Felt The Need to Post This Talk With My Parents About Their Drug Use, After Seeing Them Smoke Crack, Since I Posted The Last Excerpt…I’ve Always Loved My Parents And Always Will…The Demon Of Addiction Doesn’t Care Who It Torments And Many Fall Victim… “Wassup, Pops,” I said as I walked by. “Not much, son,” he answered, “come sit on the couch when you’re through in there, so we can have a talk.” I poured me a glass of tea and walked back to the living room. As I approached my dad, he aimed the remote control at the television and turned it off.
“I once told you never to do anything behind my back or try to be sneaky. You remember that?” he started as I sat down beside him on the couch.
“Yes, sir,” I answered.
“Well,” he continued, “me and your mom haven’t been holdin’ up to our end of the bargain. You know that we’ve been getting high.”
“Yeah, Pops, I been knowin for a while now.” I could see the tears gathering in his eyes.
“Well, I can’t expect you to be honest with me if we’re not honest with you. I’m sorry,” he said as one lone tear began to trickle down his cheek. “Like I said, we’ve been gettin high. You don’t have to worry about us, and you don’t have to worry about us keeping anything from you again.”
“I know, Pops, its O. K.,” my heart went out to him. I know that it took a lot to be able to talk to me about something of that magnitude.
“You need to go in there and talk to your mom and tell her that you love her. It killed her when you walked in and saw her gettin high like that.”
“O. K., Pops.” I got up and walked over to my dad, put my arms around his neck and hugged him, “I love you, don’t ever worry about that. Nothing will ever change it.”
“I love you, too, son.” By this time, his face was wet from the tears streaming from his eyes.
I released him and walked in the direction of my parents’ bedroom. I found my mom sitting on the side of the bed, crying. I walked over and sat down beside her, putting my arm around her and said, “Stop crying, mom. It’s O. K. Me and dad had a talk. You don’t have to worry about me. I love you now and always will.”
She just turned to me and buried her head in my chest, sobbing uncontrollably. I held her that way until her crying subsided and she pulled away enough to look at me and said, “I love you, baby, with all my heart. Please, don’t look down on me.”
“I’ll never look down on you, mom. I swear. So, stop worrying. You’re my mom and I love you, too.”
She smiled at me through tear stained eyes. As long as I live, I’ll never forget that moment in time.
“You hungry?” she asked.
“Starving,” I said, and she pulled away from me and stood up.
“Then let me go make you something to eat.” And with that, she headed towards the kitchen.
One thing that I’ll always remember is that, no matter how bad things may have gotten, my mom always tried to make sure that I had something to eat. She and my dad, and everyone else in the house, for that matter, may have been geeked out of their minds on crack, but she would always make sure to go into the kitchen to cook me something to eat. While I waited for my dinner, I sat in my room and just pondered my situation. I thought, things weren’t as bad as they seemed, not really. I mean, o. k., sure, my parents smoked crack. Our house wasn’t a mansion, but at least we weren’t homeless, on skid row. As far as I could tell, we haven’t hit rock bottom, so why worry?
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small fortune that I’d made that day and stuffed it under my mattress. Tomorrow would be a new day. I smiled to myself as I thought of the possibilities that lay ahead with that much money at my disposal. The next few days came and went. The new school year was fast approaching. I spent a lot of my time at my girlfriend’s and the rest of it I spent riding around with Danny and Carrie, hitting licks………
