Chapter 5 Ike Schoenstein's Love Potion

Blue Light Pharmacy is located downtown, on the wasp waist between Bowery and First Avenue.Blu-ray doesn't think a pharmacy is the place to sell gadgets like perfume and ice cream.If you come to buy painkillers, he won't give you candy bonbons. Blu-ray Pharmacy dislikes the hassle-free approach of modern pharmacies.It saturates the opium, for example, to leach out laudanum and camphor laudanum.To this day, the pills it sells are hand-crafted behind tall recipe counters in the shop.First rub it on the tile table, then cut it with a knife, twist it with your thumb and forefinger, sprinkle it with magnesium oxide powder, and finally pack it in a small round paper box and deliver it to the customer.On the street corner next to the pharmacy, groups of shaggy children happily play games, where cough syrup and cough pills are just waiting for them to buy.

Ike Schoenstein is the night clerk at Blu-Ray Pharmacy and the customer's friend.Because this area is located in eastern New York, the business of pharmacies is not very prosperous.Of course, the pharmacists in this area not only dispense medicines to customers, but also act as consultants, listen to people's confessions, and give guidance. into the gutter.So Ike, with his spectacled, trumpet-nosed, slender figure a little hunched over his knowledge, was well-known around Blu-ray Pharmacy, and people readily took his advice. Ike boarded and partnered at Mrs. Reed's apartment two blocks away.Mrs. Reed had a daughter named Rosie.Needless to say--you'll guess--Ike adores Rosie.Rosie haunted him.In his mind, she was the essence extracted from all pure chemical substances, and there was nothing in the pharmacopoeia to match it.But Ike is shy by nature, and his hope has not yet dissolved in the solvent of hesitation and fear.Behind the three-foot counter he was superior, with deep expertise; outside the counter, he was an indecisive, slow-witted, slow-moving man, dressed in ill-fitting clothes, stained with chemicals, emitting aloe vera oil and amo The smell of Nia.

The fly in Ike's salve (nice metaphor, triple welcome!) is Chuck McGowan. Mr McGowan was also trying to win Rosie's bright smile.However, unlike Ike, he is just an "outfielder" on the baseball field, and he can always catch the ball when a bat is hit.He was a friend and a customer of Ike's again, and now and then he came to the Blue Light Pharmacy to dab bruises with tincture of iodine or to put bandages on wounds--after a jovial evening on the Bowery. Mr. McGowan floated in quietly and effortlessly one afternoon, came in and sat on a stool with an air that was both pleasant and difficult, easy and firm.

"Ike," he said, and his friend sat across from him with a mortar and ground the gum-like benzophenone into powder, "listen to you. I want you to get me some medicine, if If you have the ability." He scanned McGowan's face to see if there were any traces of conflicts with others, but he found nothing. "Take off your coat," he commanded, "I reckon you've got a cut in the ribs. How many times have I told you that those Spanish bloods will take care of you." Mr McGowan smiled.He said, "It's not them, it's not some Spanish guy. But you got the diagnosis right. It's in the coat, near the ribs. Hey, Ike--Rosie and I are going to elope and get married tonight."

Ike hooked the mouth of the mortar with his left index finger to stabilize it, and pounded it violently with the mallet, but he didn't know what he was doing.At this moment Mr. McGowan's smile disappeared, and he became sullen and embarrassed, and he went on: "That is, if she has not changed her mind by then. We have been planning to escape for two weeks. One day she said she would, and the same night she said she would not. We agreed to go tonight, this time Luo Xi has not changed her mind for two full days. But now there are still five hours before the scheduled time, and I am afraid that she will change her mind again when she comes to the starting line."

"You said you wanted some medicine," Ike reminded him. McGowan looked a little embarrassed - the opposite of his usual demeanor.He picked up a calendar card that advertised a certain medicine, rolled it up, and carefully put it on his finger. "I can't do anything tonight to let this double hurdle make us go wrong from the start," he said. "I've rented a flat in Harlem and I've got it all set up, with a pot of chrysanthemums on the table and a kettle to boil water in. I've also made an appointment with a priest to meet us at his house at nine o'clock. The plan It must happen—if Rosie doesn't change her mind!" McGowan paused, but his doubts persisted.

"I don't understand what you mean yet," said Ike curtly. "How do you talk about medicine? What can I do?" "Old man Riddle doesn't like me at all," went on the restless suitor, trying to get his train of thought straight. "He wouldn't let Rosie go out with me for a week. If it wasn't for fear of losing a lodger, he'd have kicked me out. I'd make twenty dollars a week, and she'd never regret being with Chuck. Mr McGowan elopes." "I beg your pardon, Chuck," Ike said, "I'm filling a patch, and they're coming to pick it up."

"Hey," said McGowan, looking up suddenly, "hey, Ike, is there a drug—some powder, if you let the girl take it, she'll like you more?" Ike understood what he meant, and flattened his upper lip to express his contempt for him.But McGowan, without waiting for an answer, went on: "Tim Lacey told me he once got a little from a doctor out of the business district and mixed it up with soda for his girlfriend. She made a big deal out of him for that one dose, and Treat other people as worthless. Within two weeks they were married." How strong and how simple Chuck McGowan is!Anyone with a better sense of the word than Ike could have seen that his massive form was hanging on the strings.Like a good general, before you are about to invade the enemy's territory, you must defend every stronghold to prevent possible failure.

Chuck said hopefully, "I figured if I had a packet of powder and gave it to her when I saw her at dinner tonight, it would cheer her up so she wouldn't break her contract and run away with me. I don't think I need to hire a A team of mules pulled her away. But women are better coaches than base runners. If the drug lasts two hours, it's done." "When's your foolish escape?" Ike asked. "Nine o'clock," said Mr. McGowan. "Supper is at seven. At eight Rosie feigned a headache and went to bed. At nine o'clock old Parvinzano sent me across There was a board door in the fence. I got under Rosie's window and helped her down through the fire door. We had to get out early because of the pastor's appointment. When the flag comes down as long as Rosie, the bowler, doesn't fake a pitch, It couldn't be easier. Can you get me a copy of that, Ike?"

Ike Schoenstein wipes his nose slowly. "Chuck," said Ike, "a druggist has to be very careful with a drug of this nature. Of all my acquaintances, you are the only one I have the confidence to hand over this drug to. I will do it for you." Make it up, and you'll see what it's going to do to Rosie." Ike went behind the dispensing table.He pulverized two dissolvable tablets, each containing a quarter of a grain of morphine.He added a little more toffee for volume and wrapped it in a white paper.A grown-up person who takes this powder is guaranteed to sleep soundly for hours, but there is no danger to health.It handed the pack to Chuck McGowan, told him it would be best mixed in a drink, and was heartily thanked by the backyard Lochinvar.

The ingenuity of Ike's action will not be seen clearly until his next move.He sent for Mr. Riddle with a letter, telling the truth of Mr. McGowan's plan to elope with Rosie.Mr. Riddle was a strong man, with a reddish brown face and quick movements. "Thank you very much," he said curtly to Ike, "the lazy-boned Irish tramp! My room is just above Rosie's. I'll just go upstairs after supper, load my shotgun and wait. If he Come to my backyard, and he'll be leaving in an ambulance instead of a wedding carriage." Leaving Rosie asleep for hours in the arms of Sleepy God, while the bloodthirsty father was alerted and waiting with arms ready, Ike felt that his opponent was indeed not far from defeat. He was on duty all night in the Blu-ray Pharmacy, waiting for news of the tragedy.But did not hear any news. At eight o'clock in the morning, the day shift clerk came to work, and Ike hurried back to Mrs. Riddle's house to find out the result.Ah, look!He had just stepped out of the store when he saw Chuck McGowan jump out of an approaching street car and hold his hand tightly.McGowan was smiling triumphantly, flushed with pleasure. "It's done," Chuck said, grinning like he'd landed in Promised Land. "Rosie was at the fire door within a second, so we got married at the Vicar's at nine thirty-five. She's in the small suite, and this morning she was at the fryer in her blue dressing gown. Eggs. Lord! How happy I am, Ike, you'll come to my place sometime and dine with us. I got a job a little way over the bridge, and I'm going there now." "Then...that...the powder?" Ike stuttered. "Oh, that drug you gave me!" Chuck said, laughing more and more. "Well, here's the thing: I was sitting at the Riddle's dinner table last night, looking at Rosie, and thinking, 'Chuck, if you're going to get this girl, you've got to be nice to her—not like A well-bred girl like her plays tricks.' So I left the medicine pack you gave me in my pocket. Then my eyes fell on another man present, and I said to myself that he was not due to his future son-in-law. feeling, so I took a chance and poured the powder into Riddle's coffee mug—do you understand?"

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