by E. N. Joy
“No thanks to you,” Sammi snapped. “She’s been right out here scared to death the entire time. If you hadn’t been engaging with your lady friend over there, you might have noticed.” She nodded in the direction of where the young lady now stood with her friend. “Or perhaps I should have gone with my first motherly instincts and not let you talk me into allowing them to go off by themselves in the first place. Bo Hart, this is all your fault!”
“What Lady friend are you talking about?” Then it dawned on Bo as he looked back over toward the young woman who winked at him and blew him a kiss. He shook his head. Things didn’t look good for him. He turned to face Sammi. “Wait, Sammi. It’s not what it looked like,” Bo started to explain.
“Take us home, Bo,” Sammi insisted. She didn’t want to hear anything this playboy Casanova had to say. “I’ve found my daughter and now I’m ready to go. You can come back and hang out with your little girlfriend over there all you want, but not until after you take us home first.”
“Girlfriend?” Bo lifted his arms and then allowed them to drop down to his side. “What girlfriend?”
“So you mean to tell me that person,” she pointed roughly at the woman, “that person- who is obviously a friend as buddy-buddy as you two were- isn’t a girl? Is that what you want me to believe?”
A disbelieving look that Bo erased with a half “I can’t believe this is happening” smile appeared on his face. “I can’t believe this,” he said to no one in particular, vocalizing the expression on his face.
“I can’t either!” Sammi was getting more frustrated, not to mention jealous, by the minute.
“Mommy, I want to go home,” Joy sniffed, sprinkling the finishing touches on her act.
Bo looked down at Joy and then back up at Sammi. “But, Sam,” Bo said, holding out his hand sympathetically, “are you going to fall for that little three ring circus your daughters just put on?”
“It’s Sammi,” she demanded, removing one arm from around Joy and then throwing it on her hip. “My name is Sammi, not Sam. As a matter of fact-, it’s Samantha for you. Now I’m ready to go.”
“But, Sam, Sammi…I mean Samantha…you don’t understand,” Bo tried to explain. “The entire time Joy was-” Bo pointed to the tree, but Sammi cut him off.
“I do understand. I understand that if I let you talk long enough, you’re going to try to accuse my daughters of faking this entire incident.” Sammi looked Bo up and down with disgust. “It‘s just like a man to get caught doing something he has no business doing and try to shift the blame elsewhere.” Sammi looked at her daughters. “And to three innocent children nonetheless.”
Each girl, as if on cue, made an innocent face.
“Innocent?” Bo spat. “If they are innocent, then so was OJ Simpson.”
“Mommy, who’s OJ Simpson?” Joy asked, but Sammi was too steamed up, ready to make her next comment to Bo to answer her youngest daughter.
“I could say the same about you and Tootsie over there. What ever the two of you were up to didn’t look so innocent.” Sammi nodded in the direction of where the woman was still standing with her girlfriend by her side. The two women, like a couple other zoo visitors, were witnessing the argument taking place. “Like I said, you’ve been caught; now don’t try to shift the blame.”
“Getting caught…shift blame…Sammi, please,” Bo stammered. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but I have no idea who that woman was. For all I know, it’s part of your daughters’ little scam here; like a decoy or something. To distract me.”
Sammi tightened her lips. “Well, I guess it didn’t take much to distract you, now did it?”
“Sammi…” His words trailed off because he really didn’t know what else to say. But what he did know is that there was something fishy about this whole little girl lost thing. Something told him that he was the bait that had caught the fish, and that the girls were the fishermen, just reeling the situation in; hook, line and sinker. “Girls, are you really going to stand here and pretend as if you’re all innocent? Tell your mother the truth; that Joy wasn’t really lost,” Bo urged the girls with pleading eyes.
Sammi got up in Bo’s face. “How dare you to accuse them of such a thing! My daughters would never scare me half to death like that on purpose.”
“I don’t think they intended to scare you half to death,” Bo said to Sammi and then gave each girl a look as he said, “but I do think they intended to scare me away…or try to make me look bad so that you would make me go away.” He looked back at Sammi. “Since the hot sauce and salt thing didn’t do the trick, they decided to put another plan in motion. This whole little girl lost thing is a scam.” He looked Sammi in the eyes. “Can’t you see that, Sammi-Samantha?”
Sammi paused for a second before she began to shake her head. She was so angry that Bo was standing there telling what she thought to be lies about her girls. “Look, Bo. I made a mistake.” Sammi’s bottom lip began to quiver. “I’m not ready for this yet. I thought I was, but clearly I’m not.”
“Ready for what, Sammi?” Bo wanted Sammi to make herself clear.
“Fort this. For us. For a relationship,” Sammi explained.
“But, honey, you are ready.” He looked at Kennedy, Daryn and Joy, “It’s your girls who aren‘t r-”
“Bo!” Sammi put her hand up to stop him from speaking. “That’s enough. Please.” Sammi took a deep breath and regained her composure. “For the last and final time, we’re ready to go. Now if you don’t mind, will you please drive me and my girls home…now?”
Sammi walked off, practically dragging poor Joy. Kennedy and Daryn followed close behind. Bo stood there for a minute, not wanting to believe what was happening. He didn’t want to believe that three smart and pretty girls who looked like little angels could actually be the devil in disguise.
Just as he proceeded to follow behind the girls, Joy looked back at him. A mischievous grin came across her lips right before she stuck her tongue out at Bo.
It was then that Bo realized he’d been terribly wrong about the girls. They weren’t the devil in disguise. They didn’t need a disguise.
Bo took a deep breath and then walked off, but not before the woman who’d asked for the time put her hand to her ear as if it were a phone and shouted out to Bo, “Call me!”
Chapter Fifteen
Eavesdroppers
The girls sat on the floor with their hands cupped to their ears and pressed against their mother’s bedroom door. They were outside of their mother’s bedroom door listening to Sammi relay the entire scene at the zoo to Rachel on her cell phone. The girls could hear Rachel’s side of the conversation too because Sammi had her on speaker phone while she used her free hands to straighten up her room. They could just barely their mother’s best friend’s reply over all movements and the rustling of things.
“It was just awful, Rachel,” the girls heard Sammi say. “I was scared to death. And you should have seen Joy when we found her. She was even more afraid than I was. Then to top it all off, not only was Bo caught like a deer in headlights while staring at Little Miss Young Thing’s…you know…”
“Eyes?” Rachel guessed.
“Yeah, eyes. Whatever.” Sammi swished her hand. “But he tried to accuse the girls of setting it all up, like it was a joke or something.”
Rachel paused for a moment before saying, “Well, they did play one heck of a joke on him just a week ago,” Rachel reminded Sammi.
“Yes, but that was different. This was serious,” Sammi reasoned. “The girls and I have had talks about strangers and strangers kidnapping kids. They know how I feel about that subject matter. They’d never do something like that to me.”
Outside the door, each girl expressed a sad, regretful look on their face. Before putting plan B of their operation into motion, they honestly hadn’t thought about how it was going to make their mother feel. That seemed to continue to be the glitch in all of their plans that they just couldn’t seem to work out. And
now that they could hear how it was making her feel, they almost wished they hadn’t pulled that little stunt…almost.
“And, Rachel,” the girls heard their mother continue, “you know Kennedy, Daryn or Joy would never agree to do something like that. Heck, water could be pouring from the sky and you couldn’t get those three to agree that it was raining. One of ‘em would swear up and down it was melted snow.”
Rachel chuckled at Sammi’s comment. “Well, maybe they didn’t mean to do it to you. Maybe they just meant to do it to Bo and didn’t really think about how it would make you feel.”
Rachel was right. When the girls came up with the idea after learning that they were going to the zoo with Bo, they now wished that maybe they had considered how their mother might have reacted. All they thought about was how bad it would make Bo look in their mother’s eyes. And at least that part of the plan had worked.
“So are you siding with Bo?” Sammi was quick to ask Rachel. “Do you honestly think my girls would do something so despicable as to pretend to be lost at the zoo?”
“It’s not about what I think. It’s about what Bo thinks. Moreover, Sammi, can you really blame him for thinking it? I mean, what other impression do you expect him to have of your daughters besides being tricksters? That’s the only side he’s seen of them.”
This time Sammi paused, and outside of the door, the girls crossed their fingers and hoped Sammi’s next words to her best friend wouldn’t be what they though they might be.
“Well,” Sammi started, “maybe you’re right. Maybe I was a little too hard on Bo.”
Outside of the door, the girls collapsed on the floor in defeat.
“Thanks a lot, Miss Rachel,” Kennedy whispered. “For talking Mom into forgiving that sucker.”
“Yeah; Miss Rachel is nothing but a…a…” Daryn started, but Joy finished.
“A voice of reason.” Joy stared off.
“A what?” Both Kennedy and Daryn looked to their sister.
“Oh, never mind, Kennedy, you’ll learn all about that next year.” Joy said in her Miss Know-It-All fashion. She then turned to her sisters. “You guys do know what this means don’t you?”
“What?” Kennedy questioned.
“Let me guess,” Daryn said, ready to take her shot at being a know-it-all. “Operation Get Rid of Mom’s New Boyfriend; phase three.”
***
The girls were riding on the school bus together. Nothing was out of the ordinary about that. They always rode the school bus together. What was out of the ordinary, though, was that they were sitting together. The bus driver kept a close eye on them, peeking at them through his rearview mirror every time the bus came to a stop. He couldn’t help but remember what had happened the last time the girls had sat together on the bus. We’ll he half way remembered anyway thanks to the concussion he received.
Last school year, he’d parked the bus and was on his way to break up an altercation between the Soul Sisters. Out of nowhere, a book meant for one of the sisters thrown by another sister, accidentally hit the bus driver in the head. For two entire weeks, Sammi had to drive the girls to school after being suspended from the bus.
The Soul Sisters hadn’t shared a seat on the bus together since. But now, here they were not only sharing a seat, but they were laughing and giggling.
“Oh, this is going to be a good one,” Kennedy rubbed her hands together and said. “I think this is our best plan yet. This one has got to work. I mean, it’s not too dramatic, nobody is going to get hurt…”
Just then, Daryn’s laughter faded. “I don’t know, Kennedy. Did you see the look on mother’s face when you told her that you wanted to ask Bo to play in the Father-Kid Basketball Tournament with you?”
“What?” Kennedy shrugged. “She didn’t suspect a thing. It’s been an entire month since the two of them made up after that zoo incident. We’ve been like little angels when it comes to Bo. When mom talks about Bo, we act like we’re interested. When mom says she’s going out on a date with Bo, we help her get dressed. When Bo comes to the house to pick her up, we welcome him with open arms. When we did the whole Sunday dinner thing again just last week, we didn’t even sabotage his food. So, see, everything is working just as planned. Which is why I think this time, we’re going to get rid of Mr. Bo Hart for good.”
Daryn still didn’t look too certain. “I hear what you’re saying. And I know we’re not setting out to hurt anybody, not physically anyway. But you heard what Miss Rachel said to Mother that day we were eavesdropping outside of her door. She was right; we didn’t think about how what we were doing would hurt Mother. But this time…”
“This time it’s going to work and Mom will get over it.” Kennedy was stern. It was obvious she didn’t like the idea of Daryn getting soft on her. “She got over it these last two times didn’t she?”
Daryn had some doubts about moving forward with the operation. She didn’t want to upset or hurt her mother intentionally or unintentionally. But she didn’t want her sisters to think less of her by wimping out on them. “If you say so,” Daryn said, “but I still-”
“Well, I do say so,” Kennedy said, raising her voice a notch or two, enough for the bus driver to notice and give them the eye through the rearview mirror. Kennedy lowered her voice again. “Look, the sooner we get rid of that jive turkey, the sooner our lives can go back to normal. The sooner it can be just us and Mom again. Isn’t that what you want? Isn’t that what we all want?” Kennedy looked to both Daryn and Joy who ultimately nodded. “Good. Then all we have to do is stick to the plan. But more importantly, we have to stick together.”
Both Daryn and Joy remained silent, so Kennedy needed confirmation that they were still one hundred percent with her. She stuck her fist out. Daryn looked at Kennedy’s fist just sitting there in the air, then finally she placed her fist on top of Kennedy’s. Next, Joy hesitantly placed her fist on top of Daryn’s.
Although Kennedy felt more certain of the outcome of the girls’ plan than her two younger sisters, only time would tell. As a matter of fact, the exact time would be after school today at three o’clock p.m.
Tick tock-tick tock.
Chapter Sixteen
Tick Tock
The gymnasium at Saint Amos Private School was full of fathers, uncles, cousins, stepfathers and male family friends. They were all paired up with a student who attended the school. Today was try-out day for the annual Father-Kid Basketball Tournament. Practically everyone who tried out was admitted into the tournament, but the judges wanted to be able to break up the competitors into groups based on grades and sizes. They also wanted to separate the male students from the female students.
Kennedy sat on the bench with her basketball in hand waiting for her turn to try out. Sammi sat next to her while Joy and Daryn sat up in the stands. The two weren’t sitting with each other. Instead, they were sitting with friends of theirs. They had been spending more time together than usual planning out their little schemes. They didn’t want Sammi to start getting suspicious.
“Are you nervous?” Sammi asked Kennedy.
Kennedy had been sitting there for the last few minutes rolling the ball back and forth in her hands while watching the door. “Uh, no, I’m, uh, fine,” Kennedy stuttered.
Sammi followed Kennedy’s eyes to the double doors. She then looked down at her watch. It was ten minutes after two o’clock. “I know you’re a little nervous about Bo coming to try out to be in the tournament with you. I also know this was a big step for you, inviting him to play with you in the tournament period.” Sammi tried to choose her words carefully. “You haven’t played in it since you’re father…” Sammi took a deep breath thinking that perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to bring up Kennedy’s father. She looked into Kennedy’s eyes. “Anyway, honey, don’t worry. I’m sure you and Bo will do fine.”
“Yeah, if he ever gets here,” Kennedy pouted.
“I’m sure Bo will be here soon. After all, he’s the most prompt man I’ve ever me
t,” Sammi smiled.
“More prompt than Daddy was?” Kennedy questioned.
Sammi’s smile faded as she looked down at her watch again. “What time did you tell him try outs started?”
“Two o’clock,” Kennedy lied. Well, perhaps she didn’t actually lie. At first, she had told Bo that the tryouts started at two o’clock. Then she had sent him a text message that morning telling him that their exact tryout time was three o’clock. She wondered how perfectly prompt her mother would think Bo was after today.
About forty-five minutes later Kennedy was still watching the door and Sammi was still looking down at her watch. One of the school gym teachers interrupted both their actions when she shouted out, “Last call for participants in grades five through eight.”
“Isn’t that your division?” Sammi asked Kennedy.
“Yes.” Kennedy put her head down, pretending to be disappointed.
“Well, I uh, don’t know what happened with Bo. I tried to call him on his cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail. I know sometimes he turns his phone off when he’s in a meeting. Perhaps he forgot to turn it back on. Or maybe he’s still in the meeting. I do recall him saying that he had a meeting today but that he would move it around the try out time.”
Kennedy had recalled him saying that too, which was all the more reason why she knew their plan would be pulled off without a hitch.
Sammi worriedly looked at her watch and continued to try to come up with all kinds of excuses for Bo. She looked at her watch one last time. “Are you sure you told him to be here at two o’clock?”
“You’re here aren’t you?” Kennedy made her point. “I told him the same time I told you; that try outs start at two o‘clock and end at three o‘clock.”
“Kennedy,” the gym teacher walked over to Kennedy and said. She then looked to Sammi. “Hello, Ms. Soul,” she greeted.
“Good afternoon,” Sammi greeted in return.
