I catch the first few in a glass vail and wait for the spell to stop.

It doesn’t. I wipe away the blur in my eyes and check the spell over.

“Onion, birch leaves, fertile flowers and dust.”

That’s all right, I collected the flowers this morning.

“Blend and rub on eyelids.” Done that.

“Wash off with water to stop the spell.”

Oh, okay.

Tears are still steaming as I head to the basin and proceed to wash off the itchy goop from my eyelids.

When I dry my face and am perplexed as to why it’s still going. Shutting one eye I can see that the paste hasn’t moved.

With a grumble I read the damned book again.

“Why do they put warnings at the back?” I wonder, tears puddling on the table.

“Okay, here is it. WARNING - tears will not stop until washed away with…”

A fat tear decided to land on the page, smudging the last word.

“No!”

I try to save it, but it only leaves two letters

“Ru.”

I flip through again, Google it even. Rubbish? Rue? Ruby dust? Rupees? Rubber?

Eventually I make myself a list that seems both long and ridiculous. It takes the whole night to find ingredients that begin with those letters in my stores, but nothing seems to help.

The hours tick on as I raid my pantry and feel some frustration begin to form.

I brew another potion, spell reversal charms and side affect stoppers, but it’s hard to read the words and I’m constantly daubing my eyes.

Then it’s midnight, the witching hour.

Im on the floor, crying for real this time, tears of hot frustration joining the others on the floor.