As he looked out of the windows of his dark, dingy lab, looking at the fallen snow, Dr. Bio couldn’t wait for the day to be over. He took another glance at his post docs and students in the lab and wondered how they could stand the small university environment. Some had forlorn looks while others were oblivious of the mediocrity in the third rate lab conducting fourth rate research on chicken enzymes. Dr. Bio wondered if they had an escape mechanism from the depressing environment.

Someone opened a window a crack to look at the parking lot and the lab suddenly filled with traffic noises and police car sirens from the industrial Brooklyn neighborhood. The sudden gush of cool air made Dr. Bio shiver as the window was closed again, resuming the normal whining of the lab equipment. Looking at the screen, Dr. Bio sighed. “Another ordinary experiment that failed,” he said to himself, “How, oh how will I ever get that tenure so they can’t fire my ass?” as he sighed. With heavy feet, he walked to his depressing little office. Its smallness vividly carving his status on the pecking order at the university. Those bastards at Cornell and Yale have such big offices! Another sigh reverberated through the office filled with useless papers gathering dust on the dreams of Dr. Bio and weighing those dreams down. Dr. Bio silently cursed at his secretary, something he could never do aloud, fearing that she would physically hurt him. “Only if that bitch was on chat – then I’d show her!” – a thought that brought a slight smile to Dr. Bio’s depressed disposition.

It wasn’t always this way. Growing up as a young boy, Dr. Bio had dreams of going to medical school at Yale or Johns Hopkins, working on medical breakthroughs. He always fantasized about adoration of colleagues, medical students and eminent scientists. Perhaps a trip or two to the White House, a big office, a supermodel wife with a penthouse in New York. All that was behind him now. Like beautiful fallen leaves being swept by a wind gust in autumn, his feet were on cold concrete. Painfully aware of the reality of the dead end research he had to conduct to satisfy the needs of a nagging old shrew at home. Being afraid of women was a character trait that he despised himself for yet could never muster enough courage to confront it in real life. As daylight came to an end and he put on his winter coat with frayed cuffs. Walking towards his practical sedan made for wimpy men, a cold chill ran up his spine as he pondered the boring banality of his mundane routine and his utter powerlessness to change any part of it. The powerlessness emphatically drilled down into him by a macho SUV that rudely cut him off just as he was easing into traffic.

Arriving home, he pretended to hug his wife and tried to ignore her complaining as he set the table. Chewing the tasteless food made his pathetic life even more vivid and he mumbled curses as he gulped down several glasses of wine. As the warmth from the alcohol flowed through his veins, his right upper eyelid started twitching and an evil smirk appeared on his face. His wife didn’t notice the hardening lines of his jaw and after yelling at Dr. Bio to clean the table, she went to watch TV. Quickly putting on black jeans and a black T-shirt, Dr. Bio roared to himself, “Now I’m Mr. Hyde” as he chewed the end of a cigar and logged on to Professors’ Chat.

He felt like a man possessed with supernatural powers as he started barking insults at women. He joined in with Lady Madbot in her cannabis-induced rants to go after men who made him feel inferior. Switching from wine to macho Tequila, he felt omnipotent. Lashing out at the Phantom of Greyeyes and Hunchback of Monero he was happy. He belonged here. No woman or man could belittle him. His being a junior faculty doing insignificant research in a mediocre university was a distant memory. He didn’t have to be afraid of women anymore. The chat women were for his pleasure. He could make shameless advances at them. He could threaten them. He could manipulate them. He could be crass, lewd and lascivious all he wanted. He was no longer Dr. Bio. He was, now, Mr. Hyde.