I forgot why I went to the pharmacy

Dear Delyara, I had the little paper in my hand, two people ahead of me, and then suddenly my mind went completely blank. I looked around as if the shelves might remind me who I was and what my errand was. Eventually it came back — cough medicine for my daughter, paracetamol, toothpaste. Nothing terrible. Still, it touched that old fear that if I keep stretching myself this way, one day ordinary life will start slipping through my fingers more than it already does. I hate that small lapses make me emotional. But they do, because they don’t arrive in isolation. They arrive on top of all the carrying. They arrive as proof that the brain is not a limitless shelf.