Amy Thornton stood in the supermarket aisle and viewed all the boxes of facial tissues. So many brands. So many infusions. There was eucalyptus and jasmine and cinnamon and … some were just plain plain with no smell at all.
Then there were degrees of softness. Some were light and fluffy and some were strong. The fluffy ones were useless; one sneeze and they’d have a hole right through, putting phlegm in the palm of the hand.
Then there were different sizes: big ones, small one, some for the car, some for the handbag…
Life was so much easier when there had been only the one brand with the one size. In fact it was so much easier when people used a handkerchief.
Amy Thornton sneezed. It was a great big sneeze that sent particles of her common cold all over the boxes of tissues. The sneeze was what Amy had been waiting for. Now everyone who bought a tissue box would have reason to use it.
Weave a Web 
Ha Ha. Growing up in India I used hankies and in kindergarten my mother would pin one to to my pinafore! In Australia I got so used to tissues that now I think they are a necessity. And the mess that is created when one gets into the wash!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I too grew up with hankies – “Clean underwear and clean hanky?” was the motherly catch cry as you left the house as a kid! And yes, I manage to put a tissue through the wash about once a week!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had overseas students staying with me for a number of years, when I lived in Adelaide. The ones from Asian countries found our use of tissues and hankies (which were then tucked back into a pocket for further use), quite unhygienic. I had never thought of it in that way, but I wasn’t about to start hawking and spitting the payload onto the footpath!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had heard that about the Asian people. If you think about it, everything to do with snot is rather revolting!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That was one thing I couldn’t cope with as a nurse, and I seemed to get a lot of patients with juicy coughs. Ugh.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now, now! That amounts to chemical warfare! On the other hand, you whacked me out of complacence in style. Even though I know you are perennially planning a mischief or two but the innocuous roll of your prose got me once more. Outstanding!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, thank you, Uma. I cringe humbly before the great stylist himself. Stylist ain’t nothin’ – but you combine it with substance, which (from memory) Aristotle said was the greatest combination of all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You know what Bruce, you should not inflate the balloon of my ego beyond a point. I am feeling dwarfed by that compliment already.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Between you and me Uma… balloons are full of hot air, and they go pop – but they can float millions of miles before they pop – and the floating is the genius bit… That’s what I reckon anyway…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the perspective, Bruce. It makes immense sense. One grain amongst the storm!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can’t resist this shameless plug: https://derrickjknight.com/2014/11/19/boiling-hankies/
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t recall hanky boiling, but remember the tea towels being boiled (and the serviettes starched!)
LikeLiked by 1 person
🙂
LikeLike
Mwa ha ha! As the recipient of many germs from middle school students this year, this rang true. Maybe Kleenex should hire people to sneeze on their boxes before they leave the factory?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Now Noelle, you’re a scientist… I find that those automatic insect spray machines that people have in houses give me a fibrillating heart. The smelly tissues do the same thing, and when I investigated it, it said that the fixing agent in those smelly tissues contains pyrethrum. I told my heart specialist that and he thought I was nuts!!! Perhaps there’s a doctoral thesis there for someone!
LikeLike
Mmmm, could be! I don’t like the cheap tissues because they give off dust that makes me sneeze and the ones with lotion in them – I tried wiping my glasses with one of them and what a mess!
LikeLiked by 1 person