Operation Get Rid of Mom's New Boyfriend

by E. N. Joy

  They had pretty much expected what Bo’s reaction would be after he dug into his extra spicy plate of food and after he drank his bitter drink. Nevertheless, it was their mother’s reaction that they had failed to prepare themselves for. That was one glitch in their operation they’d have to repair, but for now, it was too little too late. There was no time to prepare for their mother’s wrath.

  Chapter Ten

  No Apologies, No Regrets

  “Girls, how could you?” Sammi said in a disappointed tone. Her voice was shaky. It sounded as if she wanted to cry, but the girls knew she wouldn’t. They hadn’t seen her cry since their father’s funeral. Her eyes had watered, tears had threatened to fall, but each threat had been idle.

  Just a couple minutes ago, Sammi had walked Bo to the door, apologizing for her daughters’ actions the entire time. He’d left without telling her that he accepted the apology. The rawness and burning in his throat as a result of the pasta sauce had prevented him from being able to speak.

  As Bo walked out of the door, he had put his hand to his ear and mouth as if it were a phone, signaling Sammi that he would call her. She knew in her heart, though, that he wouldn’t. Sad thing about it was, she couldn’t blame him. There were, though, three other people she could blame.

  Kennedy, Daryn and Joy each sat on the couch silently with no reply to their mother’s question. They were slightly moved by Sammi’s obvious frustration with them, but the feeling of victory deep down inside them was too overwhelming for them to truly show it. They hadn’t intended to hurt their mother, but the look on her face proved that they had. So even though their faces expressed some regret, they still couldn’t help but to rejoice over the success of the evening; according to their plans anyway. Of course, their mother saw things differently.

  “So not one of you has anything to say?” Sammi asked her daughters. Again, there was no reply. “Not even that you’re sorry?” Sammi shook her head in disgust.

  Kennedy finally spoke up. “But we’re not sorry,” she declared. “We’re sorry that you are sad and I guess a wee bit angry.” Kennedy placed her index finger over her thumb and held them just a tad bit apart. Sammi tightened her lips at Kennedy’s downplay of her level of anger. “Okay, a lot angry,” Kennedy admitted. “But we’re not sorry that we did it. There was no way we could just let some strange man think he was going to barge into our house and take Daddy’s place. So, no, Mom, we’re not sorry. The only other thing besides hurting you that we could possibly be sorry about is that you brought him here in the first place.”

  “Whoa, hold up!” Sammi said, putting her hand up. She rattled her head as if she were shaking water out of it. She was double-checking that she had heard her oldest daughter correctly. “Since when do you determine who I bring into this house?” she said to Kennedy and then looked to the other two girls. “Since when do any of you determine such?”

  Kennedy could tell by the way Sammi’s voice was rising that she’d better not respond. This was probably what she’d heard adults refer to as a rhetorical question.

  Daryn looked over at her older sister. She could tell that it was killing Kennedy inside not to be able to speak her mind, for fear of disrespecting their mother more than they already had. “Mom, look, we’re sorry that we upset you. We didn’t mean to; honest. But-”

  “Well, you did upset me.” Sammi cut Daryn off. “And you embarrassed me as well.”

  “So now we’re an embarrassment?” Kennedy stood up and said, not being able to bite her tongue any longer. “Is that why you’ve been kickin’ it with this cat for months and we’re just now meeting him? Because you were embarrassed of us?” Kennedy shook her head. “Well, that explains a lot. First we’re invisible, and now we’re just a complete embarrassment. Let me guess, next you’ll be sending us off to boarding school.”

  “Boarding school?” Joy stood up and exclaimed while looking back and forth from her sisters. “Did she say boarding school?” She then looked at Sammi. “Did I hear the words boarding school? Because Rebecca Joe’s big sister said that when a woman sends her kids off to boarding school when she gets a new boyfriend, it’s because she wants to be with him more than she wants to be with her own kids?” She said this all quickly and in one breath. Her chest was rising up and down as if she’d just run a marathon she was so out of breath.

  “Is that true, Mother?” Daryn stood up and asked. Now all three girls were standing like stair steps. “You don’t want us around anymore? You like Mr. Bo better than us?”

  Sammi’s eyes remained watered, but she refused to shed tears. She did not want the girls to think they were getting the best of the situation. They were, however, getting the best of her heart. “I can’t even believe you girls would ever think anything like that. What kind of mother do you think I am?”

  Kennedy crossed her arms and poked out her lips. “Harrumph.” She looked to her sisters then back to her mother. “You tell us.”

  Sammi’s blood began to boil. The heat from the burning fire inside of her quickly dried up any pending tears that had been threatening to fall from her eyes. She couldn’t believe she was a grown woman having a stand off with some kids; her own kids. Well, she wasn’t having it!

  “I’ll tell you something all right.” Sammi pointed her finger in each girl’s face as she walked by and spoke to them. “You girls might have thought a little bit of hot sauce, pepper and salt could get rid of Bo-”

  “Actually it was a lot of hot sauce, pepper and salt,” Joy corrected with a slight grin. “I mean, you should have seen the way we just piled it…OUCH!” Joy screamed after Daryn elbowed her in the side.

  Sammi plastered a fake smile on her face. “Then I stand corrected…you girls might have thought that a lot of hot sauce, pepper and salt could get rid of Bo-and it might have…for the night. But it didn’t get rid of my feelings for him.” Still pointing, Sammi continued chastising the girls. “Now, I’m going to go upstairs and take a shower so that I can get cleaned up.” Sammi looked down at the punch that Bo had spit out all over her. “And so that I can think about what I’m going to say to Bo when he calls me.”

  Kennedy cupped her hand around her mouth and whispered to Daryn, “If he calls her,” then stifled a chuckle.

  Sammi only glared before continuing. “You girls, on the other hand, are going to go clean up that kitchen and get ready for bed.” Sammi made her way back to Kennedy. “You got that, head sister in charge?” Her finger was idle in Kennedy’s face.

  Kennedy was speechless, and not because of the fussing out she had just received, but because of what she had just noticed. “Your ring…” were the words that fell out of Kennedy’s mouth. “You’re not wearing your wedding ring anymore.”

  Sammi looked down at her left hand. It was now vacant of the wedding ring she had worn for years, even after her late husband’s death. “Don’t try to change the subject,” Sammi said, not knowing how else to respond, especially after seeing the hurt look on each of her daughters’ faces. “The issue at hand is that you girls ruined the entire night, and perhaps my entire relationship with Bo. Now I’ve got to go figure out a way for us to make it up to him.”

  “Us?” the girls shouted.

  “Yes…me…you…we…all of us,” Sammi replied. “And I don’t want to hear another word about it.” Sammi made a quick exit without getting back on the subject of the ring. She sighed a sigh of relief after she was around the corner and out of the girls’ sight.

  “Harrumph,” Kennedy sighed a few seconds later as she folded her arms and flopped down on the couch. “We’ll see about that. We‘ll make it up to Mr. Bo Hart all right; we’ll make up something to top what we did tonight.”

  “Yeah,” Daryn said, flopping down next to her older sister. “I wish I might fix my lips to even apologize to that jive turkey for what we did tonight, let alone make it up to him.”

  “Me either.” Joy joined her sisters on the couch.”

  Kennedy shook her head after thinking fo
r a minute. “I don’t know, girls. I think Mom must really be diggin’ this dude. I mean, she took her ring off that Dad gave her.” Kennedy looked at her little sisters who nodded in agreement. “So, you girls know what that means, right?” Kennedy sighed.

  “What?” Joy and Daryn said.

  “That if Mom does get back in Bo’s good graces…this time we have to try even harder to get rid of him…for good! We’ll really have to out do ourselves.” Once again, Kennedy looked at her sisters for approval. When a gleam of support twinkled in their eyes, Kennedy put her fist out. Daryn placed her fist on top of Kennedy’s, then Joy’s on top of Daryn’s.

  “Soul Sister’s Operation Get Rid of Mom’s New Boyfriend; Mission incomplete,” Kennedy stated. “Now for phase two…”

  Chapter Eleven

  Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game

  “Mother was still really upset this morning,” Daryn said as the three sisters got off the school bus and headed toward their school entrance.

  “Yeah. I heard her on the phone last night with Miss Rachel telling her everything that went down.” Kennedy had immediately began bouncing her basketball when she stepped off the school bus. “But, hey. She’ll get over it. She’ll come out of this little funk she’s in and things will be back to normal in no time.”

  Joy shook her head. “I don’t know. Rebecca-Joe said that her big sister told her that when a woman breaks up with her boyfriend, things don’t get back to normal until after she loses five pounds from depression and then has a girl’s night out on the town with her girlfriends.” Joy put her finger to her forehead and thought for a minute. “Or is it the other way around?”

  “But even then, who’s to say that things will be back to normal? Especially if that loser, Bo, accepts Mom’s apology and stays on the scene,” Daryn said.

  “Daryn’s right,” Joy agreed. “Bo might not step off so easily.”

  “If he knows what’s good for him he will,” Kennedy threatened. “But just in case this cat really does have nine lives, we need to have something else lined up to get rid of him once and for all?”

  “Yeah, but what?” Daryn shrugged.

  “Come on, girls; walk with me, talk with me,” Kennedy ordered as she shot out some ideas for phase two of their operation.”

  The girls made their way into the school building. At this point was usually when the girls separated from one another. They barely even talked to each other at school unless it was to pick up where they’d left off in an argument that had started at home. Now that the girls had joined forces, now that they shared and walked on common ground, both Daryn and Joy stood with Kennedy at her locker. They proceeded to throw out some ideas for their next mission. That was until a loud voice interrupted them.

  “So, who do you think is going to take the trophy this year at the Father-Kid Basketball Tournament?” this uppity girl named Lilac, said to her two sidekicks, Vanilla and Hennessey.

  The three eighth grade girls, given the moniker, The Triplets, by most of the kids at school, stood next to the Soul Sisters. Lilac’s locker was directly next to Kennedy’s. Practically every morning the Triplets would huddle around Lilac’s locker and talk; or more like taunt Kennedy.

  Kennedy sighed. She despised Lilac’s bourgeoisie, high-pitched voice. She despised even more what she knew was coming next.

  “I knowwwww,” squealed Vanilla. She knew everything. At least she always claimed to anyway.

  Then there was time for the dreadful parrot that Kennedy despised the most.

  “Yeah, so who do you think is going to take the trophy this year at the Father-Kid Basketball Tournament?” Hennessey repeated Lilac‘s initial inquiry. Hennessey repeated almost everything the ringleader said.

  That was just one of the annoying conversations amongst the threesome Kennedy had to endure everyday. Those three acted more like sisters than Kennedy, Daryn and Joy. They were practically joined at the hip, taking almost all of the same eighth grade classes together. The only class The Triplets didn’t have together was math. Hennessey just happened to be in Kennedy’s math class. But Kennedy had to admit that Hennessey wasn’t that bad to tolerate when she was by herself. As a third wheel, though, she was a little wobbly.

  Even though from the outside looking in Lilac, Vanilla and Hennessey appeared to be sisters, they weren’t. As a matter of fact, they weren’t even related. Because Lilac and Vanilla’s mothers had been best friends since high school and their daughter’s had grown up together, the two girls pretended to be cousins. Although Hennessey was pretty tight with both the girls too, Lilac and Vanilla were like Beyonce and Kelly Rowland from the singing group Destiny’s Child, while Hennessey was like the extra chick in the group. Still, Hennessey was dedicated and loyal to the clique, even if she really didn’t seem to fit in.

  “I can’t say for certain, but I think me and my pops have a pretty good chance at winning the tournament,” Lilac smiled. “Daddy’s hired one of his good friends, a former pro ball player, to train us for the big game.” Lilac looked over her shoulder at Kennedy. “Of course, I still don’t know if that’s good enough to beat the school’s star basketball player.” Lilac’s tone couldn’t have been more sarcastic in her reference to Kennedy.

  The three nemeses chuckled while rolling their eyes at Kennedy. Kennedy pretended to ignore them, but The Triplets weren’t about to be ignored.

  “So, Kennedy, you playing in the big tournament this year?” Lilac asked as she grabbed a couple books from her locker. “Oh, that’s right. It is a Father-Kid Basketball Tournament, and since you don’t have a father...”

  The girls chuckled again.

  “But I don’t know, girls,” Lilac said. “Maybe I shouldn’t make room on my shelf for the trophy just yet. Kennedy’s mom still has plenty of time to find a boyfriend or someone who can substitute as Kennedy’s daddy?”

  “I knoooow,” Vanilla agreed.

  “Yeah, girls. Her mom still has plenty of time to find a boyfriend or someone who can substitute as Kennedy’s daddy.” Hennessey was repeating Kennedy again.

  Both Daryn and Joy stood next to their big sister with solemn faces. Their expressions weren’t so much because of what The Triplets were saying, it was because of the look on Kennedy’s face. They’d never seen their sister look so defeated in their lives. Kennedy was already for a fight. And now here one was being handed to her on a silver platter.

  Daryn and Joy waited for Kennedy to shoot the girls a slick comeback like she would have done either one of them, but not a word ever came from Kennedy’s mouth.

  The school bell interrupted the taunting session by The Triplets, on which Kennedy was on the receiving end of. After Lilac sneered at Kennedy then closed her locker, she, Vanilla and Hennessey disbursed.

  “Look, I gotta go to class,” Kennedy said to her sisters, slamming her own locker closed. “We’ll discuss our next move on the way home.” Kennedy headed off to her next class with her head down, leaving her two little sisters standing at her locker dumbfounded.

  The big sister walking away from them was not the big sister Daryn and Joy knew from home. The sister they knew would have never allowed those Triplet girls to get away with that. Who knows? Maybe Kennedy was deciding to pick her battles, and perhaps the battle at hand, the one of getting rid of their mom’s new boyfriend, took priority.

  “Come on.” Daryn nudged Joy. “We don’t want to be late for our classes.

  Both Daryn and Joy parted ways in the direction of their own classes. It looked as though the planning stages were on hold…but not for long.

  Chapter Twelve

  Do the Twist

  Sammi lay in her bed with her arms folded across her stomach. With her right index finger and thumb, she rubbed the bare ring finger on her left hand. Had her ring been there, she’d been doing the twist thing she does with it whenever she’s nervous. But she’d removed the ring yesterday before Bo had come over for the disastrous spaghetti dinner.

  She had decided to t
ake off the ring for her own personal reasons. If she planned to truly start a lasting relationship with Bo, then she needed to move on. She needed to give Bo her whole heart and mind, but how could she do that if every time she looked down at her wedding ring she was reminded of her late husband?

  The ring symbolized the bond and the vows she’d once shared with him. Well, now she wanted to try to form a bond with Bo. However, Sammi didn’t want to forget about the man she’d married and shared an incredible life with either; the man she’d had three wonderful daughters with. Nevermind the fact that the daughters weren’t acting so wonderful right about now.

  After praying on it, Sammi realized that removing the ring didn’t mean she was removing memories of her children’s father. It just meant that she was removing one thing in order to make room for something else. Not that that meant she wanted Bo to propose to her any time soon with a ring of his own. It just meant that if the day ever did come, she wanted to be ready.

  Ironically, though, now she wished she hadn’t taken off the ring. Not because she had lost all hope of straightening things out with Bo, but because she needed to cure her nervousness. Right now, she needed more than anything to do the twist with her ring. Taking a deep breath, Sammi figured there was only one way to cure her nervousness. It wasn’t to put her ring back on. It was to just go ahead and get the task at hand out of the way.

  After waiting all day for Bo to call her, Sammi decided to make the first move and call him. She looked over at the alarm clock on her nightstand. It was almost nine o’clock on a Monday night. It was getting late. If she was going to make a move, then she needed to do it fast, before it got any later.

  After picking up the phone and dialing Bo’s phone number, Sammi put the phone to her ear. She heard dead silence; no ring, no nothing. “Hello,” she said into the phone receiver.