{"id":1765,"date":"2012-04-20T19:38:58","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T23:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=1765"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:33:31","slug":"my-lucky-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=1765","title":{"rendered":"My Lucky Day (by Cheaux)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary<\/strong>: \u00a0Joe has some explaining to do . . . \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rated:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>K \u00a0WC \u00a0600<\/span><\/p>\n

Story Notes:<\/strong> \u00a0Pinecone 2012 challenge where the opening line was provided. \u00a0We were allowed to substitute a character of our choosing for the name in the original sentence.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer:<\/strong> All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.<\/p>\n

\u00a0My Lucky Day<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

by Cheaux<\/span><\/p>\n

When I finally caught up with my brother Hoss, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Now, the first thing you need to know, Sheriff, is that my brother Hoss and spring just don\u2019t get along real well.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s that?\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to hear with these bandages around my head.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, you want to know why?\u00a0 Well, see every spring\u2014on the first day of spring to be exact\u2014my brother comes down with a real bad case of The Fever.\u00a0 Not the happy kind, you know, when a young man\u2019s fancy\u2014what?\u00a0 Oh, sorry.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know your daughter was in the room.\u00a0 I can\u2019t turn my head because of the neck brace.\u00a0 My apologies, Miss\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, there\u2019s no reason to get huffy, Sheriff, I was just\u2014okay, okay.\u00a0 Where was I?\u00a0 Oh, yeah, Hoss and spring fever.\u00a0 Well, he gets the mopey-down-in-the-dumps-can\u2019t-eat-nothin\u2019-walks-into-walls-heebie-jeebies kind of spring fever.\u00a0 Downright dangerous he is to be around, let me tell you!\u00a0 I mean all kinds of peculiar things happen to everyone around him when he\u2019s like that.<\/span><\/p>\n

A cure?\u00a0 Oh, our Pa has tried everything; even wrote to some specialist back east for advice.\u00a0 Closest thing we come across what tempers him a bit is a mash of sulphur and\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Smell?\u00a0 You bet!\u00a0 Our cows give sour milk for a month after we cook that slop.\u00a0 And getting it in him\u2014well, it takes half a dozen men at least to hold him down, that is, if we can find any willing to take the risk even for triple pay!<\/span><\/p>\n

How did we wind up here?\u00a0 Well, Hoss has been banned from every town east of Sacramento.\u00a0 What\u2019s that you say?\u00a0\u00a0 Make that east of the Pacific from now on?\u00a0 Gotcha.\u00a0 If you\u2019ll just help me up, I\u2019ll\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you mean I can\u2019t leave?\u00a0 Oh, right, I still owe you an explanation.\u00a0 Well, see, Hoss knew he couldn\u2019t stay at the ranch with spring comin\u2019, and no town would have him, so he took to the open road.\u00a0\u00a0 But our Pa, he got worried.\u00a0 You don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to live with my Pa when he\u2019s worried about a lost son.\u00a0 Well, actually, neither do I since I\u2019m usually the one that\u2019s lost, but that\u2019s another\u2014 what?\u00a0 Oh, yeah.\u00a0 Guess that laudanum the doc give me when he set my shoulder has made me a little loopy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, I outsmarted our older brother by taking off after Hoss before he could.\u00a0 Stuck poor Adam at home with Pa.\u00a0 Yes, I did.\u00a0 Boy, am I lucky or what?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What?\u00a0 \u2018Course I am!\u00a0 Found Hoss didn\u2019t I?\u00a0 Okay, okay, so he left me a trail a mile wide\u2014which is pretty funny when you think about him being an expert tracker and all\u2014but it was still lucky that I found him in a town with a doctor, doncha think?\u00a0 Oh, and chores\u2014can\u2019t forget I won\u2019t have to do chores for at least two months!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, if you\u2019ll just hand me that crutch . . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0The End<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

End Notes:<\/span><\/p>\n

The opening line was from\u00a0The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: \u00a0Joe has some explaining to do . . . \u00a0<\/p>\n

Rated:\u00a0\u00a0K \u00a0WC \u00a0600<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23,4,1007,8,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-humor","category-joe-cartwright","category-short-stories","category-challenges","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-4-id","wpcat-1007-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-40-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Bankrun.jpg?fit=768%2C576&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}