It was like any other normal night with James and Drew.
Except this time, the reason for hanging out with them was because all my cute Hatch
cousins were in town. I texted James letting him know that the four older girls,
Mariah (Tanner), Jocee, Taylor, and Jasmine, were coming with us. Their crowd
included: James, Drew, Cierra, Kevin, and their brand new foreign exchange
student, Magnus. I asked what we were
planning on doing, and at the time, the word “Molotov Cocktails” meant nothing to
me. Cierra and I never knew what those two crazy boys had in store for us, we
just went with it . . . and always had a blast! So after reassuring my parents, my grandparents,
and allll of my aunts and uncles that we would be safe, and nothing bad would
happen, the ten of us jam-packed into a single car.
Just past the tracks heading to Mclaws road, we piled out of
the vehicle and watched the boys as they gathered up cases of empty glass soda
bottles, old t-shirts, lots of gasoline, and a lighter. My city girl cousins began
to grow a little weary, but it was fine because James and Drew always knew exactly what they were doing. . .
Anyway, we gathered round as they filled the bottles with the gas and stuck the
t-shirt in the top. We entered a round metal tunnel and stood back as the boys
lit the t-shirt and smashed the bottle inside the tunnel. My cousins screamed
as we enjoyed a beautiful explosion of bright fire engulf the area around us.
We soon became addicted to the sight. We hiked all around the desert, climbing
the rocks, making sure there was nothing that would burn. With each bottle we
found a new spot to throw them into, making the fire explosions look like works
of art! We got so caught up in all the fun that we forgot to acknowledge the
feeling we all sort of had that maybe we should stop… haha, oops.
The feeling grew stronger as we saw one, then two, then,
ummm, ten cop cars all driving towards us with their lights on. We gathered at
the top of the little plateau we were on, trying to convince one another that
it wasn’t us they were coming for. It couldn’t be the huge explosions we were
setting off, high enough for the whole city to see, because James and Drew
always knew exactly what they were
doing-remember? When the police cars stopped near our car, still out of sight to see us, we thought it would be like any
other time we do crazy things, they’ll check the place out for a bit, realize
nothing is seriously wrong, and be on their way. But to be safe, we sent
James and Drew down to talk to them. At the very most, they would realize its
just the same ol’ group of crazy Mormons, and send us home with calls to our
parents, no big deal.
About ten minutes later I get a call from Drew. “Just bring
everyone down here…now”. Cierra and Kevin and I gathered Magnus and my cousins
and tried to explain that things like this happen a lot. “We know the cops in
Holbrook and they like us and our parents because we never get in to any real trouble . . . everything is going
to be fiiine!”
So long story short(er), people in town thought houses were
burning down and stuff, and we committed two felonies and “several” misdemeanors,
and after phone calls to all of our parents, we were headed down to the
Holbrook Police Department. We arrived to find both Drew and Cierra’s parents
and also my entire family. Awesome. It was quite the party.
I didn’t even know where the police department was until
this particular night and the only thing stopping me from bursting into tears,
was bursting into laughter. IT WAS HORRIBLE! The two police officers gathered
all of us, and our parents into a tiny room to lecture us more and then to take
“documentation photos”. Yes, I, Mariah Hatch, have a mug shot. And all the
while, my cousins and I are laughing… OUT LOUD. So hard that we were crying, I don’t
know why, but we could not
stop. I was so scared. I felt like we were there an eternity! But luckily, because
we NEVER get into trouble like that, they let us off with a warning and we got
to go home.
James was about a month away from going on his mission and
he was grounded until then. Magnus had been in America
for a total of four days and was completely freaked out that he might be sent
home. Drew and Cierra’s parents just never mentioned it at all.
Oh and how did my family react? My family was having a
party. Yep. My cousins texted all there friends, my aunt Holly did a reenactment
of how ridiculous our “laughing mug shots” looked, and everyone was practically
peeing their pants from laughing. It’s like they were proud of us. We didn’t
really complain.
It was definitely an adventure. It was a mixture of emotions:
fun, scary, exciting, and kind of weird. Most of all it’s a great memory to
look back on and I still giggle and reminisce about it often.
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-I usually have a picture with my post but I am sorry to say that we don't have any documentation (our selves) of this night. We really should :( sorry. But it is 100% true and if you really want to see some pictures just check down at the Holbrook PD ;)
