time I asked my mom for Adidas
sneakers. She came home with
some knockoff brand, Abidas.
“Mom, these are fake,” I said.
“I don’t see the difference.”
“Look at the logo. There are
four stripes instead of three.”
“Lucky you,” she said. “You got
one extra.”
We got by with next to nothing,
but we always had church and we
always had books and we always
had food. Mind you, it wasn’t
necessarily good food. Meat was a
luxury. When things were going
well we’d have chicken. My mom
was an expert at cracking open a