Something crunched underneath her foot when she placed it onto the vinyl flooring. Her shoe stuck to a sticky substance and made a squishy sound with each step. “Ewww.”
She decided to stand to wait for them to come out. She folded her arms and leaned against the wall. From time to time, she checked near her feet to make sure ants, or some other types of bugs weren’t crawling around her.
The dogs whimpered behind one of the doors. If it hadn’t been for those critters, she would’ve gone to the rooms to tell the kids to come out.
Upon hearing a door open, Christian darted toward her. “Mama,” he exclaimed and almost knocked her from her feet. He laid his head on her chest and squeezed as hard as possible.
“Christian. I’m glad to lay my eyes on you, baby.” Olivia embraced him and planted multiple kisses on his cheeks before leaning back to get a good look at his face. He had to have grown another inch since the last time they were together. His legs seemed to make up seventy-five percent of his body.
White socks showed on his ankles between his jeans and sneakers, which made it obvious of needing a longer pair. He possessed the same smile and almond-shaped eyes as Malcolm. He inherited her dark skin tone.
“How are you doing? What took you all this time to come out?”
“Sorry, Mom. I didn’t want to mess up the score on my game.”
“Uh-huh. Are you telling me your game is a priority above seeing your mama who bought you the Xbox in the first place?” Olivia teased.
“No, Mom. I couldn’t wait for you to get here. Except…I had to finish my game.”
“I understand. Where’s your sister?” Olivia glanced at one of the closed doors in the hallway.
“I don’t know. Probably in her room on the computer as usual. She hogs it up. I never get to use it.”
“Please go tell her to come out now. Get your Dad, too. We have a lot to discuss.”
“Okay,” Christian ran and pounded on the first bedroom door. “Simone, Mom’s here and said to come out now. Dad, Mom wants you.” He headed back to the living room and flopped onto the sofa.
“Thank you, son.” She grimaced at seeing him sit on the nasty couch.
Malcolm returned from the back and strolled through the hall to the living room. “Sorry about the delay. Mariah isn’t well. She needed me to help her get comfortable.”
“Um-hmm.” Olivia tapped her watch with her finger and snarled. “You could’ve said something. Where’s Simone?”
“Simone,” Malcolm bellowed above the noise of the TV, “come on out. Your Mom is here.”
The bedroom door flung open. A tiger-striped Boxer and a Yorkshire Terrier bounded out of the bedroom woofing and yipping. As if on cue, they made a beeline for Olivia. They scooted around Malcolm and caught her off guard by jumping on her. The boxer stood on his hind legs reaching his front paws almost to her shoulders.
“Aah. Get away from me,” Olivia screamed and began flailing her arms and kicking her legs. The dogs were relentless in jumping to place their paws on her. She darted around the living room table with the animals in pursuit. Christian chased the pets and tried to catch them to no avail. The room turned into a merry-go-round of Olivia leading the pack in wild circles.
“Olivia stop running. They think you’re playing a game with them,” Malcolm shouted above the noise.
“Aah. Help me. Get these man-eaters away from me.” She jumped to the sofa. The dogs hopped on too and continued to bark in harmony at Olivia. Her arms circled like a windmill to shoo them away.
Christian struggled to yank the Boxer’s collar to get him off the couch. The dog strained forward toward Olivia and jumped back up to get close to her again.
Mariah wobbled out of nowhere in a yellow floral nightgown. She started shouting, “Get your feet off my sofa. How dare you step all over my precious furniture. Stop agitating my dogs. They never act like this.”
“I don’t care about your nasty couch or these stupid critters. Make them go away,” Olivia screamed. She hopped off the sofa and made another circle around the living room with the dogs in pursuit. She vaulted back onto the furniture and they followed. Olivia covered her face and continued screaming and scurrying back and forth on the sofa. “Get them out of here.”
“Tex and Trixie, get down. Christian, get Trixie and put her outside,” Malcolm ordered before grabbing the Boxer.
“I told you to get your shoes off of my furniture,” Mariah shouted before having to sit in a chair from too much exertion. She placed her hands on her lower back with a pained expression spread across her face.
“It’s okay, Olivia. They’re in the backyard now. You’re fine.” Malcolm attempted to catch his breath.
Olivia’s whole body tremored from fear. Frazzled nerves made her breath shaky. She widened her eyes to peek around Malcolm for the dogs. They were gone. She heard barking outside and scraping of claws on the door.
Simone stood propped against the wall. A satisfied smirk and defiant eyes caught Olivia’s attention.
“Did you do this on purpose, Simone?” Olivia questioned in anger. She wanted to smack the expression off her face.
Christian extended his hand to help her step onto the floor. Her knees knocked from shaking and a moment passed before she could catch her breath. Black and white hair covered her purple velour warm-up suit.
“Why would you think that, Mother?” Simone’s sarcasm dripped from each word.
Olivia muted her initial response of anger. Her realization about Simone speaking more than a few words to her kept her grounded. Drawing in and out three deep breaths calmed her from her inclination to react.
Malcolm took two steps to stand in front of their daughter. He shook a finger inches in front of her face. “Simone, you knew
