Cadge

cadge
verb, transitive. To ask for or obtain something to which one is not strictly entitled.

Jill parked her tray on the bar and mopped it as she waited for Caleb to approach so she could relay her drink orders. Things were slow for 5:15 on a Friday. They'd pick up soon. "They'd better," she mused. Her rent was due in three days and she needed tips.

Caleb was taking his time. He had turned from the cooler door at the far end of the bar to chat with one of the regulars perched on a stool there. Jill watched them, calculating. He would be a minute or two, she judged, and since Donnie wasn't here yet....

She dug in her apron for the pack and extracted a cigarette. She dropped her eyes and studied it as she flicked her lighter. She usually refrained from smoking on the job, but things really were slow, except for the order for that one booth she still hadn't given to Caleb. She glanced at its occupants. They were deep in conversation, leaning toward each other. She wondered what their story was. Businessmen cobbling up a deal? Drug dealers? With a mental shrug, she turned back to the mirror behind the bar and watched herself take a couple of drags. As usual, the act calmed her, but the clock in her head never stopped for long. She dropped the cigarette into the spool-shaped snuffer in the staff ashtray.

"Caleb?" she called. He was talking and didn't respond. She wished she hadn't put the cigarette out and took a deep breath.

Just then the street door opened and admitted a husky woman. When Jill recognized her, she groaned aloud. Marci. Marci, the trainee barmaid, whose customers complained about her body odor, and who couldn't seem to understand that her homeliness was the reason her tips were so meager. Marci, who would spend the rest of the shift cadging Jill's cigarettes, explaining that she needed to smoke so she could get her weight down. Jill's enthusiasm for the evening's work evaporated. She rarely reacted to people this way, but she had developed a strong dislike for Marci after working with her for only one night.

"Caleb!" she barked. "Order up!"

He didn't linger with the regular, but spun on a toe and headed toward her. "I heard you the first time," he remarked testily. "What's the rush? I saw you light up." Then he noticed Marci and his gaze flicked to Jill's face. She thought she read sympathy there. She hoped so. She needed it.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Badger

badger
verb, transitive. To ask someone repeatedly and annoyingly for something; to pester. Also, a noun.

He recoiled from the odor of alcohol on Frank's breath and studied his son's face. Yes, the young man wore that slightly silly grin Mark had noticed every time Frank had been drinking in secret. Mark started to speak, then paused. How much and how often could he badger Frank about this before Frank's ability to listen simply shut down?

"Maybe I'm too close to him to get through to him," Mark thought. "Maybe I should be dragging him to AA meetings instead." The idea elicited a chuckle. Frank outweighed him by a minimum of thirty pounds. Dragging him anywhere would be a brief exercise, at best. "I don't even know where to find an AA meeting," he continued silently. Mark had quit drinking without the support system afforded by Alcoholics Anonymous. He had done so by recognizing that he would die if he didn't. Die sick and alone, after losing his good job and probably all his friends. After his boss had approached him and delivered an ultimatum, he had never taken another drink again. He talked to Sherry about his decision and asked her for her support. He suffered through three days of cravings and strange dreams--near-nightmares--then realized that he was beginning to feel better, and feel better about himself, than he had in a long time. He had never been tempted to drink again after that.

Frank had been too young when Mark quit to recall his father's behavior when he drank, but Frank had evidently inherited the tendency to be an alcoholic. Mark knew he had to figure out some way of helping his son, if he didn't want to lose him.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Abate

abate
verb, intransitive. Of something perceived as hostile, threatening, or negative, to become less intense or widespread.
verb, transitive. To cause to become smaller or less intense. To lessen, reduce, or remove,  especially in reference to a nuisance.

Even though they had never been through one before, the roar of an approaching tornado was unmistakable. They had been watching television, regular programming pre-empted by alarming weather reports, when the power went off and they heard the noise. Their eyes met in the storm-dimmed light of late afternoon.

"Sounds as if we got the cellar built in the nick of time," she remarked. "We'd better go use it."

Uncharacteristically, he said nothing--only nodded.

They paused only to grab what each considered the most important things: his wallet and metal detector; her purse and laptop; then hurried outside. The wind was strong in the eastern lee of the house. Outside that shelter, it was difficult to walk upright. Fortunately, it was only ten yards from the house to the storm cellar entrance. He opened the sturdy door and they entered the stillness within gratefully and descended the steps.

Inside, several feet of earth muffled the sound of the approaching twister. She elbowed the switch to turn on the battery-powered light, then put her burdens down. She turned to her husband. "I hope it doesn't take the house. Just the thought of having to replace all our stuff makes me ill."

He put his arms around her. "If it happens, it happens. That's why we have insurance. We'll still be alive." She nodded.

They stood, embracing, and listened to the muted sound of the wind. In a very short time--ten minutes, perhaps--it abated. They dropped their arms and searched each other's faces.

"Time to look," she said.

He went first. As she was about to mount the steps, she turned and looked at the little room where they had hidden from the storm's fury. Her father had badgered her until she got the loan and had this cellar built. Now, as she had so many times in her life, she was glad she had listened to him. Today, his advice might have saved their lives.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Zing

zing
verb, intransitive. To move swiftly. To attack or criticize sharply.
noun. Energy, enthusiasm, or liveliness. In cooking, a strong or piquant flavor.

Carol narrowed her eyes as her niece entered the apartment. Compared to her usual carefully-groomed appearance, Zoe looked awful: barefoot, no makeup hiding the acne, her hair gathered untidily in a scrunchie, falling in an uncombed pony tail. Carol was tempted to zing the girl with a caustic remark, then she noticed Zoe's red-rimmed eyes. She had been crying, and recently.

Carol returned her attention to the frying pan full of bacon. They had all cried a lot this week. Long talks and even some laughter had been punctuated by spells of crippling grief. She was glad they could all stay in the same building. Her mother's retirement community had two "guest apartments" they were currently occupying. All the same, the closeness also had its drawbacks. Her patience with her nephews and with this niece in particular was wearing thin.

"Would you like bacon and eggs, Zoe?" she called to the girl, who was standing by the dining table, staring into space.

Zoe shook slightly as she mentally returned from some distant place. "Um ... no. I don't think so." She sounded vague, uncertain.

Carol picked up a strip of sizzling bacon and lay it down in the pan on its other side. Frying this package was taking forever. She wished she had baked the entire pound, as she usually did, but had not been able to face the prospect of searching for the broiler pan in this unfamiliar kitchen.

Where were the others? She wondered how many would want eggs, and would Dad feel like eating bacon and eggs or should she fix him....

It had happened again: for a moment she had forgotten he was dead, and that his death was the reason they were all here, the reason everyone kept breaking into tears. Her father was gone, and was never coming back. The little girl inside her who had never grown up wailed silently in anguish and Carol felt her own tears emerge again as she stood sentry over the cooking meat.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Tangle

tangle
verb, transitive. To twist together intp a confused mass. Usually "be tangled."
verb, intransitive. "Tangle with" To become involved in a conflict or fight with.
Also a noun. A confused or complicated state, a muddle. A fight, argument or disagreement.

Susan thought as she sat at the bare table and waited. She knew someone would enter soon and interrogate her. She needed to be as alert as possible. She had tangled her stories so intricately that she feared she would be unable to keep them straight in her own mind.

She closed her eyes and pictured the setting before the fight began. She hadn't paid much attention to the two men at the bar as she went about her job, taking orders and serving drinks, except to note that they spent more time facing each other than they were spending looking at the ranked bottles of spirits before the mirrored barback. They were not her problem. They were the bartender's responsibility.

Her back had been toward them when she heard the outburst of cries and shattering glass. She turned to see one of the two men's follow-through after he had thrown something. The other was reaching to grab his arms. The bartender was nowhere to be seen. Other customers were leaping to their feet and crying out in fright or anger--difficult to tell. Susan had abandoned the table whose order she had been jotting down and rushed to the bar, to see Buddy, the bartender, struggling to his feet on the slatted floor behind it, blood dripping from a cut on his temple. Shards of a whisky glass lay near him, and a broken bottle on the barback dripped down the mahogany and brass doors.

Susan joined Buddy and supported him as he rose, then staggered.

"We're going in back, Buddy," she told him. "I want to look at that cut in good light."

He murmured, but she couldn't make out words in the rising din of the bar. She was aware that people were swaying and punches were flying near where the two men stood, but her priority was Buddy. She was just realizing that the man who had thrown the glass at him was someone she knew. Knew, but hadn't seen in a long, long time.

"Carlos," she whispered. What was he doing here? I thought he was long out of my life. Now he's turned up again. He was nothing but trouble before and it looks as if he hasn't changed a bit. Surely he hadn't come to see her. Or had he? She had been useful to him once, and he probably thought she might be so again, but she hadn't noticed him eyeing her earlier. Perhaps he hadn't recognized her. She had lost weight and let her hair revert to its natural brown. If he hadn't come to the bar to find her, why had he come?

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.

Undeceive

undeceive
verb, transitive. To tell someone that an idea or belief is mistaken.

He paused when he reached the section on the application that asked, "Have you ever worked for or applied to this company before? If so, give dates and details."

He chuckled. Yes, he had worked for this company before--32 years before, to be specific. He had tolerated the abuse for five months before quitting without notice. Five years after that, he had returned and submitted an application after being laid off from the company that had hired him after that. They wouldn't meet his salary requirement and that was the end of that. He had then been hired by a company that took full advantage of his talents and grew explosively. He had worked there happily for twenty-five years. Then the boss retired and things changed.

He bent to the application again and scribbled details about the application he had filed with thm twenty-seven years ago. When he finished, there was no room to add anything about his previous stint of working there that ended so badly.

He carried the finished application to the receptionist and handed it over. He thanked her for the opportunity and left the building.

As he drove to his next prospect, he reflected that he hadn't recognized anyone he saw in the office and was unaware of anyone from his previous time there who was still employed. If they didn't check their old records, they might never discover the omission. If they did, he would undeceive them and explain it by stating that there hadn't been enough room on the application to include that earlier job with them.

Definitions adapted from The New Oxford American Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005 (eBook Edition, copyright 2008), and from Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Publishers, Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, 1965, depending on which is more convenient to hand.