I’ve had my ex’s big box full of essential oils thrown at the back of my closet since she left 2 years ago. I don’t know if the damn things expire, but having to do a bunch of chores just to erase her existence from my life felt like too big a job at the time, so I kind of just settled for putting it all out of sight. Of course, now I’m well and truly over her and groan in annoyance any time I see one of my hastily hidden time capsules.

Today was especially bad, because my head was throbbing from the night before. I’d gone out to dinner with some friends, and unfortunately that always involves a dangerous number of shots for the table. Nobody in my group has ever been great with moderation, myself included.

And when that box of tiny bottles came raining down over my head while I was looking for a sweatshirt to throw on, I felt my blood boil. _Not a job for right now,_ I tried to ground myself, _you can handle this when you’re not about to projectile vomit across the room. _Still, I knew that just leaving a bunch of glass all over the floor was a bad idea, so I crouched down to try and at least scoop it all back in the box.

I held up one, reading the label. _Lavender_. I knew from my time with Anna, my ex, that lavender was supposed to be calming. On a whim, I rummaged around until I found _Peppermint. _She definitely used this one on sore muscles and for nausea. That sparked an idea—I did a cursory google search and snagged all the necessary ingredients. There was no _way_ that this would work, but I was about to try to make a hangover remedy.

———

Down in the kitchen, I pulled out a black bowl. It was one of those ones from a Mexican restaurant that they serve salsa in. I figured, if this mess turns out to be toxic, I can just steal another one. But the sight of the salsa bowl gave me another idea, and I opened my spice drawer. Cinnamon, cayenne, and ginger. I didn’t know how spices would play with the oils, but hopefully I was just creating a homemade version of IcyHot. I assembled my other ingredients, Lavender, Peppermint, Lemon, and then two that just sounded interesting that I’d never heard of: Frankincense and Clary Sage. At this point I was having fun just mixing stuff. I leaned in to give it a sniff check, and it was definitely…interesting. I was a bit worried that my skin would melt off as soon as I applied it, so I started with just a dab on my wrist.

As I rubbed it in, I muttered the lyrics to a song I’d had stuck in my head.

“Whoaaa, Amber is the color of your energy…whoaaa, shades of gold displayed naturally…”

The oil dispersed evenly on my wrist, I noticed a slight tingling feeling. Not bad, just like a subtle vibration. I sniffed it again, and it really wasn’t so bad. The peppermint cut through everything else, and that alone helped my headache a bit.

So I rubbed it on my neck, temples, and chest. All the places I’d read online were good for this kind of thing. I kept muttering the lyrics to “_Amber_” as I rubbed, settling into the feeling of the temple massage. It was nice, even if I was the one doing it to myself.

Once the tingling started, I let out a sigh and sat back on the couch. The smell was actually already helping, I couldn’t believe it. Maybe all this essential oil bullshit was more substantial than I thought.

And then my vision changed.

I cried out as all of a sudden splotches of blue, red, and green appeared around the room. It looked like I had overlayed a kaleidoscope on top of my normal vision. It had to be the oils, the fumes had somehow messed up my eyes!

I ran to the kitchen and poured dish soap on my hands. I quickly lathered it all over my face and rinsed with warm water until I was confident that I was clean. I dried off with a paper towel and opened my eyes. There was definitely a lavender cast to everything in my line of sight. I groaned, debating calling poison control. Then, I had a heat-of-the-moment idea. I went into my contacts list on my phone and swiped over to the “blocked” list. Sure enough, Anna was right there along with a half a dozen telemarketers. My finger hovered over the “unblock” button. It had been two years, the thought of suddenly calling her out of the blue made my stomach churn. I hadn’t even stalked her on social media, I had no _clue_ how she was doing.

But the vision problems had scared me enough that I needed to take action, and maybe she would have some way to help that didn’t involve a $500 fine just for calling.

I listened to the line ring, my heart pounding. After I was sure I was about to be sent to voicemail, I heard a familiar voice.

“…Hello?”

I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach. “Hey Anna, it’s Sam.”

She sighed, “yeah, I thought I recognized the number. What do you need?”

The way her voice sounded so soft and sad made me wince. Had I hurt her badly enough for her to still be affected by it two years later?

“I…I might have messed up. I found your old stash of essential oils…”

“Yeah? The ones you always made fun of me for using?” Anna had a slight smirk in her voice, and I gave a tense chuckle.

“Yep,” I rubbed at my eye, the visual disturbances changing from lavender to a light pink. “I tried mixing a few together, I just wanted to try and fix a hangover. Now my vision is completely wrong. Everything looks like a rainbow.”

There was a pause. “What exactly did you mix?”

I listed off my entire concoction, admitting that half of it had just been random.

“Some of that was exactly right for a hangover cure, but some of it…” She paused again, “you said you’re seeing color…is it just one color or is it changing depending on what you look at?” I frowned, walking to my window. I squinted into the sunlight, feeling my headache return with a vengeance. Outside, a few of my neighbors were out and about. Farha, who lives to the left, had a bright yellow glow. To my right, Todd (who was mowing his grass, as usual) emanated a deep blue. The couple a few doors down with a new baby walked along the sidewalk, and I saw two slightly different shades of pink and a light green coming from the stroller.

“It’s weird, actually…” I said, my brows knitting, “it’s like everyone is glowing their own specific color.”

Anna gasped, “when you put on the oil, did you—and this might sound weird—did you say a chant or a phrase or anything?”

I blinked into surprise, “uh…I was kind of singing the song ‘_Amber_’. How could you possibly know that?”

“On their own, essential oils are really only good for aromatherapy, but when mixed in a cauldron—“

“The salsa bowl?!”

“—and infused with intention through spoken word—not to mention that cinnamon is a natural amplifier…Sam, you made a potion.”

I almost choked, certain that this was a joke. “Like a magical witch’s brew? You think I cast a spell using essential oils in a salsa bowl?”

“Anything can gain special properties with the right intention. I know you were just playing around, but you also definitely wanted it to work. You charged it with all that hope and anticipation. Your specific words, however, referenced ‘the color of energy’. And you really couldn’t have picked better than Frankincense and Clary Sage for this particular mix, because both of those are used to heighten psychic abilities.”

“So…what are you saying?” I was dumbfounded.

“You made a potion that lets you see people’s auras.”