(Inspired by Suzy)
Synchronicity I think it’s called. When a bunch of unrelated coincidences are timed in such a way as to make one large event significant. The first small coincidence for me happened in lit class. We were studying the story of Jekyll and Hyde and how the chemicals consumed by the quiet, decent man changed him into a monster. This rang bells with a piece of work I was doing for my theology paper about redemption. My particular angle was showing that it is easier to make a good man do bad things than it is for a sinner to repent his ways. I believed that to be true. The next link in the chain happened when I was sitting in a café later that same week. I overheard a conversation between two women about their sex lives. One of them remarked that since her husband had been taking viagra pills he was like a sex-starved, sadistic beast who couldn’t be sated. She told her friend that prior to the medication he had been disinterested in the physical side of their relationship. But these days, saying no to him wasn’t an option. It just seemed that everywhere I went there were tales that seemed to support my argument. I thought it would be a nice trick if I could somehow prove the theory in some small, personal way.
Fate played its next card the following day on the campus. I was walking between lessons when I overheard a guy telling his buddy how those little blue love-pills had kept him going all night long with his girlfriend, and that three of the little devils were well worth the ten dollars that he had paid to the local dealer. Then, almost immediately, I received a text message from Mom telling me that Grandfather had just called her to say how much he was looking forward to seeing me next week. I go up to his place in the back-of-beyond about three times a year, for a week at a stretch, in order to get some peace and quiet during revision times. It was at that very moment that the idea came to me like a thunderbolt out of the blue. As crazy as it sounds now, at the time I thought it would be perfect. If I could secretly administer some viagra pills to Grandfather and, as a result, cause him to make a simple, yet obvious, pass at me, that would surely prove my argument. Grandfather is the most gentle man on earth who, I am certain, has never had a bad thought in his head. But with the two of us alone in his quiet retreat, I might just be able to get him to do something that he would never normally dream of doing in a million years.
The following day I drew 50 dollars out of my checking account and went to see the local dope dealer. He’s pretty well known on campus, but he’s tolerated mainly because most of the teaching staff also use his products. When I gave him the money and asked for fifteen viagra pills, he laughed loudly.
‘Hey, baby. What d’you need those for? You kin git any many man in the world hot enough just by smilin’ with those pretty lips, flashin’ those big baby blues or tossing that blonde hair at him.’
I thanked him for the compliment and blushed a little. I told him that they were for a party I was going to across country that might get pretty wild. As he handed the blue pills to me in a brown bag, he remarked how that sounded like something he’d like to go to himself. I thanked him for his interest but told him it was a closed affair between a bunch of old friends. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as we parted. As I drove home, it was with a mixture of excitement and fear. I couldn’t believe that my plan was actually being put into action.
I was still full of nervous energy when I set off for Grandfather’s early on Saturday morning. Since Grandmother had passed away two years’ ago, I was pretty much the only regular family contact he had. He didn’t like coming to the city, and others felt his place was too quiet; his nearest neighbour is two miles away. It was a long journey in my little black VW Golf. Even with my foot down on the pedal, it still took me until lunchtime to reach his place. He lived in a big, old, ramshackled house with about ten acres of land and its own stream. It was the perfect place to relax and revise for the forthcoming school examinations. Well, at least it would have been had I not been planning my little social experiment.
As I pulled the car up to his front door, Grandfather came running out of the house with a big smile on his face. His energy belied his age, he was almost seventy, and he was as big and strong as I had always remembered him. He put his long arms around me and gave me a bear hug.
‘Suzy, Suzy, I can’t tell you how good it is to see you again. How’s my favourite Granddaughter?’
I gave him a big kiss on his cheek and told him I was feeling great now that I was here.
Grandfather took my case from the car and ushered me into the big comfortable living room. I left my things in the hall and offered to make some lunch for us both. He said he’d take care of that as I’d had such a long drive. But I wanted to get him started on the viagra immediately and insisted that he let me prepare things. I made a light salad and a pot of coffee. When I was sure that Grandfather was otherwise engaged, I crushed one of the blue pills and placed it in the bottom of his cup along with a spoonful of sugar. As we ate and talked about family news, I watched every time he took a sip of his drink, certain that at any moment he would say it tasted funny. But when he drained the cup without any comment, my elation was hard to keep under control. This was actually working. From now on, for the duration of my five-day stay, Grandfather was going to be getting a crushed tablet for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
After we had eaten, I went upstairs and unpacked my things in the guest bedroom. It was fantastic to look out of the window onto such a wide expanse of quiet, open countryside. I had a little nap and went back down to join Grandfather late in the afternoon, just as it was beginning to get dark. Within half an hour, he had closed all the curtains and locked us both up safely for the night. We had a simple dinner together, and when I made coffee I put another crushed love-pill into Grandfather’s cup.