°°° Self Sabotage °°°

     The rest of the day went by quickly. By 6:45 pm, Ann and Dan were both home and were seated at the dining table alongside Jason, Andrew, and Sean. Ann had prepared her mom’s signature black rice with chicken and salad.

"So…" Ann started a conversation as the dinner was oddly quiet. "How was school today, boys?" She looked at both Jason and Andrew.

     Andrew lifted his head up and stared at his brother to know if he should speak and what to say. Seeing that Jason wasn’t going to reply, he spoke up. "School was... well, school was school." "Today was actually tasking."

"Huh." "Well, I’m all ears," Ann smiled.

"It wasn’t teaching in the academic sense." It’s more of a social thing. "You probably wouldn’t understand," Andrew tried to select his words carefully.

"Try me," Ann challenged with a smile. She knew Andrew was trying to keep something from her; she didn’t know why, but she knew that challenging him would get him spewing details.

A smug smile slowly appeared on Andrew’s face, and the gates of his mouth were broken asunder.

"Okay Mom. You know how Sean went out for a morning run today, right? Well, on the way to school, Dad said we were supposed to pick him up, but then we couldn’t find him, so Dad parked the car and took out his iPad. You know the Feets app he created? Yeah, it apparently has some sort of tracking device in it. Andrew suddenly paused and thought for a moment, then blurted out his thoughts. "I think he uses it to keep tabs on you too when you go out jogging." "Hey Dad!" he turned to his father. "Does everything you bring from work for us have a tracking mechanism built into its circuitry?" he asked, and he gave himself an answer in his mind. Without waiting for a reply, he continued, "So where was I?" Uhm… right. The iPad.

"So Dad opens his Feet app; its features were more complex than ours, so I immediately figured it was either a prototype or mother app." Anyways, he inputted some numbers, and I have to say, "Dad, your memory capacity is impressive," Andrew commended, making Dan – who was already considering how many people Andrew must have told – smile. "So Dad inputs these codes..." Hmm, I wonder just how many product codes Dad has stored in his head...

"Well, he inputs the codes; Jay got all questiony... Is that a word? "Questiony?" he thought out loud, shrugged, and continued. "So Dad like ignores most of Jay’s questions, but then probably had something he didn’t want us to know, so he answered some questions, trying to keep it vague so Mr. Blabbermouth, me, would be unable to understand too much," Andrew gave his father a stare, reminding him that he hadn’t forgotten. "Oh... "And dad, in case you are wondering, I haven’t told anyone about your feet's secret tracking mechanism... yet."

      Dan sighed in relief, but his eyes shut wide open when Andrew said, "Yet." Is this blackmail? Is this his way of trying to move to Canada? Dan quizzed him, wondering what kind of child he’d raised.

"So Dad explains," Andrew continued while everyone at the table stared at him, shocked for many reasons, one of them being the speed at which he spoke. "He explained a little, got Sean’s location." "Jason’s Feets app placed Sean really close to school, so we drove off, but "that’s not what made school socially challenging," he grinned mischievously and took out his phone. "This did," he smiled and passed the phone to his mom.

"How old are you again?" Sean couldn’t help but ask as Ann collected the phone, with a billion thoughts of what it could be and how it has affected or would affect her son’s morals.

      Andrew chuckled, ignoring Sean’s question, and continued his report. "So, while Sean was running, he encountered something. That is a video taken by some girl at a store a couple blocks away from school. Anyways, Sean saw these guys—two guys who had robbed a girl, Karen. really popular at Kingston Junior High. most beautiful girl amongst the juniors, with swag that outclasses most seniors. These guys rob her, and Sean, for some reason, charges into the street after them."Out of nowhere, this guy with a Mercedes appears on the scene. Trying to avoid hitting Sean, the crazy dude blocks Sean’s path, and oh my God, Sean is amazing, almost as good as Jason in acrobatics. "No offense, Sean," he turned his attention to him. "You are good, but you aren’t as good as Jason." You are close, though. "You are more Batman, and he’s Nightwing," Andrew winked and continued.

"So Sean flips into the air and performs an amazing double forward roll. The camera’s vision was blocked by the guy's car. I think Sean says his name is... Kelly? Kelvin? Melvin, yeah, Melvin. Somehow, Sean lands on the hard ground and rolls to his feet unscathed. "You need to watch that flip in slow motion to understand what I’m saying, Mom." Andrew grabs the phone, adjusts the speed setting, and passes it back to Ann, who was frozen, looking as though her assimilation speed was two seconds slower than usual.

"… Sean double flips, lands on the tarred road with no padding, and gets up with Jason’s arm band as the only thing that broke. Insane right?

"If you think that’s amazing, you should see him take down those purse snatchers." Andrew paused with a gleeful demeanor. "I have to say, the girl that shot this video must be a professional photographer or something, because it was so good, it could pass for a short film." I think that’s why the cops haven’t turned up to ask questions. Andrew suddenly went in a direction that brought tension into everyone’s hearts. None of them wanted police involvement, Sean especially.

"… Back to it. Sean is a really good strategist. He could have taken one down, but he used his environment to take both of them down. Simply amazing, I tell you...

"He went off the ground, unto the fire hydrant, pushes off a tree, and boom, drop kick, first thief down," Andrew shot his hands in the air. "And when I say Sean is a good strategist, I’m talking master strategist." Midway to the drop kick, Sean grabs a waste bin lid. I don’t know how you did that, Sean. It’s precision and speed; you are amazing...

"Sean flings it at the dude with the bag, and the guy is down on the ground. The next thing we know, Sean is walking the girl, Karen, to school. When he got to the gate, we were just pulling up. Everyone who saw Karen and Sean was all, "Who’s the cute guy?" Andrew laughed, mimicking a girl's voice. "So, probably for the first time in forever, Karen talks to Jason." And since most people saw Sean enter Dad’s car, they figured he was related to us. When the video hit the net, everyone was asking Karen for confirmation, and boom, myself and Jason are the most popular kids in school. "Everyone wants to meet the martial arts master, Sean Walker." Andrew raised his hands proudly. His mood suddenly changed. "I think we need to throw a little party before Sean leaves." "We’ll be famous till we move." At least in whatever new school we go to in Canada, we will be able to say we touched fame. "We never stay anywhere long enough to be popular enough, not even in our classes," he began playing with his food, playing the first level of his guilt cards.

The atmosphere had a sudden chill as he ended his speech; all eyes were on Ann, Sean, Jason, and Dan, who were anxiously awaiting her reaction.

Ann was beyond shocked. She constantly looked at Sean, who was now tense from her stares. "Are you hurt?" she finally asked, dropping Andrew’s phone.

"No... "I'm fine," Sean shook his head, eyes looking at the floor tiles.

Silence descended. Andrew had ruined his plans with his very own hands.

       Ann’s attention wasn’t even on his request for the party. She was confused. She didn’t know what to say or how to react. He’d just helped someone recover her bag, but he risked his life to do it.

      Dan shrank where he sat. She wouldn’t be wrong to blame him, and more so, he had praised Sean for it. He’d totally overlooked the part where Sean almost died and was trying to be the cool guy, making Sean feel good about his friendship with Karen. If Ann finds out about that, he’ll have the "worst parent of the decade" award for the next three decades.

"Sean," Ann finally spoke up, deciding to say whatever her maternal instincts would lead her to say. "… I honestly… I’m proud… of you, your intentions were good; you have a good heart; but Sean... that was reckless...

"What if you had been killed by that car?" "What if those boys were armed?" Ann’s eyes were already welling up. "You would have died, Sean, and... just think about your mother." How would she feel?"The pain of losing a child... " she stopped, her eyes unable to hold back the tears any longer.

"Kids…" Dan’s voice was gentle as he wrapped his arms around her shoulder. "I think you should all go to bed now," he nodded to them, burying Ann’s sobbing face in his chest.

The three boys got up gently; regret was the theme of the night.

      Andrew was mad at himself for telling her anything. His decision to play mind games had made his mom cry. It stung him so much that he ran up to his room crying, raining insults on himself.

      Jason blamed himself for giving Sean the arm band. "If I hadn’t given it to him, he probably would not have found that street." "Dad would not have asked him to follow that route," he said, biting his lips and whispering a goodnight.

"I’m sorry for any inconveniences I may have caused." Sean forced himself to smile briefly. "Goodnight Dan. "I'm really sorry, Ann," Sean said, walking away. He convinced himself that he was the problem here. If he hadn’t come, none of this would have happened. He shook his head and walked upstairs, deciding to leave first thing the next morning, back to Philadelphia.

"Hey Ann," Dan whispered softly in her ears. "Let’s go to bed, dear," he placed a light kiss on her forehead.

      Dan understood why she was crying and why she was in pain, and he decided he was going to explain it to the boys, who were most definitely already blaming themselves.

Ann got up, trying to stop crying, but the tears kept flowing as though whatever mechanisms were put in place to stop the tears were broken.