The Lost Apothecary

by Sarah Penner

To me, the allure of history lay in the minutiae of life long ago, the untold secrets of ordinary people.

And what I’d always considered sensible in James seemed, for the first time, something else: stifling and subtly manipulative.

“The hint is to let your subconscious find the anomaly. Our brains are meant to identify breaks in a pattern. We evolved that way, many millions of years ago. You are not searching for a thing so

This glass object—delicate and yet still intact, somewhat like myself—was proof that I could be brave, adventurous, and do hard things on my own.

“First, there was trust. Then, there was betrayal. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot be betrayed by someone you do not trust.”

Why did we go to such lengths to protect the fragile minds of children? We only robbed them of the truth—and the chance to grow numb to it before it arrived with a hard knock on the door.

How had I only just learned that happiness and fulfillment were entirely distinct things?

Everything placed unto the body removes something from it, calls it forth or represses it.

History doesn’t record the intricacies of women’s relationships with one another; they’re not to be uncovered.