I had a grape day this week.  We bought child sized four-ounce bottles of grape juice.    One night I took headache medication from one of these small bottles of grape juice.  I did not drink the whole bottle of juice. I put the cap back onto the bottle and went to bed.  The next day I went into the bathroom.  I saw what looked like blood on the bathroom counter.  My son was nearby and I was upset “It’s grape juice.”  he told me. I used a roll of toilet paper to mop the juice off the counter.  My son left to shower in our second bathroom.

 I picked up the leaking bottle of grape juice.  it had made mess enough to warrant dumping it down the bathroom sink.  I unscrewed the cap on the bottle, and heard a brief hissing noise.

The cap exploded off the bottle and hit me in my left eye on its way to the ceiling. It was just the beginning of that night.  The bottle of grape juice sprayed all over me and the bathroom, with the force of a hand grenade. I yelled “HELP” and my son did not hear me, but my husband did.  His response, when he looked into the bathroom was: “What the Hell happened in here?”  My left eye was shut and I was covered in grape juice.  I threw towels onto the floor to stand upon.  Grape juice dripped from the ceiling.  I was unnerved by the experience and could not put words to the scene.  “It exploded…my eye, my eye, my eye!” I cried.  Then we said nothing as we used all of the available towels to mop up juice from that bathroom. 

Our son brought the ladder from the garage.  He tried to clean the ceiling.  Grape juice stains do not come off flat paint.  The juice explosion sprayed juice everywhere.  I worked with my husband and son to clean up after the event, still holding my left eye shut.  I did not have the energy to shower and change clothes.  I kicked my shoes off and fell into bed.  My husband and our son abandoned the room to watch a sport on television.   As I went to sleep, I thought about hand grenades.  I could not figure out how a mere three ounces of grape juice could become agitated enough to explode.  I did look it up on Google. This, it seems, is not unique. Juice explodes under the circumstances I used.

If you buy juice in small bottles, handle them like live ammunition.  Do not let your kids drink a part of a bottle and put the cap back on.  Dump the juice out. Read about it on Google. I had no idea that grape juice could become incendiary. If you buy juice and do not drink it all, handle it like live ammunition. Remember grape juice can explode.