Page 21 of A Very Miller-Cooper Life

My mom’s high hit as soon as we walked into Magic Kingdom. I could tell by the face she made that closely resembled Raven Simone when she had a vision in episodes of the old Disney show,That’s So Raven.

“Whoa, I feel funny,” she said as she grabbed my arm, most likely since I was the person standing closest to her. “I’m kind of dizzy, but,” she brought her hand up to her mouth and giggled. An honest to god giggle. Definitely a sound I never expected to hear from my mom. “It also feels kind of nice. It’s like I’m fl—” Her words cut off as her eyes squinted at something in the distance. “Are the lights different tonight? They look so pretty.”

My dad glared at me as Reagan and I pulled my mom off to the side to finally tell her the truth. “So, here’s the thing.” I cleared my throat as I thought about what to say. “It turns out those brownies had a certain ingredient in them. Hence, why we weren’t sharing them with anyone else.”

“Ingredient? What kind of ingredient?” My mother giggled once again. “Paprika? What a funny word. Puh-pree-kuh.”

“No, Mom, it wasn’t paprika.”

“Well, then what was it?” my mom asked, her face crinkled in total confusion, as if paprika was the only option of what could have been in those brownies.

“It was, um…” I trailed off as my breathing picked up. How was I going to tell my mom that I had accidentally gotten her high?

“Pot,” Reagan finished for me. When my mom just stared at her dumbfounded, Reagan cleared her throat like I had done just a moment before. “You know. Um. Weed. Marijuana. It was baked into the brownies.”

My mom stared at both of us, unblinking, for a very long time. With every second that passed, my heart beat faster andmore sweat accumulated all over my body. Then, much to my surprise, my mom started to laugh. This wasn’t the same as the giggles from before. This was a full belly laugh, as if being told she was high was the funniest thing in the world.

“Wow. I’m surprised I didn’t recognize this feeling. I guess after all of these years, who could blame me?”

“Wait, Mom. You’ve…” I tried to wrap my head around what was happening. There was no way she was saying what I thought she was. “Are you saying…? Have you had pot before?”

My mom laughed even harder now. She bent over and put her hands on her knees as if she couldn’t handle how funny this was. “I lived through the seventies, Charlotte. Of course I’ve had marijuana.”

I looked at Reagan in disbelief, and she broke into laughter as well. When I leaned in closer to her to ask what we should do now, she thrusted a fisted hand at me. When she opened it, she was holding one of our gummy edibles. She nodded toward it. “Take it. I guarantee this is the only time you’ll be able to say you got high with your mom.”

“Is that something Iwantto be able to say?” I asked with a laugh.

Reagan shrugged. “It’ll make for a great story some day.”

“What about the kids?”

“They’ll have six fully functioning adults to take care of them. That’s still two per child. We’ll be fine.”

She wiggled the gummy in front of me. “After everything you’ve put up with throughout your life, you deserve this one night.”

“You know what? You’re right.” I popped the gummy into my mouth without giving it another thought. Tomorrow was most likely going to suck and I had no questionbothof my parents were going to lecture me as if I was back in high school.I might as well enjoy myself now.

Of course my high hit forty-five minutes later when we were right in the middle of the haunted mansion. “Did my high just hit or is that piano playing itself?” I asked as I blinked my eyes to try to focus on it. My eyes quickly shifted when I saw candles floating in the air.Oh yeah. I’m definitely high.“Holy shit.”

Before Reagan could respond my mom yelled to us from the car ahead of ours. “How cool is this?”

“The coolest!” I yelled back.

Reagan laughed beside me as my mouth dropped in awe of the ghosts. When the ride ended, my mom waited for me to walk up to her and gave me a high five that was so big, it made my hand tingle.

My mom kept a hold of my hand after the high five and pulled me behind her. “It’s a small world next!” she yelled while pointing in the direction of the ride (or what I assumed must be the direction).

We somehow found our way to the ride, even with my mom leading the pack. When I was assured that the three grandparents thatweren’thigh were taking care of my kids, I jumped in the small world boat right after my mom.

My mom and I were both silent as the familiar music started. After a few minutes, my mom leaned closer to me. “Do you think they have souls?”

“The animatronics?” I asked as I watched their stilted movements. I could see my mom nodding out of the corner of my eye. “Probably.” The more I thought about it, the more it freaked me out. “What if they steal our souls?”

“They could,” my mom answered nonchalantly as if it was the most normal conversation in the world.

Clearly, neither of us were overly concerned about it, because by the end of the ride, we were singing along with the song and trying to mimic the characters’ stilted dance moves.

When the ride came to a stop, Reagan held her hand out to me and helped me off the boat. “How are you doing?”

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