Liquor, Sweat, and Bulletproof Glass

A mile east of where the 5 merges with the San Bernardino freeway is Duke's Sportsman Liquor store. Duke and Sunny, my middle aged parents from South Korea, owned the small liquor store in the city of Terrace for nearly a decade. Sitting on a stool behind the hanging rolls of scratchers, I watched my parents work. My dad, with his toes exposed in his velcro sandals, greeted customers while talking with the Budweiser courier about the day's shipment. My mother stood at the counter behind the bullet proof glass for hours on end, shifting her weight from one leg to the other to spare her aching muscles. Occasionally, a regular customer walked in and greeted me. "Duke Junior" is the title I was given as I had some of my father's strong Korean features: monolids and pronounced cheekbones. Around sunset, my mother and I left the store. As we reversed out of the parking lot, my father stood and waved goodbye. On the radio was 50 cent's "In da Club" and my mother left the windows of the Chevy wide open almost as if she was letting the wind evaporate the day's sweat.

2005. Royalty Market, located in the heart of South Central LA on 62nd and San Pedro, was much different than Duke's liquor. The glass got thicker, the ailes grew larger, and the weekends were no longer spent as a spectator as I frequented Ace wholesale with my mother to pick up a variety of vegetables, sodas, dairy, and cigarettes. We were regulars at the wholesale. The workers gave my mother a suitable nickname: "Royalty!", but I retained my title as Duke Junior. With an increased workload, my parents placed a queen size bed in the storage attic to sleep overnight, while leaving my sister and me with my grandma back at home in the San Fernando Valley. This was the busiest and most dangerous period in my parents' lives. An altercation with a customer led to a black eye and missing front teeth for my father. It was a common sight to see red salonpas along the back of my father's neck or around my mother's forearms.

I am proud of achieving a closer resemblance to my parents.

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