Paddy staggered home very late after another evening with his
drinking Buddy, Mick.
He took off his shoes to avoid waking his wife, Brigid. He tiptoed
as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs
bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step.
As he caught himself by grabbing the banister, his body swung around
and he landed heavily on his rump. A whiskey bottle in each back pocket
broke and made the landing especially painful.
Managing not to yell, Paddy sprung up, pulled down his pants, and
looked in the hall mirror to see that his butt cheeks were cut and
bleeding.
He managed to quietly find a full box of band-Aids and began
putting a Band-Aid as best he could on each place he saw blood.
He then hid the now almost empty Band-Aid box and shuffled his way to bed.
In the morning, Paddy woke up with searing pain in both his head and
butt and Brigid staring at him from across the room.
She said, "You were drunk again last night weren't you Paddy?"
Paddy said, "Why you say such a mean thing?"
"Well," Brigid said, "it could be the open front door, it could be
the broken glass at the bottom of the stairs, it could be the drops of
blood trailing through the house, it could be your bloodshot eyes,
but mostly.......... it's all those Band-Aids stuck on the hall
mirror."
