Not So Great Trip To The Store

16.  My first solo trip to the store was so successful  that  I earned the privilege of further trips. All were equally successful until that day.

Mommie sent me for a box of Grandma’s Cocoa.  She used it to make what she called ‘black gravy’—a breakfast dish of chocolate pudding over hot biscuits.

There was no lingering at the store that day.  Two peddlers were in trading negotiations with Luther, leaving no time or inclination for attention to me beyond my simple need for a box of cocoa.  There had been no lingering at  Granny’s house on my way in after Aunt Evil told me they were pretty busy today.

Cocoa in hand, disappointed at being hurried from the store, crushed at being shooed away by Aunt Evil, I hurried along past Mr. Widner’s, past Granny’s, until I reached  Maria’s house. (Jeanette in the last fictionalized account).   Maria was playing with her cousin Carol.  “What-cha doin’?” I asked

“Nothin’ much.” She said.

“You playin’ with Carol?”

“Not playin.”  The jacks and ball on the porch said otherwise.

“Then why you got jacks if you’re not playin’?  Can I play too?”

Maria rolled her eyes. “I don’t think you oughta’  right now. You need to hurry home and tell your Daddy that Granny is real sick.  Mommie just went up there.”

I ran all the way home,  past the Snyder place where I did not remember that BD might be peering out of the shaded window.  Breathless, hugging my cocoa to my chest  I ran not to the house, but to the barn where I knew Daddy was shoveling manure. “Daddy,” I yelled, “Granny is real sick. Maria said her Mommie is up there and you better come.”

Daddy said nothing as he saddled and mounted Solomon.  On his way out he said, “Tell Mommie.” He was off.

Later—much later Daddy came home.  Granny was alive and well in her garden. Maria and Carol were not doing so well.