Hair of the dog

The phone rang at 4AM. “Jesus, Richard!” groaned Patricia, “How many have you had?” Richard’s silence suggested quite a lot.

“Please,” he said.

Grinding her teeth, she growled, “This time only and then no more. This time only.”

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This weekend, Trifextra is asking us to finish the story launched by the words “The phone rang at 4am”. Not counting those four, we have 33 words to tell the whole tale.

About jesterqueen:
Jessie Powell is the Jester Queen. She likes to tell you about her dog, her kids, her fiction, and her blog, but not necessarily in that order.

Comments

Hair of the dog — 27 Comments

    • Heh. No, I think Richard is going to feel like he's been run over by a truck in the morning.

  1. In my naivität I had to look up "Hair of the Dog" in the Urban dictionary. A homoeopathic cure I read. But the piece is poignant, as in "Been There, Done That".

    • The origin is in the medieval notion that the cure for an infected dog bite is to mix up a drink containing the hair of the dog that bit you. So the implication is that she's done this before, been bitten by this before.

  2. Thanks so much for linking up to Trifextra. Remember, this weekend’s entries are being judged by the Trifecta community, so make sure you visit the site at the close of the challenge to vote. Our linking service will not allow you to vote for a link from the same computer where it was submitted, so plan ahead! Voting closes 12 hours after the close of the challenge. Winners will be announced with the Monday post. Hope to see you back then.

  3. I hope I never get one of those calls, but I'd probably try to rescue the caller too.

    • It would depend very much on who it was for me. There are people who I wouldn't even ask how many. I'd just drive and make them hold a bucket so they didn't puke out my window. And there are others who I would hang up on.

  4. I get the feeling the last sentence is spoken more by Patricia to herself – trying to convince herself she won't do it again. Well written!

    • Exactly! I was worried that wouldn't come through. She's trying to believe she's not trapped in a cycle.

  5. I have a feeling that Patricia will be hurting Richard more than his hangover will.

    Also: I love that he's acting like a d*** and his name can be abbreviated to that as well. Intentional, or not? Just curious. 😉

    Well done!

    • I totally hadn't thought of that, but it fits perfectly! Thanks for the insight.

  6. Poignant. It underscores the cycle of addiction, the 'one more time' that leads to another 'one more time.'

  7. As a chronic insomniac and the youngest in my group of friends, I took "come get me" calls for awhile before I was even able to go to a bar. I'm glad it was never more than a distraction, and that I usually managed to wiggle a free meal out of the deal.

  8. I agree with Dana… I very much doubt this will be the last time! I get e feeling she's said those same words many times before.

    • No, I'd say it's more like an enable-codepend-addiction/abuse cycle type of relationship. But then, I've been wrong before.

  9. Hah, love your title for this – funny! But that infamous drunk-dial? Not so fun… 😕

  10. Youch. Yours and mine are a nice set of bookends, eh? You know, in that inevitable family crap kind of way?!

    Well done. Such solid emotions.

    • You're absolutely right about that — I saw several bookends ones. Oooh that makes me think. Wouldn't a trifecta partners … no … a trifecta THREESOME challenge be awesome? Something where you and two others write related content and linkup to each other and to the site. Oh man, now I'm all thoughtful.

  11. This is great. I could almost feel the killer migraine in his head. Wow. What a great story this is. You say everything that needs to be said in so few words. I really get a complete sense of exactly who the characters are just from these 33 words here alone. Well done, Jester Queen! 🙂

    • Thanks Scriptor,

      These 33 word ones drive me nuts with indecision. I had one completely different story and three versions of this one to choose from by the time I finally posted. I think … maybe karenismuttering? somebody last week said that these little ones are just more painful the longer she waits to post, and I have to say I agree!!