Thursday, 12 June 2025

Tracey S by Adam Parry


 

She was filled with intense relief, she went to the mirrored cabinet in the bathroom and left, one by one her medication as if they were emotions forbidden her, her prescription filled by a dark-haired Saturday girl.

First the pain-killers, two bottles of them, her epilepsy pills. Then the tooth paste she liked: mint Colgate. She had fallen outside the Spar and a nice schoolgirl helped her up while her boy ignorantly watched still sitting on the wall as he was worried someone would take his perch.

The girl sat beside her on the newly painted, pristine, bench and pulled a can of unicorn tears flavoured Irn Bru for the woman.

She thought she recognized someone driving by in a Toyota, but it wasn’t him and a black mist fell over her, piercing her heart as if she had been tattooed by dirty needles made ugly with shadows stencilled throughout her heart.

The night before she had stayed up watching the bright, almost too bright for her eyes, full moon passing the night from horizon to horizon and wept as there was no magic, perhaps they never had been.

Slowly she placed her prescription:

Olanzapine, lithium, lamotrigine, Seroxat, zopiclone,

on the middle shelf in alphabetical order, closed the mirrored door and saw herself for the first time that day. She seemed new in the well cleaned mirror making her shine and didn’t need to take her pills today. 

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