Sniff!

Angela sat in a chair in the middle of the room, she’d been crying, there were streaks well defined on each side as the dirt was washed away. She didn’t like crying, at least not in front of others but in this case her Husband, Donald was not just anyone, he had seen worse. Drips of mucus hung from the tip of her nose making the situation that much more perverse to her. She wanted take up her hands in the worst way, cover her face in them and run away. But she couldn’t. All she could do was sit there, in the middle of the room in one of the children’s chairs.
A familiar whistle announced that the kettle started to boil, soon there would be tea. God help her, please god, only tea. Not the neti pot, please god not the neti pot.
 ”You’ve been crying my dear, and you’re all stuffed up. I have something that is going to help you. Be right back, don’t go anywhere.” Charles turned and disappeared into the kitchen. She could hear him pulling down the little glass pot off the top shelf and she started to sob.
“I remember back in school, I had a terrible habit with my nose”, he said. A compulsion actually. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this story. I remember a time in math class, it was hot and no one was really paying attention to the teacher. My face was sweaty, in part from the heat of the on coming summer weather but also in part from a promise I was trying to keep to my Mother. You see my nose had plugged up and I was having trouble breathing. Much like your situation now I might say. Anyway, I must continue while we wait for the medicine to dilute.
Where was I? Oh yes, math class. Well, it came to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore. I pulled up my pencil and discretely brought it up to my nose, gently inserted it, a spiral twist down and out and I had removed a gelatinous mound of soft tissue. I had to hold it up to the light, a smile traced my lips in anticipation. Mmmm, oh my,.. it tasted wonderful you can’t imagine. ah..mm. Charles was standing in the doorway with neti pot in hand but he had his eyes closed, the gentle trail of memory lingering. Trouble is I wasn’t the only one there. There was one that watched me the whole time. Jealous I imagine, he wanted what I had. But instead he told all his friends and they hated me after that. I was always being picked on and life was never the same. NEVER!
He came back to the present and leaned forward, beginning a slow careful stroll towards her. They had been married a long time, a long time.
“This should fix you up right as rain my dear.”
She began to whimper as she struggled to loosen her bound hands. They were tied to her feet and would have been much more uncomfortable had she been in a larger sized chair. As it was, the child’s plastic chair was a concious thought of Charles. It would allow him to tilt her head back and use the neti pot.
The medicine Charles referred to was actually caustic soda, to which he had added to the bleach he had filled the kettle with. The water was just off boiling by a couple degrees.
Charles was not a small man, he grabbed his wife’s chin and with relative ease pushed her head back rotating her face up to the ceiling. “Just relax.  shhh… and as he poured she began to scream.