THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE

Gill groaned, opened one eye.  The room spun and blurred out of focus.  Who or what had he done last night?  He slowly opened his other eye.  He blinked, trying to bring the room in to view.

A snore sounded beside him.  Turning his head, his bed companion came into sight.  Louie!  Next to him lay Hadley and Ranger.  All four snored as if in unison.  The onerous sound slammed into him, bouncing around his mind and brain before leaving out the other side with several more echoes off the walls beside him.  Waves of pain rushed down his neck, warping through his throat before splashing like a huge boulder in the pit of his churning gut.   Not wanting to shame himself in front of the board of Rattigan’s Microbrewery, Gill bolted upright, clapping his hand over his mouth.  His volcanic stomach spewed his molten contents upward, scorching his throat as his eyes watered.  Swaying like the room before Gill rushed for the cool porcelain awaiting him in the mayoral bedroom’s bath suite.  

The celebratory party and sampling of the first batches of Acorn Ale, Brazil Nut Dark, and Mixed Nut Chocolate Beer might not be the resounding success they initially thought. 

Meanwhile across town, Bettina downed two human aspirin while eying the blond haired male leaning against the bar.  Her tongue and mouth felt like a Mac truck fully loaded and its mud flaps full of obnoxious gritting mud passed through leaving half of its load behind.  On the bar sat a half empty glass of vilest brew she consumed.  No one said consuming the hair of the dog that bit you the night before was going to be savory.  What had Tyburn called the concoction?    She pointed to the glass and spoke, “What the frig is that stuff?”

Tyburn picked up glass, sniffed, and sat it down.  “This is one hundred year old Phoenix Ambrosia.  Same thing you drank last night.”

“That shit is potent,” Bettina groaned sliding off the bar stool she’d been semi-sitting on.  “There’s no way we can serve that to shifters, much less humans.”

Tyburn chuckled.  “Well the recipe I provided you and Louie is modified to allow human consumption.  Rachel would pluck all my feathers out if I provided you the original instructions.  Though I doubt you could find the key ingredient anywhere in this realm.”

Bettina tried to nod.  She should have known better.  Her stomach voiced its protest and voted to mark the ballot too.  She lurched forward, her hand over her mouth as she raced toward the area marked restrooms at the back of the bar.

Tyburn sauntered back into Rattigan’s kitchen wondering if his new business partners knew much about drinking and sampling their product.  Some of his best recipes were fermenting as others processed.  Rachel’s idea of finding something useful to engage in appeared to be paying off. 

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Happpy Weekend Gang!

Spring appears to be taking the Peak by something.  First Karaoke at the Gazette and now the Microbrewry is adding to their production.

Who knows what a karaoke night and the new brews will do for business at Rattagin's?  There might be a week's worth of flashes on that alone brewing.  LOL!!  Of course Tyburn sharing his recipes might not be what Rachel had in mind when she mentioned community involvement!

I'm working on a few more stores and ideas in between bouts of work at my day job.  The Spice Homestead is celebrating a few things ourselves this weekend.  As we relax together, we'll share a few good books or two with our spice and loves.  Remember to do the same with yours.

Until next week,

Solara