Growing up, we always had to eat vitamins to keep us young Laird children healthy. Vitamin C was always my favorite. Sometimes I would chew them, and sometimes I would just let them dissolve slowly on my tongue. I liked the way Vitamin C had that slightly tart, slightly zingy sensation.
It must have been when I was just learning to read. Ashley and I went to Mom who was working on Laird Enterprises work and asked her if we could have a Vitamin C. Perhaps we had an unhealthy like of Vitamin C if we were asking mom if we could eat them. We didn’t feel that way towards other vitamins, but Vitamin C was out favorite.
Mom of course said we could. She reminded us where the vitamins were kept and told me to read the label to make sure it was Vitamin C. Ashley was probably too young at this point to read. We scurried up to the kitchen and got a stool so we could get up to the cupboard with the vitamins in it. We eagerly climbed onto the counter and I shuffled through the vitamins looking for Vitamin C. Mom had trusted me to READ the label, so I had to use my letters. I knew what C looked like, but I was still a bit fuzzy on the others, especially those last few v,w,x,y,z those guys were hard to remember.
Finally, I found the one with the C on it. I sat down next to Ashley on the counter and unscrewed the lid. We each took one, as Mom had told us to do, and popped them in our mouths. I decided I would chew my Vitamin C today. I anticipated that zingy tart, taste running throughout my mouth. It never came. Instead I got an incredibly bitter taste all throughout my mouth. I looked over at Ashley who was drooling and trying to spit out her Vitamin out on the counter. What was wrong with my Vitamin C, it was making me want to throw up. We both rushed to the sink and spit out our vitamins and rinsed our mouths with water vigorously.
“The Vitamin C doesn’t taste right”, I said to mom as I showed her the bottle I had grabbed.
“Oh no. That doesn’t say Vitamin C Andrew”, Mom said. “It ends with a C, but see it begins with a Z. It’s a Zinc. I bet that didn’t taste too good.”
Mom took us back upstairs and got us the real Vitamin C and we got the bitter taste out of our mouths as quick as we could.
I took to heart what mom said. Specific letters are only as good as the letters that come before them!
