Written for Sue & Gerry’s Weekly Prompts
Weekend Challenge using the word ‘excessive’.
Here’s where the prompt took me.
Tag: Smoking
Smoking And Other Cravings
A few of you may remember this from
years ago; to my new readers, welcome
to the jungle. Reworked and rewritten
for OLWG #404. The three prompts
are shown below. This is my story.
Capadoste
Denise at GirlieOnThe Edge has challenged us
to write a Six Sentence Story using the word ‘game’.
In six sentences, this is my response to that challenge
If you’re wondering what “capadoste” means, it’s Italian slang for thickheaded” and all will be revealed as I continue with my store which goes like this: A while back …. and by “a while” I’m guessing close to 56 years now …. my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) and I would get together most Friday nights with our friends at somebody or other’s house where we’d do a whole bunch of nothing, like sitting around watching TV, playing cards, shooting the breeze, listening to music, smoking and drinking.
Now, before we go any further, I need to emphasize the fact that I’m a lousy drinker and it doesn’t take more than one drink to get me tipsy, something I was well aware of but joined in the fun anyway because I didn’t want to be a ‘party pooper’; it was guaranteed that any night out that involved drinking always ended with me puking my guts out on the way home, Bill walking me to the front door where my father would be waiting up for me, saying goodnight then collapsing in my bed while my room whirled around like a spinning wheel.
Well, as you can imaging, these get-togethers with friends started getting old pretty fast until somebody mentioned a new game he played recently and asked if we wanted to hear about it, which, of course, we did; some of you out there in “Reader Land” may already be familiar with this pastime with playing pieces consisting of nothing more than a glass, paper napkins, a rubber band and a dime …. “The Dime Game”!
The game was really easy, anyone could play it, we all did and the rules went like this: drape a paper napkin over an empty glass, securing it in place with a rubber band, then place the dime in the very center of the napkin (couldn’t be simpler, really, but that’s just the set up) …. playing the game was significantly more difficult.
Since everyone smoked something or other back then, the idea was to take your lit whatever, burn a hole on the top surface of the napkin (praying it would stay small and not ignite the entire napkin), then the next player does the same thing; the goal of the game was to keep the napkin as intact as possible without the dime falling into the glass which resulted in the person who made the dime fall having to chug a shot glass of whatever libation was being served that night (and it wasn’t alcohol-free) so you know what that meant for me!
As a lover of board games, card games and party games, I was a total sucker for “The Dime Game” and like the idiot I was, I played every time, got sloshed after two shots and was done for while everyone else was having fun; you’d think a lesson like that would have been learned rather quickly and to that I have only one thing to say …. “Capadoste!”
NAR©2024
This is Toby Keith with “I Love This Bar”. RIP, Toby 2/5/24
This portfolio (including text, graphics and videos) is copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR © 2017-present.
Smoke Break
It’s time once again for
The Unicorn Challenge.
Here is my 250-word
response to the photo below.
Oh the irony! The hypocrisy!
There I was, sitting in my car taking a smoke break. Damn shame! We can’t smoke anywhere these days and that’s a perfect example of discrimination.
Anyway, I’m looking out the car window, and that’s when I spotted it …. a rubber glove on the ground. Disgusting!
Since I was parked just across from a nursing home, I figured that glove belonged to one of the employees there and that made me even angrier than I was. Imagine, a health facility employee tossing a glove away like that! I bet they throw their masks on the ground, too. Pigs!
What’s wrong with people? You’d think after 3+ years of Covid, they’d finally get it right and stop ditching their used gloves or masks on public property. I could never understand how someone, especially a health-care worker, could show such disrespect for other people. If I had seen whoever tossed that glove so indiscriminately, I would have said something.
Well, there’s only one thing to do …. I donned a glove, picked up the offensive litter and deposited it in the trash. Puffing on my smoke, I walked back to my car feeling very proud of myself.
Just then a pigeon landed on the trash can, picked out the glove and flew off only to drop the glove on the road. Well, I’ll be damned! It wasn’t a deliberate act of human negligence after all! I chuckled, my faith in mankind restored.
Flicking my cigarette butt out the window, I drove off.
NAR©2024
250 Words
This is “Hypocrites” by Bob Marley
This portfolio (including text, graphics and videos) is copyright for The Sicilian Storyteller, The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and is not for use by anyone without permission. NAR © 2017-present.
BARK AT THE MOON
This was the sixth night in a row that a nightmare woke me up. I’m a sound sleeper but something was throwing me off and this past week did a number on me. I felt drained and on edge. Now it was 2:00 AM and I was craving a cigarette. I got up and scoured my apartment hoping to find a smoke – which I didn’t – and thinking about why I was having these constant nightmares. I mean, nothing different happened in my life, except I’d started smoking again.
And there was also her.
Last weekend I went to a party and this gorgeous redhead walked up to me and asked me for a light. I’d quit smoking about eight months earlier but for some reason – call it a security blanket – I continued to carry my Bic around in my pocket. This chick was way too hot to let her slip through my fingers so I reached into my jeans and pulled out my lighter.
I flicked my Bic and damn(!) if she didn’t cup both her hands around mine as I lit her cigarette. She inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly, the smoke encircling her head. All the while her eyes never left mine. She had the palest blue eyes I’d ever seen and the contrast against her red hair and mouth was bewitching. Then she did something to me no woman had ever done before; she took the cigarette from her lips and placed it between mine. That move was so intrinsically sexual, I couldn’t think of anything else but possessing this woman. I took a long drag, that familiar heat singeing my lungs.
We shared her cigarette and when there was nothing left, she took me by the hand and led me into the bathroom. Locking the door, she turned her back to me and leaned against the sink staring at my reflection in the full-length mirror. She hiked up her skirt and I was not surprised to see she wasn’t wearing panties. She said two words and they weren’t “Happy Halloween”; I didn’t have to be told twice.
Fifteen minutes later we left the bathroom together. I went to get us a couple of drinks and when I turned around, she was gone. I searched everywhere but couldn’t find her. Just like that – the greatest bathroom sex I ever had and now she was gone. And I was left craving her and another cigarette. That was the night I fell off the wagon.
Now I needed a smoke so badly I tried to salvage butts from the trash but they were all buried under a soggy coffee filter. I had no alternative but to head out to the all-night 7-Eleven.
I grumbled and dragged myself out of bed. I switched on the overhead lamp and immediately cringed and looked away; the damn light hurt my eyes too much. Squinting, I staggered into the bathroom and splashed water on my face. Grabbing a towel, I wiped off and looked in the mirror. Holy shit! What I saw startled yet intrigued me. My eyes had changed from brown to ice blue. There was no denying that woman had done a number on me.
It was now 2:30 AM. I threw on yesterday’s clothes, turning up the collar of my leather jacket. Before venturing out I grabbed my shades. Stepping outside, I was momentarily caught off guard by the number of freaks walking around; then I remembered Halloween was just winding down for many partygoers. A bright moon cast strange, elongated shadows across the walls. Dressed in black clothes, I must have blended in with the silhouettes for no one took notice of me.
As I entered the store I was pleased to see there was only one other customer – a nondescript woman wearing a hooded cape. I stood behind her at the register and when she turned to leave, I was blown away to see it was the redhead from the party. She looked directly at me, gave a little laugh and left without so much as a word. I was glad my dark glasses hid the lust in my eyes. I quickly bought my smokes and bolted from the store.
I looked up and down the street; nothing – she was gone. Then I spotted her standing across the street watching me. “Ok” I thought. “This is gonna be interesting.” As soon as I started heading toward her, she turned and began walking away. She walked slowly, her cape swaying side to side, and I followed her just as slowly. She took her time and I had no doubts she knew I was there. She climbed the steps to an old apartment building; I followed. She casually walked up three flights of stairs and down the hall to the last door where she stopped, removed a key from her pocket and unlocked the door, leaving it slightly ajar as she stepped inside. If that wasn’t an invitation, I didn’t know what was. I entered the apartment and closed the door behind me.
The room was awash in moonlight streaming through the window where she stood staring up at the night sky. I lit a cigarette, took a long drag and handed it to her. She placed the cigarette between her bright red lips, took a couple of puffs and tossed it out the window. She turned to face me and shrugged off her cape. Of course she was naked; I would have been sorely disappointed if she wasn’t. She loosened her hair and a cascade of long crimson tresses escaped and flowed silently over her flawless body. Her hair shimmered in the moonlight; the fragrance of strawberries and honeysuckle filled the room. She was intoxicating.
She drew me closer and parted her lips in a sultry smile; it was then that I saw her delicate fangs. I was aroused, my cock throbbing. A deep passion rose in me and I groaned with a fierce hunger. I turned my head and willingly offered her my neck. She feasted on me, then gave herself up to me with shameless abandon.
Whatever I had become that night didn’t matter. Nothing mattered any more. My savage blood boiled as I barked at the moon.
NAR © 2022
The Elephant's Trunk 