I Found This Bizarre White Stick in My Son’s Room and Panic Set In—Then I Discovered the Truth

Then, I found it. The image on the screen looked identical to the one in my hand. It wasn’t a tracker, it wasn’t a camera, and it certainly wasn’t an illicit drug device. It was a simple, over-the-counter Vicks-style nasal inhaler. The “suspicious” holes I had obsessed over were merely vents designed to allow menthol vapors to circulate through the device during inhalation. The air left my lungs in a long, shaky exhale that felt like it had been held for years. I had spent hours terrifying myself, building up a monumental crisis in my own head, all over a standard piece of medicine used to clear up a stuffy nose.