{"id":1982,"date":"2024-04-01T14:50:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-01T14:50:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1982"},"modified":"2024-04-01T14:51:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-01T14:51:06","slug":"sober-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/sober-tomorrow\/1982\/","title":{"rendered":"Sober Tomorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

            \u2018How\u2019d he get in this state<\/em>?\u2019 Potter protested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You take that arm, I\u2019ll take this,\u2019 Evans directed him, murmured \u2018Now\u2019 and the two of them hauled the collapsed old man onto unsteady feet. They continued to hold him mistrustfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I\u2019ll be alri`,\u2019 the man said. His large jowls, as if transplanted from a boxer dog, wobbled with the rest of his plump body. \u2018What was the sc\u2026?\u2019 Did we wn?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

            \u2018We won. Need to get you home.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018One mo\u2019 for the v\u2019tory, boys?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Home, Dave,\u2019 Evans insisted. \u2018I\u2019ve called a cab.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Can\u2019t than` you eno`. V\u2019tory at Twickus.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The two chemists walked him out of the pub, then guided him carefully into the cab like delivery men easing a large refrigerator into a small domestic space. Back at the bar Potter, still stirred up, said: \u2018Who was <\/em>he?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018My uncle.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Likes his ale. A popular regular?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Comes for the England game. Popular? Hmm.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Gimme the goods, Gwyn. What\u2019s he done bad?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            A sigh of reluctance, then: \u2018He upset the community round here. Long time ago now.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I got it. He\u2019s your uncle so you have to stand by him whatever others think? What did he do?\u2019 Seeing Gwyn shifting uncomfortably, he added, \u2018If you don\u2019t mind me asking?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018I can\u2019t\u2026 I don\u2019t want to\u2026 He ran over a child. Killed the kiddie. He\u2019d been drinking, you see.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018That\u2019s tough. And he\u2019s still<\/em> got his drink problem for Christ\u2019s sakes.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Imbibing for Wales-England to cheer himself up. The rest of the year he doesn\u2019t touch a drop.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Potter, puzzled, asked: \u2018Do people in here accept him?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018They ignore him. He can\u2019t harm anybody now, except himself: as you\u2019ve just seen.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The young researcher scrutinised his head of project as though he were a difficult chemical formula. \u2018You\u2019re saying today only<\/em> he lets go like this?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Let\u2019s go \u2013 forgets \u2013 I don\u2019t know what you\u2019d call it. But tomorrow he\u2019ll be sober and there\u2019ll be three hundred and sixty three more days thereafter of living with himself and not being able to forget.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Well there\u2019s a story. And what happened to the child\u2019s family?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gwyn gripped the bar, shook his head, whispered, \u2018Look, I don\u2019t want to\u2026The mother moved away. The loss, it\u2026 devasted her.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018That\u2019s awful. And the dad?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Another sigh of reluctance. \u2018You\u2019re talking to him.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018You\u2019re\u2026? You mean she\u2019s your wife?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018Ex-wife.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018And you\u2019ve forgiven<\/em> your uncle?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018It was twenty years ago. I\u2019ve moved on. You have to or you end up like Dave. Today he\u2019s in the present; every other day he\u2019s looking back.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u2018What can I\u2026? I didn\u2019t know.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018You\u2019d no need to. Look, I\u2019d best be off.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Sure. See you in the lab tomorrow then.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Yfory, Barry.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potter watched him go. Gwyn was bloody heroic! Who cared whether England or Wales won? That child, Dave: he couldn\u2019t grasp it. His pint glass on the bar: was it studying him like some large eye? No, none of it made sense. He pushed the glowering glass away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            \u2018How\u2019d he get in this state?\u2019 Potter protested. \u2018You take that arm, I\u2019ll take this,\u2019 Evans directed him, murmured \u2018Now\u2019 and the two of them hauled the collapsed old man onto unsteady feet. They continued to hold him mistrustfully.             \u2018I\u2019ll be alri`,\u2019 the man said. His large jowls, as if transplanted from a […]<\/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":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211":"","twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[{"account":"facebook_10158782359051062_103813597863211","service":"facebook","timestamp":1752596450,"status":"success"},{"account":"twitter_1225722811282530305_1225722811282530305","service":"twitter","timestamp":1752596636,"status":"error"}],"rop_publish_now_status":"done","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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1129,1197],"tags":[155,1206,991,8,122,20,119,31,816,1205,9,876,118,755,159],"class_list":["post-1982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1129","category-march-2024-tomorrow","tag-don","tag-evans","tag-get","tag-he","tag-him","tag-his","tag-ll","tag-man","tag-now","tag-potter","tag-said","tag-take","tag-they","tag-two","tag-what"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbrNJE-vY","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\/1982","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=1982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1982\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swanseawriterscircle.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}