George's Marvelous Medicine

George decides to come up with “something whopping” to get back at Grandma (10). Spotting the medicine she takes four times each day, which appears to have little or no effect, George decides to make a new, “magic” medicine so powerful it will “either cure her completely or blow off the top of her head” (12). He chants a song or poem, imagining himself boiling a wide variety of foul-smelling ingredients together, including insect and animal parts, then administering the result to Grandma.

George takes out a large pot. Grandma yells, asking him what he is doing; he answers that he is cleaning the kitchen. Instead of picking and choosing ingredients, George decides to go through the house and put every “runny or powdery or gooey” thing he can find into the pot (14). Upstairs in the bathroom, he skips the medicine cabinet because he promised his parents that he would not touch it and because he wants his medicine to surprise Grandma but not risk her life. He starts by adding toothpaste, shaving soap, shampoo, face cream, nail polish, and hair remover. He also finds a “dandruff cure,” powder for cleaning false teeth, deodorant, and liquid paraffin, adding each to the pot. Moving to the bedroom, he adds hairspray, perfume, pink plaster powder, and lipstick. George then heads downstairs to the laundry room, where he adds laundry soap, floor polish, flea powder, and shoe polish. On his way back to the kitchen, George spots a bottle of gin, which Grandma loves, and adds it to the pot. In the kitchen, he adds curry powder, mustard powder, chili sauce, peppercorns, and horseradish sauce. Throughout the process, George imagines the way individual ingredients will benefit Grandma.

Grandma calls to him from the other room and reminds him not to forget her medicine. He assures her that he will not.

George remembers that his father keeps medicine for the farm animals in a shed. Since he never promised not to touch those medicines, George decides to add a few to give “punch and muscle” to the mixture (22). Taking the pot to the shed, George adds various pills, powders, and liquids used to treat ailments in chickens, horses, cows, sheep, and pigs.

George stirs the mixture. He decides to boil it to help everything dissolve. On his way back inside, he passes the garage, where he adds engine oil, antifreeze, and grease.

In the kitchen, George lights the stove under the pot. Grandma asks George what he is doing, but he doesn’t answer. As the mixture boils, it puts off a blue smoke and emits a smell that is “full of wizardry and magic” (27). George begins to dance around the pot and spontaneously chants an incantation-like poem that ends, “Grandma better start to pray” (28).

George turns off the stove and lets the medicine cool. To make it look like Grandma’s regular medicine, George takes brown paint from the toolshed and pours it into the pot, then mixes it slowly. From the living room, Grandma calls him a “nasty little maggot” (29) and accuses him of forgetting her medicine.

George empties Grandma’s regular medicine down the sink, then fills the bottle with the medicine he created. To cool it down, he holds the bottle under cold tap water, then dries it off. Carrying the medicine and a spoon, George goes into the living room.