I Eat Oreos

21

Kayla

Christmas ended so well. Gavin was even smiling and laughing with his cousins. The joy in my heart was quite overwhelming, and I liked it.

Mama, as hard as she worked cooking, didn't seem the least bit tired. At that moment, as she served us all the food, I couldn't help but feel so proud of her. I admired her and her sincerity and generosity deeply.

As Mama waited by the stove for the sweet potato pies, I walked up to her and gave her a hug.

"You are the best mother ever," I said squeezing her tightly. "Oh, baby," she replied, squeezing me back. "You are the greatest daughter ever."

"It's crazy how nice you are to all these people. I'm glad you taught me to be the same."

"Well, when you've been through it, you just want to help out a little."

"Been through it," I questioned. She nodded, opening the oven to check on the pies.

"I was homeless for a short time. Before I met your father." I had known my mother wasn't born with a lot of money, but I didn't know it had gotten that bad.

"Mama, you never said that."

"I'm sure I have," she said, contemplating that herself. "Well, yeah. My mother kicked me out of the house when I was 17. She was in love with this man. He had other kids and they didn't have a lot of money

"I'd known your father since his freshmen year of college. His parents took me in." I knew that part, but I had thought she went straight to my dad's house.

"But before then, for about a year, I was sleeping, literally on the streets. That's how I met Willie."

"Willie has been homeless this entire time?"

"Oh no, at that time he was a teacher. He was working at one of the soup kitchens I visited. He even told your grandparents about me. That's how I got to know them. He became homeless much later."

"Why?" I asked.

She looked around for a moment. "His school fired him for speculation that he slapped one of his students. I remembered the petitions against the school for it. Many students from all the years he taught came and supported him. They wouldn't take him back, though. After that, he began to drink.

"One day while he was driving, he hit a child. The child lived but was paralyzed from the waist down. Willie went to prison for a few years. That's why as much as we try to help, he refuses. He doesn't think he deserves help."

"And because he went to prison, especially for that reason on top of being black, he can't get a job," I concluded.

Mama nodded. "Exactly."

I sat back against the counter, taking in all the things I didn't know. People's lives were so much more complex than what meets the eye. We think we know a person so well, but we never truly know what's led them to where they are.

There are so many small details that make up the whole.