A little post-Chosen fic that was rattling around my brain.
Mama Can
Mama can buy fifty pieces of Hidden Hills Gold off of the Home Shopping Network in one sitting. She's the kind of viewer that calls in to gush, "Mary Beth, I'm from Chicago and I just want to say that you are just the sweetest host ever." She says she has a lot of making up to do for all of the years that she couldn't just sit around doing nothing. And she says everything's better when it's on Flex Pay. "Paying all at once is a bitch, Janice. I should know. When you get a little older, you'll understand." At least, that's what she says.
Mama can fit the whole world under her coat. That's what Leroy Burden said one day after Mama dropped me off at school. All the kids laughed. I was so mad. I told Mama when I got home. I wanted to hit him, but Mama said no. She said boys like him always get what's coming to them. In this world, it's not worth your time to be angry and bitter. She made me promise not to do anything the next time he started in on her. Besides, she said, she had packed on a few pounds since back in the day. I didn't hit Leroy Burden, but I did call him a freak the next day. The teacher found out and told Mama. They made me apologize. "You don't know freaky, little girl." That's what Mama said.
A lot of people think my mama can't do anything. But they don't know how wrong they are. I seen her once moving so fast. I didn't know anyone could move that fast, let alone my mama. I found an old picture of her one day in a box tucked way in the back of her closet. It was a bunch of girls, not much older than me, standing out in the middle of the desert in front of a big yellow school bus. The school bus said Sunnydale on the side of it. My mama was in the middle with a cast on her arm. She wasn't smiling but she said she was happy that day when I asked her about it. "Pictures don't always give the full story." At least, that's what she says.
I don't pay attention to what most folks, especially Leroy Burden, say about my mama these days. Because I know the truth. My mama can do a lot of things. Why, my mama can even save the world with only one good hand.