Mississippi Trial,1955

Mr. Paul owned the shop where Hiram would shop with the money he's been given by his grandfather.

"Little Hiram, how's the world treating you this morning?" Mr. Paul turned to face me, smiling with his hands flat on the glass countertops. He looked about my dad's age, and I knew he'd been in the war too. His Army truck hit a land mine in France and he ended up blind. Dark glasses hid his eyes.

I walked up to the glass display cases and looked over the rows of gum and candy bars laid out on the shelves. Behind the counter, Mr. Paul kept an ice chest full of soda, and on the right side of the display case he kept a cooler filled with ice cream bars. It was a hard decision.