Authors: Sharon Short

Hung Out to Die (29 page)

“I came back early,” she said.

Rusty Wilton and Lorraine McMurphy, the antique store owners.

Luke and Greta Rhinegold, the Red Horse Motel owners.

Don Richmond and Mary Rossbergen, from Stillwater.

And even Caleb Loudermilk, although in this spiritual collection of siblings and nephews and cousins and aunts and uncles and parents and grandparents, I wasn't sure yet just where he fit in.

There were not enough seats for all of them, of course. But they stayed and chatted and talked and even laughed with me, fussing over me when the nurse brought in dinner for me: turkey slices and gravy and mashed potatoes and green beans and cranberries. At last, I was having my Thanksgiving meal.

Apparently, I was the only patient happy that the hospital was still serving Thanksgiving food. Although I have to say, Aunt Nora's cranberry sauce was much better. I wondered if she would ever give me the secret recipe and then decided that no, she probably wouldn't.

Finally the nurse came back in and shooed everyone out, and insisted on giving me another dose of painkiller.

Sally was the last to leave. Before she went, she pulled a framed photo out of her big handbag, and handed it to me.

It was my photo of Guy with his pumpkins, the one I always kept on my nightstand. “Thought you'd want that,” she said. “He's here in spirit, you know.”

I nodded. “I know,” I said.

Sally patted my arm and walked out, brushing the dividing curtain. In the swaying of the curtain, I thought I saw for just a brief second the fog thin images of Mrs. Oglevee, Aunt Clara, and Uncle Horace, all smiling at me.

I closed my eyes, heard the woman from the bed in 53A say, as I drifted off again, “That's some family you have.”

“Sure is,” I said.

PARADISE ADVERTISER-GAZETTE

Josie's Stain Busters

by Josie Toadfern
Stain Expert and Owner of Toadfern's Laundromat
(824 Main Street, Paradise, Ohio)

Vinegar solves an amazing number of life's problems. Just not heartache. Although I have heard of folks making a tonic of apple cider vinegar for various ailments.

But this is a column about stain removal, for which of course you only want to use pure WHITE vinegar.

In a spray bottle, mix up â water and â vinegar. Label the bottle and use it to pre-treat any number of stains (after blotting up as much of the spill as possible with a white absorbent cloth):

â¢ Cranberry sauce (and other fruit-based stains)

â¢ Spaghetti sauce (and other tomato-based stains)

â¢ Deodorant and anti-perspirant stains

â¢ Perspiration stains

â¢ Pet stains (urine) or people stains of the same nature

â¢ Cola stains

Wait at least 10 minutes before treating with enzymatic pretreatment and washing as usual.

Remember, white vinegar is actually acetic acid, so if you want to use this solution on finer or fragile fabrics, test a hidden spot first, then apply just to the stain with an eyedropper.

You can also spray your knits with the solution before ironing if you want a sharper crease.

This vinegar/water solution is great outside the laundry, too. Use it to clean glasses (both the drinking and seeing kind), countertops, mirrors, windows, spigots, and sinks.

Full strength white vinegar is a good glue and gum dissolver. Heated on the stove top or microwave, it works even better. (But be careful about using vinegar full-strength on woodâthe acid can hurt wood.)

Add about a half cup of white vinegar to your rinse cycle to reduce lint, remove built-up detergent, reduce static cling, and prevent yellowing.

But never ever mix vinegar and chlorine bleach, or use vinegar on clothes that have been treated with bleach! The two chemicals will mix and may release a harmful gas. Clean clothes and linens are a joy in life but not worth harming yourself over.

Until next month, may your whites never yellow and your colors never fade. But if they do, hop on over and see me at Toadfern's LaundromatâAlways a Leap Ahead of Dirt!

About the Author

Author photo by David Short

SHARON SHORT
's humor column, “Sanity Check,” appears every Monday in the
Dayton Daily News,
and covers everything from shredding pantyhose for stress relief to talking refrigerators. Her fiction credits include several short mysteries published in
Futures Mysterious Anthology Magazine, Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine,
and
Orchard Press Online Mystery Magazine.
In addition, Ms. Short is a principal of her own marketing communications firm. She lives in Centerville, Ohio, with her husband and two daughters. Readers can find Josie's stain tips at
www.sharonshort.com
or contact Sharon at
[email protected].

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Also by Sharon Short

D
EATH IN THE
C
ARDS

D
EATH BY
D
EEP
D
ISH
P
IE

D
EATH OF A
D
OMESTIC
D
IVA

T
IE
D
YED AND
D
EAD

M
URDER
U
NFOLDS

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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H
UNG OUT TO DIE
Copyright Â© 2006 by Sharon Short. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

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ISBN-13 978-0-06-079324-1

ISBN-10 0-06-079324-4

EPub Edition September 2013 ISBN 9780062330468

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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