15minuteficlets exercise 43

[camwyn]

This week's word was a little tougher than usual, at least for me. This is original material- Wayne Zhuang, and the dog he acquires from the pound one Christmas (I'll write that story eventually).

This week's word: intoxicating.

Carter burped.

Under normal circumstances no one would have noticed one more burp on a crowded city street at this hour of the night. However, there were two strikes against such a thing going unnoticed. One was that Carter was a heavily scarred, ragged-eared pit bull mix belonging to Vancouver Police Department's own detective Wayne Zhuang. The other was that the burp was followed almost immediately by-

"Aah, Jesus!" Wayne's sideways hop didn't come fast enough to save his pantleg. "What the hell?"

"Your dog threw up, Wayne," giggled the woman next to him.

Wayne gritted his teeth; the urge to tell her off right now was powerful. "Yes," he said evenly as he could, "I know. On my pants."

Carter ducked her head in very visible shame as her master started futilely trying to scrape the worst of it from his trouser leg. Dammit, she'd been fine when they left the apartment-

"Wa-aaayne, I wanna go hoooooome," the woman whined. It occurred to him that she had sounded a whole lot better in the bar.

"Gimme a min-" He stopped; there was something not right here. Carter hadn't been sick when they left Keefer Street. She looked very wobbly just now, though. "Here, girl," he murmured, holding out the cleaner of his hands to her.

Above, the woman pouted. "Waaaaaaaaaayne…"

He pinched the bridge of his nose with the other hand, instantly regretting it. "Shona, this is important, okay?"

Since he showed no signs of being angry, Carter toddled unsteadily over to her master. He pulled back one of her lips, trying to see if there were anything wrong with her gums, but the light outside the bar was too dim to make anything out. On the other hand, there was a smell, a very distinct mix of anise and alcohol.

Wayne's eyes flicked from the dog to the pavement nearby. Sure enough, there were a couple of margarine tubs. Right next to where he'd told Carter to sit and wait, too. He'd thought that was Lenny 'Lizard' Ong sneaking out the back with a bottle of Strega.

He'd just started to reassure the dog when the woman's voice broke in again. "C'mon, Wayne, I'm getting tired out here-"

It hadn't been that long since he'd last been laid.



Lenny Ong was making his way back to his car with a much steadier gait than anyone carrying a just-emptied bottle of Strega should've been able to manage. Dammit, the cop was way too alert. Must've gone back on the sleep compensators-

WHAP went the back of his head, and SMASH went the dropped bottle, and "FUCK!" went Lenny Ong as his face suddenly met the roof of his car. Somewhere behind him there was a very grim snort.

He knew that snort.

"D- de- detec'v'!" he tried, as brightly as he could. This was not successful. He had a faceful of metal, after all.

"Yeah, Lenny," growled Zhuang's voice, "It's me. Thanks so much for ruining a perfectly good off-duty evening."

"Didn' do noffin! . . . agh, m' nose. . ."

"Nothing, my ass." The arm braced against the back of Lenny's head lifted for just a second, only to be replaced by a grip on his collar. "You fucked with the wrong pooch, Lenny. I might just come back on duty for this, you know that? Intoxicating beverages to a dog- oh, that's low. . ."

Comments

[tsita.livejournal.com]

That was great. I must know more of Carter. I could also give some interesting doggie ancedotes to you. Like the dog who ate the couch...

Re:

[camwyn]

Have a gander at the latest post in my journal. I've had the general scene in my head a long time; I figured I could do with putting it down on paper, as it were.

[redwolfoz.livejournal.com]

Very cool. But then I'm a sucker for little dog anecdotes.

[intercedo-circu.livejournal.com]

*giggles*
Amusant. Tres amusant!