At the Pharmacy

Beatriz arrived in New York on Monday. On Tuesday she woke up with a terrible cold. Her head hurt, her throat hurt and she couldn't stop coughing. "I need medicine," she thought, "but where is the pharmacy?"

In the street she asked a woman, "Excuse me, is there a pharmacy near here?" The woman looked confused. "A pharmacy? Oh, you mean a drugstore! There's one on the corner, next to the bank."

The drugstore was enormous. It sold medicine, but it also sold chocolate, shampoo, birthday cards and milk. Beatriz walked to the counter at the back. A young pharmacist in a white coat smiled at her. "How can I help you?"

Beatriz tried to explain. "I am... constipated," she said. The pharmacist looked surprised. "Constipated? Then you need this." Beatriz read the box: it was medicine for the stomach. "No, no! My nose!" She pointed at her nose and coughed.

The pharmacist laughed. "Oh, you have a cold! You're congested, not constipated. That's a very different problem." Beatriz turned red. In Spain, "constipado" means a cold. In English, it means something else.

He gave her some syrup for her throat and some pills for her head. "Take one every eight hours, drink a lot of water and rest," he said. "And remember: here we say drugstore. The pharmacy is just this counter inside."

Beatriz went back to the hotel, drank hot tea and slept for twelve hours. The next morning she felt much better. She has told this story to all her friends, and now none of them say "constipated" when they have a cold.