You know how somebody says or does something that almost demands a sharply worded response or a cautionary speech you know will be useless, but you manage to restrain yourself?

When my mother would come home and tell me one of these incidents in which she “kept her tongue behind her teeth,” as Gandalf advised, she would say:

And the blood ran down from the corner of my mouth from biting my tongue.

Not a very appealing picture, but very useful when we faced such a situation together. We’d look at each other, and one of us would put a finger to the side of our mouth and trace the line the blood would take, and we’d keep our tongues behind our teeth.

This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s weekly blog hop, One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner or just like them, follow the link.

A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Such a situation.

MA