Celebration

“Careful now doctor,” said Hendrickson over the doctor’s shoulder, “very carefully.” 

 Doctor Theodore ignored that remark. He was finishing the latest touch on his experiment, if anybody knew the importance of care it was him. 

He operated the robotic arm with a practice ease. A bead of sweat arcing down the side of his face the only sign of stress. The robotic arm injected the canister with a syringe. Clear viscous liquid mixed with orange. 

The procedure was done. 

Dr. Theodore let out a sigh of relief. He’d done it! 

A champagne bottle jolted him out of his reverie, all around him there was celebration. Doctors were absolutely letting loose. Somebody pulled out a jukebox and “I’m So Excited” by The Pointer Sisters started to blare.

A guy he thought named Greg pulls him up, patting him on the back. Somebody hands him a red solo cup. Dr. Theodore downs it. 

Dr. Theodore wanders the party in a daze. Doctors come from all around shaking him and patting him on the back. Refilling his beverages. 

Time passes. A mosh pit forms, ABBA is playing, “Take a Chance on Me.” Dr. Theodore walks through the mosh pit in a stupor. Suddenly somebody pushes him into the middle, all eyes are on him. 

Dr. Theodore breaks it down. He’d been taking breakdancing lessons in his spare time and fired off some of the moves he’d been practicing. People whoop and cheer in response. 

The attention goes to his head. Dr. Theodore attempts a handstand. He falls on his face. The crowd goes quiet. 

Dr. Hendrickson helps him up and pulls him from the crowd. Dr. Theodore looks him in the eyes to say thank you. Nothing is in there. 

Dr. Theodore excuses himself from the party for a few seconds, walking down the hallway to get some quiet. Almost without realizing it, Dr. Theodore realizes he’s pulling his phone out of his pocket. 

He’s dialing a number he knows he shouldn’t. He almost hesitates to press the call button. It rings. It rings. Voicemail: “Hi this is Cind–”

Dr. Theodore ends the phone call. He looks at his phone. It slips out of his fingers, and he picks it back up again. He presses the call button again. 

It rings. This time, it answers, “Hello?” a groggy voice asks, Cindy Dr. Theodore thinks. 

“Hi,” Theodore says, careful to keep the slur out of his voice. 

“Teddy?” Cindy asks, voice clearer now. “What is it? How late is it?”

Dr. Theodore didn’t know what time it was. They’d been locked in an underground bunker for the last few months working on the experiment. But he guessed it probably wasn’t within normal calling hours. 

“I did it Cindy, the cure for all known diseases.”

“That’s great Teddy,” Cindy says. 

The line goes silent. 

“Cindy?” Dr. Theodore asks into the silence. 

“What?” She responds flatly. 

“I miss you.” Dr. Theodore whispers. 

“Oh god,” Cindy groans, “are you drunk?”

“Maybe”

“It’s over Teddy.”

“What we had was real Cindy.”

“What we had was over in less than two weeks.”

“What happened to us Cindy? We were so good together.”

“You wouldn’t stop talking about curing all diseases and then you were abducted by a government organization and taken to a strange location.”

“Oh, yeah.”

The line goes silent again. 

“I did it for you Cindy.” 

“That is a terrible reason to cure all the diseases in the world, Ted. I’m not even sick.”

“So, when this is all over, do you think we could try again?” Dr. Theodore asks. He thinks he hears a faint groan. 

The call ends. Dr. Theodore assumes it’s due to the underground bunker’s faulty connection. The party is still raging, but all Theodore wants to do is sit down and cry. Too bad he didn’t invent the cure for sadness.