Crystal Lies by Melody Carlson

Author:Melody Carlson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mothers and sons, Married women, Christian, Drug abuse, General, Ice (Drug), Adultery, Fiction, Religious
ISBN: 9780307551825
Publisher: The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-23T10:00:00+00:00

As I trudged down to the laundry room, I felt as if I were carrying my entire life on my shoulders. My backpack of laundry items felt like it was filled with heavy stones, stones of guilt, and the laundry basket contained every single mistake I’d ever made. By the time I reached the laundry room, I was out of breath and couldn’t even remember what I’d come down here for.

“Hello, Glennis,” said a cheerful voice.

It was the old man I’d met down here a couple of weeks ago. But my mind was so weary it took me a moment to remember his name. “Jack,” I finally said, as if I were giving the answer on a game show. Perhaps I should’ve said,“Who is Jack?”

“You feeling all right?” he asked with a creased brow.

I shrugged. “Just tired, I guess.”

“How’s Jacob doing?”

I was surprised that he remembered the name. “Not so well,” I admitted as I set my laundry basket on the washer next to his.

He nodded as if this wasn’t too surprising. “Reckon he doesn’t want to come to AA with me then.”

I shook my head. “He doesn’t want help of any kind.”

“That’s too bad.” Jack turned back to his task of moving wet items from the washer into the dryer about ten feet away.

I just stood there watching him, as if I were hypnotized. He moved back and forth between the two machines, carrying just a few items at a time, until the dryer was full, and he, one by one, loaded in his quarters. Finally, his task completed, he turned and looked at me, more closely this time. “Now don’t take no offense at this, Glennis, but you really don’t look too good.”

I sighed. “I don’t feel too good either.”

“You wanna talk about it?” He scooted a white plastic lawn chair from across the room and set it next to another one, then sat down and patted the empty seat beside it.

I sank into the seat and shook my head. “I had to throw Jacob out last night,” I began. “Or rather this morning.”

He nodded as if this was a completely normal thing for a mother to do, then waited for me to continue.

“I discovered a lot of hypodermic needles in his room yesterday. And after I confronted him, he admitted that he’d been using crystal meth.”

Jack shook his head. “That stuff will kill you.”

“Yes,” I said. “That’s exactly what I told him. But he said that’s not true. He said it’s perfectly safe.”

Jack rubbed his chin. “I reckon this is your first lesson about addiction, Glennis. You can never trust an addict.”

“But he’s my son, Jack. I told him he could be honest with me.”

“Honesty is something an addict just don’t get. Take it from me, I used to tell one falsehood after the next. I’d say anything to get folks off my back, anything to get me my next drink. It’s just the way the mind of an addict works.”

“Then how can you help them?” I demanded.

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