Orange

I was small, perhaps five or six, and there was a wedding shower that all the women in the family on my mother's side attended. For some reason, I was deemed too young, and was left with the men at Aunt Evelyn & Uncle Ernie's house. My father, brothers, other uncles and a few older male cousins were there. It was summer, and they were in the back yard.

I remember being thirsty, and it took some doing to get an Orange Crush from the male adults present, so I must've been too small to get one myself. I remember it tasted funny, and I tried to tell these people who were supposed to be taking care of me, but I was dismissed and ignored. I don't know how much of it I drank, but I was taught to finish what I took, so if I poured some of it out, or left some in the bottle, I was being rather naughty. Then I felt very dizzy, and tried to tell my father and uncle and brothers, but no one seemed to care. So I went inside and laid down on the spare bed, feeling very alone and frightened and ill.

I would remember this strange incident, because it seemed important. After I was old enough to drink, I figure the bottle had somehow fermented. But how likely is it that a commercial soft drink would go bad like that? Up until last night, I'd assumed it was a manufacturing error of some sort. But then I thought, what if one of the uncles or cousins who'd gotten me the soda had spiked it? I wouldn't have noticed them doing it, although the taste was off. Perhaps they were annoyed enough at having to 'babysit' that they spiked my pop? Knowing more the history of my family now, it seems more probable than a national soft drink maker having a single fermented bottle.

Some days I'm especially glad I've been estranged from the whole pack of them.


And, don't assume children will forget bad things. The memory may be twisted into their reality the rest of their lives, even if they can't find the words to express it.