Page 62 - 04_May-2025

Fiction
SIDE EFFECT
by TYLER ENFIELD
MY PHARMACIST RECENTLY TOLD ME
even a placebo has side effects. A placebo.
Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation. A
grimacing index of potty-mouth Latin, and all
of it caused by a pill made from table sugar and
enteric-coated deception.
My pharmacist snapped her gum while
punching in my total at the register and said,
“Yeah, amazing huh? What the mind can do? It’s
like you can take a complete nothing and make
it harmful. Kind of makes you wonder.”
I had to agree. But unlike her, my fascination
lacked that placid, externalizing element so
critical to mental health. What I felt was more
like panic. “Let me get this straight,” I said. “Are
you telling me even nothing causes harm?”
“Yeah. I mean no. Wait, what?”
“I’m just stating what you said. You said, nothing
can be harmful. I just want to know if that means
no thing can harm me, or everything can.” Because
this was important, you see, in the world such as
mine, where every fact was potential fuel for hysteria.
62 EDify. MAY.25
illustration NICK ROSS