Chapter 13: Running with the Devil
The One Who Leaves—State police. Drug dogs. A stash in a sock. And my mom waiting seven hours in the Nevada desert.
*Audio player is located at the end of the chapter. Scroll down to play.
We had made it as far as the town of Primm, right across the California border into Nevada. Mom was dying for a Dr. Pepper so Perry pulled into the gas station. It was swarming with cops. I felt a vague, tight panic in the depths of my stomach. Mom saying “I have a warrant in Nevada” replayed in my mind.
The cops had pulled over a group of kids who were partying their way to Vegas. I rushed Mom as she bought her soda and her Marlboros. Mom ignored my impatience. Cops never made her nervous. In fact, she liked cops. She said most of them were nice, and they were just trying to do their jobs like everyone else. I didn’t have a problem with cops either as long as they weren't taking Mom away, but in my experience, they usually were.
As we pulled out of the gas station, I let out an exhale. “Why do you have a warrant anyway?”
“Oh my God. That was the craziest thing. It was like a dream.”
***
It was endless dark in every direction. The kind of dark that would swallow you up if you weren’t paying attention. Mom had one hand on the steering wheel and the other was propped up on the truck window that was down just a crack. The blue glow of the dash reflected in her tired eyes. Van Halen’s “Runnin’ with the Devil” played over the stereo.
Mom’s friend Armen sat passenger and dumped fine crystals into the bowl of his glass pipe. Mom shifted her gaze to him at the click of his lighter. His face lit up like a desert sunset from the glowing flame.
“You better get rid of that shit, Armen.”
He handed her the pipe. Mom held the wheel with her knees and brought the glass to her lips. The meth fog enveloped her and then escaped out the crack in the window. She felt a surge of energy and passed the pipe back to Armen.
“Seriously, though. You know I don’t like traveling with that shit. You gotta hide it somewhere,” she said.