The Pill, Page 2

pregnant. However, the newspapers’ constant reminder of her wild past pushed her avoid further contact with media. By contrast, every professor who had anything to do with it, wrote columns and granted interviews, a trend led by Jack. Simultaneously he took all the credit and made various accusations against Susan and Lee. At last he felt he got the fame he deserved.

  Four months after birth, Susan got back to work. The baby had brought about a positive changes in her life. She renewed her relationship with her parents, who now became full-time babysitters, and abandoned most of her old friends. She gained a special status among radical feminists, who saw her as a kind of model for a world without men. Her familiarity with most of them was superficial, but she was repeatedly invited to lecture and conduct dialogues, where typically she tried to talk about parenthood and science, while the talk leader tried to get a story about male abuse. Following her lectures, she started getting requests for the drug. She disregarded most of them, but a particularly heart-wrenching story caused her to make an exception. Again she stole syringes from the lab, five, but this time full. She guessed the dose, as well as the optimal time to inject. She thought that of five attempts at most there will be one pregnancy, she was wrong. Ruth, the girl with the story, got pregnant on the first shot. Three of the four remaining syringes were distributed based on Internet requests, the fourth was sold to the highest bidder.

  Letter of dismissal was not long in coming. The university, in light of the publicity it received, ignored the circumstances in which Susan was exposed to the drug, but when stories started to be published about other women having gained access to the drug, it was too much. In addition to Susan, Lee was told she should wrap up her research and leave the institution. This had no affect on her research, that was in its final stages, but it shocked and humiliated her.

  About half of Susan's old friends were drug dealers. Some only sold, others grew and one synthesized. It was around that time that the synthesizer decided to retire. At twenty-eight, with a few millions in cash being slowly laundered through legit business he owned, he was the smartest and most cautious of her friends. He had no part or knowledge of Susan's new plan, his contribution amounted to inspiration only. Susan spent a considerable amount of time in his place, usually high, occasionally naked. She saw how he made a life for himself by selling over several years a batch of hallucinogens he made in a single week. Not a single client ever saw his face, as it was all done by mail. Now he was ready to leave that world, rich and free. Almost a year after giving birth, and many months after the last published item about her, Susan continued receiving requests for the drug. For the last syringe she received five thousand dollars, a little more than her monthly salary. Selling the stuff instead of working seemed like a good way to earn money and spend more time with her daughter. The only problem was how to get more of it. In this time of distress, Susan invited Lee for coffee. The timing was perfect, Lee was heading to Stanford, where she accepted a tenure track position. Angry, she took from her previous lab everything she saw as hers, every chemical she ever synthesized, each plasmid she created. For her it was burnt bridge, she will never set a foot in that place again. When Susan asked if Lee can synthesize a few syringes of the drug, Lee bursted out laughing. It was the epitome of irony. Lee did not care why Susan needed it, she asked no questions, but when she put on the table a container and instructions for dilution, Susan realized she had enough for thousands of doses.

  At thousands of dollars per serving, Susan managed to sell very little, but at hundreds of dollars she sold dozens a day. Despite that, besides purchasing of a large number of boxes for shipments, she didn’t perfect the selling method or gave thought to getting more of the drug. If the police would have left her alone, her business would have probably closed in under a year. That's what superintendent Gregson wanted. He had enough problems without having to chase women selling substances not officially recognized as illegal drugs. The legal status of the sale was not clear to him, and he preferred it that way. Throughout many months of tips, he managed to avoid doing anything. Finally, a series of articles in the local press aroused the ire of the conservative mayor, who imposed on Gregson to do something. When the police knocked on her door, they didn’t have a warrant, nor did they seek to confiscate the substance or arrest someone. Just to scare her so the whole thing will go away and they will be able to go back to dealing with common criminals. But Susan, acquainted with the police, refused to talk to them. Literally, she did not speak. She asked no question, gave no answers, and made no sign that she understood the message they were trying, at this point desperately, to send her. The cops return frustrated to Gregson with nothing to report. While Susan sought advice in Internet forums, Gregson asked the police general counsel, who went to consult with the municipal prosecutor, who brought the mayor to the meeting. Rules and regulations had no say in the decision. When Gregson insisted on knowing on what grounds he was supposed to arrest Susan, the prosecutor responded with a press conference. With the mayor behind him, slanders smelling of sexist conservatism formed the basis for a vague indictment, accompanied by promises of long imprisonment.

  Later he would say that Susan ran away. It wasn’t a complete lie, the intention to indict her affected her decision. Another factor was the fact she ran out of the drug. In a new van, with everything she could squeeze in, Susan drove to sunny California. Most of the profits went to buying a house. Her daughter started daycare, and Susan, mostly due to boredom, returned to speaking at feminists conferences. A lecture in one of the conferences, in which she mentioned her intention to go back to selling the drug, made headlines in the local press. Susan had neither the ability nor the equipment to synthesize her own drug. She tried to contact Lee, but Lee refused to cooperate. In any event, the mere mention to the media, as well as the reported births, now occurring at a rate of several per day with no side effects, dragged the local politicians to respond. A strong republican response against it forced the democratic governor to speak, in a careful manner, for the freedom of every woman over her body. The demagoguery war that developed subsequently fortified each party hard in its original position. Democrats opposing the drug were afraid to express their opinions publicly and vice versa. Finally, in response to announcements promising long prison terms by other states, the governor announced that his state will not invest funds policing the issue.

  The main beneficiaries were feminist organizations, who started receiving considerable attention. Although, disappointment was prevalent among most callers, when they learned that there is no substance to buy. With renewed interest and a number of entrepreneurs willing to invest, a search began for another manufacturer. Susan tried to join a number of chemists, Lee’s phone rang nonstop, PhD candidates fantasized about building a startup, but everyone were talking about a process of years. Salvation came unexpectedly. There was something comic about the first meeting. A group of lesbians, all with short hair and an appearance that can only be described as “stereotypical" sat in front of Jack, who didn't bother bringing anyone else to the meeting. The mutual contempt was almost visible, though in truth, Jack despise them solely due to their profession, and while they considered him a chauvinist pig, Jack never discriminates against women, and demonstrated sexist behavior only outside the laboratory. They started a long speech about the production resources at their disposal, the importance of local production and the empowerment of women. It would have become a lecture in gender history, but Jack, bored, interrupting the speech, placing a small capsule on the table. In answer to the question, Jack replied "pregnancy pill - The Pill". Weeks of plans to recruit nurses for homes visits to inject the drug so clinics won’t lose their licenses were thrown in the trash. The feminists couldn't care less, but Jack was able to approve the pill as a veterinarian drug. A chinese factory has already produced for him, at a negligible cost, enough for billions of pills. Jack thought about race horses, maybe cattle, but the news created a new opportunity. One side was forced to swallow their pride, the oth
er side had to settle for about half the price he had hoped, but a deal was launched. An Indonesian company owned by an American company owned by Jack will sell the pill to multiple feminist organizations, as a veterinary substance for research purposes only. These in turn, will sell it with a warning accompanied by a wink.

  Apart from Susan perhaps, no one expected huge sales. Jack was interested in it mainly because of the publicity, he hoped would push sales for the academic and veterinary markets. For the activists it was a matter of principle, women's empowerment, so that a woman will not be dependent on a man to get pregnant. The target audience was lesbians. Surprisingly, most of the sales were to straight single women over the age of 35. Another large group was married women with a boy or two, who wanted a daughter, although in the vast majority of cases, chosen not to share their decision with the husband. The pill sold at a rate of about one hundred units a day. At a price of a thousand dollars