forty-one beers

[shutupsammy]

I quit. I'm giving up gambling*. Never again. I'm serious.

And I have no damn cash left anywhere on my body or in my mattress or laying in the couch cushions so if someone looking for a charity case would be so kind as to buy me a burger until payday? That'd be awesome.

*This doesn't mean I'm giving up playing. Just not for money. End of story.

Comments

[cal_sitter]

You could ask for an advance on your next paycheck.

[cal_sitter]

Sedatives. A precaution, apparently. Cal and I usually get by on what we can obtain on our own, and if we can't, we don't use our own names at the emergency room.

[shutupsammy]

A precaution against what?

You guys end up in the ER often?

[cal_sitter]

Patients suffering from encephalitis become disoriented and stress can trigger seizures. It's safer to let them sleep.

Only once, five months ago City time, and only because we had nowhere else to go. Rom don't go to hospitals. Neither do people who'd rather not explain how they came to need twenty-seven stitches for a dog bite. I take it you don't follow the same policy.

[shutupsammy]

I didn't know you had encephalitis. Is that what it was? Isn't that water on the brain or something like that?

Only reason we ever went to hospitals is for my dumb ass. Might have been the only reason we could.

[cal_sitter]

Inflammation of the tissues of the brain. It varies in severity.

What do you mean?

[shutupsammy]

So there's no water involved at all?

All I mean is my brother's a real special kid.

[cal_sitter]

I'll let you know if I hear any sloshing between my ears.

My brother never got sick. He still doesn't. I could come home with a flu that took out half the school, and he'd never catch it.

[shutupsammy]

You do that. I'll be less of an idiot and start reading up on crap before I talk about it and make myself look like an idiot.

A lot of people'd kill for an immune system like that. No doubt about it.

[cal_sitter]

You knew it for a neurological disease.

I can bring one or two individuals to mind as certainties, if they hadn't already been granted the same resistance to disease.

[shutupsammy]

Cynocephaly. It's-- people with dog heads. Widely attested to supernatural phenomenon that shows up at least somewhere in most Middle Eastern and Mediterranean texts.

They sound like real pleasant people. Still. Guess it wouldn't do any good for me. I find trouble on my own.

[cal_sitter]

I'm fairly certain I didn't have that.

You're becoming maudlin again.

[shutupsammy]

I meant that's how I knew what that word meant. Cephawhatever.

I like you. Because you give me warnings before I look like a cliche.

[cal_sitter]

You're not an idiot. Your knowledge is simply esoteric and exceedingly specialized.

Issuing warnings is one of my longstanding duties.

[shutupsammy]

That's what happens when you're a trade worker, I guess.

I know the feeling.

[cal_sitter]

We were born first. Luck of the draw.