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 and stumbled his way to bed.
In the morning, Paddy woke up with searing pain in
both his head and butt with Brigid staring at him from
across the room.
She said, "You were drunk again last night weren't you
Paddy?"
Paddy said, "Why would 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."
