Morbid

Arnold's first stop after leaving Building M was the biology department. He needed to treat the new specimens and went right down to the basement. He knew where everything was, thanks to Amy's tour, and he grabbed one of the large empty specimen containers and put on the appropriate safety gear of goggles, face mask, apron, and gloves as he added the chemicals needed to prep a specimen.

The main chemicals he used in the solution were formaldehyde, phenol, methanol, and glycerin. They would allow the preservation of the specimens and allow easy dissections. The solution also cleaned and disinfected them and were highly dangerous to humans if inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through the skin.

Arnold carefully placed all nine rats inside the container and used the dipping and retrieval tool to push them down into the solution. Since the rats had only been stunned, it took them a minute or two to drown. Luckily, none of them woke up or tried to escape their watery chemical deaths. Once they died, he took each one out and made the proper small cuts on the limbs and abdominal cavity to allow the preservation fluid to enter it completely.

Arnold put them back into the solution and covered the container, cleaned up the area, and placed the container on one of the shelves in the back of the storage area. He clearly marked it with his name, the specimen scientific name and the amount inside, and the date of preservation. He needed to let them sit for at least several days to ensure that they were properly treated.

With that part of his prep work done, Arnold left the basement and went back to his dorm building. Of course, now that he knew there were back doors to the buildings, he looked for one on the dorm building and found the grey door. He went inside and down to the basement and walked over to where the elevator was. He hit the button and waited several minutes. It was just past supper time, so the elevator was in use a lot as the students either came back or went for something to eat.

It dinged and Arnold stepped inside the empty elevator and hit the button for the ground floor. He stepped out when it arrived there and walked over to Doris.

“Hi, Arnold.” Doris said. “Where are you going now?”

“Is the cafeteria open?”

“Only for students that stay here for the weekends.” Doris said. “They even ID them at the register.”

Arnold nodded and walked back over to the elevator and hit the button. He stepped in and hit the button for the top floor, then waited. When the doors opened, he was once again greeted with subdued enthusiasm. It was from all of them this time and not just the girls he had taken to lunch. They all knew now what he had done for the others, and even though more than half of them hadn't been able to go, they all knew that if they did, he would have paid for their meals, too.

Arnold opened his dorm room door and went inside, put his backpack away, then changed into shorts again. He walked over to the refrigerator and looked inside, grabbed the pack of cheese, then went to the cupboard and grabbed a pack of crackers. A few of the girls saw him sit at the little kitchenette table and carefully cut up some of the cheese and put it on a dozen crackers.

Word spread to everyone and the girls that had gone to lunch with him felt extra guilty now. They had a great meal for lunch that Arnold spent quite a bit of money on, and now he sat by himself and was only eating cheese and crackers for supper.

In their minds, he was depressed at being alone and his girlfriend wasn't going to be coming back. Their hearts went out to him, and yet, none of them had the guts to go over to him and sit with him. They had already imposed on him a lot and none of them could figure out how to go to him and not keep imposing, because they assumed that if they went over, he would offer them some of his cheese and crackers.

Arnold finished eating and wrapped up the cheese and put it back in the refrigerator and closed the pack of crackers and put them back in the cupboard. A few of the girls sighed sadly, because they had missed the opportunity to be there for him when he needed someone to be there, and that just added to their guilty feelings.

It was evening now, so Arnold thought about what to do. He had to wait for his specimens to be ready, he didn't have any homework and he also didn't find any specimens online, so he decided to go to bed early. He walked over to his door and looked out at the girls that were looking back at him. He made eye contact with each of them and then spoke.

“Goodnight.” Arnold said and shut the door.

Arnold took a shower and went to bed. He slept for most of the night and woke up before his alarm went off. He made the same breakfast as he did every morning, four toast with butter and a glass of orange juice, and noted that he was almost out of bread and juice. He changed out of his sleep clothes and dressed for work in a nice suit and clean underwear. He had enough clothes and underwear to last another few days before he had to get the clothes in the laundry basket washed.

If Annie had known he would be doing a lot of this stuff by himself, she would have given him the same 'living together with someone' classes she had given Kelly. What groceries to buy with such limited storage space, how to do the wash and not mess it up, and how to cook quick meals. She had been so relieved about Kelly being there and teaching her that she had completely overlooked what would happen if Arnold was left alone.

Arnold wasn't concerned about it at the moment and opened his dorm room door to leave. He noticed that none of the other doors were open and looked at the clock beside his bed and saw that he was about an hour early for the normal hustle and bustle. He locked and closed the door, then walked as silently as he could down the hallway. He didn't bother with the elevator this time, since it was quite noisy, and walked down the stairs.

When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he saw Doris put a large plastic bag full of magazines and books on her desk. She took off her summer coat and hung it on the back of her chair and he saw that she wore a black blouse and black dress pants. As Doris took in a huge breath and let out a loud sigh, he walked over to her.

“Good morning.” Arnold said from right behind her.

“AHHH!” Doris yelled and jumped into the air. She went pretty high, considering she was only five feet and five inches tall and had a lot of mass on her chest. She wore a hard cupped bra today, so her breasts didn't visibly jiggle through her blouse. She gripped the desk to hold herself steady when she landed and she panted heavily, as if she had just run a marathon.

“By the curly hair of sweet Baby Jesus, you scared the heavens out of me!” Doris exclaimed when she caught her breath and turned to glare at him. “Apologize to me right now!”

“I'm sorry.” Arnold said and put on the face that his father always used when he apologized to his mother after she demanded an apology.

Doris caught her breath at the repentant face and tears almost came to her eyes. “Oh, it's all right. I forgive you.” She said and opened her arms. “Come here and give me a hug.”

Arnold bent down slightly and Doris hugged him tightly to her chest. It didn't feel right, though. “I can't feel your warm breasts today.” He said and that made her laugh.

Doris let him go and she pat her chest. “I'm wearing a bustier today to give my sore shoulders a rest.”

Arnold reached out and put his hands on her shoulders and rubbed the clavicles with his thumbs and used his fingers to dig a little into the muscle and gave her shoulders a massage.

“I'm sorry. I can't kiss them and make them feel better.” Arnold said.

Doris took a few moments to register what he said. “E-excuse me?”

“I'm only allowed to kiss my girlfriend, so all I can do is rub your shoulders.” Arnold said and kept doing it. “I know it's not as effective as kissing the sore spot, though.”

“W-w-wait.” Doris had a hard time not enjoying what he was doing, since her shoulders really were sore and getting a massage felt really, really good. “If you weren't dating Kelly...” She started to say and looked into his eyes. “...you would rub and kiss my shoulders, because I told you that they were sore?”

“Yes.” Arnold said without hesitation.

Doris saw a brief glint of something in his eyes. She instinctually knew it was the look that a man gave a woman when he thought they would be sleeping together, and it gave her a little shiver. She hadn't felt that in a while and it kind of threw her normal sensibilities off a little.

“Oh... ah... I suppose... yes, that would... be nice.” Doris said haltingly, then her eyes widened. What... what am I saying?

Arnold gave her shoulders one last squeeze and let them go. “I need to get to work.”

“O-okay. Have a good day.” Doris said and kept looking into his eyes to see if another glint would appear. She didn't see it and she started to doubt if she had seen it the first time. Her mind started to justify it as some kind of irrational fantasy that she was having with a young man that was less than half her age.

Arnold walked across the lobby and Doris walked around her desk and sat down. Right in the middle of her desk was the fortune she had found inside the cookie.

'Be wary of those around you'. Doris read and looked at the front door as Arnold left the building. Now I know what you meant.

Arnold was very early for work and when he went to the professor's office, it was closed and the lights were off. Since he didn't know what they were going to be doing to prep for the next day's classes, he walked over to the main lobby display called 'Adam' and stood in front of it. Now that he had the time to examine it, he did so.

For over an hour.

It wasn't until Professor Hamil Crenslav came into the lobby that Arnold stopped his examination of every aspect and detail of Adam.

“You're here already?” Hamil asked.

“For an hour and twenty minutes, sir.” Arnold said and Hamil jerked to a stop.

“What? Why so early?” Hamil asked, surprised.

“I had nothing else to do.” Arnold responded.

“You've just been standing here all that time?” Hamil asked and Arnold nodded. “Now I regret not showing you beforehand what to do to prep the lab classroom for tomorrow.” He said with a chuckle. “Well, nothing to be done about it now.” He said and walked by. “I just have to drop my things off in my office and we can get started on refining your education on specimen dissection.”

Arnold followed him and waited just outside the office. Hamil dropped off his briefcase, a leather sachel, and his suit coat.

“To the Ice Box.” Hamil said and took him down into the basement. “We're doing a very detailed anatomical dissection for the students this time. We get to work on the full sized heart of a bull and the students get to work on calf hearts.”

“Sir, I've never done a heart dissection before.” Arnold said.

“That's why we're doing it today. Hopefully you'll pick up enough of it that if a student asks for assistance during the week, you'll have enough knowledge to help them.”

“I'll do my best, sir.” Arnold said.

“Now, the tools needed are slightly different, as are the materials for retrieving slivers of the tissue and preparing them for microscope viewing on slides.” Hamil said as they entered the storage space. “Of course, I'll have to give you a crash course on that aspect as well.”

“Yes, sir.” Arnold said.

“I'm glad that you aren't so confident in your skills that you reject knowledge. Being able to accept that you need to learn something is essential for advancement.” Hamil said with a chuckle. “Even I learned something new when I saw your college entrance specimen.”

“What was that?” Arnold asked as he held the cooler door open to let the professor retrieve a medium sized container.

“I ignored the obvious details in my normal specimens and didn't label them.” Hamil said. “Namely, the main veins, arteries, and the nervous system bundles.”

Arnold thought back to the display upstairs. “Adam doesn't have them labelled, either.”

Hamil laughed. “No, and as Amy is so fond of saying, it is the jewel of my collection.” He said. “It also can't be opened to correct that oversight, since it's permanently mounted, so I have to live with it not being complete.”

Arnold nodded and closed the door, took the container from the professor and followed him back up the stairs and into the lab. Once there, the professor showed him the proper setup needed for their project. It would need to be recreated thirty six times, for three classes in a row, so the students have the same versatility.

When that was done, the professor showed him how to properly dissect the heart to expose the insides without damaging the heart, so that the movement of the valves wasn't impeded and would still function if air pressure was added, by either compression of the heart muscle or added externally. After that, he took appropriate tissue samples from different areas that would be tested for different diseases and prepared microscope slides for them, labelled them appropriately from the parts they were taken from, then set them in a small rack.

“And that's that.” Hamil said and stood back from his work and let out a satisfied sigh. “I believe we can call it a day for the learning part.” He said and Arnold helped clean everything up and they stored the specimen and the slides. “Now we just have to set up the student areas.”

Arnold nodded and they both got to work.