PAK 'N SAVE
PAK ‘N SAVE
By Yosimar Reyes
"Ma'am, we got you on camera," a Pak’ N Save security tells my Mama Doña.
We are recent arrivals to this country so Mama Doña is unable to communicate and stares at a small TV where the security replays a video in which she is vividly seen putting two containers of Tylenol into her coat pocket.
"Hey kid, can you please translate for her," the security officer directs his attention towards me.
"Abuelita, dice el señor que está robando," I quickly explained to Mama Doña as if she could not deduct by now what was happening.
Since no one will hire Mama Doña because of her lack of English, old age, and just plain stubbornness to learn American customs, she made friends with our neighbor Chonita.
We live in an apartment complex in the East Side filled with characters that are helping us adapt to this country.
Chonita lives in apartment 17, and she has so many kids; rumor has it that the government pays her rent. Her kids are loud and wild, often; you hear them shouting curse words in the courtyard as they play.
Chonita, with a stroller in her arm, takes a can of Diet Pepsi and pours it into her baby's biberon. The kids fight for what is leftover in the can but she smacks their hands and chugs the rest.
“We live in an apartment complex in the East Side filled with characters that are helping us adapt to this country.”
You would imagine that Chonita is a young mother and her lack of parenting skills comes from inexperience, but Chonita is 40, so one is left to wonder at what age she chose to start having all these kids.
"It is super easy, Doña. All you have to do is wear a big jacket then walk into the store and place what you want in the pockets. Then you walk to the register and act like you are purchasing a pack of gum. Act normal and just walk out."
Chonita trains Mama Doña how to shoplift. Chonita doesn’t have many friends and it seems that she has kept some childish antics being around her kids most of the time. The rest of the señoras in our neighbor keep away from her because they know that wherever she steps, drama follows.
We chose to walk to Pak’ N Save near our house. It's a big store so this makes it easier to hide behind all the customers and tall isles. Her kids have this operation down. As soon as we walk into the store, they scatter like Cockroaches; one goes for cookies, another for candy, another for soda. Chonita walks, acting unknowingly, shuffling an envelope full of WIC coupons.
“Chonita doesn’t have many friends and it seems that she has kept some childish antics being around her kids most of the time. ”