The next morning, Pony and I walked into the living room and we see Soda in the living room staring out the window. As soon as he sees us he holds out his arms for us to come and hug him. We hug Soda and then we wonder what is for breakfast. We know for a fact that isn't going to be a good breakfast like ham and eggs like we used to have; maybe peanut butter on a hunk of bread or something like that.
We then begin to look for money around the house by looking under the couch cushions. We find two quarters and a dime which is good. Pony and I go back to our rooms and look in our piggy banks and we each find four quarters which is really good. We are so excited; we race back downstairs and run to Soda to show him the money. Soda's face lights up and he hugs us.
Pony and I are glad that we didn't spend our money at the candy store before we left because we knew we would need it. Mommy or Daddy wouldn't let us go to the candy store very much anyway. We grin and hand the money to Soda and he gladly takes it and adds it up. We now have two dollars and sixty cents to buy breakfast. Pony and I run to our rooms to get dressed.
As soon as we are dressed, we run back downstairs to Soda, but our hair is still a mess after laying on it. We begin jumping up and down with excitement while Soda searches through his wallet and finds another dollar, which makes us evenhappier. We then begin looking out the window for signs of Robert and Lucille to show up but they don't. We don't even know when or if they will be home.
"Mary and Pony, you kids need to brush your hair and your teeth okay?" Soda tells us. We groan.
"Soda, we're hungry and we want to go to the store," I whine.
"Mary, I know but your hair is a mess and Pony doesn't even match," Soda informs me.
"Okay, I'll go brush my hair and Pony will change," I groan.
"Good," Soda tells me. He scoops up the money and puts it in his pocket.
As soon as we are done, we run back into the living room and then we head to the store. Soda takes each of us by the hand and we walk down to the grocery store, which is only two blocks from our house. As soon as we get there we are actually excited to see all of the food. My mouth begins to water as we walk inside but I try to control myself while we are shopping. Soda pulls out a cart and then we go to the dairy products.
When we get to the dairy products, Soda tries to get whatever is cheapest because we only have a few dollars to spend. The few dollars will buy quite a bit of food for us for a couple of days at least. As soon as Soda picks up the cheapest carton of eggs, he goes to the milk and orange juice. Pony and I love orange juice, which we haven't had for a long while. After that we go around to bacon and pick some up.
After we get the bacon we go around to the pancake mix but then whenever we get there we get a big surprise. Robert and Lucille are buying beer. Pony and I gasp and try to hide behind Soda, who looks scared out of his mind but tries to hold it together while in the store and in front of us. We quickly dart around the corner and out of sight. Soda now looks terrified and hurriedly rushes us to the front of the store to pay for our things before Robert and Lucille happen to see us. Then, we dash out of the store and run down the street towards the house.
Pony and I are now crying loudly as we run home and Soda is trying to shush us and tell us it is ok, but we are convinced that Robert and Lucille had already seen us and are now coming home to punish us. We don't know how just yet but they will definitely punish us someway or somehow because Pony and I could have sworn that we saw them glance as we are running from them and little do we know how right we are.
We now see Robert and Lucille heading around the corner and as soon as they see us they are really angry, Robert grabs Soda and shoves him in the back seat of the car, and then he grabs Pony and me to do the same. By now we are crying loudly. Robert scowls angrily at us and grabs the grocery sack out of Soda's hand and places it in the front seat, Pony and I glance over at Soda who is trying to keep his nerves under control for the sake of Pony and I. We also know he wants to cry but he won't.
Robert is muttering curse words under his breath while speeding the car down the street and around the corner, then to the house. Lucille is glaring at us the whole time. As soon as Robert pulls the car up in the driveway he yanks first Soda, then Pony and me out of the car.
"Get the hell out of the car and get your asses inside right now," Robert orders sternly. We obey and go inside.