The Medicine Cabinet

Last month, I joined the WritersGathering that my aunt-in-law, Julie Gardner, facilitates each week. I have never participated in any sort of writing group at all, so I had no idea what to expect. It has been wonderful! I've not found such joy in writing in quite awhile and I am realizing how important it is to make time to do the things you love, just for fun.

Each week we have several different writing segments with various prompts. This past week, one of our prompts was "a medicine cabinet" and this is what I wrote. Keep in mind that it is, of course, fiction. In our group, any and all work is considered fiction unless otherwise specified.

The Medicine Cabinet

I never go into a bathroom with the intention to snoop. Oftentimes, I will visit someone’s home and never even use the restroom and I feel no sense of missed opportunity. But when I’m alone in a room filled with personal things with a locked door assuring that I won’t be caught, what reason is there to not look? I’ve learned a lot about people by what is in their medicine cabinet. My Uncle Joe has at least four manicure kits in his, after the discovery of which I always have a heightened awareness of his fingernails. They are always clean and tidy. My friend Maggie is an excessive junk food eater, but her medicine cabinet is stocked with rows of vitamins and supplements—I can’t figure this out and of course I can’t exactly talk to her about it.

So here I was, faced with another medicine cabinet in another home. It was Kevin’s home—a guy I have been interested in for a couple of months now. We have only been casual friends and this is the first time I’ve been invited over. I hesitate after drying off my hands before I pull open the door. Usually, I’m unconcerned with what I will find in these tiny closets, but today I’m suddenly aware that what I find could matter. I shove any feelings of hesitation away and pull open the door. And there, on those little shelves, I find something I’ve never found before: Nothing. Not even a toothbrush. Who has nothing in their medicine cabinet? What does this mean about him? My mind is full of so many questions by this emptiness; questions that I just can’t have answers to. As I leave the bathroom and rejoin my friends I’m surprised by how I can’t stop thinking about that empty medicine cabinet.  A silly thing, I know, but like I said, you can tell a lot about people by what’s in their medicine cabinet.