Denise Drinks Again

by Lois Harbinger

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Denise adjusted the tilt on her umbrella to its most upright position. Even though she was only 42, her skin was showing signs of age. Her boyfriend Ralph kept telling her it was because she drank too much. That was ridiculous. It was because of the sun. She had read that in an article once while she was waiting in line at the supermarket. That’s why it was so important to keep in the shade.

She shifted her legs so that they would stay out of the sun and took another gulp of her vodka and orange juice. Ralph wouldn’t have approved of her drinking that early in the morning. But hell, it was almost noon.

Denise’s best friend, Molly, had given her the name of an alcohol rehab center. Well, Molly wasn’t her best friend any more. Who did she think she was? Sure Denise liked to drink. What was the harm of that?
Of course, her ex-husband thought it was a problem. But what did he know? He sorted his socks.

She looked off the deck into her back yard. It was looking pretty bad. Ralph refused to come over to help her with it. He said she should drink less and do more yard work. Her ex was the one who used to take care of it. While Denise sat under the umbrella and drank.

Maybe, she thought, she did drink a little too much. Her boss warned her about coming into work with vodka on her breath. If only, she thought. If only she had a sign.

When Denise turned back to her drink, she jolted. A spider had let itself down from the rib of the umbrella and was hanging by a thin thread just a hair’s breath from her drink. Then, as if it were an Olympic swimmer, it jumped into the yellow liquid.

She grabbed the glass and stood up, upsetting her chair. She was deathly afraid of spiders. She ran to the railing and hurled the drink, glass and all into the back yard. Then she slowly went into the house and poured all her vodka down the sink.

Somewhere, she knew, she still had the phone number of that rehab center.