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Not medicine.
Not Doktor Maximus Markuse’s Anodyne Cordial with tincture of mercury.
Not laudanum.
A magic potion
John muses.
It is another way to ask the question: What do you wish in this world? Stand in the room alone, naked and warm from the bath, arms spread. Feel your own self and the air on your body. Potions change you; they do not change the world. Not health – that is medicine.
John stands as asked, turns slowly, alone, not to show or to display but to feel, to move, to become simply present and aware of himself. Experimentally he lifts his feet, stretches to his toes, sways his outstretched arms. His head is full of people. Everything can be taken from him but their memory. It is all that matters. Memory and the tiny hope of Heaven. There he stands.
Perfect memory then?
But John’s memory is better than perfect. Fever breaks down the barriers to feeling and to dream and the people in his head live and change as he talks to them there.
John, what about hope? You don’t dare ask for anything. What would your life be if you hoped?
“It is the most frightening thing there is.”
I thought you most feared hurting your friends.
“Today it is hope. I can’t think about the other today.”
All right. What if you drank a potion that gave you hope? What would happen? What would it be to you?
“I can’t even imagine.” And John puts on his clothes, all thirty buttons.
Name: John H. Holliday, DDS.
Fandom: History.
Word Count: 254
Please comment if you wish.
Nulli Virtute Secundus
Not Doktor Maximus Markuse’s Anodyne Cordial with tincture of mercury.
Not laudanum.
A magic potion
John muses.
It is another way to ask the question: What do you wish in this world? Stand in the room alone, naked and warm from the bath, arms spread. Feel your own self and the air on your body. Potions change you; they do not change the world. Not health – that is medicine.
John stands as asked, turns slowly, alone, not to show or to display but to feel, to move, to become simply present and aware of himself. Experimentally he lifts his feet, stretches to his toes, sways his outstretched arms. His head is full of people. Everything can be taken from him but their memory. It is all that matters. Memory and the tiny hope of Heaven. There he stands.
Perfect memory then?
But John’s memory is better than perfect. Fever breaks down the barriers to feeling and to dream and the people in his head live and change as he talks to them there.
John, what about hope? You don’t dare ask for anything. What would your life be if you hoped?
“It is the most frightening thing there is.”
I thought you most feared hurting your friends.
“Today it is hope. I can’t think about the other today.”
All right. What if you drank a potion that gave you hope? What would happen? What would it be to you?
“I can’t even imagine.” And John puts on his clothes, all thirty buttons.
Name: John H. Holliday, DDS.
Fandom: History.
Word Count: 254
Please comment if you wish.
Nulli Virtute Secundus
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