Do Not Pass Go 06 - Boss Traci

Me, I was getting into Mom's computer. Mostly investigating. I had Tiger help me, he's really good at that stuff. I even gave him a few kisses. Crap. I was turning into my mother and sister.

Then there was Jenna. God, I love my sister. She went the extra mile, taking one for the team. She amazes me. I don't know if I could do half the stuff she does.

Grandma had found our little sacrificial circle out back, but never said a word. But I knew. I could tell just from the way she was acting around Tommy. When Mom came home, I watched from the window as Grandma took Mom out back to show her what we'd done. Mom made a mess of our effort, covering everything up, and came back to the house. She was white as a ghost, and I was feeling pretty damn good about everything.

I could hear her outside my room, in the hall, and wondered if she'd confront Tommy, or wait until the weekend. Maybe she'd call Dad.

None of that happened. Her footsteps stopped shortly past my door, and then I heard the screams and shouting. I opened my door, and one of Jenna's guys was running down the hall, wearing nothing but his underwear, clutching his clothing. I stepped out into the hallway, toward Jenna's room, where the screamfest was ongoing. Before I even got to the door, I could smell it. Pot. Weed. Marijuana. I don't know how she'd done it, but Jenna had upped the stakes again.

Damn, she was good.

I peeked around the door frame, and Jenna was standing there in just her panties, nose-to-nose with Mom, screaming about privacy. The whole room reeked of pot. Mom was yelling about Jenna being a druggy and a slut.

Jenna laughed in her face. "You would know all about being a slut, you dried up old whore. I bet you're just pissed because your boyfriend would rather fuck me than you!"

That's when Mom hit her. Slapped her across the face, something brutal. Jenna looked shocked, then smiled. "God, it's true! Next time you invite a man over, I'm gonna steal him from you. Let's see how you like it."

Mom lost it, and slapped her again, telling her to shut up. Me, I slipped down the hall, and called 911.

I listened to the bored voice ask me what my problem was. "My Mom is beating up my sister. I think she's gonna kill her. You have to do something."

When I'd finished giving the dispatcher the details, I snuck back down the hall. Jenna was in her room crying, and Mom was nowhere to be seen. Probably in her own room, calling Dad to fix things.

I sat down next to Jenna, and held her hand. "You need to get dressed," I told her.

She looked up at me. "Did I do good?" she asked.

Mom's hand print was still bright red on her face. "Perfect. Did I ever tell you that you're amazing, Jenna?"

She gave me a tearful smile. "No. I don't think so. It was usually more along the lines that I was screwing up my life and a tramp."

I gave her a hug. "You are amazing. We're gonna get through this. Now hurry and get dressed before the cops get here."

"Cops?"

"Yeah. I called nine-one-one. I reported Mom for beating you. It's probably gonna get ugly."

"They're going to think I'm a slut, too."

"No they won't. You didn't do anything wrong. You had a boy over, but that's all." I opened her window while I was talking. "I saw everything, Mom blew it all out of proportion. That's what we'll tell them."

I got the febreze from the bathroom, and gave her bedroom the once over. Jenna put on some clothes, and then we headed downstairs to wait for the inevitable. While we were waiting, we got our stories straight. As soon as the knock appeared at the door, I nodded at Jenna. She closed her eyes and braced herself, then I slapped her face as hard as I could. Her head snapped back, and I think she was surprised at how hard I'd hit her. She had tears in her eyes, as I opened the door before the second knock.

There were two police people. A man and a woman. Before they could even start asking questions, I told them to come in, and that my sister was on the couch. The police woman, Officer Mallory, looked at the guy cop and then entered the house. When she saw Jenna crying on the couch, she went over and sat beside her. I watched her lift Jenna's head up by the chin, looking at her face.

The man looked at me. "What happened to you?" he asked.

I'd forgotten all about my own shiner. "My Mom's boyfriend did that."

He got a hard look in his eye. "Where is your mother now?" he asked.

"I don't know. I saw her beating up Jenna, and I made the call to you guys. When I got back to Jenna's room, Mom was gone. She's probably in her own room looking at porn again."

"Could you go get her and ask her to come down?"

I nodded, and saw that the police woman had Jenna talking.

I went and knocked on Mom's door. When she opened it, I could see she was still pissed off. "There's a police man downstairs. He wants to talk to you."

Mom's face went white. "A policeman? In the house?"

"Yeah. There's two of them downstairs. They're talking to Jenna. They want to talk to you."

Mom turned and checked herself in the mirror, mumbling, "Shit," to herself, before brushing past me and hurrying down the hall. Me, I went to Jenna's room, gave it another quick shot of febreze, and closed her window. Then, just to be safe, I sprayed the hallway, and the bathroom, before putting the sprayer back under the sink.

I wondered what Tommy was up to, and checked in on him. He was playing one of his games on the computer, and had the headset on. I tapped him on the shoulder, and he looked up at me. He took off his headset.

"The police are here," I explained. "Just remember that you were in here all alone, and didn't hear anything."

"I didn't hear anything," he said.

"That's perfect. Just remember that. And you might want to play something a little more PG, in case they come to talk to you."

He took it all in stride, and nodded. He put his headphones back on, and turned back to the computer. I'll admit that it bothered me a bit. I think all of our stuff was starting to get to him.

They were there for over an hour. I thought it was strange the way they handled things. The police woman took me outside to speak to her on the porch, in private. I told her the story that we'd agreed on. Jenna had a guy over visiting. They were working on homework, and yes, I knew the guy. He'd been over before. The way I told it, she was clothed, but not very appropriately. "Mom and her fight a lot about that. I wouldn't wear that kind of stuff."

They asked me about drugs. "No. No way. None of us do that. Dad would never let us hear the end of it."

That got her asking me about Dad, and I told her about Mom and her boyfriends, and Dad's leaving. She asked me about my face, and I gave her the short story about Mom's boyfriend doing it. All-in-all, it was about fifteen minutes that we talked.

They even talked to Tommy. I was surprised that lasted more than a couple of minutes, but he must have been outside for at least ten, talking to the police woman. At the end, Mom went out on the porch for a good twenty minutes or so, and when she came back in, the police had left.

She just stared at the three of us sitting in the living room for the longest time.

"You're grounded. All three of you. Go to your rooms. You'll stay in your rooms from when you get home, until you go to school. You'll eat in your rooms. You'll only leave to go to the bathroom, and to go to school."

Jenna stood up, and smirked. "We'll see about that," she said, marching her way down to her room, where she slammed the door.

Tommy just walked away, off to his room.

"You shouldn't have hit her," I said.

"I have a right to punish my own children," Mom snapped, walking past me to the dining room cabinet where she kept the liquor.

"You shouldn't have slapped her like that. Dad never raised a hand against us."

"Oh that's right. Your sainted father, who can do nothing wrong. Except abandon his family and run off like a coward with his tail between his legs." I saw her fill a glass half full of vodka, before heading to the kitchen.

I followed her, watching her add grapefruit juice to her glass. "Are you happy, Mom? Do you like what's happening to us? Why did you have to ruin our lives? Why couldn't you keep your damn legs closed?"

She took a long drink of her concoction. "Don't you start with me, Traci. None of this is my fault. If your father had just stayed out of my business, none of this would be happening. Don't you forget that. He's the one that wanted the divorce, and he's the one that left."

"You're the one that filed for divorce," I reminded her. "You're the one that was cheating on him. You're the one that made sure we never could see him. Don't blame it all on Dad."

"Go to your room," she said.

That was fine by me. Once there, I sent Dad a short email. "Mom was hitting Jenna. The police were here for about an hour."

I didn't know if it would do any good, but I figured to keep the pressure on.

~ * ~ * ~

Mom was gone, and the Nanny was feeding us breakfast, when the next major event happened. There was a knocking on the door, and the doorbell rang. The next thing I knew, there was a lady from CPS talking to us.

Tommy leaves first. His bus is half an hour before Jenna's and mine. The lady talked to him first, then sent him on his way, before talking to Jenna and me, separately. She was still talking to Jenna when the Nanny said we were going to miss the bus. The CPS lady stayed behind, in the house when we walked out to the bus stop.

Things were getting interesting, I have to admit that.

I had no idea how interesting it would get.

~ * ~ * ~

When Jenna and I got home, we had a full house. Mom was there, as was Grandma. Tommy was already home, and he was talking to some new lady. We weren't in the door 10 seconds, before we found out it was CPS again.

Their first question was about Tommy. I guess that firebug thing was a mistake. He was making fires in the schoolyard, and they'd made Mom pick him up and take him home. The school had called CPS, and that's where we were now.

This wasn't like the first time. It was more of an interrogation. They talked to Jenna first, and then I was dragged into the kitchen, where we sat down. The woman talking to me had a notebook out, and some notes she kept referring to.

"Tell me about your home life during the week," she asked.

"Like what?"

"When you get up, who gets you ready for school. What you do when you get home, just a typical day."

I told her. Mom was gone when we got up. I usually woke everyone up, and when the nanny was late I fixed us breakfast, cereal usually, sometimes pop tarts if we were running behind. The nanny was there when we got home, and Grandma usually showed up a little later, while we were doing our homework, and after our snack. I told her about Grandma's smoking and drinking, out on the porch. That about half the time we were in bed when Mom got home. That we ate together maybe one time a week.

She took a lot of notes, and asked a few question now and then.

"What can you tell me about this man your mother has over on occasion?" she asked.

I told her, maybe exaggerating a little. William, the college professor, who gave me a black eye, touched Jenna inappropriately, which I'd only witnessed a couple of times, and who I'd seen having sex with Mom, when he'd left the door open.

"The door was open?" she asked.

"Cracked, just a little. I had an upset stomach, and went to see Mom. I would have knocked if the door had been closed. I wish I had. I never wanted to see his hairy butt."

A lot more notes. "He was naked?"

"They both were. Screwing."

"You're certain?"

I looked at her like she was crazy. "Yes. Quite certain. Heck, he was smirking when he pulled out of her and waved his nasty looking thing at me!"

There was some quick scribbling. "And your mother left him alone with your sister, still naked?"

"I guess. I mean, Jenna was in there, and Mom took me to the kitchen to give me some pink stuff for my stomach. I guess he was still naked. Jenna had her night shirt on. Mom put on her robe, before taking care of me."

There was a lot more of that. Asking about Tommy, and his fires. I explained how that started once Dad had left, and got worse when Mom kept canceling his visits, and kept us away from him. Several months worth.

"What do you know about your brother's activities with the neighborhood pets?" she asked.

"Pets? Nothing. We don't have any. Mom won't let us."

"You've never seen him abuse an animal?"

"Tommy? Of course not. He couldn't."

Then there was more about Jenna and her evening visitors. I was asked about her cutting. "I don't know much about that. I saw the marks, I guess. I think it started after Mom wouldn't let Jenna go with us to visit Dad."

"She kept her away from his visit?"

"Yeah. It's her usual way of punishing us. She knows how much we want to see him, so that's how she punishes us. And him, I guess."

Honestly, I was exhausted by the time they were done with me. I finally was allowed to have my snack. I told them I had to go to my room, I was grounded, and only allowed to leave my room to go to the bathroom and school. The woman jotted down some more notes. "What did you do?"

I shrugged. "It was after I called the police to make Mom stop beating Jenna. We were all grounded indefinitely."

Once I escaped to my room, it was time for another email to Dad. "Tommy suspended. CPS was back this afternoon. We had a long talk. They're still here. I'm grounded, in my room. I miss you, Daddy. Wish you were here."

Hopefully that would get him off his ass. I wasn't going to hold my breath, though.

Mom actually cooked dinner. I couldn't remember the last time she'd done that during the week. It was a quiet dinner table. Jenna had a bruise on the side of her face. I didn't know if that was from Mom, or from me, but I'm sure it showed well for the CPS people.

We were halfway through dinner, before Mom started in.

"Children, we have a big problem, and you're making it worse," she said. "I don't know what you think you're trying to pull, but it's not going to work. You're never going to see your father again if you keep this up. You'll be separated and put in foster homes before that happens, I'll make sure of that."

Jenna glared at Mom. "I can't believe you hate us that much. You're the worst mother in the world!"

Mom shrugged. "Believe what you will. It's not like you three are anything to brag about. I'm done with you screwing up my life. You probably think this is some kind of game, but you should think twice about what you're doing. Your father tangled with me, and see where it got him."

I hadn't expected this. Not by a long shot. The Momster was tricky and deceitful. She never laid her cards out on the table. Not Mom. It got me to thinking.

I turned to Jenna and Tommy. "You two, go up to your rooms for now. Mom and I need to have a talk."

That seemed to surprise everybody. Tommy got up pretty quickly. It looked like Jenna was going to argue with me, but I just shook my head. "Go, Jenna, please. I've got this."

She looked unhappy, but went to her room, leaving only Mom and me.

Mom just looked at me over her wine glass. I got up and grabbed the bottle, pouring myself a glass, enjoying the surprise on her face. Yes, it tasted like crap but I was making a point.

"It's over, Mom. I'm not Dad. You lied and cheated, and screwed with the system, while Dad, like an idiot, played by the rules. I won't."

I could tell she was surprised by the turn of events. "Do you honestly think you can beat me, Traci?"

It was my turn to grin. "I already have. You need to fold gracefully. If you don't, I'll destroy your life."

Her gaze turned hard, and she leaned toward me. "Who do you think you're talking to? I'm not one of your little school playmates. I'm your mother."

"Genetically, but that's about it. You're the worst parent possible, and I'm tired of you fucking around with our lives, while you get your jollies out of torturing our father. I'm serious, Mom. It's time to end this, before things get really ugly for you."

Mom sneered. "You have no idea, little girl. I can make your life miserable. All of you."

"Yes, I know. You've done a pretty good job of that already. And I'm tired of it. This is your last warning. You need to bow out, and give Dad whatever he wants. Do it gracefully and who knows? Maybe a decade from now we'll be able to talk to you without wanting to hit you in the head with a hammer. Jenna, Tommy and I aren't some weapon you get to use to make Dad miserable. We have lives too, and we're tired of you wrecking them."

Mom leaned back, and I saw her get that sneaky look in her eye. I was surprised she'd think that would work on me.

"Listen, honey, you don't understand. I want you to be happy, to have great lives. It was your father who decided to break us up, and an impartial judge who decided that he wasn't a safe parent."

"Because you lied and tricked them. Then lied and tricked us. Don't bullshit me, Mom. I was there."

"No, baby, I wouldn't. I didn't make the decision. I know you're upset that I went back to working the long hours I need to, but I have to pay all the bills here, without your father's contribution, and I have to send him money too! You need to understand that was his doing. He's taking money away from us, from this family. I wish I didn't have to work such long hours, but I do what I have to for all of us."

"And that includes fucking around on the side? Spending time with your boyfriends, when you could be home with your family? Keeping us away from Dad, just so you can piss him off and torture him for not letting you cheat on him willy-nilly?"

She gave me a big dramatic sigh. "Please, honey. Try to understand. It's not what I wanted. But it's not too late for us. You need to stop whatever this game is, and get your brother and sister under control. If we can get things back on an even keel, I promise we'll make things better. I'll make sure your father can see you whenever you want. You can even spend some time with him over the summer. I'll reduce my hours at work. We'll have to tighten the budget a little, but I'll do whatever I can to make us all a happy family again. You need to do your part, you and your brother and sister."

She was good. She almost sounded like she meant it, but I knew the truth. CPS was going to make sure Dad could see us whenever he wanted, that had nothing to do with Mom, but of course she would position it like she was doing us a favor. As for working less hours, I'd already seen how she played that game. Maybe a few weeks, before she was back to her insane hours. And that bullshit about tightening the budget? Mom was salaried. It didn't matter how much extra she worked. That all came out in the divorce.

So her deal really was, if we went along with her plan, she'd get the cops and CPS off her back, and as soon as she was in the clear it would be business as usual. What a deal.

I returned her false smile with one of my own. "Alright Mom. I'll talk to them, and see what I can do. But you need to ease up on the punishment, and make sure we get our time with Dad. If you can do that, maybe I can work with Jenna and Tommy, and make things a little calmer around here."

"That's all I want, baby. I want us all to be happy. The way it was before your father decided to abandon us. I'm not holding a grudge. I'll do my best to make sure he has time with you all. Who knows, maybe he'll get over his snit, and move back down here. Even if he doesn't live with us, if he wasn't so stubborn he could be nearby where it wouldn't be so difficult for him to find time for you all."

"You do your part, and I'll do mine Mom," I said, taking another sip of that vile wine. We watched each other, like two poker players, trying to read the other's mind. We were quiet, and you could cut the tension with a knife. When she took a sip of her wine, I did as well, doing my best to avoid grimacing.