As the principal was filling us in on what happened, the office had sent a golf cart to bring my oldest son, a senior, from class to me. When I saw his face, my heart broke that he would have to experience this. This wasn’t supposed to happen to my kids. To his little brother.

The principal told us that he just got back from the hospital where Aidan had been taken and that he came back to consciousness as if he was coming out of anesthesia badly, thrashing about. But he was alive, Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus, Thank you Jesus, answered prayer. I immediately called his mom at the hospital and we cried together for a minute and I told her what the principal had conveyed to me and then she dropped the next bombshell….

“He is conscious …. But he’s blind, he can’t see anything, the doctor’s think it’s a side effect but its not supposed to be a side effect of that drug.” At this point, her words are making my brain feel like it is being flooded and I tell her that I am going to keep praying for a full and complete recovery and I will call her after I see Tristan at the hospital that they brought him to. The time that has elapsed since I pulled into the school parking lot is about 4 minutes but seems like an eternity. I need to get to my son. It feels strange that someone else took my son to the hospital, that the absolute tragedy of his life has just occurred and I am not with him. I need to be with him. He needs me. So we jump in my husbands car and take off.

As we race to the hospital with my oldest son, I call my pastor's wife back and give her an update. “Please pray for Aidan, he can’t see, Oh my God he can’t see”. Nauseaus, spinning, numb.

As I approach the emergency room cubicle that they have placed my son in, nothing could have prepared me for the heartbreaking scene I was about to witness, my fourteen year old son is lying on the hospital bed sobbing with black charcoal dripping down his chin, the nurse is trying to get him to swallow this extra large tube of charcoal and he’s choking and gagging as he tries to get it down. He’s saying through sobs and gags “He almost died mom, oh my god, I have to get out of here, I need to see him, I’m fine mom please take me to him”. Then “Oh my God they had to use paddles to shock him back to life!!!” I told him, “Tristan, I spoke to his mom and she said he’s awake but he can’t see”. That information was almost more than he could handle -he is now gagging and going to throw up. The nurse tells me that we need to focus on Tristan right now and not discuss Aidan for a while. I know that my experience in no way compares to what Aidan’s mom is going through but there are no words to describe the absolute horror of seeing my child go through this ordeal. I helped him calm down and explained to him that the amount of medication that he took is considered an overdose and whether or not he felt overdosed - he was. He would have to follow the nurses instructions and wait it out. Somehow when its your kid you find the strength somewhere to pull it together.

A police officer walks up and tells me that he just came from the other hospital and Aidan and Dillan are doing fine. When he left, Aidan’s sight was returning and the doctors believed it to be just a matter of time until it was completely back. Thank God, Thank God. He tells me that he needs to interview Tristan and would prefer to do it alone. (Wait what do you mean interview my son. Is he in trouble? I knew that he was in trouble with me, he was beyond in trouble with me but the law? I just didn’t get that far with it yet. I know it sounds stupid but I just thought they were all responsible for their own actions. I didn’t realize that he is the “provider”!) But I figured there is only a curtain separating us, I can hear everything, If they say anything wrong I will be right there. Well two minutes in they started telling Tristan that it was his fault that his friend almost died and what was he thinking and why did he give these pills to Aidan. Tristan was sobbing and saying “Do you think I wanted to hurt my best friend? Do you think I knew this would happen?”. That was enough. I told them I thought they had enough information and they needed to leave him alone now. When was I going to wake up from this nightmare.

Apparently, not for a very long time. Of course, the worse horror was over. Aidan was conscious, he was alive, he could see. Now the officer told me they were going to place my son under arrest for distribution of a prescription drug, they would read him his rights and then release him to my custody until further notice. What is going through this kids head? He just wants to know that his friend is ok and just wants to see him. I took a minute from Tristan’s room so his brother could go in and I went to call Aidan’s mom. She said Aidan could see now but was having some trouble with short term memory. I told her Tristan wanted to get there and she said Aidan’s dad didn’t want Tristan anywhere near Aidan and to please not bring him there. Give him some time. Now as a parent I understand that completely, but as a parent I am devastated for my son who needs to see his friend. How do I tell him? Is he ever going to be okay? Do I put him in rehab? Is he going to go to jail? I went back to his bedside and gave him the update. Then told him about what Aidan’s dad had said. He understood. What could he do? He didn’t have a choice. By the time we got home early that evening, the story was on every news channel. “3 teenagers overdose and taken to hospital.” Surreal. They tell the stories minus the names and then give a PSA on discarding any old medicine because this is common among teenagers.

Over the next several months, Tristan had to pay dearly for his mistake but never a dearly as if he would have lost Aiden or Dillon. There was the expulsion hearing, the court date, the court ordered classes and community service. There was the new gang school that he had to attend and the interviews that he volunteered to give to the Boys and Girls club in hopes of teaching someone else something. But worst of all was the shunning. He was grounded for a while but when he was able to go out no parent wanted their kid around him. He was "that kid". I am ashamed to admit it but if not for this experience I think I would have been one of those parents. Then there was one special lady, a super mom, extremely involved in her son's sports who embraced Tristan. Felt he got the shitty end of the stick. Not that what he did wasn't wrong but that he was the only one paying for it. Well, because of this woman's fearlessness, Tristan managed to get himself back in the good graces of all of the families. He is just a teenager who made a stupid mistake and paid dearly. He continues to be my most typical teenager - allowing me the full experience for my money! He's involuntarily received alot of unwanted advice and input that I think  is going to benefit him  and grow him more than his peers in the long run! GOD WILLING!