Summer Car Trip 2007 - 25

Something woke me up from my nap. At first I couldn't figure it out. Then it dawned on me. It was the sound of vigorous vomiting coming from the bathroom, which was just off the bedroom. B was already awake and had a concerned look on his face. He looked over at me and said, "L is sick." Well, duh. I had already figured that one out. There was nothing we could or should do at that moment except wait for L to open the door and come out. Which eventually he did.



Poor L. The only thing he could figure out was that he probably had a bad case of food poisoning. He was having symptoms from both ends. While we were on our walk about town earlier, he had purchased a piece of pizza from one of the vendors lining the square. It looked fine. He thought the problem was probably from the hot sauce he added to it. I bit my tongue and did not chastise him. He knows better than to use any of the sauces offered at such places. Especially if they look like they have been out all day, subject to who only knows what.



In between L occupying the bathroom, B and I were able to get cleaned up to go out. It was a little after 7 PM by then. L was not feeling any better and it was decided that he should stay in. I doubt that he could have eaten anything anyway. After some discussion, we decided that B and I should search out a pharmacy, describe L's symptoms to the pharmacist and put ourselves at his mercy. So off we went.



Luckily, directly across the square from our hotel was a little pharmacy. When we walked in, every face in the place turned to stare at us. Even though it was not an unfriendly place and there were some smiles on faces, it still was an uncomfortable feeling being stared at like that. We finally got our turn to talk to the rickety old pharmacist on duty.



We described L's symptoms as best we could and he asked a ton of questions. All the while nodding his head in sympathy and understanding. He named off a whole litany of medications that we needed and it was our turn to nod our heads in agreement. Once we were all in agreement as to what was needed, he announced that he would type up the prescriptions right away. With that he disappeared in the back and brought out one of the oldest manual typewriters I have ever seen.



He placed the typewriter carefully on the counter, rummaged around until he found some prescription papers and carbon paper so that he could type three copies at once. Then he started to type out the prescriptions and directions. One. Finger. At. A. Time. We had time to read every flyer regarding every health issue known to Man while we waited.



When finished he handed us the prescription and directed us to the back window, which was the cashier. We walked back to that window, prescriptions and money in hand and waited. Evidently this was a one man operation because, much to our by now unamazement, the pharmacist shuffled his way back to the cashier booth and took our money, provided the obligatory multiple PAID stamps to the documents and directed us back to the counter.



Back at the counter we again waited for him to come forth and collect his copy of our prescriptions. Which we dutifully gave to him. He then found the various medications that we needed from the shelves, handed them to us and gave us a detailed explanation of how, when and how often to take them. Which was also typed on each prescription. We said our polite thank yous several times to him and to the crowd that had now gathered waiting their turns as patient as could be.



We made our way back across the square, collected our key and made our way back up to our room to deliver the medications and directions to L. Guess what he said when we walked in?



"What took you so long?" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!