Macleans (May 28 2012 issue)
8 min @ Sunnybrook Hospital, D Wing
The bottle is squat and clear although the liquid is a gritty murky brown. The masking tape label is more offensive to Lena than the odor. She knows this bottle is the reason she is so particular about the state of her linen closet and the quality and color of her towel sets. Everything matches.
For years this bottle held pride of place on her grandmother’s bathroom vanity. Her grandmother administered it for everything from scrapes and bruises to headaches and stomach pains. Lena convinced her to move it to the linen closet the summer she stayed there, the summer of her fifteenth birthday. Lena had never known what was in the brew, besides the berries her great-aunt brought from the old country every Christmas. When she dumped the liquid down the drain, the smell shocked her. It was as strong as it had been thirteen years ago. But it wasn’t strong enough.
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