Picking up an expensive bottle of boutique lotion, she read the label: Calming lavender. The scent confused her more than it comforted.
She smelled the lotion and heard the moan of the old woman in a rest home bed. "Help me. Please help me. My god, someone help me." Calming lavender and the stench of adult diapers, breakfast milk sitting until dinner, the alcohol of hand sanitizer. Everyone in their own world and no privacy. "There's a scorpion on the wall." The red button to call the nurse. "You have to swallow the hole pill, Ma'am. Don't chew it." Her hands will get cold. That's when you know. Vanilla pudding, apple sauce. "How is her oxygen saturation today?" And the heavy lavender room spray, too thin to cover it all.
She put the lotion back on the glass shelf and left.
Trying to figure out how to comment...realizing that this may very well be coming from personal experience and not your imagination. I want to say "wow, good!" but that would sound inappropriate or insensitive considering the previous assumption. So I'll say "Wow, very well written. Great job communicating so much about a person and an atmosphere in such a short space. There's a whole story there. Thank you for putting this up and in such an honest way."
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