Its the right thing to do.

Monday, 2 A.M, the dense humid atmosphere and heat 
of the morning hours makes me feel claustrophobic.
I'm stood outside a Walmart in Lakeland, Florida.
I'm smoking a Marlboro before I go in,
just to settle my nerves.
Four loud and excited young boys exit the store,
and head towards a blue S.U.V on my right.
They're dressed like basket players and they're
all wearing cheap dollar store flip flops.
They make flapping and slapping sounds as they walk
and talk with a cocky bravado in the way kids from the 'hood do.
About a minute later, a tired looking woman exits thru the
swishing automatic doors.
She's wearily pushing a full shopping cart of bagged groceries.
She too is wearing cheap flip flops, but she's too tired lift her
feet and she makes a scraping sound as she walks heavily
and her breathing sounds raspy.
I inhale on my smoke nonetheless.
She listlessly makes her way to the same blue S.U.V with the four boys.
She opens the trunk and begins to put the many bags of groceries into it.
The four boys are noisily playing around, near the car and on the sidewalk.  
I take another puff of my cigarette as a red Ford F-150 pick up truck, 
speeds onto the car park and double parks in the Disabled slots,
adjacent to the front entrance of the store.
Three young men in camouflage hunting gear, jump out. 
One of them tosses a bud light beer can into the bushes next to the 
their pick up truck.
They head towards the entrance of the store.
One of them flicks a still lit cigarette butt at the standing ash tray to my left,
and the doors swished open to let them in.
I inhale my smoke again and exhale into the still humid air.  
To my left, I watch a 20 something man and woman with a child,
a boy, perhaps 6 years old, maybe 8, get out of a black or dark blue 
sedan a bit further down the parking lot.
They head towards the store.
They're both smoking and she is staring at a cell phone, 
while the little boy is lagging behind. 
Another car enters the parking lot and turns down their lane.
The couple slowly amble to the right and I see the brake lights 
come on. The man shouts at the the little boy and he runs towards the man.
The driver soon finds a space next to the couples car.
Another young couple get out, they look like teenagers to me, 
male and female.
I take another puff of my smoke, exhale and blow a smoke ring.
They walk towards the store. 
She's wearing flip flops, a white tee shirt that shows off her mid riff
and denim shorts, too tight and too short.
The boy is also wearing white tee shirt, which exposes his skinny arms.
His khaki pants are tight around his lower legs and hanging off his ass, exposing his 
Sponge Bob Square Pants boxer shorts.
He has a can of Pepsi in his left hand and casually tosses it onto the parking lot.
The smoking parents arrive at the entrance and stub their cigarettes in the 
standing ash tray.
The teenage litter bugs walk in a few seconds later.
I inhale again and wearily exhale.
I hear the sound of a car door being pushed shut, followed by a grunt.
My attention is brought back to the woman with the four boys to my right.
She has just closed the trunk. She is holding onto the empty shopping cart 
and wearily pushes the cart 20 yards or so down and across the car park to a cart rail.
Her cheap flip flops are scraping and scratching against the concrete car park.
One of her boys, loudly says, "Ma, just leave the cart against the 
the sidewalk like everybody else".
She pushes the cart all the way into the cart rail and walks heavily back
across the parking and back to her car,
making scraping sounds with her flip flops and breathing heavily.
The same boy speaks again, rather impatiently, "You should have left it in the space next to ours!"  
She opens the drivers door and sighs "Its the right thing to do".
I think about the other customers who went into the store moments before 
and I shake my head. I also think that they all could use a lesson
in ethics from this woman.
I take a last puff of my smoke and flick it into the middle
of the road with my middle finger and head into the store.