Will did his best to answer the question as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

“Yeah, I think I got up to use the bathroom or get some water or something,” he said.

“Get some water.” His father muttered as if puzzled.

“Everything ok, Dad?”

“No, it’s… it’s fine. We just found your glass in the hall last night. Thought it was a bit strange you know. Your mother and I just wanted to make sure you were ok.”

“Oh I’m fine,” Will said almost too quickly. They were there in the parking lot now, so instead of stewing in the awkwardness of the moment, Will unsnapped his seatbelt and bolted out of his Dad’s car. His father followed shortly and made his way up to the pharmacy door and opened it with one of the many bronzy keys from the ring in his pocket.

Once they were both inside, his father set to work, and after only a few minutes, it became all too apparent to Will that there was nothing for him to do. His father didn’t ask for help, but instead went about sorting prescriptions and labeling bottles and typing away on the store’s standing computer.

Will was immediately bored. He hadn’t brought anything from home and soon his eyes started to dart around the room in some attempt to keep themselves occupied. What started as looking turned to wandering, and eventually, Will began to pace his way through the closest aisles—the ones where his parents kept the filled prescriptions. From the backside it was just a little tub system. Each white plastic bin had a letter or so of the alphabet on the outside and if you pulled it back, the inside was filled with the medicine for the people that had a last name that started with that letter. It was at least kinda interesting. Will rummaged a bit through the bins but eventually stopped from the guilt that he was somehow sticking his nose into people’s business that he shouldn’t.

He looked back toward his dad, who now scowled at the computer as if it had just called him a bad name.

Will shrugged and continued to lope along till he found his way to the furthest row, the one by the back wall. Again there was the same tub system as before, this time without any letters. They were probably the backups for if they needed to replace any of the ones up front. Will reached and pulled one of them away. Inside were bottles, but these were a bit different. They were purple, and the tub was filled with them, all compactly organized into several tight little rows. There must have been ten or twelve in there. Will pulled a new tub out and saw the exact same thing again. He began to pull more.  What were these things? He hadn’t really seen a purple pill bottle before.

Carefully, he pulled one of the bottles down and uncapped the lid. Filled to the brim were small marble-sized clear orbs. Will reached out his finger and touched one. It was a bit soft and almost stuck to his finger. They kinda reminded him of those little jelly balls that he’d seen in the drinks you could get from Chinese food stores. Were his parents going to open a Chinese restaurant or something?

“Hey Will, where’d you disappear too,” his father said from the from the front of the store. “Everything all right?”

He needed to get back.

Should Will…

Take a bottle of the strange circular balls

Leave them where they are

This Poll is Closed