Cathy came home from art class and saw the tools for extracting the spice strewn across her kitchen counter. Deep seeded fears sown over the seventy years of her life suddenly flowered. She immediately began rejecting what she saw before her. This would not do in her house.

i had been relaxing upstairs, letting the scent of incense and the sound of Pink Floyd imbue me with spiritual wholeness while the mixture of lye, water and mimosa hostilis had been left to work its chemical magic upon itself.

When i came downstairs she began lecturing me, saying, “No, this is wrong, you cannot do this. This is not right!”. I knew that having discussion about morality would only place me in a losing war of attrition; i decided to take another approach.

i responded to this tirade by reminding her that just two nights prior she had promised me that i could extract the spice. She tried to renege on that promise, but i did not relent. In exchange for my continued allowance for producing the spice, i had been exiled from the kitchen to the garage. A small concession to make for the glory of the spice!

Two nights ago i thought my grandmother and i had come to an understanding; that the spice was a source of spiritual and revelation for me. After i told her how important it was to me, how religious it was to me (i threw her some rhetoric she could understand, being a Born-Again Christian herself) she told me that she would allow me to perform the extraction on the one condition that DMT be the only drug i used at her house. This i readily agreed to since i leave mid-July. How empty her words were, made even emptier by the fact that she probably believed them at the time.

After i had made two of four naptha extractions the old crow came down from her bedchamber to assault my efforts anew (the Establishment retains deep hooks in her), in spite of her earlier promise to let me perform the extraction in the heat of the garage. Her attempts at derailment were feeble at best. She came at me with the same tactics as before, engaging the church's tried-and-true guilt approach.

This time she told me that i could not do anything i wanted in other people's houses, that i had to respect other people. Never mind the fact that i had come to her beforehand and asked her permission. That time she told me that her home was my home came with the stipulation that it only applied when it was convenient for her, i guess.

Moving on to her next tack, she claimed that what i was doing was unethical. She told me that she didn't care if i was having a religious experience, because i was “putting (her) through hell”. Unfortunately for her, i do not believe in her Judeo-Christian god, rendering her attacks inadequate against the armor of my agnostic spiritualism. She had promised me this extraction, and i would not allow her to go back on our pact.

In a last desperate attack upon my position, she made the outrageous claim that i was high on something right then and there (she claimed that my eyes were dilated). As if i would taint the spirit of the spice by performing the extraction ritual in an inebriated state! This only underlined the her naivety
of the reverence which the spice commands. The simple fact that i was completely sober left her wide open for counter-attack.

i ended her assault by seizing on her previous claim, exclaiming that i had promised that DMT would be the only psychedelic that i would use while living under her roof. This at once affirmed the value of my word and by extension forced her to uphold the value of hers.

Having defeated her position, i struck the killing blow with a disarming and seemingly sincere hug. Once more bested, the closed-minded crone retreated to the lair from whence she came. No more to bother me this evening.


Prologue:

Thus, the would-be destroyer of the spice was vanquished. Small though the victory may be, the ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be content to secure what we can from time to time, and eternally press forward for what there is yet to get.

The spice is now freezing, its final extraction yet some days away. i pray for its safe journey into this world. This is my first extraction and my first post in these forums. Thank you for reading this humble passage and may you all find the peace and knowledge of the spice.

Namaste

I dont suspect it would be easy to convince grandmothers that the spice is a good thing. next you gotta get her to try it.

That was awesome!

Thanks

An addictive read I have to say.
I'm looking forward to the next episode.

Crazy shit homey just the fact that you told her what you were doing is hardcore hopefully she leaves the freezer alone

you're doing an extraction in your grandmother's garage against her wishes?

no one else thinks this is incredibly f'd up?

I wouldn't go that far but the tone seems a little mean-spirited to me, not exactly the 'set and setting' needed in these ventures.

I thought it was a good read. It doesn't sound like a mean spirited thing. Permission was asked, details were explained, permission was given and then taken away.

Maybe I'm just old. 'Close-minded crone', 'old crow'; just seem unkind terms to me. Both my grandmothers are long dead.

Hah, I just assumed he wasn't really meaning those words and used it for the dramatic effect in his story.

I bear no ill will toward my grandmother, in fact i love her very much. as adrian said, i took a bit of poetic license to make the story a bit more interesting. But yeah, she definitely is not comfortable with the situation, but a promise is a promise. as for set and setting, i won't do it while she is around, i think that would just bring negative energy into the trip. but we have a lake in our backyard that reflects light from a lighthouse that is absolutely stunning. i think it will provide a nice backdrop for my next trip

The bottom line is it doesn't matter if she went back on what she had said. You are living under her roof and therefore her rules and if she doesn't want you doing these things you shouldn't do them or move out to your own pad. Oh yeah and DMT spiritual? Ha yeah right, if it was so spiritual it would make you have more respect for your elders.

100%

the plant told me to do this. the spice guided me to do that. you're committing a felony in your grandmother's garage. spice is great, but family > spice. always.

respect your grandmother.

not all elders deserve respect. yet i dunno, if the person you're living with has a serious objection to commiting a felony in their home I think it's something that you should think long and hard about before continuing. swim has had issues with his roommate although it was more of an issue of smell...

think about it, your grandmother may of said yes and been ok with an extraction but once she got a wiff of that naphtha she turned against it. just a thought..

The read is good and fun but the victory is bitter. I also find that taking the spice as a pretext for a great quest is wrong and do not worth to fight with ones grandma. A gift to be forgiven would be welcome... 'conversation with God' seems appropriated
One of the things that can be read in theses books is that there is no hell... which could help your grandma to feel better...

Today I came home from work to find that she had thrown away everything that was in the freezer. An unfortunate end to this extraction, but i bear no ill will. She told me that she was only looking out for my well-being, and i am sure she intended as much. I let the matter drop because if it came down to choosing between my family and a substance, i would not hesitate to choose the former. I can wait until i go back to college in the fall.

^^ Can't you guys just accept that he was trying to make an entertaining story to read? I mean there's always just the plain story of ...I started an extraction, this happened, this problem arose....etc which is not NEARLY as exciting to read. Of COURSE he made it sound way too epic, that was the whole point of him writing this!! Loosen up.

What he said.

I think it's an interesting read, I like it as it is, epic or not.

I'm very sorry about your loss. That was a crappy thing for her to do IMO. If she didn't want you to do it she should have said so upfront.

Not speaking about this member's grandmother but as a responce to other posts:

Not all elders are to be respected. Just because someone is older does not mean they are wiser, smarter, more experienced, or more loving. I have met many older people that don't deserve any respect. Respect, from me, is something to be earned, not given away willy-nilly.

Not all family members are to be respected either. What about the mother that abuses her child for all her life...is that someone to respect. What about the father that leaves once a child is conceived, repect for him to, simply because of a title?

My point is that "elder" and "family" are subjective terms and that we shouldn't be throwing blind respect and obediance to "elders" and "family".

not to say i didn't enjoy reading it, i did. i just felt the style gave it an aire of arrogance and inexperience. the story was interesting but the presentation made me perplexed. anyhow, that's how i felt about it. and yes, i could be reading too far in to it, over-analyzing it. i probably should loosen up but hey, i'm a writer. its what I care about. style is important, just as form is i'd say.