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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“How about some weed instead?” Chloe suggested.
“Seriously?” Paige asked. “I remind you that this woman standing next to me is my mother.”
“Your mother who smoked more than a few joints in her youth,” Joan told them. “Oh, darling. Don’t look so shocked. I’m a child of the sixties after all. Or seventies. Whatever. We were too stoned back then to keep track.” She giggled, eyes sparkling.
“Seriously?” Paige said again.
“Although I haven’t touched the stuff in forever,” Joan admitted. “Your father wouldn’t allow it in the house. He was a bit of a square in that regard.”
Chloe couldn’t help laughing at the expression on her friend’s face.
“Whoareyou?” Paige asked Joan as they walked toward the living room. “And what have you done with my mother?”
They waited until the kids were asleep before lighting up. “This might be a bit stronger than what you’re used to,” Chloe warned Joan, watching the older woman take a deep inhale.
“Lovely,” Joan said, holding the smoke in her lungs as long as she could before releasing it, then passing the joint to her daughter.
“I don’t know,” Paige said. “This doesn’t seem right.”
“Nonsense, darling. We’re bonding. Now take a drag and pass it along.”
“How come I didn’t know this about you?”
“You never asked,” Joan said.
“Is there anything else I should know?” Paige took a drag, as directed, before passing the hand-rolled cigarette back to Chloe.
“Like what?”
“Like…I don’t know…did you do any other drugs?”
“A little hash,” Joan said as the joint was returned to her waiting fingers. “Oh, and I tried LSD once, but I didn’t like the way it made me feel.”
“I don’t believe this,” Paige said.
“Oh, and maybe some cocaine and a wee bit of heroin,” Joan continued before dissolving into raucous laughter. “Sorry, girls. Just teasing about the cocaine and the heroin. Ah, this is delightful,” she said, taking another drag before passing the joint back to her daughter.
The women sat for several long minutes in silence, passing the joint around until it had all but disappeared. Chloe felt the tensions of the day gradually lifting from her shoulders. So what if Matt was making vague threats to take her to court for custody of their children? He’d never go through with it. So what if the five-thousand-dollar retainer required to hire Pamela Lang would render her effectively broke? She could take out a loan. Or ask her mother.
The thought sent Chloe into more spasms of laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Paige asked.
“My mother told my children how babies are made,” Chloe wailed, laughing even harder as Paige and Joan joined in.
“Speaking of sex,” Paige said.
Had they been? Chloe wondered.
“Did I ever tell you about Marie and her daughter?”
“Who’s Marie?” Chloe and Joan asked together, causing another round of giggles.
“A woman from my work. From where Iusedto work,” Paige qualified, pushing the unpleasant reality aside and sliding down the sofa to sit on the floor. “Marie’s daughter is twelve, and she came home from school one day and told her mother that in health class that afternoon they’d learned to put condoms on bananas.”
“They teach that in school?” Joan asked.
