“I know it can work. It just needs a little… oh, I don’t know. Something.” He wipes his hands on his lab coat, and turns to look at his assistant. She’s busy picking up the last bits of a broken test tube from an earlier failed experiment, and doesn’t acknowledge him.

“I know, I said that last time, but… I can feel that I’m close. My internal compass is finally true… I think.” He adds a pinch of something to the beaker, and stirs cautiously.

“See? It didn’t blow up this time. We’re making progress.” She continues picking up pieces of glass, one at a time, and ignores him.

“Will you ever forgive me? I mean, it was an accident. You knew that this job had risks.” He slowly fills a small syringe with the contents of the beaker, and taps out any air bubbles.

“I’m 99.9% sure this time it will work. You’ll be human again. Do you trust me?” The small kiwi bird stops picking up glass and looks up, then slowly walks over to him. He picks her up gently.

“You’re the best assistant, you know that?”