Burn Down the Ground by Kambri Crews

our old metal bathtub with apples for bobbing and put boiled spaghetti, chunks of Jell-O, and grapes into shoe boxes and aquariums. My friends Chris and Billy King stuck their hands in to feel the mushy food while David narrated in a spooky voice with a flashlight under his chin. “You are touching my braaains. That is my heart! Ooooohhhhh! Those are my eyeballllllls!” Dad’s addition to the decorations included a homemade wooden coffin.
    My parents dressed up like vampires with ghoulish white faces and blood dripping from the corners of their mouths. My mother wore a long red wig that she stowed in her nightstand and a skin-hugging, floor-length black dress. My father slicked his hair and wore a black cape. When they posed for pictures, Dad wore plastic fangs and pretended to suck the blood out of Mom’s neck. They looked amazing.
    “Kambri, these are the ladies I was telling you about,” signedMom when the four members of the rock band KISS arrived. I was stunned.
    “Hello,” I whispered, offering my hand for a shake and staring wide-eyed. They looked so authentic that if Mom hadn’t told me they were women, I would have sworn the real KISS had hired a private jet to crash our party on Boars Head.
    “Gene Simmons” had a really long tongue like the real lead singer and flicked it when anyone came near. A few beers later and “Gene” and “Paul Stanley” were French-kissing. I didn’t know which was wilder: seeing two women being intimate or witnessing the “Demon” and the “Starchild” make out.
    When the bonfire we had built died down, the party moved inside. We pushed the furniture out of the living room and everyone sat in a big circle on the floor. I squeezed in between two costumed guests while Mom took her place in the center.
    “Hey everybody, listen up! I’m going to teach you a game the Deaf like to play called Elephant.” Mom signed in ASL as she talked. Even though my father was the only deaf person at the party and already knew how to play, she didn’t want to leave him out.
    “All right, I’m gonna start. Everybody have a drink?” A few people hopped up to grab fresh beers as Mom went on with her instructions.
    “I stand in the center and turn in circles. When I stop, I’ll point to someone. If that person is you, then you have to put both your fists on your nose in the shape of a trunk, see?” She demonstrated stacking her fists on her nose. “If you’re sitting on either side of him, then you have to make the elephant ears by putting your hand up to the ear of the person I pointed at. Get it?”
    A few people weren’t paying attention or were too drunk and grumbled they needed instructions one more time.
    “Okay, Kambri, you can help me show them how to play.” Mom started spinning in circles. “I turn and turn and turn, then
stop
!” She pointed at me and I quickly put one fist in front of the other on my nose.
    “Jerry, you put your hand up to Kambri’s ear.” The mummy to my left did as he was told.
    “Dee Dee, you’re supposed to make Kambri’s other ear, but you gotta be fast or you’re out of the game. Got it?” The Raggedy Ann to my right nodded.
    Our Deaf party game was a hit. People screamed and laughed when they messed up and screamed and laughed when they got it right. Dad lit a joint and passed it around the circle of players while the onlookers passed around our bong.
    When the joint made it to Dee Dee, she took a hit and then handed it to me. Realizing she was handing it to a kid, she quickly pulled it back. “Oh! Sorry!” She coughed and tried to hold in the smoke, but some blew right in my face.
    “It’s okay.” I pinched the joint between my fingers and passed it to Jerry, who didn’t think anything of it. Even though I didn’t take a hit, the living room was thick with marijuana smoke. I felt dizzy and my mouth felt like I had eaten a sack of flour. To quench my thirst, I stole sips of beer out of half-empty cans that dotted the trailer.