Do Not Pass Go 04 - Traci's story

We got home, and things were going crazy. There was a fire-engine out front. Grandma had been watching Tommy. She told the firemen she'd fallen asleep smoking, and that's how the back deck porch steps caught fire. It wasn't until they were gone, that we found out Tommy had set it on fire. He wasn't even apologetic.

Mom had a cow and called Dad of course. I couldn't believe he had the balls to tell her to deal with it, he was on a date. Well, I guess not that much balls, since he never should have picked up the phone, but I guess it was progress. Mom was shrieking at the phone, and then hung up and threw it. Way to go Tommy!

When Mom found out that Tommy was using her work papers to start the fire I thought for a second she was actually going to kill him. I never saw her turn that shade of red or get so angry.

Things had almost cooled down when we were eating. Then Jenna asked what she was supposed to do if she missed a day of taking her pills.

"Pills?" Mom asked.

"You know. I missed yesterday. Should I take it today, or do I just skip it? If I do, is it any riskier?"

Mom just stared at her. "Where'd you get these pills," she asked quietly. She sounded scary.

"Planned Parenthood."

"But you're barely fifteen! Who did you go with?"

"Rhonda's older brother Eric. He's a senior. He offered to pay for them, if I gave him a BJ. Isn't he a hunk?" Jenna asked, eating her mac and cheese like there was nothing going on. "He drove me on his motorcycle."

Mom was stunned. She could hardly speak. "And they just give them to you? Don't you need a parent's signature?"

"No. I just told them why I needed them, and I didn't want you guys to know. I figured you'd be like this, all hypocritical and shit. I don't need to be getting prego, you know? I don't want to have to marry some guy I don't love if he knocks me up. Not like you did. I never want to have a farce of a marriage like yours."

Damn, I was proud of her. I had no idea she even knew the meaning of farce.

Tommy was at the end of the table, and just under the end, where Mom couldn't see it, he was lighting the edge of the tablecloth on fire, then putting it out. It wasn't until a stream of smoke was rising from the table that she finally did notice, shrieking.

It was time to be the responsible older sister. I took the lighter from him. "No, Tommy. Not in the house, and not at the dinner table."

He gave me a decent glare and then nodded. I handed him back his lighter.

"Don't give that to him!" Mom screeched.

"If I don't, he'll just get another one, use matches, or worse, he'll light some sticks at the stove and use those," I explained. "Last time he did that he burned the carpet."

Mom tried to regain her composure. "Tommy, we don't play with fire, honey. It's dangerous."

"I'm not playing. I'm learning," he answered sulkily. I wanted to grin and give him a hug. My bro's a freaking genius. I guess it runs in the family, although it seemed to skip Jenna.

"I don't want you setting any more fires!" she snapped. "I mean it. The next time I see you playing with fire, you'll be grounded, no allowance, no PS3, no nothing!"

Tommy glared at her quietly. "You don't want to do that, Jessie."

She looked at him nervously. He'd never called her by her name, and the way he was looking at her had me scared, and I knew it was an act.

"I'm your mother, young man. You won't call me Jessie. I'm Mom. And I mean it about the fire."

He gave her a few more seconds. "You do know, Jessie, most bedding goes up in flames in seconds. Your bedspread would burn real nicely."

Tommy got up from the table, flicking his lighter on and off, and walked out of the room. Mom wasn't long after him, getting up and grabbing her phone. I guess she was trying to call Dad. She was whispering into it, then threw it to the side, and started crying.

Bingo. Time for the good daughter to make her appearance. I poured her a big glass of wine, and dragged her into her bedroom. I made her sit down and talk.

"I'm losing it, Traci," she admitted. "My oldest daughter's a slut, and my son is going to burn the house down around our ears. Why is this happening?"

"Jenna's not a slut yet. She's only been with a handful of guys. I'm pretty sure it's mostly blowjobs anyway." All lies, but it got the message through.

"A handful of guys? Blowjobs? She's barely sixteen!"

"She's fifteen, not sixteen. Face it Mom. Most of her friends come from broken families. A lot of the Moms are divorced, and the only men in their lives are temporary. It's not like any of them have decent role models."

Mom sat back, drinking her wine. "Just because you have a relationship with a man, doesn't make you a slut, Traci."

"If you're married and it's not your husband, it pretty much does, Mom. If you wanted to sleep around, you should have just left him."

"You can't understand. You're too young. It's complicated. I didn't want to divorce your father, he was the one who forced it."

"Mom, you were a cheater. What did you expect? I understand if you wanted to change things. You deserve a good life, you work hard, but the thing with Dad wasn't right." I'd been siding with Mom, but I thought it was time to give her a reminder that Dad wasn't all bad.

"I didn't want to do it, he made me," Mom argued.

"Why'd you have to play all these games, keeping us away from him? Tommy needs a man in his life. You see what's happening. Jenna would never act the way she is, if Dad were around. He might not be the best provider, but he's not a bad father. He would have noticed right away and stopped it. It didn't start until three months ago, once he was gone."

"He tried to take you all from me," Mom complained.

"So you cut him off? We can't talk to him. You stop us from seeing him every chance you get. We love him Mom. He may be a wimp, but he's our father. They're never going to forgive you if you don't fix it."

"They who?"

"You know. Tommy and Jenna. They hate you right now. They hate everything you did. Cheating on him. Lying to us. Lying in court. Breaking up the family. Slutting around. Keeping us away from Dad, hurting him like you are. I've tried to talk to them, but they're really pissed at you, at the whole world." I took Mom's hand in mine, letting her know I was on her side.

"You know what the two of them say, Mom? You don't even want us. We never see you. You don't have time for us, and it's obvious we don't matter to you. You only did it to spite Dad. You never even loved us."

"Don't say that! Of course I love you and you matter to me! You're my children, I bore you. Carried you in my body for nine months."

"And the day after we were out, you forgot about us, and ran off with your lover du jour. You let Dad raise us, while you lived your own life away from us. You avoided us, staying away from the house as much as possible. The only thing you were good for was paying bills." Oops. I almost forgot whose side I was supposed to be on. "That's what they've been saying."

"It wasn't like that Traci. I loved your father. The other things, they just happened. That's the way life is sometimes."

"You threw away your marriage, Mom. You were the one sleeping around with who knows how many jerks. Not Dad. Why is he the one being punished?"

"He didn't have to be, he could have come back home. Nothing had to change."

"What, you were going to let him keep being both Mom and Dad, while you spent all your evenings fucking around?"

"I didn't! It wasn't more than a couple of times a week. There weren't that many men. I would have stopped. He didn't even ask me too. He just said he was leaving to Minnesota and taking you guys. I couldn't let him do that."

"Why not? It's not like you ever cared for us. You didn't have time for anybody but you. I love you, but we never see you. For a few weeks, you put on your little show, acting like a caring mother, and as soon as the paperwork was done, it was back to the same-old same-old. It's all work and your boyfriends. Did you tell Dad you were sorry, that you'd stop seeing them? Did you try to work it out? Or did you gut him the first day you were caught?"

"It's not all my fault," Mom cried. "I didn't do anything wrong. He broke up this family."

"Fucking around's not your fault? If it's no big deal, then why does it bother you that Jenna and I do it." I wondered if she'd catch that one.

"It's different. You guys are so young... Jenna and you!" she gasped.

"Why not? I'm thinking about it. You know my new boyfriend, Tiger. He's tired of just getting blowjobs. He wants to go all the way. Him and his buddy Derek both." More lies, but the better to shock her.

"Oh God, Traci, you can't! You're barely 13. This isn't right. You're just a baby. Please tell me you're not going to do this."

"Again, why not? This sex thing must be pretty awesome, to make you destroy our family, ignore us for years, and throw away Dad. I've gotta see for myself."

"Please, honey. At least talk to your Dad first. Don't do anything rash."

"Talk to him when? In front of that scary CPS lady? I'm not allowed to talk to him. You and that faggot lawyer made sure of that."

"'Faggot'? What kind of language is that?"

"Fitting?" I think I'd done enough of the shock treatment for one night, it was time to get back to being her only friend in the house.

I cuddled up to her, almost spilling her wine. "Fix it, Mom. You've got to, somehow. Tommy needs a man in his life. I'm afraid it's going to just get worse if it goes on like this. Jenna too. I know you didn't mean to mess things up, but that's how they are now. We have to fix it."

"How?" she whispered.

"You need to be around more. Talk to them. Make sure Dad can somehow talk to them. And I don't mean just once every two weeks, for a couple of supervised hours, on the rare chance you actually let us see him. I can't believe you stopped Jenna from visiting him. He probably could have stopped half this crap. He knows us."

"I know you," Mom said.

"No you don't. You never wanted to, or made the time to. It's not too late, but you have a long ways to go. You need to come clean, stop playing stupid games with our lives. We need to move on, and you have to figure out some way to let Dad play a bigger part. If you keep punishing him, I swear, you're going to lose all of us. You know Jenna's fifteen. Pretty soon, she can choose who to be with. We lied for you last time, because we didn't know the truth. Who do you think she's gonna choose next time?"

"I should be so lucky," Mom mumbled.

"Lucky? You want to throw away Jenna? Then why are you fighting Dad? He'd love to have her."

Mom didn't answer, and I knew why. She couldn't let him win. Not even a little. She didn't care about us as anything more than a score card. The Momster didn't love anybody but herself.

I sighed. "I'm gonna check on Tommy and make sure he hasn't set the house on fire, and I'll make sure Jenna doesn't have one of her boyfriends hiding in her room again."

Mom didn't even rise to the bait of 'again'. I wondered if I was getting through to her at all. When I left the room, she was already getting on the phone. I didn't know if she was calling Dad, or one of her boyfriends.

~ * ~ * ~

For a couple of days, the Momster tried to play 'good' Mom. She came home before seven at night, barely gone for eleven hours. She even cooked on Tuesday. Sat at the table with us and everything. She tried to talk to us, acting interested and all. Tommy had her tuned out, but me and Jenna were playing along. Of course Jenna's questions to Mom about when she first had sex, gave her first blowjob, first did anal - eew! - ended up with yelling. I followed Mom to the study, playing the good little suck-up.

"She's just saying that stuff to bug you," I said, standing close enough to watch while she typed her password into the computer. Not very smart, Mom. Your Initials and birthday?

"Why does she want to torture me?"

"Face it, Mom. For better or worse, you've got her thinking about sex all the time."

"Me? How is it I've got her thinking about sex?"

"Seriously? She figures she's doing something wrong. Nothing so far would be worth destroying a family for. She figures she needs more experience. Maybe better teachers. Older guys who've been around."

"Oh, God," Mom groaned. "Doesn't she understand she's too young? It will only get her in trouble."

"To be honest, it's kind of got me wondering. Wasn't Dad any good at it? If he wasn't, couldn't you teach him? I mean, really Mom, how good are these other guys, to make you abandon us."

"I never abandoned you!"

"I don't mean abandon, I guess. More like ignore us for a couple of years, and abandon Dad."

"I didn't ... It's difficult to explain, baby. I never meant for any of it to happen. I was working very hard, trying to get ahead in business. It's very stressful, sometimes things happen. If your father had been more understanding, all of this could have been avoided."

I felt she needed some tweaking. "By all of this, do you mean the divorce? Tommy's depression and pyromancy? Jenna's taking after you and having sex with half the football team? Destroying Dad, and laughing every time you rub it in? Grandma's drinking all the time? My failing three classes? What's 'all of this'?"

Mom was looking more and more unhappy as I went. Her lips echoed mine as I mentioned Jenna and the football team. When I said the bit about failing classes, I thought she'd burst a vein. "Failing!" she shrieked.

"Like, when do I have time to study anymore? Someone's got to try to keep Jenna and Tommy at least a little in line. It's not like you're ever around, and Grandma's either drunk, sleeping, or smoking on the porch. All the Nanny does when she's here is cook, do laundry, or clean up. Not that Jenna or Tommy would listen to her anyway. I know your work is important, but I could sure use a little help, Mom. It's bad enough that we don't have a Dad anymore, but no parent at all is kind of rough."

"I'm trying, Traci! Do you think this is what I want? If your damn father could have just minded his own business, none of this would have happened!"

"You mean if he minded his own business, you wouldn't have been fucking strange men, and we might have had a mother?"

"This is not my fault!"

"Mom, it doesn't matter whose fault it is. Things are getting worse, not better. Tommy's going to be in Juvie, and Jenna's going to either be knocked up or dying of AIDS at the rate they're going. At the least, you have to get them time with Dad, maybe he can straighten them up before it's to late. They need a father."

~*~*~*~

We still had the better part of a week before Dad's next visit, when our plans backfired a little. Mom had taken my comment about Tommy and Jenna needing a male influence at face value, and the next thing you know, some jerk-off academic from the university was over for the evening. He had a small bag with him, and I just knew he was going to be spending the night. Wasn't that great? Crap!

I called a meeting, as soon as we could get away from Mom and her asshole friend.

"What are we gonna do, Traci?" Jenna asked.

"Let me think about it. This could be good, maybe."

"Good! Mom's already replaced Dad! That's not good," Jenna argued.

I turned to my little brother. "What can we do with your fire, and his shiny Porsche?" I asked.

He thought a moment. "I think the easiest thing would be to build a fire on the hood. It's not dangerous, but it would make it real ugly."

I was thinking more along the lines of doing something inside the car, but we could wait for that. We might have to escalate things. "Jenna, I want you dressing real slutty, and coming on to him hard. Can you do that?"

Jenna looked nervous. "How hard?"

"Enough to bother Mom. Don't let him do nothing, but make sure you're around him a lot."

"Ewww, Traci. He's old and ugly. Do I have to?"

"Trust me, Ok? It's all part of the plan. And put those big titties of yours to work. No bras at home." I saw Tommy was blushing at that. I'd almost forgotten that he was a guy.

"What are you gonna do?"

"Spy, and get some information. I'll do some things that I probably shouldn't but will give us some ammo for court if we need it. I need more online research, but I think that I can make this pay for us."

Jenna took my words to heart. After dinner she was prancing around in one of Tommy's T-shirts, so tight I was surprised she could even breath. It didn't even reach her belly-button. She was wearing that and panties, nothing else. Her new slutty ones. Mom was cleaning up after dinner, and I saw Jenna park herself on the couch next to William. William, not Will or Bill, it had to be William. What a narcissistic douchebag.

I watched from a distance, to see how she'd pull it off.

"Sooo, William," she cooed. "What do you do at the University?"

He appeared uncomfortable, and glanced back at the kitchen. I noticed he looked at Jenna's shirt, and not her face when he answered. "I'm a full professor in the English department," he said.

"I bet you're smart like Mom, aren't you?" Jenna said, and I saw her hand touching his shoulder. Damn, sis was smooth. Too smooth, I'd need to keep an eye on her.

"I hold a Ph.D. in Comparative Titerature. I mean, Literature! Comparative Literature!"

Sis didn't even smile, acting like she didn't notice his huge gaffe. "I love your car," she said. "Can you take me for a drive sometime? I bet it's fast." I saw her turn toward him, her leg coming up on the couch, pressing against his thigh. "I'm supposed to get my driver's license soon. Maybe you could even teach me some things."

I watched her back away a little. Too bad, because it seemed to be working. The dirty old man's eyes were moving up and down her body, from the barely contained tits, down to her legs, and her new 'grown-up' panties. She was sitting about six inches away, when Mom walked into the room.

"Sure. We should go for a ride," he was saying when Mom walked over.

I guess Jenna had seen her coming. It was a sweet move. It looked like she was just sitting there talking, all innocent, and the asshole was staring a hole through her panties.

"Jenna. What you're wearing isn't appropriate. Go put something on." Mom's voice was scary.

"I was just going to take a shower," Jenna explained.

William looked up at Mom guiltily. "We were just talking. She was asking me about work and cars," he stammered.

Jenna got up to walk away and the idiot didn't have enough sense to keep his eyes off her butt as she left. Mom wasn't happy. "Stop that!" she hissed. "She's only sixteen for God's sake!"

Fifteen, I was tempted to correct her.

"I, uh, wasn't, not really," he stammered, and Mom stomped away. I darted down the hall to the game room, grabbing a book and plopping onto Dad's rocker, like I'd been there all along.

Mom glanced in on me, then walked past and hunted down Jenna. I wanted to listen in on that conversation, but we all have our parts we have to play. I heard their voices raised and some yelling going on. I hope they didn't take too long, we still had the Tommy scene to deal with.

It was about five minutes later, when Mom stuck her head in the door. "Where's your brother?" she asked.

Perfect. "I don't know. I think he went out to the garage a while ago."

Mom got a worried look on her face, and almost ran down the hall. I heard her scream my brother's name, and I grinned, put down my book, and followed after her. I wouldn't have missed this for the world.

She almost ran me over, on her way back into the kitchen. She opened up under the sink and pulled out the fire extinguisher there, before dashing past me back out to the garage.

I got a good view of the bonfire that Tommy had built on the hood of William's shiny red Porsche. Mom shot it with the fire-extinguisher making a white cloud in the room, and then took a broom to the burning embers and swept them onto the floor, screaming at Tommy the whole time. Tommy just glared at her and walked back into the house.