The Vitamin Merchant's Last Deal

The trade show convention hall hummed with fluorescent aggression, hundreds of vitamin supplement vendors shouting about wellness, longevity, the promise of eternal life in capsule form. Elias stood behind his booth, rearranging bottles of Vitamin D3 and B12 complexes, his palm sweating against the plastic display case.

He'd been selling vitamins for twenty-three years. He didn't believe in them anymore.

"You look like a man who needs his sunshine in pill form," a woman said, stopping at his booth. She wore a floppy sun hat indoors, an affectation that screamed 'I'm different' in exactly the same way everyone else here was different. Her eyes were tired around the edges.

Elias smiled, practiced and hollow. "We've got a buy-one-get-one special on Vitamin D today."

"My husband used to take vitamins," she said, picking up a bottle. "Every single morning. He died anyway. Pancreatic cancer. He was forty-three."

The words hung between them like smoke. Elias's ex-wife had left him three years ago, claiming he'd sold his soul along with the vitamins. She was probably right.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Don't be." She set down the bottle. "I came here for a papaya enzyme supplement. Supposed to help with inflammation. I don't even like papaya."

Elias gestured toward the back of his booth. "We've got them in the third aisle. But honestly? Water works better. Just water."

"Just water?"

"For everything."

She laughed, and it was the first genuine sound he'd heard all day. "You're terrible at sales."

"I know." Elias looked at his watch. Four more hours until he could pack up and fly home to an empty apartment. "I used to think I was helping people. Now I think I'm just selling hope in gelatin capsules."

"Maybe hope is enough," she said, adjusting her ridiculous hat. "Sometimes it's all we have."

He watched her walk away, his palm still pressed against the display case, and felt something crack open inside his chest. For the first time in years, he didn't reach for a sales pitch.

He took a bottle of water from his bag instead.