Elixir by Eric Walters Page A

instead of a temper tantrum I should throw a few fists!”
    â€œMaybe you should try!” Mr. Best replied. He stepped forward so that now they were standing with their noses almost touching, fists clenched.
    â€œStop!” I yelled. “Stop it!”
    Both men jumped slightly and turned to face me, with furious and startled expressions. I turned and ran away. They called after me, but I didn’t stop or look back.
    â€œ HELLO RUTHIE .”
    I looked up from my book. Dr. Banting stood over me as I sat under the elm tree.
    â€œMr. Mercer told me you were out here,” he said. “I wanted to thank you.”
    â€œThank me for what?”
    â€œYou came along at just the right time. If you hadn’t been there, heated words might have become heated actions, actions that Charlie and I both would have regretted. Seeing you at the door, looking so shocked and scared, made us realize how foolish and childish we had become.”
    â€œWhat happened?” I asked.
    Dr. Banting sat down beside me with a sigh. “There was a problem. One that compromised our research. The equipment we’re using is old and needs to be taken apart and sterilized quite often. This didn’t happen, so there were residual amounts of different things, including trace amounts of glucose—sugar. Because of that many of our results weren’t accurate.”
    â€œAnd it is Mr. Best’s job to sterilize the equipment?” I asked.
    â€œIt’s his job to sterilize it, but it’s up to me to instruct him to do so. We both bear some responsibility.”
    â€œBut it sounded like you were blaming him.”
    â€œI was angry at both of us, but I was taking it out on him. I guess I should have been yelling at myself too.” He paused. “I’ve apologized to Charlie and he’s apologized to me. Our work is far too important to allow anything to get in the way. We’re actually making progress.”
    â€œYou are?”
    He smiled. “It’s still early, and as I said, some of our results weren’t valid, but some of the findings are very encouraging. Who knows?” he said, and shrugged his shoulders. “I just hope we haven’t lost our opportunity.”
    â€œBut if you know what you did wrong, can’t you just do it right from now on?”
    â€œWe won’t make that mistake again, but we may simply run out of time. We have the lab only until the end of the summer.” He smiled again, a bit sadly.
    â€œBut that’s still five weeks away. Isn’t that long enough?”
    â€œFive weeks isn’t a long time for a miracle. Besides that, we need additional funds to purchase more laboratory subjects.”
    â€œSubjects? What do you mean by subjects?”
    â€œDogs. Charlie has just gone out to buy another.”
    I gasped. “You mean those dogs in the kennel belong to you?”
    â€œNot all of them. There are other scientists who have test subjects in the kennel, but eleven of them are part of our research. I’m afraid there have been more fatalities than I expected. I lost two dogs in the beginning because of my surgical techniques. Dogs and people have similar organs but a slightly different arrangement. I’ve learned from those first mistakes.”
    I felt as though I’d been kicked in the stomach. “You operated on the dogs?” I questioned, my voice hardly above a whisper.
    â€œIt’s certainly not a part of the work I enjoy, but there’s no way to attempt to find a treatment for diabetes without first creating that condition in the test subjects,” he explained.
    â€œBut what happens to the dogs after you operate?”
    Dr. Banting put his hand gently on my shoulder. “Ruthie, I know you might find this difficult to understand, but the dogs are destined to die.”
    My mouth hung open and I couldn’t find the words, but he must have understood what I was thinking from my