A Story About Happiness

Ever since I can remember, people been telling me “Cristabelle, you ain’t that smart.” They been telling me that so long that it don’t bother me none and it never bothered me none. They let me know when I was real young so I could adjust to it and know my place on the brain scale, and I’m glad as hell they did or else I’d be bustin’ my butt to be like Annabelle and then I’d never be happy.
My big sister Annabelle is the real smart one. She went to beauty school and got herself a diploma when she was only sixteen years old. Dropped out of high school when she wasn’t even pregnant and went and signed up at the beauty school. She learned how to do everything so good and now she works at a fancy hair salon in Ryers, the kind with big chairs that you sit in with water tubs down at the bottom that you stick your feet in so you can get your toes done if you want. Annabelle, when she come visit, don’t give no services for free even though she practically a millionaire from all them tips she get. Not even to our Mama who was in labor for sixteen hours before Anabelle decide to finally come out. And Mama need a haircut bad sometimes and ‘cause Anabelle won’t do it I do it and I don’t cut straight so I keep cuttin’ and cuttin’ and tryin’ to even them hairs out. Then Anabelle come home and get mad cause Mama’s hair look like an ugly gray rug that the cat scratched up. But she don’t try to fix it. Anabelle, she’s like that. She don’t like to help out Mama. She don’t like to think about where she come from because if she did she’d never get nowhere.
I don’t care that I ain’t smart like Anabelle, ‘cause if I was then I couldn’t work at the Quikmart and I love working at the Quikmart. I don’t have to think too hard with the math either, cause all I do is put the items under the scanner and then the machine tell me how much the customer owe and how much change he need back. Then all I need to do is smile real wide and say “Have a nice day”.
I been working at the Quikmart for so long and I ain't got no plans to quit. I love the Quikmart cause it’s right next to the freeway and all sorts of people come in there. I seen every type of person there is on this planet to see, I bet. I seen gay people before, and all the time people be coming in from all over the world. One time I got a bus full of Chinese people all the way from China, talking Chinese. They didn't understand no English, either. All kinds of people come in the Quikmart. I bet Annabelle sees the same people all day everyday, and that’s what I’d be missing out on if I was born smart.