{"id":1517,"date":"2023-03-10T08:38:45","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T08:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1517"},"modified":"2023-03-10T08:38:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T08:38:50","slug":"the-aftermath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/the-aftermath\/1517\/","title":{"rendered":"The Aftermath<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jack was woken up by the sound of his mobile\u2019s bleep.  Bleary eyed he raised himself off the bed.  His mother\u2019s voice message jolted him awake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Jack love, I know its early but I thought I\u2019d better let you know, we\u2019re coming home a day early, problem with airline strikes tomorrow. Just giving you the heads up.  Put the hoover over will you.  Bye love.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u2018Oh God no.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack threw a pair of boxer\u2019s on and hurried downstairs. He found his mate Pete fast asleep on the settee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Pete, what the hell are you doing here?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Leave me alone, I wanna sleep.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack kicked him again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You gotta get up man.  My mum\u2019s on her way home.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It\u2019s Wednesday, not Thursday bro.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I know, but she\u2019s coming back today.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pete reluctantly got up, belched twice, and headed for the kitchen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack\u2019s memory of the previous night in the local slammed into his brain.  The curry had definitely not been a good idea.  He could hear Pete throwing up in the kitchen, as his own stomach started to tumble over like a washing machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The least he should do was to try and clean the place up a bit.  He put his headphones on to muffle out the vacuum cleaner\u2019s roar as it went across the carpets. As he grabbed the cushions back up off the floor his nose wrinkled, there was a distinct smell of vomit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018I\u2019m dead.  She is going to kill me!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What\u2019s the problem man?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You, that\u2019s the problem.  You\u2019ve thrown up all over the settee.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Oh. Sorry, my bad.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Damn right it is, you\u2019ve got to help me clean it, I\u2019ll try and find some stuff to clean this up.  You open some windows to get rid of some of the stench.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack sprayed the offensive stains  with some carpet cleaner and then hovered it off five minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The stains coming off, thank God, but it still stinks.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You could just ask Tracey, to help you, she knows about this stuff.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018How can I ask Tracy?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018If you shout any louder, she\u2019ll hear you, she\u2019s sleeping in your parent\u2019s bed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack\u2019s pale face turned even whiter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018What\u2019s all this noise, I\u2019m trying to sleep.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack held his head in his hands when Tracy descended the stairs wearing his father\u2019s best shirt, and he wondered if it was possible for the day to get any worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She took charge and delved into the cupboard beneath the sink and pulled out a bottle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018My mother swears by this, it will get rid off everything.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Walking towards the settee, she tripped over the hoover cable.  The top of the bleach bottle flew off and its contents followed.  Dalmatian spots emerged before Jack\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The acrid smell of the bleach was too much for Jack\u2019s current constitution, his stomach gave up the fight to hold anything down and he ran for the bathroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tracey and Pete both headed outside, just as the taxi was pulling up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jack was woken up by the sound of his mobile\u2019s bleep.  Bleary eyed he raised himself off the bed.  His mother\u2019s voice message jolted him awake. \u2018Jack love, I know its early but I thought I\u2019d better let you know, we\u2019re coming home a day early, problem with airline strikes tomorrow. Just giving you the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[695,700],"tags":[20,707,74],"class_list":["post-1517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-695","category-feb-2023-the-stain","tag-his","tag-jack","tag-up"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-ot","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1518,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1517\/revisions\/1518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}