The Last Thing

 

“HOW WILL IT work?” Odette asked her dad.

“How will what work?” Dad asked. But then he looked up, and Odette could tell that he knew what she meant. “Oh, honey,” he said. “Do you really need to hear the details?”

Odette nodded.

Dad sighed. “Mom will open the capsules of medicine and pour out the powder into a glass of water. That’s all. Once it dissolves, Grandma Sissy just has to drink it down.”

“What does it taste like?”

“It’s supposed to be pretty bitter,” Dad said.

“And that will be the last thing she tastes? Ever? Something bitter?”

“I don’t think the taste will bother her much, honey.”

It wasn’t fair. That someone as sweet as Grandma Sissy should die with a bitter taste in her mouth.