22 Years Is a Long Time

[WARNING: REFERENCES TO DRUG USE AND ILLEGALLY OBTAINED EXPLOSIVES.]

[DISCLAIMER: MY MOTHER NO LONGER PERFORMS NOR CONDONES ILLEGAL ACTS. READ WITH YOUR OWN DISCRETION.]

MY MOM WOULD ALSO LIKE TO ADD THAT THIS WAS 22 YEARS AGO AND THAT SHE NEVER WOULD HAVE TOLD ME ANYTHING LIKE THIS IF IT WERE NOT FOR MURPHY SPILLING THE BEANS. CAT'S OUT OF THE BAG NOW, HUH MURPHY?? [I would like to add that Murphy is also clean and does not perform nor condone illegal acts. He also totally rocks. Oh! And I was with my Dad last night. XD]

 OH, AND THE FACT THAT SHE WAS HALF ASLEEP AND HALF DRUNK FROM THE NIGHT BEFORE. ALSO, HER DAD HAS CANCER AND SHE IS GOING OVER TO HIS HOUSE TODAY TO DISCUSS HIS WILL, SO SHE IS NOT IN HER BEST HEAD SPACE AND WOULD NOT NORMALLY TELL THIS STORY.

My Mom laid on her bed, peering at her phone with bleary eyes and wondering if she should give up trying to get back t6o sleep.

To make conversation, I told her about some of the properties of C4. When I mentioned that it mimics dynamite in many ways (except that it's easier to control), she suddenly got a strange gleam in her eyes.

"I had dynamite once." She said.

"What?" I asked. "Why?"

"Well... I was 14," She started, that funny look still in her eyes. I made myself more comfortable. This was going to be a story.

"My best friend's dad... He was a scary biker dude.* He'd give us drugs... And he was a pedophile."

I remembered some stuff about this guy. He was totally insane. I think he's dead now.

"Anyway... He went to Mexico and came back with a huge dufflebag full of M80's. Quarter sticks of dynamite. And he thought that they were perfect for a bunch kids on the Fourth of July. So he gave them to us. A bunch of delinquent druggies." She gave a slight pause then, seemingly remembering some dark past. "Let me tell you. There isn't a more perfect recipe for disaster then drugged out, delinquent teenagers, LSD, dynamite, morse code, and red tide. Not the laundry soap red tide. The glowing, washed-up-on-the-beach red tide."

"You knew morse code??" I asked, horrified and fascinated.

"Nooope." She said, shaking her head.

"Oh." I managed.

*I've met some biker dudes and I know that they aren't all scary. The one my Mom's talking about is.