No Longer Human ( PDFDrive )

160
in-law lay abed in the house with palsy. She herself
had been unable to move one side of her body since
she was five, when she had infantile paralysis. Hobbling
here and there in the shop on her crutches she
selected various medicines from the different shelves,
and explained what they were.
This is a medicine to build your blood.
This is a serum for vitamin injections. Here is
the hypodermic needle.
These are calcium pills. This is diastase to keep
you from getting an upset stomach.
Her voice was full of tenderness as she explained
each of the half-dozen medicines. The affection of this
unhappy woman was however to prove too intense. At
the last she said, "This is a medicine to be used when
''you need a drink so badly you can't stand it." She
quickly wrapped the little box.
It was morphine.
She said that it was no more harmful than liquor,
and I believed her. For one thing, I was just at the
stage where I had come to feel the squalor of drunkenness,
and I was overjoyed to be able to escape after
such long bondage to the devil called alcohol. Without
a flicker of hesitation I injected the morphine into
my arm. My insecurity, fretfulness and timidity were
swept away completely; I turned into an expansively
optimistic and fluent talker. The injections made me