From under the counter, she pulled a plastic bag full of grayish powder. It featured a dragon stamp. “This will get you started. Just put a pinch in water or tea.”

Audrey cradled the small baggie in her hand. “How much is it?”

“Five hundred for one gram.”

Audrey was astounded. “That is more than the cost of cocaine.”

“Cocaine cannot save your child.”

Audrey didn’t bother stopping to get food on the way to the hospital. She had lost her appetite, and anyway, she had only one thing on her mind: curing her son before it was too late. She entered Joshua’s room to find him already asleep. Audrey crossed to the window facing the hallway and closed the blinds.

She stood beside the table where his uneaten food still waited, and opened the paper bag the old woman on Ko Shing Street had given her. She then withdrew the packet of powdered horn. Her son stirred awake in bed and watched quietly as she dropped a pinch of the horn into a Styrofoam cup of hot water she had brought from the waiting room.

“What is that?” he asked his mother.

Audrey tested the temperature with her finger. “Drink it. It will make you better.” She held Joshua’s head up as she brought the cup to his lips. Moments later, the mixture glided into his digestive tract and began interacting with his stomach acid.

The sun rose outside the waiting room where Audrey had relocated so that her typing would not interrupt the boy’s sleep. She had done the right thing, she told herself. She was giving Joshua every possible chance at survival, and if the ultimate cost of her trespass was her career, it was a small price to pay for her son’s life. Whatever the consequences, there would be no regrets. It was the last thought that crossed her mind as she drifted off into a deeper slumber than she’d had in months.

She was still asleep when a commotion woke her. “All medical staff report to room seventeen immediately!” the intercom blared.

Audrey stiffened in her chair as a herd of doctors and nurses stampeded down the hallway. “Room seventeen!” she heard them shout. Joshua’s room.

Fearing the worst, Audrey rushed after the doctors, trailing them to her son’s room, where it seemed the whole hospital was funneling in.

A nurse stopped her at the door to room 17, saying that she needed to wait outside until the doctors could stabilize her son. Audrey angled for a view through the window. She was horrified to see Joshua convulsing violently on his bed.

“What is going on!” she cried. “What happened?”

Before the nurse could respond, a doctor called out in a panicked voice, “Get me twenty cc’s of phenobarbital!”

Audrey felt a sudden wave of nausea as the doctors rushed to save her son’s life. What had she done?