Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent: an excerpt, an illustration

In less than two months, Dr. Radway's Sarsaparilla Resolvent, my 1871 Philadelphia novel (and prequel to Dangerous Neighbors), will be released by New City Community Press/Temple University Press.



This illustrated book (all thanks to William Sulit) is another song to the city I love, and more about it can be found here.



Nearly two years ago, I posted the first words of the book here.



Today I share the whole of a very short chapter two:




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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b>Chapter Two</b></div>
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“I keep losing things,” Ma says to
William. The room is swampy, the shadows smug. A bottle of Bitter Wine of Iron
sits lidless on the near table, a sorry spoon beside it. William wipes his
forehead with his sleeve and studies the single mourning dove that will not
leave the sill.</div>
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“Ma,” he reminds
her. “I’m still right here.”</div>
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He stands up from
the chair where he’s been sitting. Measures the Bitter Wine onto the spoon
while the dove watches with the flat disk of its eye. William worries briefly for
the dove’s mate, disappeared on the same day that he and Ma lost Francis. The
one dove staying and the other dove gone, and William’s mother dying by inches
of heartache. </div>
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“Take your
medicine, Ma,” he says. “Doctor made you promise.”</div>
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Nothing.</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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“Rejuvenation, Ma.
Comfort. Says it right here on the label.”</div>
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Ma turns. She
closes her eyes and leaves William standing with the thick drip of the stuff on
the spoon—E.F. Kunkel’s Bitter Wine, bought with Francis’s stealings for a hard
one dollar. Lifting the spoon to his own mouth, William sucks it clean, then
pours himself a foul second. The mourning dove cocks its head in a sideways
scold<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">.</span> </div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">“Mind your own,” William
tells it, but the bird just stares. Everything that’s broken is William Quinn’s
to fix.<br clear="ALL" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>



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