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Sandra Wagner-Wright
a book bubble about
Two Coins: A Biographical Novel (Women of Determination and Courage)
Literature & Fiction
Author Insight
Cholera Pills
Mary doesn't know it, but this first visit to William Hastie's sickroom sets in motion everything that follows. The nurse, the cane lounge, even the flickering of the kerosene lamp. All set the stage for what is to come. So many times the mundane later changes the course of our lives. Mary came to take up her duty as night nurse. The patient is restless as Nurse Brigg's measures out cholera pills. The concoction of opium, black pepper, the herb asafetida, calomel, and quinine originated in India. It didn't cure cholera but the opium probably made the patient sleep.
Book Excerpt
Two Coins: A Biographical Novel (Women of Determination and Courage)
When I open the door to the sickroom, I see Nurse Briggs standing at the dresser, measuring something.
“Have you eaten?” I ask.
“Not yet. I’m preparing the patient’s medicine,” Nurse Briggs says.
“Where shall I put my things?”
Nurse Briggs shrugs, so I hang my hat and shawl on a hook near the door. The bed stands in the room’s center, each leg in a saucer of water to keep white ants from creeping up. The cane lounge near the end of the bed also has saucer feet. There’s a small table by the lounge with a kerosene lamp. A soft light flickers off the walls.
I watch Nurse Briggs. “What are you giving him?”
“Cholera pills,” Nurse Briggs says.
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