W.W.II

It was a dark, dreary Saturday afternoon. A middle-aged man, about 37, was hunched over in the corner of a small lab room with no windows. You could still see the creases in the white lab coat he had received the Thursday before. His receding hairline was becoming more apparent, and he seemed to be shedding everywhere recently.

"Damnit!" He shouted as a hair tumbled into the petri dish he was peering at. He picked up the nearest pair of forceps and carefully pulled out the hair. He prayed he hadn't just ruined his recent discovery.

He took a sample from the petri dish and placed it on a slide. He then painstakingly put the slide under the lens of the microscope. "Thank goodness," he sighed. His discovery was still intact. Maybe that crazy old German was right all this time.

Suddenly, the door flew open and a younger male strode in. "Joe, we did it! We've found the solution! You can stop what yer doin' right now 'cause Schnitzelberg was right!" Ted was talking so loudly that Joe thought he was screaming at him.

Sally, a 22-year old nurse from New Jersey Memorial Hospital, walked in and greeted both men. "I just heard the great news from Jane," she stated cheerily. She was always so cheery, it was sickening. Jane was a fellow nurse, but unlike Sally, she was very pessimistic. Jane was also 30 years older and had already gone through two divorces.

Joe had had a crush on Sally for the entire year he had worked with her, but he was afraid to let her know his feelings. It wouldn't have mattered anyway because she wouldn't go out with any guys. Everyone just assumed it was because she had a boyfriend on the outside, or a husband overseas. She would let the real reason be known 23 years later when she was one of the first females to come out of the closet.

"But.....but I...I just....I think we can do it the way Albert Einstein originally planned," Joe stammered, "I think I've found what we've been missing this entire time. I just need two more weeks to get everything together."

"We know you want to do it the more peaceful way, but our way would be so much crueler, it would make those bastards pay for what they did to Pearl Harbor," stated Ted bluntly.

"Why don't you just do what you can in the next few days and show your findings to the board when they meet on Tuesday? That should be enough time to get a prototype ready. Then you and Ted can both present the possible ways," suggested Sally, even happier than ever before.

"I just don't see why we have to punish them for what they did. It was an honest mistake, they were cut off from the rest of the world during World War One. They didn't know that we are the most powerful and destructive country in the world. We shouldn't be so mean," voiced Joe. A tear almost popped out during his last sentence, but luckily he pulled it back in.

Sally rushed over and gave him a great big bear hug. It comforted him some, but in other ways just made him want her more.

"Come on Sally, we should let Joe try to get as much work done as possible before the meeting," said Ted seriously.