Page 252 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

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JIM’S STORY 237
she spoke to me about it, and I would say that I had a
bad cold or that I wasn’t feeling well. That went on
for maybe two months, and then she got after me again
about drinking. At that time the repeal whiskeys were
back, and I’d go to the store and buy my whiskey and
take it to my office and put it under the desk, first in
one place and then in another, and there soon was an
accumulation of empty bottles. My brother-in-law
was living with us at that time, and I said to Vi,
“Maybe the bottles are Brother’s. I don’t know. Ask
him about it. I don’t know anything about the bot­
tles.” I actually wanted a drink, besides feeling that I
had to have a drink. From that point on, it’s just the
average drinker’s story.
I got to the place where I’d look forward to the
weekend’s drinking and pacify myself by saying that
the weekends were mine, that it didn’t interfere with
my family or with my business if I drank on the week­
ends. But the weekends stretched on into Mondays,
and the time soon came when I drank every day. My
practice at that juncture was just barely getting us a
living.
A peculiar thing happened in 1940. That year, on
a Friday night, a man whom I had known for years
came to my office. My father had treated him many
years prior to this. This man’s wife had been suffering
for a couple of months, and when he came in he owed
me a little bill. I filled a prescription for him. The
following day, Saturday, he came back and said, “Jim,
I owe you for that prescription last night. I didn’t pay
you.” I thought, “I know you didn’t pay me, because
you didn’t get a prescription.” He said, “Yes. You
know the prescription that you gave me for my wife