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[0:00] Brad Forenza: Welcome back to Around the Sun, an episodic audio drama created by me, Brad Forenza.

[0:07] Brad Forenza: This episode, Apothecary, stars Christine Nagy and BD Wong. After you've listened, join our conversation by using the hashtag around the sun podcast and tell us about the natural remedies in your life.

[0:48] Dr. Lee: Here's the red clover. Every night, boil the ginseng and clover together, then drink them as tea to control your fibroids.

[0:58] Mrs. Clare: So it's the same as always.

[1:02] Dr. Lee: The same as always, yes.

[1:06] Dr. Lee: Mrs. Clare, is something wrong?

[1:10] Mrs. Clare: No, no, nothing's wrong. I'm sorry.

[1:13] Dr. Lee: Mrs. Clare is lovely as always today, but not very present. How come?

[1:20] Mrs. Clare: It's just, look, you're very sweet, but my gynecologist says these herbs aren't helping any.

[1:28] Dr. Lee: I gave you a full disclosure at intake. The herbs will only control your fibroids, not erase them.

[1:36] Mrs. Clare: So what are the herbs actually doing then?

[1:39] Mrs. Clare: Delaying the inevitable? Postponing a hysterectomy?

[1:43] Dr. Lee: Surgery should be the last resort for someone as delicate as you.

[1:47] Mrs. Clare: Well, I don't feel very delicate, Dr. Lee, drinking all this slop you send me home with. Red clover, dandelion root, evening primrose.

[1:56] Mrs. Clare: Whoever heard of these things?

[1:58] Dr. Lee: Traditional eastern medicines have been utilized for thousands of years.

[2:02] Mrs. Clare: Well, all of this stuff, all of these herbs, they stink up my apartment. They make me sick. And for what?

[2:09] Dr. Lee: I can give you cardamom for nausea.

[2:12] Mrs. Clare: No, no, no. I don't want any cardamom. I don't want any more foliage from you either, Dr. Lee.

[2:18] Mrs. Clare: I need to terminate our relationship. It's not working out.

[2:23] Dr. Lee: But Mrs. Clare is only halfway through her treatment.

[2:26] Mrs. Clare: I'm spending too much money here, and I'm not seeing results.

[2:30] Dr. Lee: You've made a lot of progress in the last few months.

[2:34] Mrs. Clare: Just tell me what my balance is so I can cut you a check and take a train up to Columbia, Presbyterian, or whatever they're calling it now to schedule a hysterectomy.

[2:45] Dr. Lee: We could still try acupuncture or essential oils.

[2:49] Mrs. Clare: Look, Dr. Lee, I'm the last person who wants to give away her uterus, but I'm single now. I've been single for most of my life, and there's no point in keeping it if it's only causing me pain.

[3:00] Dr. Lee: But hysterectomies always come with risk. Blood clots, infections, not to mention hot flashes and infertility. It's surgical menopause, Mrs. Clare.

[3:10] Mrs. Clare: You don't think I know that? You don't think I've researched every possible alternative?

[3:15] Mrs. Clare: Why do you think I'm here? Because I like drinking putrefied tree bark?

[3:20] Dr. Lee: Dr. Lee knows that Mrs. Clare has physical pain, but Dr. Lee thinks the greater pain is deeper.

[3:27] Mrs. Clare: Where?

[3:29] Dr. Lee: Gentian root. It's good for depression.

[3:32] Mrs. Clare: No, I'm already on something.

[3:34] Dr. Lee: Poppy seed compound will make you forget about life for a while.

[3:40] Mrs. Clare: No, Dr. Lee, I mean a traditional eastern medicine to heal old wounds.

[3:47] Dr. Lee: Have you ever been hypnotized, Mrs. Clare?

[3:51] Mrs. Clare: I'm a New Yorker. I like control.

[3:54] Dr. Lee: Well, you should know that nothing bad is going to happen to you.

[3:58] Dr. Lee: I'll bring you to a happy place where you can be at peace with yourself.

[4:04] Mrs. Clare: At peace with myself?

[4:05] Dr. Lee: Now close your eyes and imagine yourself in this happy place.

[4:11] Mrs. Clare: Yes, I will.

[4:15] Dr. Lee: Good, good.

[4:18] Dr. Lee: Find your happy place, Mrs. Clare, and lie down in it.

[4:23] Dr. Lee: Feel, release, and as your thoughts grow deeper and clearer, know that it is impossible to fail.

[4:38] Mrs. Clare: Oh my goodness, Tom.

[4:41] Tom: Hey.

[4:42] Tom: It's you.

[4:44] Mrs. Clare: Surprised?

[4:45] Tom: Well, what are you doing here?

[4:47] Tom: What am I doing here? What are you doing here?

[4:51] Mrs. Clare: I'm supposed to be here, Tom. This is my happy place.

[4:55] Tom: But you, I haven't seen you in 12 years.

[5:00] Tom: You look great. You haven't aged a day.

[5:04] Mrs. Clare: I look however you want me to look, Clare. You're the architect in here.

[5:09] Mrs. Clare: I want you to look exactly as you do. You're perfect.

[5:15] Tom: I wasn't so perfect the last time you saw me, though, was I?

[5:19] Tom: Running out on you the way I did?

[5:22] Mrs. Clare: Tom, we were living in a pressure cooker.

[5:25] Mrs. Clare: Besides, you were married, and I was so new to the city, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.

[5:30] Tom: Even so, I'm sorry.

[5:37] Mrs. Clare: Tom, can we, can we change the subject, please?

[5:40] Mrs. Clare: Because I try not to talk about that.

[5:43] Tom: But that is why you came here, isn't it, Clare?

[5:46] Tom: You wanted an apology from me, am I right?

[5:50] Tom: Or did you want to hit me?

[5:53] Tom: Or yell and scream at me?

[5:56] Tom: Or maybe you'd rather call my wife and tell her how much I hurt you.

[6:00] Tom: Remember, Clare, it's impossible to fail in here.

[6:06] Mrs. Clare: You walked out on me when I needed you.

[6:09] Mrs. Clare: You used me.

[6:10] Mrs. Clare: You left me high and dry, alone, in cold stirrups,

[6:17] Mrs. Clare: in a sterile office with a doctor I had never met in a city that I didn't even know.

[6:22] Tom: I said I was sorry.

[6:25] Mrs. Clare: Well, sorry isn't good enough, Tom.

[6:27] Mrs. Clare: We suffered a loss together, but I grieved alone.

[6:32] Tom: If it's closure you're looking for, Clare, you'll never find it.

[6:36] Tom: Get out of your head.

[6:38] Mrs. Clare: I'm not in my head, you idiot.

[6:40] Mrs. Clare: This is real life.

[6:42] Mrs. Clare: I have lived with this pain for 12 years, rationalizing that it would someday get better when I finally settled down and had a family.

[6:51] Mrs. Clare: And now, look at what I'm dealing with.

[6:54] Tom: You are stuck in your head, Clare.

[6:56] Tom: If you weren't, I wouldn't be here.

[6:59] Tom: Closure is a myth.

[7:00] Tom: There is no such thing as closure.

[7:04] Mrs. Clare: So again, I'm alone.

[7:07] Mrs. Clare: I'm alone.

[7:13] Dr. Lee: Welcome back, Mrs. Clare.

[7:16] Mrs. Clare: Oh, oh, Dr. Lee.

[7:20] Mrs. Clare: I'm, I'm so sorry.

[7:22] Mrs. Clare: I must have dozed off.

[7:24] Dr. Lee: I'll give you some wormwood for fatigue.

[7:27] Mrs. Clare: No, thank you, Dr. Lee.

[7:29] Mrs. Clare: I should, I should go.

[7:31] Dr. Lee: Do you feel any better now that you've been hypnotized?

[7:36] Mrs. Clare: Honestly?

[7:38] Dr. Lee: Honestly.

[7:40] Mrs. Clare: Not really.

[7:42] Dr. Lee: So, it's the same as always?

[7:46] Mrs. Clare: Same as always, yes.

[7:48] Dr. Lee: I'll miss my weekly consultations with you.

[7:52] Dr. Lee: In all of New York, there is no one as feminine or beautiful.

[7:57] Mrs. Clare: I won't be so feminine or beautiful in a few weeks, though, will I?

[8:03] Dr. Lee: The feminine will always be in your smile.

[8:06] Dr. Lee: The beauty will always be in your soul.

[8:11] Mrs. Clare: Thank you, Dr. Lee.

[8:14] Mrs. Clare: I needed that.

[8:16] Mrs. Clare: So, I guess, um, you'll put my balance in the mail, then, and I'll send you a check?

[8:21] Dr. Lee: Oh, you could also bring payment next week, during our regular consultation time.

[8:27] Mrs. Clare: I'm sorry, Dr. Lee.

[8:28] Mrs. Clare: I already told you.

[8:29] Mrs. Clare: We don't have to meet in my office.

[8:32] Dr. Lee: Uh-huh.

[8:33] Dr. Lee: We could meet for lunch, or coffee, instead.

[8:39] Dr. Lee: The way friends do.

[8:41] Mrs. Clare: Oh.

[8:43] Mrs. Clare: Oh.

[8:44] Mrs. Clare: Uh, I, I, I didn't realize that's what you meant.

[8:49] Dr. Lee: Mrs. Clare said herself that she wants more friends.

[8:55] Mrs. Clare: I, I hadn't given it any thought, but

[8:58] Mrs. Clare: I do have a standing hold on my calendar, so.

[9:03] Dr. Lee: So?

[9:06] Mrs. Clare: Why not?

[9:08] Dr. Lee: Well, I, I guess you're right.

[9:11] Mrs. Clare: Why not?

[9:12] Dr. Lee: Excellent.

[9:14] Dr. Lee: Mrs. Clare will need lots of support before and after surgery.

[9:18] Mrs. Clare: Yes, I will.

[9:20] Dr. Lee: And when Mrs. Clare has her hysterectomy,

[9:24] Dr. Lee: hysterectomy,

[9:26] Dr. Lee: I can accompany her to Columbia Presbyterian, or whatever they're calling it now, so that she doesn't have to be alone.

[9:37] Mrs. Clare: Dr. Lee, that would be wonderful.

[9:43] Dr. Lee: Mrs. Clare should know that we're never alone in New York,

[9:48] Dr. Lee: even if it feels like the opposite is often true.

[9:51] Dr. Lee: I'm glad to be a friend.

[9:54] Mrs. Clare: Thank you, Dr. Lee.

[9:57] Mrs. Clare: I, I suddenly feel

[10:02] Mrs. Clare: relief.

[10:14] Brad Forenza: Around the Sun is written and directed by Brad Forenza, co-produced by Suzanne Ortiz-Curry and Brian Dashew, with sound design by Brandon Alexander Villarreal, conceptual art by Jean Epiphan, graphic design by Melanie Hibbert, and theme music by Shane Currie.

[10:28] Brad Forenza: If you enjoyed this episode, please like, share, and subscribe, and continue the conversation by using hashtag AroundTheSunPodcast.