The cart rolled into town early on Saturday morning, awakening me from my sleep. My slumber had been plagued by the usual nightmares, and so I wasn’t particularly bothered that I had been woken up.
The clacking sound of the wooden wheel on the bitumen, and the noise the horse made as it trotted along, was loud enough to hear from even a few streets over. I think this unusual noise drifted through the surrounding houses, sparking their occupants’ curiosity, because people began to swarm the street to see what was happening.
After looking out my window and seeing the small crowd of people forming around the strange wooden horse-drawn cart, I decided to go out and join them.
I got up, got dressed and wandered out onto the street and stood near the back of the crowd. Everyone was facing towards the cart, and I could now see it in more detail.
The entire wagon was made from a light brown wood, which was polished to a smooth finish. The cart was square, apart from a curved sloping roof, which ran along its entire length. Four large, wooden wheels held the cart up, and a pure white horse was attached to the front of it.
Along one side, thick red letters were hand painted in a fancy font. It read ‘Dr. Wishley’s Tonics’. The crowd waited in silent anticipation for someone to emerge from the wagon, and everyone was curious as to what they were selling.
Suddenly, a tall man stepped out of the cart, with both stretched outwards and a large smile on his face. He was dressed head to toe in a vaudevillian suit and a flat, straw hat. A long handlebar moustache sprouted from just above his lip. He looked out over the crowd and started to speak.
“Ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls. Do you have a problem that you just can’t seem to find a solution to? Do you need a cure for a particular ailment? Then look no further than Dr. Wishley’s Tonics. It’s problem solving. Worry resolving. This liquid solution is the only solution.”
The crowd watched on in fascination, as this strange man began his sales pitch. He continued.
“Do you feel something painful in your eye? Do onions make you cry? Do the Mares of the night give you quite a fright? Can’t stop giving your nails a bite? or maybe your pants feel too tight? Are your hands always cold? Or you’re getting grey and old? I’ve put magic in water and dissolved it. Any issue you have, I can solve it. Now just drink my tonic, to resolve it”.
He finished speaking with a slight bow, and the crowd remained silent. Then, one small voice called out from the front row.
“I wish I was older. I want to be big like my brother. Do you have a tonic for that?”
Dr. Wishley looked down at the little boy who had just spoken up. He nodded and smiled, reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small vial of light blue liquid.
“If you drink this, you will be big like your brother in no time.”, he said to the boy before handing him the small glass flask.
The boy snatched it out of Dr. Wishley’s hand, and before a parent or anyone else could stop him, he opened the vial and drank the liquid within. Nothing happened, at first and I saw a few people from the crowd disperse. Then, without warning, the small boy shot upwards in height. Only a few centimetres but enough for it to be noticeable. The crowd went wild.
Everyone in the crowd let out a scream as the child suddenly grew, and then everyone started to yell their own problems at Dr. Wishley. For each complication that was called out, Dr. Wishley would reach into his cart and produce a vial of different coloured liquid and hand it to them. No matter how many people wanted one of his tonics, he was able to provide one.
Each person in the crowd went up to Dr. Wishley, received a tonic, drank it and left. The crowd got smaller and soon I was standing right in front of the well dressed doctor.
“I need a cure for my nightmares”, I told him.
He reached into his cart again and pulled out a small vial filled with a dark black liquid.
“Drink this”, he said with a smile, “And your nightmares won’t seem so bad”.
I took the glass viall off of him and drank its contents in one giant gulp. The tonic felt cold and tasted of ash, and when I swallowed, it almost felt as if the liquid didn’t go down my throat, but upwards into my head. It was a strange sensation, which paired with the bad taste, didn’t make for a pleasant experience. But, if it cured my chronic nightmares, then it was worth it.
I looked up to thank him for the cure, but Dr. Wishley had already moved on to giving someone else one of his tonics. The crowd was already beginning to dwindle, as most people had already received their miracle tonic.
I waited until the gathering had completely dissipated, and once it had, I saw Dr. Wishley walk over to his horse and pat it on the snout. He then looked out across the town for a final time, then hopped back into the cart and the horse trotted away.
Dr Wishleys cart slowly disappeared as it got further and further away from me. Soon, it was nothing more than a speck on the horizon.
I then made my way over to the main street in town. The large shopping district was still buzzing with excitement. Talk of Dr. Wishley and magic tonics were still on everyone’s lips.
I walked past a small group of teenagers and they were all excitedly talking about the tonic they had been given to drink, and how they were glad that whatever problem they had would now be cured.
I carried on walking down the high street, but I soon passed a young man. He looked completely normal, apart from one thing. He had a long, thin nail sticking out of his eye. I recoiled in shock and disgust.
“Are you okay”, I asked him and he replied in the form of a confused expression.
“Your eye”, I continued, “There is a giant nail sticking out of it”.
“Huh?”, he responded, “I don’t feel a nail in my eye. I think I would know if I had a nail in my eye”.
I was just about to question him further when I saw the tallest person I had ever seen run out of a side street. He was screaming.
“Help me! Help!”, he screamed out in a fairly high pitched voice.
He looked around frantically for anyone to help, and his eyes locked with mine. He came running over to me, and his eyes looked like he was desperate.
As he got closer, I realised just how tall he really was. He easily stood two feet taller than me, and I could’ve sworn that I saw him grow even taller as he approached.
As he got closer, I realised I had seen him before. This was the little boy from the front row. The one that wanted to be taller than his brother. I guess he had gotten his wish.
I was just about to reach out and grab his oversized hand to comfort him when I noticed something else strange happening behind him.
Another man was holding a small onion in his hand. He was staring at it and was laughing uncontrollably. He then tore the onion open with both hands and continued to laugh hysterically. Not a single tear spilled from his eye.
Something very strange was occurring, and it was happening to multiple people in town. And it all stemmed from Dr. Wishley and his tonics.
I walked past the tall boy and I pushed past the man holding an onion. The next person I saw was an older lady. She was looking down at her hands. At her fingernails. She raised her hand up towards her mouth, ready to give her nails a trim with her teeth.
Just as she was about to bite down on a fingernail, something fell out of her mouth. A tooth. It dropped straight out of her gum and down onto the floor. This was quickly followed by another tooth. And then another. Soon, all her teeth had removed themselves from hee gum and had fallen out. She persisted in trying to bite her fingernails, but wasn’t able to. Only having gums makes it awfully difficult.
The town was cursed, I decided. Anyone who drank a tonic got their wish, but at a terrible cost. They only got their wish in some warped and twisted way. Now, it was only a matter of time before my nightmares were ‘cured’.
I decided that I needed to go back home. I would rather discover what was going to happen to me in the comfort of my own home, rather than out on the street.
On the way back to my house I passed more poor individuals who had drunk a tonic.
An impossibly skinny man ran past me, his pants down at his ankles. A young lady screaming as both her hands were on fire, burning her flesh underneath.
The strangest thing I saw though was an older lady, who looked at least ten years younger by the time I had walked past her. I looked back and saw that time was in reverse for her. Her wrinkles grew lighter, herhaor changed from a grey colour to a dark black. She was getting younger, but who knew when it would stop.
I made it back to my house and stepped inside. I was a shaking wreck by the time I made it to my bedroom. I layed down on my bed, terrified by what I had just witnessed. The entire town were victims of Dr. Wishley.
I got up again, and looked out the window. The streets were filled with people, each only getting affected by the tonic in a different way.
One man was sliding his face across the bitumen on the road, leaving behind a small trail of blood and flesh. One woman had her mouth stretched wide open, so much so that her jaw was shattered. A long, slithering snake was sliding its way out her mouth. A young boy had his wrist tied to a very balloon and I saw him starting to lift off the ground and upwards into the air.
I quickly retreated back to my bed, even more scared now by what I had just seen. All I wanted to do was to go to sleep and escape the nightmare that was occuring to everyone. I closed my eyes and forced myself to sleep. It took a while before sleep took hold, as visions of what I had just seen still plagued my mind. After a while though, I did manage to get a little bit of sleep.
Soon, the usual nightmares started. Dreams of getting chased and being unable to run filled my mind. A dream about spiders made my skin crawl. Another one featuring a faceless killer. All of my usual nightmares, except they felt different.
I was happy to be having them. It was a relief from the horror that my real life had become. For the first time, my nightmares were actually enjoyable. And, when I awoke, I realised that the tonic had worked. My chronic nightmares had now been cured.