Life

The tumor in the little glass box looked like a tiny version of the mushroom cloud an atomic bomb makes. To Werner it seemed as if it were moving, expanding, crawling up the walls of the container while all the while whispering that it wished for blood and cells. To dominate life was it's only wish. To dominate life and destroy it. It seemed to grow on the glossy surface, just as the blisters on the backs of the children grew after Hiroshima, it seemed to smile as it arranged and rearranged it's appearence. It was almost radioactive; poisining everything it touched, spreading to every cell and destroying the organism it inhabited.

Werner watched in disgust as Wojciechowski pulled it out of the little castle and placed it on the tray in front of them. "Hand me the eyedropper, Werner." He said quietly. He shoved the tray under the microscope and adjusted the lenses. Werner grabbed the eyedropper and the small liquid jar that Wojciechowski had been very carefull with earlier. The doctor took the eyedropper in his right hand and slowly neared it to the tumor. He was very focused, even his breathing had slowed down. 

Whatever he saw with his magnified vision was something Werner couldn't see. He drew in a sharp breath as he dropped a small, single tear into the tray, covering part of the tumor with the blue liquid. "Do you see what I see?" He asked after a second. Werner replied that he saw nothing at all. "Then come here, look through the glass, yes, just like that. Can you see it! The tumor is moving, just the slightest bit!"

"What does that mean?" Werner asked. His eye was glued to the sight. The tubby pole was right, the tumor did seem to be moving a bit. It seemed to be pulsing. 

"It means that the tumor either likes or hates the liquid we gave it. Let me look again." 

Werner respectivly moved aside to let the polish doctor continue his work. He continued to drop another tear onto the cancerous tumor and waited, observing it for a while. 

"Get me a glass of water, Werner." He said slowly. "I need to see if it reacts the same way..."

Werner fetched and handed him a glass of water. He also brought a new eyedropper, Wojciechowski thanked him, he'd forgot to add that he'd need a second one. "You'd make a promising doctor." He observed. "See, Werner...the tumor doesn't react at all to water...or if it did, it would take much longer...hand me a scapell please..."

"Here you go." Werner handed it to him. Wojciechowski thanked him, but his thank you stopped at 'tha' because he forgot to say the rest in his excitement. He zoomed the lens in further and started to scratch at the tumor. 

"I'm going to need you to add a drop of the liquid, just one little drop, right where the edge of the knife is."

"I'm not sure I can do that."

"Of course you can, Werner. Trust yourself." With these motiviating words, Werner picked up the eyedropped, dunked it in the liquid and slowly neared the tumor. He breathed the way you breathe when you shoot. Get in position; breathe in and out several times; then breathe out and shoot. He dropped the drop onto the tumor. It landed in the perfect place; right in the tiny cut. Wojciechowski nodded in approval, he continued to poke around. Werner watched, despite of not being able to see much without a magnifying glass. 

He was glad that he hadn't approached Wojciechowski with a grudge that morning. He'd been terribly angry at him all night, but when he'd woken up he realized that the man must have his reasons why he was lying about Werner's cancer. So Werner had decided to let it drop, for the sake of science anyway. The most important thing was to find a cure for cancer; not his feelings about something some doctor said. 

"I can't tell what it's reacting too...but there's something in this substance that is doesn't like...I'm going to have to test each thing one at a time...Werner, could you hand me the lab journal? I need to write down which solution it could be..." By solution he meant a chemical one, and not an answer. Werner was glad he'd taken organic chemistry. He didn't understand much, but he wasn't completely lost either. "We'll need to try these following substances tomorrow. One by one." Wojciechowski sighed. "I hope we find with component does this...and I hope it's not one that's toxic to the human body." 

"Won't that take a long time?"

"Of course. The key to research is patience, Werner." Wojciechowski replied, taking his gloves off. "But don't worry, tomorrow we'll have help from the other scientiscts."

"Der Pole und die Russen? (the pole and the Russians?)"

"Yes, exactly."