A Story to Tell

(Quotes from my mother)

"When Dad died you were two years and four months old and, right after he died you started having nightmares every night. Like, sometimes three nightmares a night, sometimes five nightmares a night, and you would wake up and you would scream. You were sleeping in my room at the time, in a matress on the bed, because it was winter and we had your bedroom closed off to conserve heat and, when I asked you what the nightmares were, you said that you could see Dad's face and then he changed into a monster and, that's all you ever said about it, and when I asked you what kind of a monster, what it looked like, you wouldn't say anything.

You had nightmares from the time he died on Christmas day, until August 27th. So that was approximatly seven months. August 27th of the year before, he had left this house and gone to the emergency room, and he never came home, and he died on Christmas day. So exactly one year after the day that he left this house, I had a nightmare in the middle of the night, and you were sleeping in your own room at the time and I was sleeping in my room so we weren't in the same room then.

In my nightmare it started off as your dad's face, but then he decomposed, right in front of my eyes. It was really scary and I woke up and I was, you know not screaming but I was gasping, and I looked at the clock and it was exactly 12:00 and you were in your room screaming.

So you and I had the very same, I imagine that that was the same nightmare that you had been having for seven months, several times a night, it was really scary. When I woke up at exactly 12:00 you were in your room screaming, and that's the last time you ever had that nightmare. I never had that nightmare again either."

...

"We went to South Padre Island, and you were three years old, and Seth had just turned two years old. But you were both talking really advanced for children your age. We were walking on the beach at South Padre Island Texas, and that year MTV had a spring break special going on at the hotel a couple of doors down from us. They had a great big stage and 10,000 kids, a lot of kids. College kids.

The college kids had long cafeteria style tables set up, and they had flags that had the emblem of the school they went to. Other kids would go from table to table, and at each table they had a keg that was tapped and kids were doing bongs, and drinking glasses of beer. As we were walking by, you and Seth saw a lot of things that probably weren't appropriate for children your age to see. One of the tables we saw some kids doing a bong, and all the kids were chanting, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG. You didn't really say anything about it. It was kind of like a car accident, you just couldn't stop looking.

Later when we were in the hotel, and we were with Busha, who at the time was probably in her late 80's, we were going up the elevator. Just as the elevator door were about to close, in walked about six college men that were maybe in their early 20's. They all acted very respectful. Seth took a look at those college aged men, and he said 'Chug! Chug! Chug!' In his little two year old voice, and they all got very embarrassed. He associated college aged men with chug chug chug."