This particular night my father was working the night shift which usually meant Drew (My older brother, 19) was in charge, but this night Drew was out so Jeff (My second brother, 16) was the one who stayed home with Allison (My little sister, 7) I was out with my friends for most of the evening and as usual, I came home late. My curfu was nine o' clock and I knew this, but for some reason I just couldn't get myself home on time.
It was after eleven when I walked in the house. If Drew would have been home I could have expected to see him sitting at the kitchen table waiting for me to come threw the door so he could yell at me, but being Jeff was the one home, god knew what I would walk into. So I crept along looking behind every corner waiting to be pounced on, but there was nothing. The house was dark and quiet. I thought maybe everyone was downstairs in the family room so I went down the steps to see, but all was quiet and dark there also. I figured Jeff just got tired of waiting up for me and went to bed.
I was about to walk up the steps when I remembered the joint my friend Jason had given to me, which he stole from his brothers room. We would have tested it out together at his house, but his mother was home. So he gave it to me and told me to tell him what effect it had on me. So since Jeff and Allison were asleep, Drew was out on a date and my dad was on duty till real late, I decided to try it out. My Aunt smoked cigarettes down there when she came over, so it wasn't like the smoke would matter, who would know.
Now I know I was being stupid, but I was curious. I was thirteen and had no idea that pot had a very distinct smell. One my father, a police officer going on eighteen years, would know right away. So I got some matches which were on the mantle above the fireplace, and sat down on the floor.
I looked at the joint for a minute, then I smelled it. It smelled a little funny and it looked a little weird, but that didn't stop me from putting it in my mouth and lighting a match. When I touched the flame to the end the flame shot up and singed my eyebrows and hair in the front. "AH, _f_u_c_k_." I yelled rubbing my hair.
Once I knew I was not on fire I drew a hit from the joint. It was a little like smoking a cigarette which I had also experimented with from time to time. But this didn't smell like any cigarette to me. It stunk to tell you the truth, but I did not put it out. I took another hit and waited for something to happen. But I didn't feel anything. I thought maybe I did it wrong so I took another hit. Still nothing happened.
(Maybe there's something wrong with this one) I thought looking at the joint closely. I was inhaling the smoke into my lungs on the fourth hit when the lights came on.
"Mike, is that you?" Allison asked from the top of the steps.
I gasped and choked on the smoke "Yeah, it's me. Go back to bed." I said, frantically trying to find a place to throw the joint.
She came running down the steps in a hurry. "You are so late, Jeff is really mad." She said then suddenly the pot smell hit her. "What are you doing?"
"I'm not doing anything." I said throwing the rest of the joint into the fireplace.
"What was that?"
Suddenly my brother came bounding down the steps. "You better have a good explanation for this little brother." He yelled, but then the smell hit him too and he stopped in his tracks.
"What is that?" He asked looking very shocked.
"What?" I said trying to look innocent but failing horribly.
"That smell..........It smells like you've been smoking pot down here."
"No way, why would I be smoking pot down here?"
"Yes." He said still sniffing the air. "That is pot.....I've smelled it enough to know..........are you crazy smoking that _s_h_i_t_ in here?" He said as he walked around the room.
"It's nothing, I swear."
"Jeff does this have anything to do with that smell." Ally said pulling the joint out of the fireplace.
"Oh, give me that Ally." I said reaching for it quickly.
"No, let me have it Ally." He said taking it from her first.
I was caught and I felt sick about it. (What was my father going to say about this?) I asked myself.
Jeff looked at the joint in his hand for a long time, then his eyes shifted to me.
"What? Do you want to finish it?" I asked.
"NO!! I don't want this _s_h_i_t_."
I turned and started to walk up the steps but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back.
"Are you some kind of dope head now? You smoke this _s_h_i_t_ a lot."
"That's none of your _f_u_c_k_ing business," I yelled shaking him off.
The look he gave me, I can't explain it. Something inside told me to RUN, and run I did, right up the steps towards my room.
"Come back here !" He yelled and ran up behind me.
"Jeff wait," Ally yelled running behind him.
He was fast and I knew I would never make it to the confines of my own room so I ran into Allison's room which was at the top of the stairs, and quickly shut and locked the door.
"Open this door." He yelled after trying the knob. Then he started to beat on it with his fist.
"Stop it." Ally shouted.
"It's OK Ally, go into Daddy's room for a while."
"No!"
"Open up Michael...I want to know where you got this _s_h_i_t_." He pounded.
"_f_u_c_k_ off!"
I sat on the floor and watched the door. Suddenly everything got quiet. I jumped up and pressed my ear to the door and listened as Allison asked him who he was calling.
Calling? I thought in panic. I opened the door quickly and ran into his room, where I saw him on the phone.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm calling Dad."
"No, please don't call him..........Please I'll do anything" I said even though I knew the rule about getting into trouble.
Our father always told us to come clean if we were in trouble, because if we weren't and he heard about it from a third party, or "on the street" as he put it, we were in deeper trouble. But this was pot we were talking about.
"If I tried to keep this from him, and he found out, he'd kill us both. Besides this isn't just breaking curfu, this is drugs for Gods sake."
He was right. My father was probably the most understanding father in the world for putting up with all of my crap, but I knew that if he heard the word drugs and my mane in the same sentence, he would loose his mind. So I tried to grab the phone out of Jeff's hands, but he pushed me back.
"Please Jeff, I only wanted to see what it felt like...I won't do it again."
"Oh, Dad will show you what it feels like."
"Please Don't!"
"You should have thought it threw before you lit that _d_a_m_n_ thing little brother."
"I swear I'll never touch it again, I swear to God."
He looked at me for a long time, then he hung up the phone. "Tell me where you got it."
"Why?"
"So I can go kick their ass for giving it to you."
"NO, please, it was a mistake, I'll never do it again...please, just don't tell Dad.."
"I'll think about it, now get your tale in bed."
"But...." I started to say but the look he gave me made me shut my mouth.
About a half hour later the phone rang. I picked up the line the same time Jeff did. It was my father.
"Hey, how is everything? Mike get home on time?" My father asked.
I held my breath, waiting to hear the answer he would give him. "Well no, but that's not a big surprise is it."
"Not really....How about Drew, he home?"
"Not yet." Jeff sighed.
"What's wrong? You sound funny.......You didn't kill your little brother did ya?"
"Not yet........but the night is still young."
"Well just hang in there, I'll be home soon. Anything else going on?
"No."
"Ally in bed?"
"Yep."
"Well tell your brother to get his butt in bed too. I'll talk to him about being late in the morning."
"OK.....Anything interesting happening tonight with you?"
"Na, streets are quiet."
"all right, well I'll see you when you get home then."
"All right, bye. "
When Jeff and my father hung up I gave a sigh of relief and hung up the phone as well.
"All right, I didn't tell him, but if you ever smoke this _s_h_i_t_ again..... if I ever even hear that you touched a joint, I'm gonna kick your butt from here to the police station, then I'm going to hold you down while Dad takes his turn....you got that?"
"Yeah, I got it.......I won't ever touch it again....I swear it. Thanks for not telling Dad." I said. .
So needless to say I was happy to be off the hook over that one, but unfortunately my happiness was short lived.
The next morning all of us were sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast as we did every Sunday. Dad always made eggs, pancakes, bacon and sausage for Sunday breakfast and we all would start out our day together.
Well as my brothers and I we were sitting there eating and talking together and laughing at each other Allison struck up a conversation with my father that I think got all of our attention.
"Daddy, guess what?"
"What?"
"Mike smoked drugs last night." She blurted out.
"OH _f_u_c_k_!!!" My brain screamed and I started to choke on my breakfast..
"What was that?" My father asked looking at her closely.
"Mike was smoking drugs last night.....in the family room."
My fathers dropped his fork onto his plate and shifted his eyes to me suddenly. "What the hell is she talking about?"
"Oh nothing......"
"Don't tell me nothing, now you better start explaining this right quick."
"I was not smoking drugs in the family room Dad......why the heck would I do that.....No, It was a cigarette.....she just thought it was drugs."
"Why would a seven year old think a cigarette was drugs.........and if it was a cigarette what the hell are you doing smoking in this house."
"It wasn't a cigarette Daddy. It was drugs, Jeff even said so, didn't you Jeff." Allison said.
Jeff started to turn a slight shade of green.
"Well Jeff." My father said looking at him now.
"UHHHHHHHH....." Jeff said looking real nervous.
"Only Jeff called it a joint Daddy." Allison went on.
"All right, someone better start talking or the both of you are going to be very very sorry."
Jeff opened his mouth to spill it, but I knew I had to come clean before he did or I would be in deeper trouble, so I quickly began to explain.
"All right it was a joint, but I only took three or four hits and I didn't like it." I said in a shaky voice.
My father slowly crossed his arms across his chest and leaned back in his seat looking at me in both shock and surprise.
"I'm sorry Dad. I was just curious." I said.
Then a disgusted look came over his face and he started to turn red with anger. "I can't believe this." He said shaking his head.
"I'm sorry......I'll never do it again Dad, I swear."
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS!!!!" He yelled suddenly and jumped out of his chair like he had been sitting on a spring or something, then he started to come after me, unbuckling his belt as he went. "Now your going to get your ass kicked."
"I'm sorry." I yelled jumping out of my own chair then I and ran around the opposite side of the table. "Please don't.......I just wanted to see what it would feel like."
"Oh, I'll show you what it feels like!" He shouted which was exactly what Jeff said he would do, almost word for word.
I looked at my brother, who was making a face that meant "I told you so", then continued to run.
My father had to chase me around that table a good five minutes before he was able to catch me, which only made him even more angry, and when he did finally get his hands on me it wasn't pretty.
He grabbed my left arm and yanked me so hard that my shoulder hit him right in the chest, then he started wailing. CRACK, WHAP, CRACK, WHAP, SNAP, CRACK, WHAT, CRACK, CRACK............
He was whipping me so hard that I started to yelling and crying after only the fifth or sixth blow, and that was with my pants on.
"You will never, ever touch drugs ever again, you hear me young man?" He shouted as he swung.
I was frantically trying to get away from him and that belt. I twisted and turned and pulled till I tripped myself and ended up sprawled out on the floor at his feet, but he never missed a beat. He just followed my body down to the floor and kept whipping me. He was really tearing my ass up, and the heat was terrible.
"If you ever take drugs again I'll beat you with in an inch of your life." He yelled.
"Jesus," I thought, "Isn't that what he's doing now."
I was begging and screaming for him to stop, but nothing I said seemed to slow him down, much less make it end, but If it didn't soon I just knew that my butt was going to burst into flames, but then again the river of tears pouring down my face would have probably put them out quick.
"Tell me where you got it!!!!"
I was quiet.
"Tell me _d_a_m_n_ you or I'll keep this up all night." He yelled slowing his face to one blow per two words.
I didn't want to tell him where I got it, but I couldn't take any more, and the thought of his whipping me all night just made me sick. "JASON!!!" I yelled. "JASON GAVE IT TO ME!!!"
"Jason huh."
Finally, after about fifteen minutes of steady belting my father stopped and got up off the floor, leaving me to cry and kick and rub. But he was far from done with that belt. He had one more butt to fry.
"Now it's your turn." I heard him yell and looked up from the floor.
Dad was going after Jeff, who's eyes were as big as saucers now.
"Holy _s_h_i_t_." I thought.
"My turn........you can't be serious." Jeff said sounding real shocked.
"Oh I'm dead serious."
Jeff started to back away "Why...I didn't smoke pot in here."
"No, but you knew he did and decided to keep it from me...." Dad said taking slow deliberate steps towards my older brother. ".......you lied to me about drugs in this house and I will not tolerate that."
"I did it for him!" Jeff shouted.
"Well good for you, now you can get your butt whipped for him as well." Dad yelled. Then that was it.. There was no more talking, only the sounds of my brothers feet hitting the floor as he ran for the living room, then there was a small scuffle (Which was probably a little wrestling match between them) followed by shouts, then finally, after a minute, the cracks of my fathers belt rang out threw the house once again as it came down, endlessly, on my brothers sixteen year old butt.
I looked up at the table where Drew and Allison were sitting. Allison was still and quiet, but Drew was eating his breakfast as if nothing were happening. In fact he looked like he was enjoying that breakfast more than any breakfast he ever had in his life.
Anyway...In the end I think Jeff got it almost as bad as I did and he never even touched the stupid joint, but it would remind him never to try to hide something as bad as drugs from my father again.
After Jeff and I were dealt with, my father called Jason's father and filled him in on the situation as well. Well, Jason told me that when my father told his father what had happened, his Dad stripped him naked and beat him with a Ping-Pong paddle till he confessed that he did give it to me, and that he got it from his older brother Todd, who in turn got paddled as well.
It was a big mess, and I learned just what getting high feels like...........IT HURTS LIKE HELL!!!!