A Test of my Mettle…

I had just arrived home from my AA meeting. I was in the kitchen warming up some leftovers for supper when I heard a knock on the door. Maggie went flying into the den whining and barking. She gets so excited when we have company. I had to fight Maggie for access to the door as I walked up. I looked out beyond the glass and it was George. In one arm was a case of beer and in the other hand was a large Papa John’s pizza. I opened the door to greet him.

“What’s up my brotha!” He exclaimed as he walked in out of the cold. “I brought some beer and pizza and we be havin’ a party!”

“George, I told you the other day that I quit drinking,” I replied.

“You just ain’t drinkin’ with the right people,” He said. “Ole George will look out for you. I won’t let you get too drunk.”

“Come on,” I replied. “Let’s have some pizza. I was just about to eat some leftovers that wouldn’t have been very good anyway. You can have the beer.”

I and George finished the whole large “All the Meats” pizza. George began to start drinking the ice beer as I turned on the television for noise.

“I’ve missed you man,” George told me. “I wish we could turn back the clock to like it be last summer. Me and you be havin’ some good times.”

“Yeah,” I replied not wanting to tell George I couldn’t remember half the times due to being so drunk I was blacked out.

Midnight rolled around and George had put a sizable dent in that case of beer. He was slurring his words and stumbling every time he had to get up to use the bathroom. I had the good foresight to sneak out to his car and remove the keys from the ignition. I stuck them in a drawer in the kitchen.

“I’ll see ya my brotha,” George finally said as he stumbled out to his car to crank it up and drive home.

Soon, he came back to my house explaining that he had lost his keys and wanted to know if he could sleep it off over here. I and George walked upstairs to turn on the heat and prepare a bed for the night. I have three bedrooms upstairs with large beds in each one. George was asleep as soon as he hit the bed and started to snore. I turned off the lights and went back downstairs. George will probably sleep until noon. He was pretty sloshed.

Now I have half a case of beer in the fridge and it is so tempting to go crack open a can for breakfast. The first thing I would do when I was drinking heavily was to open a beer first thing in the morning to stop my hands from shaking. Old habits die hard, but that is one habit I don’t want to have to relive. I think I am going to go pour out the rest of that beer and tell George he drank them all. I doubt he will remember just how many he had last night. Last night and this morning is a true test of mettle for sure.