Halloween Re-Run # 458
The handful of non-Hashers huddled in a corner of the upstairs room at Lucky Pub. Would there be no end to the stream of load badly dressed people clumping up the stairs and taking the best seats?
The sigh of relief shook the windows when the GM ordered the pack out onto the footpath to receive their orders. Only Noel and No Knickers stayed behind, mumbling something about a heavy night.
Eighteen souls gathered for the blessing and to receive the usual metro tokens. But no! “The trail starts here,” announced hares Beer King and Just Yulia. “It’s marked with bones. Skulls are checks. Check it out!”
Off we scampered, calling and gesticulating. The trail took us towards Palats Sportu, then veered to the right. Just as we got into our stride there was a beer stop. Down into a basement bar we dived, where beer and wine were sold on-tap by the litre. We drank as much as the Hash budget would allow. Then we went back blinking into the light. It was like a symbolic resurrection.
Through the streets we ran, finding a big round skull chalked at almost every corner. “Checkpoint!” we called behind us. But the front-running bastards were so fast, and the walkers were so slow, that we were soon spread out over a vast distance. So the calling had little effect. Each little cluster of sprinters, runners, joggers, walkers, strollers or chatters that came to a checkpoint had to work out its own salvation.
It seemed like a long run by the time we came to a bland block of apartments between Respublikansky Stadion and Druzhby Narodov metro stations. Was this place chosen as a metaphor for the realm of the undead, ’twixt Heaven and Hell? No. It was chosen because Baby BJ and Shave My Ass live there and invited us back for an On-On after the Circle*.
We used a convenient table-tennis table as a bar while we waited while the tail-enders caught up and before we circled. The Hares were soundly downdowned for the shitty run of course; and more specifically for leading the pack into a pub with no loo. This could have had disastrous consequences on an urban run with hardly a tree in sight. The Acting RA was moved to sing the old Australian ballad ‘A Pub With No Beer’. The pack was visibly moved. Then the hares were downdowned again for setting the trail in a car.
Other highlights of the Circle were:
- The welcoming of Cow Slammer – a visitor from Warsaw Hash – and his downdowning for persistent gross mobile ’phone abuse.
- Downdowning of returner Wrong Exit
- Downdowning of Shave My Ass for rollerblading on the trail.
- Downdowning of everyone who had attended the US Marines’ Ball the night before.
- Downdowning of BitchQuick as the chief Front Running Bastard.
- Naming of Just Yulia. In a process that would have brought tears to the eyes of the ancient Greek inventors of democracy, she was named Witch Stick.
- Farewelling of Hilly Billy and Hardon.
For the first time in a long time Weekend Delight did not make anyone come.
On-on!
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* The Circle is the sacred gathering at the end of every run, when newcomers, visitors, virgins and returners are greeted; sinners are punished; and the Hash Hymn is sung. The On-On is a profane social gathering after the Circle.