Soothing Angels

I’ve been fighting a sore throat and on-again, off-again laryngitis for weeks now. It’s apparently viral, so antibiotics won’t help. That job is left to hot tea with honey during daytime and throat lozenges that I pop in my mouth when the discomfort of swallowing wakes me up in the middle of the night.

I keep a bag of my favorite sugar-free fruity ones on the bedside table so they’re at my fingertips in the dark. Last night I went through almost an entire bag, so I dropped the few that were left into my purse. I was glad I had them on the train ride in. My throat was killing me!

I handed one to the friend sitting next to me and took the wrapper off a lozenge for myself. “Look at that,” my friend said. “There are little sayings on the wrapper.”

I smoothed mine out. “Be resilient.” “Fire up those engines!” “Put a little strut in it.” “Go for it.” “Get through it.”

My friend and I traded wrappers. “Impress yourself today.” “Tough is your middle name.” “High-five yourself.” “Flex your can-do muscle.”

The lozenge makers called this “A pep talk in every drop.” Which is pretty good. But to me they seemed more like soothing messages from soothing angels. Of course you know why.