Love Is a Paracetamol

There's this funny story I heard once. It was about this girl who was mistreated by her father, by her mother, and by her sisters. Nobody really cared about her, and she was all alone, or almost... One day she got real sick and still, nobody cared, nobody except for her grandmother, who took her in and took care of her and gave her one paracetamol. And as the girl laid in bed and saw her grandma pop the little pill out of its plastic tablet, all singular and pearly white and so casual-like, she simply had to bite her lip to stop herself from crying. Love is a paracetamol-shaped thing, she thought, and that paracetamol is love...

Because love is simple and love is real and love is true. Love is as real as a wool blanket, love is a cup of tea, love is a candy bar from a candy bar tree, love is a big slice of carrot cake, or better still, an even bigger slice of caramel cheesecake, love is a box of store-bought cookies, love is that coin you give a beggar, love is the smile that beggar gives you, love is an old jacket, love is a handshake, love is heartburn and it's heartache, love is a sudden electrifying hug, love is that thunderous pat on the back after the hug, love is a badly seasoned meal, love is eating every bite of that meal, love is saying you're strong though not made of steel, love is being welcomed back home when you're tired, love is when your return is so kindly desired, love is fetching a glass and filling your plate, love is when your grandma worries if you lost any weight, love is a sweet invitation you're forced to accept, love is when you know they'd never forget, love is picking you up and giving you a ride back home, love is to love a friend you just met, love is looking back and remembering that day, love is singing a song on the way, love is not knowing the lyrics but still singing along, love is making those made-up lyrics your song, love is a lot of big words when trying to cheer you up, love is being quiet with you when those big words fail, love is wholly free and shipping wholesale, love is a good joke that makes you laugh, love is a bad joke that makes you laugh even harder, love is an after-school snack, love is a rake in a haystack, love is when you sell your soul and they buy it back, love is a paracetamol which is better than a prozac, love is taking your temperature with a kiss on the forehead, love is when they suffer you wanna suffer instead, love is crying for all those tears that were shed, and love is so rare and it's so damn widespread...

And love is a glass of water on the bedside table, and love is a paracetamol your grandma gives you. So take it, baby bird, said the grandma, sleep now, rest easy because I promise tomorrow you'll feel all better... And the girl did just so, and the knot in her throat dissolved into tears as the pretty pill went downriver of the tastiest tap water, and for once in her life her pillowcase was awash with a whole lot of love and lovely good dreams.

This has been text number 376 from Nostos. The book is a collection of four hundred texts, most of which are written in portuguese, while only twenty-one of which are written in english. As such they will be periodically published here, in full.

You can find out more about the book here.

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