Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

The Lesser of Two Evils

When you wake up with a migraine no matter what you had planned for the day, it will not be accomplished. The pain throbs in your head with each beat of your heart and some kind of relief is all you can ponder. It doesn't take long to realize that you would do anything to get rid of the pain.

The last time this happened to me, I was referred to a strange Asian apothecary run by a little old man whose English was as strange as his shop. He sold me two bottles; both looked the same and both with the directions written in some incomprehensible Eastern style characters, except for the same word, 'cure'. Other than their color, the pills inside looked the same as well. One red, the other blue, I tried to remember what the difference between them was but couldn't. Let's see, I think he said that one would cause diarrhea and the other violent cramping but which was which. Another dilemma, which was the worse side effect of the two, I needed to make a decision and soon as the throbbing in my head was becoming unbearable. In the end, the pain won out and no longer concerned about side effects or even if I lived, I just took them both.

It was a moronic decision, I know and there is no way I can describe, with any sense of decency how my day went but I will say most of it was in the bathroom. However, my migraine was gone and that was a good thing. Two larger questions remained, which pill did the most damage and which worked better, well those answers will have to wait for my next headache.

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