I, Jared Wilson, 26 years old at the start of my saga, am just a normal guy. At that time I had two years of community college, a decent though not particularly financially rewarding job, a loving wife of two and a half years, named Melony, and a suitable apartment.
Melony is a kind and wonderful woman. That she didn't have the highest libido in the world and wasn't particularly sexually experienced or adventurous were colossal understatements. However, I loved her completely and she me. She was skittish when it came to trying new things sexually which was a mild irritant to me, but nothing that would ever cause me to cheat. I hated cheaters and intended to be married to Melony "until death do us part." While I might have desired a little more sexual frequency and passion it certainly wasn't a big enough issue to cause me any angst or to develop a wandering eye.
I had a real financial problem, though.
Melony had gotten into a grim car accident several months ago. Fortunately there were no serious injuries but really significant property damage. She was determined by the police and insurance companies to have been at fault and since we only could afford basic insurance the damage that she caused was more than our coverage.
We hired Susan Lightfoot, a good attorney who worked very hard to get the case settled for us and given Susan's expertise, how contrite and genuine that Melony was, and the fact that you can't get blood out of a stone, we were able to settle the amount over and above our insurance coverage for $40,000 (plus our attorney's fees of $3,000, which were well worth it since the negotiations started out at $150,000). We agreed to a strict repayment schedule for both the damaged party and our attorney; while our attorney might have cut us some slack on timeliness, the damaged party made it clear that they would not.
Melony and I put our heads together to see what we could do to make sure that we could fulfill our financial obligations despite our modest incomes.
Melony was willing to do almost anything, but when she suggested either working as a cocktail waitress at nights after her normal job, or even stripping, given her educational background the only other things she thought she could do for significant enough money, I nixed the ideas. She seemed very happy that I did. I was looking into my own situation for part time jobs that wouldn't interfere with my normal job and wouldn't have me putting in so many hours that Melony would feel guilty, when an unusual opportunity presented itself.
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One of the customers at my workplace was a pharmaceutical sales representative for PharmaBlue. She had gotten interested in that profession during college and she had the qualifications for it (which included intelligence and good looks). I noticed a flyer in her briefcase when she opened it up to get out her credit card wallet and I inquired about it.
"Oh, that," she chuckled. "My company is looking for volunteers for a study on a new drug that they are formulating. They are excited enough about its potential to be paying way over market for people who qualify and are willing to take the drug on an experimental basis."
"Uh...Miss Simpson, can I see the flyer, please?" I asked.
"Sure," she said. "I have lots of copies at my office, you can keep this one. If you sign up be sure to use my name because I get a $250 bonus for anyone I recruit that gets accepted into the program," she continued with a big smile.
The next few customers required immediate and significant attention so I didn't really get a chance to look at the flyer in detail until lunch time.
At lunch as I ate my baloney sandwich that Melony had prepared for me, an apple, and a bag of chips, I looked the flyer over. It had several things that were noticeable and intriguing. The first was that the pay, if selected, was about $12/hour more than I was making at my present job. The second was the qualifications, which included being married for one-five years, between 24 and 32 years old, willing to take a battery of tests including a lie detector, and the agreement to sign an iron clad confidentiality agreement. Even for the tests, and associated interviews, participants would be paid. The exact nature of the drug being tested was apparently vague by design.
Given the general parameters speculated about in the flyer according to a rough calculation I figured that I could make around $18,000-$24,000 in the next 18 months, which would be enough that Melony and I could meet the obligations of our repayment schedule without living like a monk and nun over the next two years.
I was very excited when I went back to work that afternoon, and apparently the excitement put me in a good mood and I was as productive as I ever had been.
Most of the night Melony and I talked about the possibility of trying to get into the PharmaBlue study; we even missed one of our favorite television shows. We looked PharmaBlue up on the Internet and found that it is a large international corporation with annual sales of almost 40 billion dollars and a reputation for innovation.
The next day I called the phone number on the flyer and talked to a very eager young woman who asked me a few preliminary questions and then said that I could schedule an interview and take the qualifying battery of tests. I asked if both Melony and I could enter the study but was told that only one of us could. The night before Melony and I had discussed the possibility that both members of a married couple couldn't be in the same study and she reluctantly agreed that I should be the participant if that was the case.
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I went to the interview and testing facility the next Saturday morning. There were about 20 people there, half men, half women. The initial interview with two people was pleasant even if bizarre. One thing that they made clear was that the written test questions had to be answered under oath. If I "passed" the written test I would be called back the next Saturday for a lie detector test, and after that I would have to sign a confidentiality agreement after which I would be given some basic information about the study. I was pleased when I was given $80 in cash when I left the facility about noon.