On Thursday night we stopped at our local liquor store for a bottle of wine.
It’s kind of a dive, but Pete loves the guys working there.
As I waited in the car a beat-up Chevy pulls in next to me.
The car turns off and I can hear the couple in the front seat arguing.
I glance over and make eye contact with a girl of around 10 in the back seat.
She’s rocking a baby seat that is in the middle and there’s
another kid on the other side of the baby.
The guy gets out of the car. Baggy khaki pants, work boots, and a black hoodie that he pulls up over his shaved head.
When Pete gets back in the car he says there was a guy ranting about Hamburger Helper… saying to the clerk, “she can’t even make fucking Hamburger Helper right.”
Now I know what the fight was about.
As I back out I smile at the girl in the backseat still rocking the baby.
I want to remember this girl each morning when I greet my children.
I want all my teacher friends to remember this girl as they greet their children each morning.
We can’t know what goes on at their homes each night.
We may be a light in the dark for them.
