr. Hobson didn't know or care what his co-workers thought of him as he strode towards the lift. As he approached the lift he noticed Dr. Vervain coming out of her office. He had been trying to summon up the courage to ask her out on a date for weeks. But she was renowned for her research work, and he was supposed to be testing simple amino acids. So he feared the dinner conversion would be rather embarrassing. But it would be different after his meeting with R.B.C. he thought.
Imagining her admiration for his genius once he could reveal what he'd bee doing, he put on his most charming smile and walked straight up to her and asked: "Would you care to join me for dinner at the Savory this evening?"
"well…. er… I'm free this evening so… OK " she replied with a slight shrug. Feeling like the happiest man in the world, Dr. Hobson strode into the lift and selected the ground floor.
    On the way down however some of his confidence began to desert him. What will I wear? he ask himself; the Savory has a strict dress code. I'll have to hire a suit, what if I can't get one that fits at such short notice? why ever did I have to ask her out to the most expensive restaurant in town? I don't need to be worrying about this as well the meeting, I'd better take another drop of Confid. He squeezed another drop of on to his finger and licked it off. That's better, he thought as a second surge of confidence went though him.
    As exited the lift he felt fantastic, he was riding the crest of a wave of confidence. I'm a successful, soon to be rich scientist, with a date. Life is fantastic he thought, as he almost danced his way though the foyer area, attracting strange glances from everyone. The Confid in his system was beginning to mix with his own naturally generated confidence that he had just obtained for his success in his work and love life. By the time he reached the street he was literally dancing along.
"life is great, life is wonderful" he sang as he waltzed along to himself. He needed to cross the road to reach the R.B.C. building, but the nearest crossing was much further along the road. There's not too much traffic about today he thought, and dashed, still singing across the road. He was so caught up in his song that he didn't notice the van that had just come around the nearest corner. The van driver slammed on the brakes and swerved violently, but the vehicle still managed to hit Dr. Hobson and send him flying onto the pavement.
    Dr. Hobson wondered for a couple of second why he was suddenly staring up at the sky, then as the situation dawned on him he searched around for the bottle of Confid. It had flown out of his pocket and smashed on the pavement; he would have to start a fresh batch of culture which would take about a month....
As he watched the precious liquid soak into the pavement he was unable to resist another fix of confidence, the last he would get for another few weeks, so he licked at the pavement where the Confid had spilt. The van driver looked on in shock; The deranged madman who had been dancing in the middle of the road, and who now obviously had a broken arm, had stated licking the pavement. The driver didn't know whether to call an ambulance or the police so he called both. The mad man got up again and started dancing and singing again.
"I can make more, I can make more Confid" he sang oblivious to his broken arm, frightening the nearby pedestrians. The ambulance and police arrived shortly and the mad man was carted of in the former to face questions by the latter.

Dr. Hobson shouted at the psychiatric nurse: "You have to let me out of here, I've found a cure for low confidence!"
"Dr. Hobson, the lab sat you were working on amino acids, they found no evidence of any other project" "Of course not! If I'd told them, they would have stolen my idea! I keep it all in my head, my head!"
"I'm sure that's right Dr. Hobson. Now if you could just swallow these two pills."
Dr. Hobson realized he was never going to convince then of the truth. He had not dared to keep any permanent records and no one was going to let him anywere near a lab again. These pills are all right he thought as their sedative effect started to work. But, he thought. What I wouldn't give for a couple of drops of Confid.

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