Attribution: Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting that under the heading of “gifts-that-keep-on-giving” is the chest cold that Phyllis gave the keeper about three weeks ago and which has settled in as a cough that promises to stay with him on into his next life when he will be returning as either a barking dog that chases cars or a randy tomcat that yowls in the night.
In her defense Phyllis coughs occasionally just so the keeper does not get lonely in his constant hacking. Then she did a bit of Google research and reported that a cough can last for weeks if not months and there isn’t a lot to be done about it.
The keeper might go for the cough-duration record, but then he remembers how his dear old mom had a chronic cough that bedeviled her for decades.
Were he the suspicious type, the keeper might see a perverse plot by the two most important women in his life, perhaps a means of keeping track of his whereabouts by listening for his coughing.
He might ask Phyllis about this, and then again he might not.
Photo by Bill Stokes