He filled a glass with water, grabbed a box of tissues, and sat at the kitchen table. Step one: push your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Step two: press your thumb firmly between your eyebrows. Step three: hold for twenty seconds and rock back and forth.
He lay on his back, staring at the ceiling, mouth-breathing like a dehydrated goldfish. Beside him, his girlfriend, Sam, slept peacefully, her gentle, unimpeded breathing a cruel mockery of his suffering. unblock a blocked nose
Then, a sound like a tiny, rusty gate swinging open. A whoosh. A glorious, cool, life-affirming whoosh of air rushed through his left nostril. Then the right one answered with a smaller, but no less heroic, pop . He could smell again—the faint lemon of the dish soap, the dusty books in the living room, everything . He filled a glass with water, grabbed a
Nothing happened.