Authors: Dianne Harman
The days of the trek passed quickly. A new experience took place each moment of each day. There were fields of rhododendrons, temples clinging to cliffs, yaks with bell collars announcing their presence, swaying suspension bridges over rushing rivers, brightly painted houses, and children greeting them at the side of the road. As they walked past them, the children would say "Namaste" and hold their hands over their hearts in the traditional prayer position. Jill had no frame of reference for what she was experiencing. She took each thing as it occurred and enjoyed it for what it was, with no comparisons available or necessary.
When they arrived at Tyangboche Monastery, Jill could only stare in amazement at all of the brilliant colors and the beauty of the nearby mountains. They were breathtaking and in the distance, she could see Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. She was in awe. There were simply no words to describe this beautiful, majestic area of the world and she felt humbled by the sheer massiveness of her surroundings. Very few people in the world ever had an opportunity to observe what she was seeing and she knew it was something she would never forget.
Sherpas and their families came from all over the Himalayas for the Mani Rimdu festival, reconnecting with old friends and family members. It was a time of celebration and revelry. Dancing, drinking, and beautiful ceremonies in the Monastery were all part of the two day festival. For this short time they forgot about how hard life was in this rugged, beautiful high country and simply enjoyed themselves. The revelry went far into the night.
Everywhere Jill looked, she saw happy people. Although they possessed few material possessions, she sensed that they had something inside that she lacked and she resolved to find whatever it was. Maybe it was Buddhism or perhaps they had discovered something that didn't exist in her Western world. Where she came from, people would be protesting or rioting if they had as little as these people did.
When she observed the children, Jill realized she had never seen a child have a temper tantrum or even cry. The children were cherished by their parents and their extended families. Infants were carried by their mothers or strapped into slings on the mother's back so that the babies wouldn't touch the ground during the entire first year of life. There was an old wives' tale that this was done to separate them from the animals. It was a charming tale and maybe it worked. The young children certainly seemed to be happy.
The trek back to Lukla was just as breathtaking. They stopped at several teahouses and Jill found she had developed a taste for the local yak tea and yak butter. When they got back to Lukla, the helicopter was waiting for them. Jill realized that soon she would be back in her Newport Beach home, her body the same, but her spirit very, very different. With growing confidence, she looked forward to the next chapter of her life.
CHAPTER 13
Jeffrey couldn't believe what had just taken place in Sidney's office. He was the star of the company, the anointed one; literally, the future financial success of Moore Labs rested on his shoulders. All of his dreams of being awarded the Nobel Prize had just gone up in flames. Where would he go? What would he do?
He went to Maria's office in a fog. "Darling, what's wrong? You look like you've just seen a ghost," Maria said.
"Maria, get whatever you have in the desk that belongs to you. We've both just been fired from Moore Labs. Pack up and please, make it fast. I want to get out of here before I see anyone." Ten minutes later they walked out the front door of Moore Labs for the last time. Maria kept looking at Jeffrey, wondering what was going on.
"Let's go down the street to Kelly's. I need a drink. I'll explain everything to you there. But first, I need to know one thing. Have you told anyone that I have been giving you the anti-aging hormone?" Jeffrey stopped walking, turned to her, put his hands on her shoulders, and looked intently into her eyes to see her reaction.
Maria realized that whatever had taken place in Sidney's office had something to do with her and she made an instant decision to never let Jeffrey know about her conversation yesterday with Dan. Now she knew why Dan had taken the day off. "Of course not! We decided long ago that no one should know about it. You know I would never do anything that could hurt you. Plus, I would have everything to lose if I told anyone. It makes absolutely no sense to think I might have told anyone."
A few minutes later, they arrived at Kelly's and went directly to the bar area. The restaurant had that intimate, clubby feel of restaurants that had been popular in the 60’s. Jeffrey quickly walked to a leather booth in the rear of the room. He didn't want to see anyone from Moore Labs. The bar filled up fast with workers needing a drink before they headed out for their long commute home on the freeways. Kelly's had a reputation for fast service, something the workers needed. Maria and Jeffrey placed their order and were quickly served their drinks.
"Maria, everything's changed. Somehow Sidney found out that I've been giving you the anti-aging hormone. It's the end of the Nobel Prize for me and it's the end of my work as a scientist at a prestigious company like Moore Labs. I don't know what we're going to do. Moore is going to issue a statement that I left for medical reasons. We both know that's the kiss of death in this industry. Everyone will assume that I have terminal cancer or that I've entered some rehabilitation program."
"How can they do that? You're the most important scientist they have. Without you, the anti-aging hormone will never win the prize for them, much less bring in billions of dollars in new revenue for the company," Maria said.
"They were never going to win the prize. It can only be awarded to a person or in some cases, up to three people. They were just going to ride on my coattails, get the publicity for being the lab where the hormone was discovered, and then market it. It would translate into big dollars for them.
“The deal is, I signed several contracts when I went to work for them," Jeffrey said. "Every scientist they hire is required to sign a bunch of stuff. I violated their contract when I gave you the hormone. Sidney caught me off guard and I didn't lie to him when he asked me if I had given it to you. Also, they probably would have called you in and I didn't want you to be hurt any more by this than you're going to be. Sidney felt that he couldn't trust me any longer and told me that if I'd violated that part of the contract, there was a good chance that I would violate other parts."
"Maria interrupted him, "But you're the one who discovered the hormone. Doesn't it belong to you? Since you're the one who discovered it, wouldn't every laboratory around still want you to work for them?"
"I wish," Jeffrey said, "but the contract spells out that any discoveries made by scientists in the employ of Moore Labs belong to Moore Labs. I'm irrelevant now that I've been fired. My contract was 'at will' so they had the right to fire me without notice. I'm pretty sure that no other company will hire me now. I suppose the bright side is that we won't have to worry about money. They gave me four million dollars, half now and the other half in one year if I don't sell the formula to some other company. I don't know where to go or what to do. Science has been my life. They could sue me, but evidently they have decided an out-of-court settlement is better for them. At least that's a bright spot in my day. It’s kind of sad when the brightest spot in your day is that someone has decided not to sue you."
Jeffrey put his head in his hands. "I'm not sure if any of the other employees in the lab know what has happened. The only one I met with was Sidney. Oh yeah, he had his secretary there as well. He probably wanted some backup in case I did or said something crazy."
Maria looked at Jeffrey and said, "Let's leave town for a while. We need to make some plans and that's going to be hard to do here. Everyone from your fellow scientists at Moore to all your other friends are going to be calling and asking you what happened. Finish your drink. We'll go home, pack a few things, get in the car, head east, and see where it takes us."
She stood up, put on her coat, and headed for the door, looking neither right nor left. There was no trace of her usual warm smile. Her lips were grimly drawn together. She appeared pale and terribly worried. It suddenly occurred to Maria that Jeffrey might not be able to acquire the materials and chemicals he needed to make the anti-aging hormone. She began to panic just thinking about the future. All of her old fears came crashing back. It had been a few years since she had even considered the possibility of aging and it was not a pleasant thought. She walked by a table of Moore employees and looked straight ahead without acknowledging them. When they called out her name, she didn't answer, pretending she hadn't heard. Jeffrey took a few bills out of his wallet, threw them on the table, and quickly followed her out the door.
They drove to the condominium they bought shortly after they were married, parked the car, and took the elevator up to their third floor unit, closing the door behind them. For the first time in the last few hours, Jeffrey felt safe. As the enormity of what had just happened began to sink in, his shock turned into an ice-cold anger. Maria started to cry. The reality of the situation was becoming very clear to her. She told Jeffrey how scared she was that she wouldn't be able to get the injections anymore; that she'd be cut off from the hormone and would become old and ugly. Even in his pain and anger, Jeffrey couldn't stand to see Maria in tears. He promised her that no matter what happened, he would find a way to continue the injections. He told her they'd talk more about it later, but right now he wanted to get out of town before anyone came to the door or the phone started ringing.
Maria didn't know how long they'd be gone so she watered the plants, transferred a few things from the refrigerator to the freezer, and packed a small travel suitcase. She made sandwiches and put some sodas in a cooler.
Jeffrey checked to see that he had his credit cards and threw some clothes into a tote bag. He changed the message on the answering machine, asking the caller to call his or Maria's cell phone, allowing them to monitor whoever was trying to get in touch with them. Both of them were anxious to get out of Irvine.
They took a freeway route that headed towards the Inland Empire area in Riverside County. Jeffrey just wanted to be in the open spaces and let the desert clear his head. He didn't want to see anyone or talk to anyone. From Riverside he took the freeway route that traveled through some of the most barren and desolate areas of California. Before entering the desert, they made a quick stop at a gas station and then Jeffrey turned the car towards Phoenix.
By now it was 9:30 p.m. and the wintry, desert air had turned cold. The car handled easily on the nearly empty highway. Between the high speeds and the cool wind, Jeffrey began to feel a little better. He knew he could never return to Irvine and that he had to find work somewhere else. The four million dollars promised to him by Sidney would not last forever. He needed some sort of long-range plan, hopefully one that would allow him to continue working on the development of his hormone discovery
Sidney wouldn't be giving him a glowing recommendation; that he knew for sure. He was also certain that Sidney wouldn't go into the details of the dismissal with any companies that might have an interest in him. Sidney would describe the incident in such a way that no company would ever hire him, no matter how brilliant he was. He was screwed and he knew it. He looked over at Maria, still enchanted at how stunningly beautiful she was, and he knew if he had to, he'd do it all over again.
They'd been driving for two and a half hours and he was tired, physically and emotionally. He was on the verge of exhaustion when he saw a roadside sign advertising a motel at the next off ramp. "Maria, I'm tired and I don't think I can go on. Is it OK with you if we stop at this motel up ahead and spend the night? Things will look different in the morning. We don't have to be anywhere and I'm pretty sure there's not much between here and Phoenix. I just don't think I can safely drive for a couple more hours."
"I'm tired too,” she said. "Yes, let's stop here. It's late and we've only stopped once since we left Irvine. It's been one hell of a day, one I would like to see end, even if it's in the middle of nowhere."
As he turned into the broken down service road that led from the freeway off ramp, he noticed a number of high voltage wires, more than he would have expected in this out-of-the-way place. He pulled into the empty motel parking lot. A cold wind was blowing and tumbleweeds scuttled across the lot. It was an unforgiving land, yet for some reason he was drawn to it. The desert was a lonely place, but in his present situation, the loneliness appealed to him. Other than Maria, he really didn't want to ever be around people again. He just wanted his experiments, his science.
A naked light bulb hung from a frayed cord above a sign that said "Recepion." If the owner couldn't even spell "Reception," Jeffrey could just imagine how great the room was going to be. Maintenance at the motel had been badly neglected. Jeffrey thought some desert rat probably owned it. He figured that the owner either didn't have any money to put into repairs or so few people stopped at the motel the owner simply didn't feel there was any reason to spend money fixing it up. Old, decaying buildings like this were not that unusual in remote desert areas. Time had passed them by and Mother Nature was slowly taking the upper hand. Theirs was the only car in the parking lot.
Maria and Jeffrey got out of the car and walked up to the door with the word "Office" printed on it in faded blue letters. Entering the unlocked door, they rang the bell on the reception desk, waiting for someone to acknowledge them. After a few minutes, a grizzled old man with a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth shuffled into the room from the back and asked if he could help them. His shirt was stained with food and his huge belly hung over the big turquoise belt that struggled to hold up his pants.