Mrs. Dabney's Game

Carrie slammed her car into park, grabbed her purse and did her power walk to Mrs. Dabney’s house. This was the 4th time this month Mrs. Dabney called the pharmacy to report that her medicine was mixed up and ask what color ones should she take today.

Carried pushed the doorbell the requisite four times, and plastered a fake smile on her face as she went through the drill, “Yes, Mrs. Dabney, this is Carrie from the pharmacy.” She held her badge to the peephole knowing full well that Mrs. Dabney’s 4’5” frame would not be able to see through it. Carrie took three deep inhales to calm the impatient words ready to fall off her tongue.

“Hello, what kind of mess have you got for me today?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’m old, you’re young. You can fix it.”

Carrie was crestfallen when she looked at the bowl full of pills of all sorts of colors and shapes. “You did this on purpose. At your age, you should know better”

“Oh, no. I just got mixed up. Which one is my happy pill?”

“It doesn’t work like that. You have to take all of these in the right combination.”

“Oh, no, no, dear. The one in this bottle is good. The ones in these bottles are not.”

With a deep sigh, Carrie slammed into the chair and methodically sorted the pills. She was quicker at sorting now that she had the process memorized. Carrie stopped to do a recount. And another. “Why are these numbers off?”

“It’s fine, dear. You have done enough. I have my happy pills now.”

Carrie shoved the chair back -- crunch. A quick look at the floor told her where all the “bad” pills had migrated to. “I should never underestimate you, Mrs. Dabney.”



[word count: 300]



This one won the Daily Flash Fiction for September 2, 2016. I hope all of you have a delightful person like Mrs. Dabney in your life.