Hippie Momma - Selling Chocolate

CHAPTER 2 – SELLING CHOCOLATE

With a mission at hand, Brother, Sister and I hatch today’s plan.  We always had a plan.

Now here’s what we are going to do….  First, I need sister to tell me how many bars are good to sell and how many can we eat.”   “Well, all but two are ready to sell” “What are we doing with the two bad bars” “How bad are they?”  “Hmmm..One torn label and one broken and torn”  “OK, brother is going to piece out the broken one for us to share, and I will sell the other at a reduced price.”

“What is the price we are selling the bars today?”  “What did the school sell these for this year?”  “One Dollar Each!”  “We can’t sell them for that”  “Why not? That is the price they sold for, and that is what we will sell them for.”

“OK! OK… Just you have to do the selling this time.  We’ll hold them and I manage the money”     “We need to go now, if it gets too late we won’t have enough to get our money back.”  “Geez…I was just getting cool”

Across the street just three houses down from Mr Peeper’s was the first person who bought a bar.  “Isn’t school out?”  I thought you kids sold this stuff during the school year.  Not one of us said one word.

So we headed to the heel of the road that curved into the next street over. There we sold more than we could have every imagined.  One old Man, Mr Prather, said he loved the chocolate.  Sister said he knew we needed the money. Whatever the reason, we sold every bar.  Funny how brother loved chocolate, but sold the broken bar for half price.  We were on a roll.

Or so we thought.  Dinner was fried shrimp poor-boys and Dr. Pepper.   Sister only ate half.  She always thought of baby girl.  Even though Grandmother fed baby girl, sister protected baby girl.   Not while in front of her, only when we were gone did she protect and fret over our youngest member.

Brother counted the funds. “We have seventeen dollars and forty two cents. We need to save some and figure out what is next.”  Brother was always thinking about the future.

Not me.   I thought in the here and now.  And Sister, Sister thought for both of us.  We never knew that she lead us with no words just body language and small touches.  She was our mom.    She was next to the youngest and the oldest of mind.  Always there beside us.  Always there inside us.  Even when Sister was not there. She was there.

Cruising time.  The evening was beautiful.  The sun pushed sideways down the asphalt touching the sides of the houses and closing in on the neighborhood was shade and sounds.   Sounds of people and animals coming round from the heat of the day.  Closing the gap between day and evening.

This was our favorite part of the day. We never went home except to check on Baby Girl and Grandmother.  Sister would slip in and see if Baby Girl had eaten or was OK.  We never spent any time with Baby Girl, but we did love her.

Sister said she would slow us down and we never could or would slow down.  “Blast it what are we doing tomorrow?”  “Don’t use that language. Say nothing if you can’t speak properly.”  “Sorry, but I had an idea and it boomeranged me.”

“You need to stop. We need to stop.”  So we proceeded to the front yard to lay on the grass and watch the clouds push the sun to bed.  Sister did not like the grass.  She always found something else to lay on.   The concrete driveway, walk or porch.  Mostly she liked the hood of Grandmother’s silver bird.

The silver bird was a Buick Skylark with fat lean lines and a clean shape.  Grandmother loved the bird, but Sister loved it more.  She smelled old and loving sat on the driveway.  Grandmother had a garage, but it was full of storage, so the bird was always parked out front in the drive.

Sister had a permanent spot reserved on her hood.   Mine was on the ground in front of the stoop.  Brother’s was anywhere he wanted to go.   Now we were in our own heaven.  Placing ourselves in the clouds watching clouds being designed by heaven.  Sister said, “ I wonder who is in charge of building the clouds today?”  “Some new angel” exclaimed brother.  “These clouds need some help.  That one looks like a monkey fish and there goes a puffy truck.”

“Hey I think I have seen that one before!”  That one there.  The horse and rider”

There we laid on the ground staring up to the bluest of sky with large coastal clouds rolling in to clear the day.

 Copyright Michael Cayde