Kill

Erik Austin
Oct 3
1 min read

So this morning, my mom and I somehow went from talking about the Monsters show I binged yesterday — you know, the one about the guy hearing voices and thinking wild things were happening — to her suddenly saying she also used to believe things happened that maybe didn’t… because of her drinking.

And I’m like, “Okay, that tracks.” But then out of nowhere she goes, “Everyone was so worried you were going to kill me when you were on drugs.”

Excuse me, what now?

Then she says, “Well, you said you were going to kill me, your sister, and your father. I told people, ‘Well, if he does, he does.’” Like she was talking about running out of milk.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting there, coffee in hand, blinking like, “Mom, I thought people were trying to kill ME back then!”

But I’m also glad I wrote it all down — you can read it the way I remember it in my book Stripped: A Memoir. Whether it really happened or not, it was real to me at the time. Drugs or not, when your life feels like it’s on the line, you make choices that don’t make sense, and the memories start to blur.

Anyway, pass the coffee. I need a refill after that plot twist.