Books On Organic Chemistry Novels & Stories

The place was beautiful; rows and rows of shelves reaching up toward golden pendant lights, reading corners with plush chairs, walls lined with student art, the faint sound of a piano instrumental playing overhead. Milo’s voice dropped to a teasing whisper. “Gal Rivera… are you smiling at books?” “Yes,” I said shamelessly. “Judge me.” “Never.” I swatted his arm and wandered off to the Pharmacy section: thick textbooks on organic chemistry, human anatomy, pharmacognosy, and medicinal chemistry. I selected a few essentials: Human Physiology: A Modern Approach, Principles of Pharmacology, and a slim research guide. Milo returned with a stack just as tall, Biochem

She spread her textbook and notes out on our lab bench already. “Okay, so according to page 247, we need to mix these compounds in this exact order,” she said, reading directly from the book without really looking at what we were actually working with. “First the sodium compound, then the organic solvent, then the catalyst.” I looked at the chemicals she was preparing to combine and felt something twist in my stomach. The second beaker, the one with the organic solvent, smelled wrong. Not wrong like it was expired or contaminated. It was like the smell was telling me that the molecules were already starting to break down.

I sighed. I lay my baby in her crib. She was fast asleep which was a good thing. I walked to the shelf beside the bed and opened the lower drawer, I collected my books; a chemistry textbook and a jotter to read. I preferred textbooks to school notes because they brought deeper meanings to a subject and exposed various tricks to get your answers. I lay down on the floor with a blanket burying myself in. I managed to find my hands and started attacking organic chemistry.

It was quiet here, so colourless. Reaching into the pocket of her down parka, she pulled out a small bottle of pills and looked at it. The directions had said to take no more than six tablets a day. There were fifty in the small plastic bottle. Uncapping it, she spilled the red pills into her palm. 5. 6. 8. 10. And half the bottle. Antihistamines were the strongest drugs she could think to buy over the counter. These looked like the red hots her father liked to buy when he took her to the movies.