I shared my purchase of dried berries with my elderly male relative. Coincidentally, there was a feud between me and his wife, who was abusing me to force me to do foster care for her dependents. Then his wife accused him of accepting my berries as a form of bribe to buy his alliance. The next day, he told me he couldn’t eat dried berries because they got stuck in his teeth and he had difficulty cleaning them.
Berries – the goodness of fruit became a weapon of verbal assault. I never could see or eat berries again without being reminded of the bitterness of being maligned with all manner of abuse, to coerce me into submission.
Prompt – bitter berries.
