Bitter the way medicine should be.

She picked the leaves from the fence behind the house. 'Drink it slow,' she said. 'It's not for liking. It's for after.'

Cerasee is a vine. The Jamaicans call it bush tea; the science calls it Momordica charantia. It is bitter the way medicine should be bitter — past tasting into something close to a warning. Everyone here grew up on it. Everyone here drinks it. Everyone here will tell you, given the chance, what it cures. [^1]

The cup was enamel. The porch was facing east. Below us, the cruise ships were starting to unload. Up here, none of that had begun yet.

I finished it in three swallows because I am not from here and I could not, in the end, drink it slow. She refilled the cup anyway. 'For after,' she said again.

[^1]: Diabetes, hypertension, hangovers, and — depending on the aunt — broken hearts.