Sister Mom

I picked at the tan pleather seat below me as my mom steadily held the wheel that moved the car at 27 MPH. That's what the car clock said. It pointed its only hand to it. I think the car clock was jealous of real clocks because they had two hands, and that was why it never went all the way around.

I used both of my hands to open the window. It always got stuck. Lazy window. It was cooler now, and the wind pushed my blonde hair around. The backs of my thighs were covered by pants, just like the rest of my legs, and they couldn't stick to the seat anymore. Good thing I didn't wear my favorite shorts. I'd be stuck here forever.

There was a little hole in the seat that I had picked all the stuffing out of. I didn't like that empty space, so I started filling it with Good Luck pennies that I found. Good Luck pennies are the ones you find heads up somewhere, like in the park or in the hallway at school. If it's tails up, don't touch it because that one's a Bad Luck penny. I never touched the tails-up ones. I never stepped on the cracks either, if I could help it.

We were on our way to the Church to pick up bags of groceries. We'd get brown bags filled to the tippy top with everything from mustard, the spicy brown kind, to Froot Loops. I didn't like mustard. Church was no fun, and extra Church was even worse, but this was the only way Toby and I ever got sugar-covered cereal. Mom said all that sugar would rot our teeth. She said it would make us hyper. She said other things too, but I forget. Lots of people go to supermarkets for food all the time. Sometimes we do too, but other times we come to the Church. Mom used to work at a supermarket. It was called the Grand Union. She had to wear a red apron and a nametag. She didn't like that job. I think it's because she didn't like to wear red, and it made her feet hurt. My feet don't hurt when I stand. Maybe it's a grownup thing. So, in the supermarket, people push metal shopping carts with squeaky wheels and take things off shelves and put them in the carts. Then they put everything onto a counter that moves and watch as the worker makes each thing ding before another worker puts it in a bag. The people buying are happier than the people working. I wanted to ask my mom why, but her face had that hard look on it, so I didn't.

Once in a while someone even whistles while they're shopping. Maybe they just watched Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs again, like I did, and they liked the part where the Seven Dwarfs whistle while they work, like I do. My uncle gave me the video for Christmas last year. I watched it five times already. Wait, last Saturday makes six times. I want to watch it one more time, but Mom said too much TV will hurt my eyes. Sitting too close to the TV could even make me go blind. She said we can't afford the Coke bottle glasses I'll need. That's okay with me because I checked it out once, and it just looked like a bunch of fuzzy little dots up close. I like the picture better than the dots. I don't know why they make glasses out of Coke bottles anyway. I wonder if I'd get to drink a Coke if I had to get glasses. I bet that's it. She's worried the sugar in the Coke will rot my eyes and my teeth.

We parked between the white lines in the Church parking lot. I know that we were parked because when the handle sticking out of the wheel was all the way at the top, the car was in P. And P stands for park. You can only choose from: P, R, N, D, 1, 2, or 3. I haven't figured out what the 1, 2, and 3 stand for yet. Words don't start with numbers. I unbuckled my seat belt and started to peel myself out of the seat. It was sticky, but I made it.

Then Mom and I climbed the whole bunch of white steps in the front of the Church. I ran. Mom walked. I got there first, which made me feel good, but then I had to wait. I'm not very good at waiting. We finally opened the big wooden door and stepped inside. It was dark and cool inside, like usual. Mom dipped her pointer finger in the little water bowl by the entrance and blessed herself, not the way you bless somebody when they sneeze though. This blessing was called the Sign of the Cross, and it goes one, two, three, four. There are words that go along, but I forget them.