Cigarettes in the Piggly Wiggly

That there, is called credibility, Mama said, taking a sip of her beer, and only the best people have it." It was 10:00 AM and she was watching her favorite soap opera. When the young, handsome doctor walked in everyone shut up and listened. Credibility is a thing that I don't know much about. It sounded a lot like credit and according to Granny, credit is something that ain't nobody in our family got and if they did, it wasn’t no good.

I’m not too good at a lot of things according to Mama, but she lets me help anyway. Like the one-time Mama decided to go to the Piggly Wiggly, the sun was out that day and the honeysuckle was ripe for the pulling. I pulled the delicate string and caught the syrup right before it fell off, when I heard Mama call through the screen door. "Latasha ain’t here, so come on and go over here with me." I knew Latasha wasn’t around; she was staying over at Cousin Tila's house. I ran towards the sound of Mama's voice. When I got to the Long House Mama told me to come along and don’t be stupid. I was happy to go with her on grown folks’ business. She never took me if Latasha could go with her. This was a special treat

From our house we walked all the way to the Piggly Wiggly, the flies were buzzing and thankfully the mosquitoes decided to take it easy on us. On the way there, I told Mama about that time I made the trees dance by singing to them. She shook her head and said, "all right girl, get on with all that nonsense, you sound just like your Granny." We continued to walk down the road, I was close to the side where the cars were passing by, stepping along. There weren’t many cars on the road or very much traffic at all because most of the people in our neighborhood walked, just like us.

I was playing a game I always played when we walked. It was one of my favorites. I would walk the white line down the street putting one foot in front of the other, pretending like I was walking the longest tight rope in the world, over a pit of boiling lava, filled with scorpions, zombies and… collard greens.

I had walked halfway to the Piggly Wiggly on the tight rope when Mama turned to me just in time to pull me to the edge of the road. I was so caught up in walking the line that I didn't hear the car coming. It barreled past us faster than I had ever seen any car go, it was there one second and gone the next followed by an eeerrrrrrwwhhnnn sound that couldn't quite catch up to it. "Gurl!" "You know better than to stay in the road like that!" Mama was screaming at me.

I'm not used to getting yelled at, so I immediately started crying and walking behind her. I made sure to keep to the grass. Mama continued to walk switching between yelling back at me and muttering in front: “Kids ain't got no business coming along on grown folks’ matters no way." Then yelling: “coulda gotten runt over because you too ignorant to pay attention." She kept on this way until we reached the Piggly Wiggly. I made sure to stay out of the road. I rubbed my fist to my eyes to keep from crying as Mama yelled again, "can't take you nowhere!"

When we got to the Piggly Wiggly I asked Mama if I could get some candy. I had been waiting the whole trip to ask her and after what happed with the car, I didn't have high hopes but thought I would ask her anyway because I didn't get to come to the Piggly Wiggly often and picking out my own candy was a dream. Mama gave me "The look" that said "just be quiet and don’t do anything stupid." She seemed nervous and I knew right then that she would rather have Latasha here with her. I was too ignorant to be doing grown folk's business anyway. So, I tried not to make her mad. We went through the store and walked down the aisles for a long time. Mama wasn't grocery shopping; she didn't have a basket or anything. We just kept walking. Sometimes she would stop and look at this or that. She picked up a can of sardines, put it back, looked around then kept walking.

We turned down the aisle with the cigarettes and I was beginning to think that grown folk's business was really boring. Next time it would be just fine if Latasha went with Mama instead of me. I was holding Mama's hand when she stopped and picked up a pack of cigarettes. It was the pack that she usually gets from the corner store by the Long House. The shiny brown pack with the skinny red ribbon around it. She always smoked the same kind. She said they were sweeter than the others.

This time she didn’t put the package back. She gave it to me and said “here, hold this.” I took the pack of cigarettes and held them for Mama. We walked around for a bit longer. Mama picking things up and then putting them down again. We walked towards the door. I started to remind Mama that I still had the cigarettes, but she gave me the “girl you better be quiet look” so I didn’t say anything. We walked closer and closer to the door. We were almost there when a man dressed in a police uniform walked in front of us blocking the door. I was still holding Mama’s hand. Dropping the pack of cigarettes. I knew that we were in trouble.

Sometimes Granny called the police on Mama. They would show up when Mama was drinking too much. Sometimes she would yell at Granny and Granny wouldn’t let us come in the Long House. That would make Mama yell even more and then the police would show up. They always made Mama leave. One time, Mama came by, and Granny wouldn’t let her in the Long House. But I could hear Mama screaming, she was screaming for her baby girl. That was me. So, I went to the front door even though Granny told me to go to the back room.

I came anyway because my Mama was my Mama and Family is Family. Granny knew that. She was the one who told us that. I pushed past Granny and stood in the doorframe looking up at Mama. She had on makeup that night, but it was smeared, and I could smell the stale lingering scent of her drink. Mama," hey Baby Gurl. Mama said " I liked when Mama called me Baby Gurl. It always made Latasha mad. Because I was Granny’s favorite and sometimes when Mama called me Baby Gurl I felt like I was her favorite too. As I was standing there looking up at her from the doorframe with Granny telling me to get back in the house. Mama said, “look here Baby Gurl I got something for you.” “But YOUR GRANNY don’t want me to see you!” She screamed Your Granny loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. She held out a movie to me. It was Frozen 2! I didn’t even know there was a second movie. I screamed thank you to Mama and grabbed her neck holding her tight. “All right baby” you go in and watch that movie. Granny said it in her “serious voice”, so I knew not to argue. I wanted to watch the movie with my Mama, since she had gone through the trouble of finding my favorite movie. But Granny wasn’t going to let her in the Long House tonight and I wanted to watch as much of the movie as I could before Granny made me go to bed. I went to the back room and turned on the movie. Granny and Mama were still yelling at each other so I turned up the volume as loud as it would go. A little bit later I heard a police car pull up with the sirens blaring and a few moments later all of the yelling stopped.

The yelling had stopped the same way Mama stopped in front of the Policeman in the Piggly Wiggly. Abruptly. “Shelly” he said. “You can’t leave here with those cigarettes without paying for them. Come with me” “I don’t know what y’all talking about.” Mama started to say but another Policeman came up beside us and they took Mama by the arm. They pulled her along. We went into a room at the back of the Piggly Wiggly that I had never seen before. There was a man dressed in a nice suit and another man with a Piggly Wiggly apron on.

The man in the Apron said “She always does this. She brings one of her kids with her every time and hands them a pack of cigarettes then walks out the door. We haven’t been able to catch her until now. We called you as soon as they came into the store this time.” “I-don’t-know-what- y’all- talkin bout. Mama said enunciating each word with a hand clap. This gurl right here is bad. She don’t be listen to me. I didn’t know she had the cigarettes.” “She seen her Mama smoking and want to be just like me.” “Shelly stop.” The man with the nice clothes said. “We caught you this time.” “You are going to jail.” “Nah” she said “y’all can’t prove I did anything.” “You got me on Camera?” “NO” “Did you see me with the cigarettes?” “NO” “Now I done told y’all what happened and I’m sorry bout this child.” She gonna get it when we get home.”

I wasn’t scared when Mama said that, because Granny was the only one who spanked us, and Granny never spanked me because I was her favorite. One of the policemen was looking at me the entire time Mama was talking, he seemed to stare right into me. He walked over to me bent down and held up the pack of cigarettes. He looked at the cigarettes then looked at my Mama. She stared back at him with her chin up. “What kind of Mother would turn her own child into a thief when she is… how old are you sweetie?” He was looking at me.

“How old is you?” Mama said shaking my arm with the hand she was holding. “I’m four years old” I said. “I was born on January, Friday the 13th.” I said it and put my chin up just like my Mama. The Policeman looked at us and shook his head. “What kind of person would turn a four-year-old into a thief?” He said it again and this time he looked very tired. “What’s your name?” the Policeman said. He was looking at me again, so I said “My name is Auggie” before Mama pulled my arm again. “Auggie, did your Mama give you these Cigarettes' to hold?” Mama’s hand tightened in mine. I looked from Mama to the Policeman. Mama stopped breathing. I knew what Latasha would have said and I knew what Mama wanted me to say. I thought about what my Granny would want me to say and took a deep breath.

We walked out of the Piggly Wiggly with the two policemen walking behind us. We all went out of the wide glass doors, them to their cars and Mama and I started our walk home. She was walking towards Granny's Long House. She wasn’t holding my hand anymore and she wasn’t talking to me. Back there the Policeman asked me if my Mama gave me the cigarettes and I decided to do what my Granny said I should do anytime I didn’t know what to do. I told the truth. “Yes Sir.” I said. The Policeman looked at me and then looked at my Mama.

“Shelly” He said “your little girl just saved you from going to jail. They installed cameras in the store last week. We have you on tape giving that little girl those cigarettes. If she would have lied for you, you would be going to jail right now. But for her sake we will let you go this time, BUT, you are never allowed to step foot in this store again, if you do you will be arrested upon sight. You got that?” The Policeman didn’t look at me again. My Mama nodded.

When we got to the Long House, Mama didn’t stay. She walked me to the front porch and told me to be good for my Granny. I knew right then that I wouldn’t see Mama for a few days. She always told me to be good for Granny when she went away. I could hear my cousins playing in the Long House, so I said, “yes Mama” and ran inside. Just before the door closed I turned back to look, I caught a glimpse of Mama, tears were falling from her eyes. Then the screen door closed, and Mama turned to go.