CHAPTER THIRTY
Alicia schedules a meeting on Friday night with me, Natalie, and Vianna. It’s a bye week, which means there are no football games. This also means my dad’s out scouting South Suburban High School. He takes his video camera and tapes the upcoming team so he can find their weaknesses. The following week he’ll spend every waking hour that he isn’t at work going over, around, and through the video. He won’t miss a single play. What my father will miss is the pain in his wife’s face and the black circles under her eyes because she’s not getting the sleep she needs.
Alicia goes to work every day. She visits her dad every day at the hospital. She makes sure my father and I eat daily. These meals don’t come from local takeout menus, either. She prepares them herself. She fixes up Benny’s room and hires a nurse for Benny so that he can come home. This nurse will later leave the house screaming in some foreign language none of us understands because Benny will not listen to her. Yet Alicia still finds time to invite me and my friends over to devise the plan.
When Natalie, Vianna, and I arrive, we find our mothers. Yes, even mine! I race to my mom like I did when she picked me up from school on my first day of kindergarten. She hugs me tight, inhaling my smell, smoothing my hair. I’ve never doubted her love for one second of one day during her absence. I know it killed her to leave me, but she also trusted my dad and Alicia. Had she not trusted them, she never would’ve left me in the first place. And she wouldn’t have stayed the extra time. I didn’t fight it. I was glad to be able to hang out with Benny more. I was the only one who was able to scold him without him yelling back.
The women in the room laugh and enjoy themselves like they’ve known each other for years, including Alicia. Looking at the dirty dishes in the sink confirms my suspicions: they’ve been plotting without us for hours. “What’s going on here?” I ask.
“This was my idea,” Alicia says. “I don’t want to be part of the stereotypical stepmother group. I don’t want to replace your mom. I don’t want you girls to hate me, especially you, Massie.”
“It’s not like that.” I say.
Not anymore.
“And, most of all—” She won’t let me speak. “—I want those women to stop treating you girls like you’re the enemy. I want them to stop setting you up. They need to grow up.”
We eat. We laugh. We talk. I go home almost reluctantly. I don’t want to leave Benny. But it’s good for Alicia. She won’t feel the need to worry about dinners. My mom told her to make my father fend for himself. “It’ll be good for him,” my mom says. I agreed. Since my father won’t stop his world for Alicia, she shouldn’t stop her world for him.
Bianca brings dinners for Benny and Alicia—and my dad. Bianca’s a vegetarian, and that diet turns out to be pretty good for Benny. But when Bianca talks about hot yoga, Benny’s not so sure about that one. I don’t even want to know. Hot yoga and old people? Sounds pretty disgusting. Just saying.
When I plant my head on my pillow, I feel something hard against my cheek. A pink case covers the new smartphone my mom left on my bed. I, unlike Vianna, love the color pink. And I love my mom.