“Will cost pennies you say? And the market? Shit-hole countries! No way Jose!”

     He was talking about an inexpensive pill for the prevention for river blindness.

     “This is ours. Intellectual property is property. If we can’t sell it on TV and get Americans to buy, it gets buried in our vault,” Lyndon Hathaway told Stuart Carter, his chief scientist, at Aspen Pharma. Despite Carter suggesting that Aspen would earn reputational capital for corporate responsibility if it released the formula for curing river blindness. He had stumbled upon this discovery while working on a bird flu vaccine. Hathaway was unpersuaded.

     Stuart was tempted to remind Hathaway that America was one of the only two countries that allowed TV advertising of prescription medicines but kept silent. Instead, he distracted himself by looking at Hathaway’s reddish bald head and wondered why the thrice married Hathaway hadn’t used more sunscreen at the Sandals resort in Jamaica during his recent vacation with Kimberly, his secretary. 

     “Fleming discovered penicillin accidentally like I did this formula,” Carter said. “It’s not as if I was specifically researching this. So no harm, no foul to our shareholders.” 

     “The Brits are fools. They don’t make money from their discoveries. So don’t waste your time. Get back to our Alzheimer’s moon-shot. DOGE has sacked the FDA nitpickers. We have a fighting chance of approval. Just think what it will do to our share price.”

     Stuart’s close friend was killed in a Boeing 737 Max that crashed in Asia. Countries soon banned the plane in their airspace. Boeing’s friends at the Federal Aviation Authority rushed the approval of a dangerous aircraft causing three hundred and forty six deaths.  Knowing Hathaway’s opinion of government regulators, he thought it useless to argue about the DOGE cuts. 

     Before he could say anything, Hathaway tapped him on his shoulder with his pudgy fingers and walked away. This was the way Hathaway reminded his staff that he was the alpha male.

     Twenty years earlier Carter worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Congo. This was one of the happiest times of his life. He remembered  the wonderful times when he taught the kids to play basketball.  He still remembered his shock and the resulting depression when a fellow volunteer told him that  one of his favourite and talented players, Ben Okrie, a future Michael Jordan in his view, was bitten by an infected blackfly from a nearby river and contracted Onchocerciasis. The local hospital did not have any Invermectin which it couldn’t afford. Ben was now a thirty five year old blind man dependent on his sister and stepping out with a white cane gifted by Stuart.

     Back at home, Stuart touched his wife’s arm as she sat beside him on the sofa. Stuart was alarmed that she was so dependent on strong anti-depressants.  Despite being a award winning research scientist at the National Institute of Health, the Muskrats had sacked her and their comfortable double income lifestyle was no more.  The looming college tuition of their son, Nick’s, recently forced them to apply for a home equity loan.

     Tracy handed her husband a glass of Cabernet and a plate of gluten free crackers with cheese.

     “I stumbled on a river blindness prevention formula,” Stuart said.

     “My hero!!” Tracy said and fist bumped him.  After her dismissal, she rarely smiled.

     Stuart told her about Hathaway’s orders.

     “What a jerk! Can’t you post it on the Net?”

     “Aspen owns the formula, not me.”

     “At NIH, we developed cures for so many diseases which helped millions all over the world. Aspen thinks only about profits and share prices.”

     “But still,” Stuart demurred.   

     “But still the whole world, especially the poor deserve life saving medicines. When law and morals conflict, man made laws must lose to the ones  made by God.”

     “I can’t give what’s not mine.”

     “Shouldn’t a parent steal bread to feed her hungry family? Nothing wrong with that. Aspen didn’t invest in finding the cure, you stumbled upon it.”

     “If Hathaway finds out, he’ll fire me. We’ll then be on the street.”

     “You know what Gates said? About how the cruelty of the richest man on the planet eliminating American aid resulting in the needless death of thousands of innocent children? Three hundred thousand innocent children  and counting. Not a peep from the pro-life crowd and the evangelicals. Is Musk the action hero you want to follow? An action hero who allows helpless Africans to  go blind for because you did nothing?”

     “Still, it’s stealing.”

     “Sanjay Patel, downsized with me,  told me about a guy called Ramanujan who spun out advanced theorems at Cambridge. When asked how he did this, he said a goddess revealed them to him in dreams. I think we in the West are too egocentric and claim much too credit when in fact we have down-loaded much  stuff from the cosmic website that nudges us to complete the work.”

     Stuart sipped his Cabernet. He watched the red liquid settle in his glass. He reached out for a cracker. “Still ravenous, could eat an elephant,” he said.

     “Good. I can eat although I had a late lunch with Sanjay.”

     “Sanjay’s looking to teach?”

     “Hates teaching. He plans to join his uncle’s outfit in Hyderabad. Man owns a pharma that manufactures generics. Wish I had an uncle like that,” Tracy said with a rueful grin.

     Stuart and Tracy  dined at the Ristorante Caravaggio. Stuart ordered a Salad Nicoise, spaghetti carbonara and a side of grilled octopus. Tracy chose a Halibut steak. Their carafe of red wine was placed first on the table with some bread and a plate of olives with a cup of olive oil.

     While chewing a piece of bread dipped in olive oil, Stuart heard a crash behind him. Alarmed by the crash, he looked back. A pre-teen girl was on the floor moaning in pain as her mother tried to console her. Waiters rushed to help. The girl’s white cane was on the floor. Copious tears spilled from her unseeing eyes. As a waiter seated the girl who was still sobbing, Stuart saw Tracy dabbing her eyes with a napkin. He left much of his food uneaten.

     When Tracy awoke late the next morning, she found that Stuart had left for work. She walked downstairs and slotted a pod into their new Keurig.  Going to the refrigerator for cream, she noticed a note held in place by a  magnet. From Stuart, it read, “Was blind but now I see. Thanks for making me see the light.” Below this was the substance of the note.

     She rushed to the living room and grabbed her Samsung phone. She texted “My hero! The angels in heaven are weeping for joy!”

     Stuart texted, “The Cosmic Website,” followed by an emoji.

     Tracy punched the air. Tears sprung in her eyes which she wiped with a tissue. She picked up her phone.

     Scrolling through the contact list, she called Sanjay.

     Holding Stuart’s note in front of her, she told Sanjay, “I bring you good tidings. Get a pen and paper. And hurry!”