Operation Get Rid of Mom's New Boyfriend (3 page)

“
UGGGGGHHHHH!” Kennedy had
yelled from the shower stall. Everyone went running to see what the
matter was; everyone except for Daryn. She knew exactly what was
wrong. She laid in her bed giggling, just imagining the sight of
her sister with her hands stuck in her icky, sticky hair. As a
matter of fact, a smile crept across her face as she envisioned Joy
experiencing the same thing.

Hmmm, maybe next
time,
Daryn smiled to herself, as she
brought her thoughts back to the present.

“
You must have done an
excellent job at try-outs to get that gig,” Sammi continued her
praise toward Daryn.

“
Mr. Leeberman is a dork,”
Kennedy said in her attempt to downplay Daryn’s accomplishment. “He
would have assigned the school janitor a role if he had tried
out.”

“
I thought when you had Mr.
Leeberman for drama that you liked him, Kennedy,” Sammi tried to
recall.

“
Well, yeah, he’s an all
right dude, but-” Kennedy shrugged.

“
But nothing,” Daryn
interrupted. “I got the part because I’m good.”

“
Good at bad acting.” Joy
couldn’t help but chime in with a chuckle.

“
Enough, girls,” Sammi
said, sternly. She looked back and forth from Kennedy to Joy. “You
two should be very proud of your sister. I know I am.” Sammi then
looked to Daryn and smiled.

Daryn returned the smile at
her mother, but when Sammi turned to head up the steps, Daryn stuck
her tongue out at her sisters. Kennedy went to punch her, but just
as soon as she could ball her fist, Sammi turned around.

“
I’m going to make you
girls your favorite for dinner tonight,” Sammi said. “Some fried
chicken, mashed potatoes and collard greens with corn bread.” Not
only was that the girls’ favorite meal, but it had been their
father’s as well. His mother used to make it for him all the time
as a boy growing up. She’d immediately taught Sammi the recipe upon
learning of their engagement. In return, Sammi shared some of her
own mother’s Italian recipes with her mother-in-law.

“
Fried chicken, mashed
potatoes and collard greens with corn bread,” Kennedy repeated the
menu while rubbing her belly.

Dy-no-mite,” the girls
said, licking lips and clasping their hands together, willing ready
and able to throw down on some delicious grub.

It was no secret that the
girls absolutely loved watching old sitcom re-runs such as
Good Times, What’s Happening, The Brady Bunch,
Different Strokes
and
The Jeffersons
.

“
Those
were some of your dad’s favorite shows,” their mother had once told
them. She chuckled as if thinking back, causing a smile to spread
across her lips. “He even used to talk like them.” She raised her
arms and then pointed her hands outward before saying,
“Dy-no-mite,” imitating one of the characters from
Good Times
. She burst
out laughing.

The girls couldn’t help but
start laughing as well. They could picture their father doing that
and saying some of the things the characters on the shows said. And
now, after watching so many episodes of the shows, the girls had a
tendency to use some of the same vocabulary, and even mock their
style of dress after some of the characters.

“
Why are you fixing our
favorite dinner? What’s the occasion?” Daryn asked her
mother.

Sammi was a great cook and
always prepared a good meal for them every evening. But they were
used to their favorite meal being reserved for very special
occasions.

Sammi shrugged her
shoulders and perched her lips. “Since when does a mother need a
special occasion to cook her girls a good meal?” Each girl smiled
as Sammi winked and then headed up the steps. “Besides, what did
Grandma Soul used to say that cooking a good meal and feeding
someone meant?”

“
I love you!” the girls
answered in unison.

“
You go it. I love you
girls and I always will. And like Grandma Soul said; sometimes we
tell people we love them and care about them just by cooking them a
nice meal.”

The girls watched their
mother disappear at the top of the steps. They each admired her so
much. She was so beautiful with her mid-back length, straight
brunette hair. She had skin as tanned as a golden nugget with
piercing light brown eyes. Her dimples made her smile all the more
beautiful. To her daughters, Sammi was the most beautiful Mom ever,
and not just because she was their mother. Even all the kids at
school thought the Soul Sisters had the prettiest mother of all
mothers. The boys said she could be Jessica Alba’s, the girl that
played in the movie
Honey
, twin sister. Of course, the
Soul Sisters thought their mother was far prettier than Jessica
Alba, Demi Lavoto, Jennifer Aniston, or any other famous Italian
American actresses, who were all absolute “foxes” by the
way.

Since their father had died
four years ago after fighting a losing battle with diabetes, it had
just been the girls and their mother. They missed their father
dearly. He’d made it a point to spend as much time with his
daughters as possible. That often meant that Mr. Soul had to put
his family before his career. If his daughters had a ceremony at
school, a dance recital or a parent-teacher conference, Mr. Soul
wouldn’t hesitate to take off work so that he could attend. No
matter what, he had always shown up with Sammi on his
arm.

There was only one time
when Mr. Soul had missed an event. It was the Saint Amos Private
School Father-Kid Basketball Tournament. Even though Mr. Soul’s
illness had been getting the best of him, he remained strong in his
faith that through the strength of God, he could do anything. In
this particular case, anything included playing with his oldest
daughter in a basketball game.

Kennedy had waited, waited
and waited for her father to show up, but he never did. It was
after the game they learned Mr. Soul had been hospitalized. He
never came home from the hospital.

Since the death of her
daughters’ father, Sammi had done everything she could to fill the
void left in the girls’ lives. She made it a point to always be
there for them, and to never let anything come between them,
definitely not work. But being so determined to see to it that her
daughters remained just as happy without their father in their
lives that they had been with him, she forgot about her own
happiness.

Sammi had toyed with the
idea before about maybe starting to date again, or perhaps even
remarrying, but just as quickly as the idea would enter her mind,
she’d shove it right on out.

A man in her life? Who was
she kidding? She hadn’t dated in years. Very few men even attempted
to ask her out on a date. It wasn’t because she wasn’t attractive
enough. It was because she still wore her wedding ring. Most men
figured she was married and off limits, so they didn’t dare try to
approach her.

In the past she had talked
herself out of dating by saying she wouldn’t know how to act on a
date. In addition to that, it had just been her and her daughters
for so long that she could only imagine how the girls might react
if she ever did decide to allow a man into their lives. As fate
would have it, though, her imagination was about to become
reality.

Chapter Four

Got Plans?

About a month later, Sammi
whizzed through the front door carrying a Bath and Body Works bag.
“Girls, I’m home,” she sang. She then began to sing Nat King Cole’s
“Unforgettable,” as she dropped her briefcase at the
door.

“
Hey, Mommy,” Joy said,
running out of the den.

“
Hello, sweetie,” Sammi
replied, pinching Joy’s cheeks as if she were a cute, chubby baby
or soft, cuddly puppy.

Joy stood there with her
hand on the spot her mother had just pinched. The most puzzled look
covered her face and her feelings were visibly hurt. Normally,
Sammi would stop, give her a kiss, a warm hug, and ask how her day
had gone. But today she waltzed on by her youngest of three
daughters after only pinching her cheek.

“
A pinch,” Joy said to
herself, scrunching up her face. “A pinch is for a baby. I’m not a
baby.”

“
Mom,” Kennedy said,
standing up from the coffee table, her basketball that had been
doubling as a chair rolling from underneath her. She waited for her
mother to come peek at her homework and kiss her on the cheek as
she always did when she came in from work.

“
Hey there, my little
darling,” Sammi said, all smiles, still humming, as she walked
right past the living room and toward the kitchen.

Kennedy walked into the
foyer with a confused look on her face. Joy was still standing
there with a matching look on her face. The two girls crossed their
arms and gave each other a concerned eye. They then took steps
toward the kitchen.

“
Mother!” Daryn exclaimed
once Sammi entered the kitchen. She was excited, as always, to
greet her mother. Daryn closed her eyes and stuck out her lips for
her mother to come place the regular soft motherly kiss on them
like she always did.

“
Hello, dear,” Sammi said,
laying her purse on the counter and waltzing right on up the
stairs.

After a few seconds went by
and Daryn had not yet received a kiss from her mother, she opened
her eyes only to see Sammi clearing the top of the staircase. Daryn
sat there in a zombie like daze as her two sisters entered the
kitchen. Now all three sisters’ faces wore the same exact
expression: confusion.

Each of the girls felt
pretty much ignored by their mother. Usually they were fighting for
her attention, but today, it seemed like not one of them was any
more worthy of it than the other.

Just when the girls were
starting to feel hopeless and completely invisible, Sammi popped
her head out at the top of the steps and addressed her daughters.
“Oh, I’m sorry, girls,” she said, tapping herself upside the head
as if she felt silly that she had forgotten something.

“
Yes, Mom/Mother/Mommy,”
the girls said in unison with eagerness in their tones. They were
relieved that their mother did know that they existed after
all.

“
You’re on your own for
dinner tonight. Kennedy, take something out of the freezer; a pizza
or something. Mommy’s got plans,” Sammi said as she whirled away,
now singing the words, “I’m unforgettable too.”

“
Got plans?” the girls
said, once again, all in unison.

“
Did she say she had
plans?” Joy questioned. “I know she didn’t say she had plans did
she? But it sounded like she said she had plans.”

“
She did say that,” Kennedy
pouted.

“
But we had plans?” Daryn
said to no one in particular as she looked down sadly. “She was
supposed to help me go over my lines for the play.”

“
Shoot,
the last time I checked,
we
were her plans,” Kennedy said, putting her hands
on her hips and glaring up the steps. Her lips
tightened.

“
Yeah,”
Daryn agreed, throwing down her pencil. “We’ve always been her
plans, her
only
plans.”

“
Umph, umph umph,” Joy said
as she stood there with her arms still crossed, shaking her head.
“Mommy…plans? Now that’s heavy.”

“
And did y’all see how she
just waltzed up in here like we were invisible or something?” Daryn
spat.

“
Yeah. What’s all that
about?” Kennedy thought out loud.

“
Well, allow me to shed
some light on the situation at hand.” Joy cleared her throat and
then proceeded. “Rebecca-Joe said that her big sister told her that
there’s only one thing that comes between a woman and plans with
her girls.”

Daryn pushed her glasses up
on the bridge of her nose. “And what’s that?”

Daryn and Kennedy stood
eagerly awaiting their youngest sister’s response.

Joy took a deep breath and
paused for a moment. After keeping her sisters in suspense long
enough, she finally responded. “A man.”

“
Huh?” both Kennedy and
Daryn said, looking at each other puzzled.

“
What comes between a woman
and plans with her girls is a man,” Joy repeated.

“
So what are you saying?”
Daryn wanted clarity.

And Joy, more than willing
to give her clarity, looked from one sister to the next and said,
“I think Mommy might have a man.”

Chapter Five

Who’s the Man?

Still humming, Sammi
entered her private bath that was connected to her bedroom. She
walked over to her Jacuzzi bathtub and turned on the water. After
adjusting it to just the right temperature of warmth, she plugged
the drain and walked back into her bedroom and grabbed the Bath and
Body Works bag she had tossed onto her bed.

After pouring the new bath
product she had purchased from the specialty toiletry store into
the water, Sammi walked over to the sink and twisted and pinned her
hair up into a bun that rested on the top of her head. She then
slipped out of her work clothes and sank into the deep, soothing
water. She inhaled the lilac aroma of the new scented toiletry she
had picked up at lunch time. She then closed her eyes and
relaxed.