by E. N. Joy
“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.
Outside of the closed bathroom door stood Kennedy, Daryn and Joy. The girls were huddling as if they were planning the final play their team needed to win the super bowl.
“Can you believe she’s taking a bath?” Kennedy whispered.
“Did you say she’s taking a bath?” Joy began her speed talking rant in a whisper. “I know you didn’t say she was taking a bath.” She paused for a moment, sort of puzzled before asking, “What’s wrong with her taking a bath?”
“Duh…since when does Mother have time to take a bath?” Daryn decided to enlighten her in question. “Come on, really? Like what single mom period has time to take a bath. A bath is a luxury that only folks with lots of time on their hands can afford. She doesn’t have time on her hands. She has us.”
“Oh yeah,” Joy said. “She does always just take quick showers.” Joy backed up and began sniffing the air. “And do you smell that?”
Kennedy began sniffing the air as well. “Yeah, I think that’s the pizza burning.” She went to walk away so that she could go check on the pizza.
“No, stupid,” Joy said softly after sniffing the air herself. “That other smell.”
Kennedy stopped in her tracks and once again began sniffing the air. All three girls looked like dogs trying to sniff out a bone as they lifted their noses and took in deep breaths.
“Lilac,” Kennedy guessed first. “It smells like lilac; some fancy bath crap or something.”
“Umph, umph, umph, Rebecca-Joe’s big sister was right,” Daryn hated to admit. “First she forgets that we even exist, and now she’s taking a long, hot bath.”
“And not just a long, hot bath,” Kennedy added, “but one with good, fancy smelling bubble bath.” Kennedy folded her arms and nodded. “Oh, yeah. This definitely has something to do with a man.”
Joy stood there with an I-told-you-so sort of look on her face.
“Well, I’m not going to stand out here and guess about it,” Kennedy said with authority, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. “I’m going in there.” She nodded toward the bathroom door and then pushed it opened and entered. Daryn and Joy followed on her heels.
“My goodness,” a startled Sammi said as her daughters, one by one, came galloping through the bathroom doorway like an army on a mission.
“Sorry if we scared you, Mother,” Daryn apologized.
“That’s okay,” Sammi said as she relaxed back down in the water and tried to get her fast beating heart rate back to normal. She closed her eyes. Silence filled the room as the girls each stood over the bath with arms folded, staring down at their mother.
Slowly, Sammi opened up one eye, noticing her daughters’ stance. She then opened the other eye. “Uh, did you girls need something?”
Joy and Daryn looked to Kennedy to be their mouthpiece. After all, she was the one who had barged all up in there like Billy Bad. And secondly, it was safe to say that since she was the biggest, she had the biggest mouth. She might as well put it to good use and speak on their behalf.
“Uhh, well, uhh,” Kennedy stammered.
Daryn sighed and uncrossed her arms, allowing them to flop down to her side while she gave her oldest sister a what-are-you-waiting-for look.
Joy shook her head at Kennedy. She thought that not only was her oldest sister’s bark worse than her bite, but Joy was starting to think that Kennedy didn’t have any choppers at all to even bite with in the first place.
“Mother, we came to see if you wanted pepperoni pizza or plain cheese pizza,” Daryn interceded with a phony smile after realizing that the cat had the so-called big dog’s tongue.
“But we already cooked the peppero-” Joy started before Daryn cut her off and Kennedy poked her in the back. “Ouch!”
“What’s the mat-” Sammi started, reaching out to Joy.
“We already put the pepperoni one in the oven,” Daryn shot in, “but we can make the cheese one too…if you’d like.” Daryn continued smiling. She was all teeth.
“Well, actually,” Sammi said, putting both her arm and her head down. Her body then began sinking down into the water as if she wished she could disappear into the water altogether. Before she could submerge herself into the lilac bubbles, she managed to ramble off the words, “Iwon’tbehavingdinnerwithyougirls,” purposely slurring them together.
“Excuse me.” Kennedy put her hand to her ear.
“Well, uh, I said Iwon’t behaving dinner withyougirls.” This time Sammi said it a little bit more clearly, but by the look on her daughters’ faces, not clear enough. She decided to repeat herself one last time. This time she said each word clearly. “Girls, I won’t be having dinner with you tonight. Like I said earlier, I have plans.” She couldn’t even look her daughters in the face as she began to pretend to be concerned with the bubbles that surrounded her.
“Oh, but surely you’ll be hungry after your…plans.” Daryn batted her eyes, trying to get her mother just where she wanted her; in a position where she would be forced to tell the truth. Not just some of the truth, but the whole truth.
“Well, uh, no, I don’t think I will be,” Sammi said. “So you girls make what ever kind of pizza you want and don’t worry about saving me any.” Sammi hoped that would take care of the girls’ concerns. So she picked up her sponge that was floating in the water and poured her new bath gel onto the sponge.
“So, you’re gonna go all evening without eating, huh?” Kennedy said, after finally finding her voice. She was determined to dig deeper in order to get to the bottom of things.
“Going to?” Sammi corrected Kennedy’s grammar. “Going to go all evening without eating.” By now, Sammi just wanted her daughters to scram so that she could get washed up. “Look, girls, you all just eat dinner; enjoy your pizza, okay?” She let out an irritated sigh. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get washed up so that I can get dressed. I don’t want to be la
te for my da-” Sammi was on the edge of a cliff and felt like she had just almost slipped and fell, plummeting into the jaws of death. Which, in this case, would be her daughters’ accusing and menacing interrogation. Then she suddenly caught her balance. “I don’t want to be late for my plans.”
Tired of beating around the bush, and not used to being a girl of few words, Kennedy boldly spoke up. “Just what are these pl-?”
“Out!” Sammi said sharply, cutting Kennedy off. “Out of here…uh...while I…uh,” Sammi tried to lower her tone and sweeten it a bit. “Get washed up…you know. Mommy wants to be nice and clean.” She tried to smile, but the tension in her jaws wouldn’t allow it.
The girls did not budge.
Sammi pointed toward the door for the girls to exit. She hadn’t meant to be so snappy, but she knew where the girls’ interrogation was leading to, which was nowhere she wanted to go…not yet. She quickly regained her composure and managed to paint at least a half of a smile on her face. “Like I said, I need to get washed up and dressed.”
Reluctantly, arms crossed again with tight lips and a dissatisfied look on her face, Kennedy said, “Come on, girls. Let’s split.”
One by one, the Soul Sisters began to exit the bathroom just as they had entered, closing the door behind them.
“Plans in the middle of the week?” Kennedy spat as they stood in their mother’s bedroom. “Who does she take us for? Marsha, Jan and Cindy Brady?”
“Yeah, does she think we’re three kids who don’t know what she’s up to?” Daryn added.
After thinking about it for a minute, Joy replied, “But that’s exactly what we are; three kids who don’t know what she’s up to, because we couldn’t get her to fess up about these so-called plans of hers.”
Kennedy sighed. “Yeah, I’m afraid the little dumb one is right. We are three kids who don’t know what our mother is up to.” Kennedy headed out of her mother’s bedroom, feeling defeated. “Let’s go eat dinner…our burnt pizza awaits us.”
Daryn and Joy followed Kennedy out of the bedroom and down the stairs into the kitchen. They sat and ate dinner in silence. This was the first time ever that the Soul Sisters had all been in the same room and there was complete silence. Their minds were too concerned with their mother and her so called “plans.”
There was no arguing, shouting or fussing. As a matter of fact, it was so quiet down in the kitchen that they could hear their mother scooting around and getting dressed upstairs. After a few minutes, Sammi finally made her way down the steps and into the kitchen where they were now cleaning up their mess from dinner. There wasn’t much of a mess though. The pizza had only been half eaten. The girls just didn’t have much of an appetite.
Coming down the stairs, Sammi had been looking down at her outfit-making sure nothing was out of place. When she landed at the bottom of the steps, she was shocked to look up and see the girls all sitting at the table…quietly.
“Girls, you scared me!” Sammi placed her hand on her chest. “It was so quiet that I thought for sure…” her words trailed off when she saw the both disappointing and questioning looks on her daughters’ faces. Their eyes were like little, beady bullets, and she was the target. It was time for her to get out of there before they started shooting at her again. They’d already practically wounded her upstairs during her bath.
“Kennedy, you leave your homework on the kitchen table and I’ll check it after I get back in tonight,” Sammi said, walking over to her purse that sat on the counter. “Daryn and Joy, I’ll take a look at yours in the morning.” She began taking things out of her purse to put into the little black clutch she was holding. The little black clutch matched the little black dress she was wearing.
Kennedy looked her mother up and down, admiring how sophisticated she looked. Her hair was now, instead of sitting in a bun on top of her head, flowing straight down her back.
“All right, girls, I’ll see y’all later.” Sammi closed the clutch. “Be good,” she said, as she walked away. She then stopped in her tracks. “On second thought, just try to keep from being in the same room at the same time, kay, girls? All right. Nighty-night.” She then headed out of the kitchen, the girls’ eyes burning a hole in her back.
“I didn’t know Mommy had legs,” Joy whispered in a surprised tone as Sammi walked out of sight.
Sammi had always worn pants. The only time the girls had seen their mother in a dress is on the occasions she would wear one to church. Even then, the dress or skirt was ankle length. “Did you know Mommy had legs?” Joy said to neither sister in particular.
“No, but I guess we all do now,” Daryn said, almost disappointedly.
“Humpf,” Kennedy huffed, crossing her arms. “And it looks like we’re not the only ones about to find out she has legs either.”
“What do you mean by that?” Daryn asked.
Kennedy sucked her teeth and dropped her arms to her side. “To be so book smart, you sure are naïve when it comes to things like this,” Kennedy told Daryn.
“Yeah, girl, can’t you see,” Joy pointed to the door Sammi had just left out of, “Mommy’s letting it all hang out.”
“Yeah,” Kennedy agreed.
“And Rebecca-Joe said that her big sister told her that there’s only one thing a woman is willing to let it all hang out for.”
“What?” Daryn asked.
“Let me guess,” Kennedy said as Joy opened her mouth to answer. “A man.”
“Right on, sista,” Joy said, giving Kennedy a high-five, their arms stretching in front of Daryn’s face.
Daryn angrily brushed her sisters’ arm away. “Well, I think this Rebecca-Joe, whoever she is, is just making up stuff to tell you. She probably doesn’t even have a big sister,” Daryn said in denial, too afraid to face the fact that their mother just might be out on a date with a man.
“Well, I think Dr. Phil better watch out, because Rebecca Joe’s big sister might be on to something here, and we’re going to have to get to the bottom of it sooner or later.” Kennedy glared off and added, “And I’m going to see to it that it’s sooner rather than later.”
Chapter Six
Girl Time
“Miss Rachel, we had a great time,” Joy said to their mother’s best friend as they pulled into the driveway of their split-level home. Pink flowers that matched the pink shutters on the soft yellow house sprouted up from the dirt of the flower garden.
After Mr. Soul had passed away, one morning Rachel had showed up with her answer to cure the sad and melancholy state the family had been in for some months. The cure came in the form of buckets of pink and yellow paint, a ladder and paint brushes.
“A pink and yellow house?” Sammi had said to her best friend. “Are you kidding? People will be able to notice our house from miles away.”
“That’s the point,” Rachel said in her Latino accent, pushing a paintbrush into Sammi’s hand. “You ladies have been hiding long enough behind this dull gray house. It’s time to stand out!” On that note, Rachel summons the girls from their rooms, and what once stood as a cloudy gray colored house, now stood as a lively yellow one with soft pink shutters.
As far as Sammi was concerned, Rachel’s answer had been the correct one to bring her and her daughters out of the funk they had been in. She knew she was truly blessed to have a best friend like Rachel who would always be there for her and her girls. And thank God, too, because when she had called Rachel up just last night to ask her to keep the girls busy this Saturday afternoon, Rachel immediately obliged.
Rachel had just spent the afternoon with Kennedy, Daryn and Joy. She had taken them to lunch and a movie.
“Yeah, thank you, Miss. Rachel,” Daryn added.
“It’s nothing, chica,” Rachel said, shooing her hand, then turning off the car’s ignition. “There’s nothing in the world I wouldn’t do for my god-daughters, and don’t you forget it. Besides, I hadn’t had any girl time with just the three of you since forever.”
“Well, thank yo
u,” Joy told her as the girls removed their seatbelts.
“Yes, Miss Rachel, and we’ll have to do it again real soon,” Kennedy said as she opened up the front passenger side of the door. Her sisters had wanted to do “rock-paper-scissors” to see who would ride shotgun, but when Kennedy displayed her balled up fist with a mean-mug, somehow they knew she wasn’t displaying just a rock. Just that easily she’d won the front seat privileges.
Daryn and Joy followed the suit of their big sister, both exiting out of the back passenger doors of Miss Rachel’s silver frosted BMW. It had personalized plates that read LATNBABE, announcing how proud Rachel was of her Latino heritage.
“You’re coming in, Miss Rachel?” Kennedy questioned, realizing that Rachel had shut off the car engine and was now getting out of the car.
“Uh, well, uh, yeah. Si. Yes, I am coming in,” she finally said with certainty after stammering over her first few words.
“Are you coming to spend some girl time with Mommy now?” Joy assumed.
“Well, uh, actually,” Rachel swallowed, “I’m going to come spend a little more girl time with you guys. You see, your mother isn’t home right now, so I’m going to sit with you girls for a little while longer.”
The girls looked from one to the other before Kennedy spoke. “Mom’s not home?” Although Sammi’s car wasn’t parked in the driveway, that wasn’t unusual. She always parked in the detached two-car garage, which is where the girls had assumed her car was today. Obviously that wasn’t the case. “She didn’t tell us she was leaving.”
“And since when do we need a babysitter?” Joy threw in.
“Well, I’m not here to baby-sit; just to…you know…spend some more girl time with you three.” Rachel cleared her throat and rushed past the girls quickly as if she could really speed walk away from all of their questions. Her caramel cheeks began to turn a plum red.
