Pop Bully

Mom and Pop met in high school. She was the beautiful cheerleader, and he was the scruffy, skinny kid that knew what to do with his fists. He got rough that way for having to carry a garbage pail home from the school cafeteria to feed his mother's backyard rabbits and chickens. He carried the bucket of scraps with one hand and used his fist with the other. Sometimes he had to set the garbage pail on the ground and use both fists.
By high school, everyone knew to leave Pop alone. He might look small, but he was tough and would tear anyone up that asked for it. That's how he got his name.
Everyone thought we called him Pop instead of Dad, but he was Pop before I was born. His friends started calling him Pop from the way he would pop someone in the mouth if they made fun of him. That was the good thing about Pop. He wasn't the kind of bully that went out looking for trouble. But
It wasn't long before Pop saw Mom again at the Cotton Boll drive-in. Pop said it was Baby Blue that caught her eye, but Mom said she had no intention of getting in his car. It was her friend, Stella, who asked Pop if he would take them home because Stella's boyfriend, Red, didn't show up.
Mom lived with Stella in an old lady's boardinghouse because her mother kicked her out and placed her siblings in the St. Peter's orphanage. She said she didn't mind because she was free from her parents and had autonomy, but was worried about her brothers and sisters left alone in the orphanage. Pop said he felt sorry for her brothers and sisters too and would take her to see them.
Pop couldn't understand how a mother could abandon her children like that, but Mom said it was because her parents didn't have enough money to feed them. She said she was making good money at the movie theater after school, but it wasn't enough after she paid for Mrs. Cranberry's boarding room, and then food for herself.
Right then Pop pulled the car over, turned off the ignition, turned to Mom, and embraced