Joy took the silver-capped bottle and put it in her purse.
At home, in the living room of her bungalow, with the afternoon sun streaming in, she fussed with the fern on the pedestal.
Something was wrong with the plant. Its green leaves were turning a yellowish brown. Was she watering it too much, or not enough? Was it getting all the sun it needed, or maybe too much? She wasn’t sure what to do.
Giving up, Joy sauntered into the bathroom. Time for her pill. Drawing some water from the sink, standing at the mirror, she uncapped the silver lid of the new bottle Dr. Green had given her and shook one of the clear capsules into the palm of her hand.
She stared at the glimmering capsule.
What if it contained something other than her rejuvenating medicine? What if it contained the stuff that had given Jack his heart attack?
She shook her head. No, no, she’d shown them she could be trusted.
But could they be trusted?
The pill was an inch from her mouth, and she saw her reflection in the mirror—saw her young face, staring into the old eyes—and she wondered whether or not to take it. Wondered whether life was in the capsule or something else.
With a little shrug, she popped the pill in her mouth and took a swallow of water.
One way or the other, her future was inside that clear-coated capsule.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Photo credit: Bamford Studio
MAX ALLAN COLLINS is the author of the Shamus-winning Nathan Heller historicals (Target Lancer) and the graphic novel Road to Perdition, basis for the Academy Award-winning film. His innovative ’70s series, Quarry, has been revived by Hard Case Crime (Quarry’s Ex) and he has completed six posthumous Mickey Spillane novels (Lady, Go Die!). Collins wrote and directed the Lifetime movie Mommy and the documentary Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane on Criterion’s edition of Kiss Me Deadly.
Photo credit: Bamford Studio
BARBARA COLLINS is the co-author (with her husband Max Allan Collins) of the award-winning Trash ‘n’ Treasures comic cozy mystery series, beginning with Antiques Roadkill and continuing through the current Antiques Disposal. The fourth entry, Antiques Flee Market, won the Romantic Times award for Best Humorous Mystery of 2008. Barbara and Max have also written two stand-alone thrillers (Bombshell and Regeneration), now back in print. Barbara has published several dozen short stories to much acclaim.
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