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Chapter 5 continued...

Beeba thought for a moment. Surely they were her pills, and what right had he to stop her? He was worried that one more pill might be the end of her, but on the other hand, she had taken many of them already.

He panicked. He ran to the front door of the building and threw it open. He was about to yell to call the doctor when he saw Dr. Melcher and XL trudging up the snow-covered sidewalk. "Come quickly," he said.

XL and the doctor could clearly see the worried expression on Beeba's face. They ran into the house, just in time to see the lady tipping the glass to her lips as she swallowed another pill.

Then she backed up to the chair, reached back to grab the arms of the chair, and slowly dropped herself into the chair.

Beeba turned to the doctor. "She must have been taking these pills for at least two weeks, and now she has had another," he said. "Probably she hasn't eaten anything during that time. I found no other medicines."

The doctor crouched next to Mrs. Rose's wheelchair. "Do you remember me? I am Dr. Melcher," he said.

"Yes," she said. "You can call me Florence. I am Florence Rose."

"How do you feel, Florence?" asked the doctor. "Do you have any aches or pains?"

She leaned back into her chair, with a pained expression on her face. Then gradually she relaxed. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, and then opened them. She smiled. "I am fine. I was worried about my medicine earlier, but I am fine now."

"Florence," said the doctor, "how many of these pills have you taken?"

"Only the amount prescribed on the bottle," she replied. "Except last night. I was feeling tired but I couldn't sleep, so I used two more pills that night."

"Tell me why you called my office this afternoon," said the doctor.

"It was when one of the pills wore off. I was worried," replied Mrs. Rose. "But I am fine now." She turned her head away from them, toward the wall, and slouched down in her chair.

"What happened after you called my office?" asked Dr. Melcher.

There was no answer. She had fallen back into her former state.

Dr. Melcher was upset at Beeba. It was apparent from his expression, and he spoke angrily to him. "Couldn't you have stopped her for just a minute! This is bad. It was bad already, but she is overdosed now, for the second day in a row. She is starved, and even with the little bit of water she just drank, she is dehydrated."

"I'm sorry," said Beeba, "but I didn't know what to do. Shouldn't she have the right to make decisions for herself?"

"Well, try to imagine yourself in her situation," said the doctor. "Imagine that you are taking a medication that will bring you to the brink of death, except that you don't know it. When you are about to take the next pill, wouldn't you be grateful afterward if someone stopped you?"

"Is that the situation now?" asked Beeba, feeling very distressed.

"No quite, but close," said the doctor. "When XL and I went up to the saucer, we were able to get Internet access and to look up the active ingredients. The pill itself doesn't cause any physical harm, but it is very risky to leave someone to use it without supervision."

"Yes," said XL. Evidently Instant Happiness is an accurate name for this pill, because it takes away all worries--to such an extent that the person won't even care if they live or die."

"It's an incredible new invention" added the doctor. "For many years there has been research on mind-altering drugs. There are pills to calm a person, pills to thrill the person, and pills to cause hallucinations. But in general there are problems with them. Often they cause brain damage, and often they are addictive. The person's brain habituates to the chemical, and if the person stops taking it they suffer."

"This experimental medicine is supposed to be the perfect solution to this quest. It satisfies all of the person's motivators, removes all feelings of pain or distress, causes no brain damage, and there are no physical withdrawal symptoms."

"So what's the problem?" asked Beeba.

"Whoever designed this" answered the doctor, "failed to fully understand human psychology. They don't understand how the mind works. You see, the brain is a learning machine guided by motivators. Each person has a variety of motivators that take effect under various conditions, including hunger, thirst, sleepiness, curiosity, and various joys from being with friends and undertaking activities."

"When a person regularly satisfies all their motivators," continued the doctor, "that produces happiness. Happiness is the aggregate of the satisfactions."

"This pill produces happiness by sending signals into the brain to indicate that all the motivators are satisfied. If the person had any pain, it's gone. If they had any hunger or thirst or sleepiness or fear, it's gone. Not only that, it substitutes for curiosity so the person doesn't need to explore. It substitutes for friendship so that the person will not be lonely. All desires are satisfied."

"To give you an analogy," continued the doctor, "think of the motivators as being like status indicators. They are like the gauges and warning lights on the dashboard of a car, that indicate the fuel level, oil pressure, battery voltage, etc. And now imagine that you could suddenly alter all the indicators, so that they all show that everything is O.K., no matter what. You could be running out of gas, but the fuel indicator will still show full. The battery could be dying, the coolant boiling over, but to the driver everything looks O.K."

"That is what happened to Florence," said the doctor. "She is so perfectly happy when she takes the drug that she wants nothing. Her normal brain functions are so satisfied, that activity drops to nothing. She isn't asleep while taking it, because even sleep involves brain activity. No, her motivations are so fully satisfied when the drug is in her bloodstream, that apart from the autonomic activity of breathing, there is nothing going on; it is as if her mind is dead. Or at least, all thinking and learning functions are shut down."

"I guess there is a disadvantage to perfect happiness," said Beeba.

"Not when happiness is achieved by normal means," said the doctor. "It is when you try to achieve it by cheating the mind, that you get this problem," said the doctor.

"So," said XL, "when the drug wears off, she will be fine."

"Well it won't wear off now for another 4 hours" said the doctor, and I think she is near death. "It would have been better if she had not taken more, but if she lasts the next 4 hours she will live. Coming out of the trance, she will be just as lonely and miserable as before, as she may have been in her life but she won't be sick. She may need counselling and help to overcome her problems, but she can recover."

As the doctor finished his sentence, the sounds of a siren could be heard getting closer.

"While we were in the airship," said XL, "we ordered an ambulance to take her to a hospital. We didn't think we could easily take her in her wheelchair in the airship."

"Yes," said the doctor. "I have admitted her to the drug rehabilitation unit. I'm pretty sure she will be O.K., notwithstanding the overdose. XL, when you found my cell phone and returned it to me, very likely you saved Florence's life."

"We should call her closest relative," said Beeba.

"Check the address book by the phone," said the doctor. "I think she has a cousin in a nearby city."

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.