torn hose: a mother's story

Give Me A "C", Give Me An "A" . . . "Go Candice!"

The following two weeks went by like a flash and before I knew it, it was the evening before Raymond's last day of the school year. This time tomorrow evening, Raymond would be gone for the summer and Candice would be taking over.

Rachel and I had sat down in the bedroom and went over the plan and how we were going to do it, while Raymond, still unaware of what was about to happen, played his video game in the living room. We both had become perhaps a little too excited with the anticipation of it all.

The plan was to wait until Raymond left for school in the morning, then go to his bedroom and collect all of his male clothes and shoes. We were going to put them in black bags and store them in the back of my closet. Of course, we're going to tell him we donated them all to the local second-hand thrift store.

All of his testosterone-fueled posters of cars, motorcycles, skateboarders, bikini-clad girls, and scantly-clad, female pop stars in overtly sexual poses would be coming down.

Rachel showed me all the posters of K-pop boy bands, hunky shirtless actors, beautiful bridal gown models and girly romantic anime scenes that she had collected on her own, to replace them.

I mentioned that I wished we had thought to buy a bed set to replace his Star Wars comforter and sheets that were currently on his bed. Rachel agreed before remembering a few seconds later, that she had a brand new set in her closet that she hadn't opened yet.

She hopped off the bed and ran to her room, returning with a beautiful, fuschia and teal comforter/sheet set.

When I saw it, I knew it would be just perfect.

The following day, just after lunch, we put our plan into motion. With all of Raymond's boy things collected in black trash bags, we hid them away in the back of my closet.

While Rachel began the task of transforming Raymond's bed and bedroom walls into something most girls his age would envy, I got to work on his closet and drawers.

All Raymond's new girly, summer clothes were put away in his drawers, and his skirts, dresses, and blouses I hung up in the closet. I had also bought him a few essential items of make-up, hair care items, and a couple fruit-scented body sprays that I placed out on his dresser top, along with a hairbrush, curling iron, hair bows, ribbons, clips, elastic ties, and three bottles of nail polish; hot pink, fire engine red, and a clear top-coat.

What was missing? Any kind of polish remover.

When Rachel began putting the new sheet on Raymond's bed, she lifted the corner of the mattress and low and behold, underneath we found two of Rachel's thong panties and three pairs of pantyhose. I immediately noticed two of the pairs were completely worn-out, obviously having been worn many times over and contained several tears or ladders. The third pair was black fishnets of Rachel's that she has not seen in several months.

Once the bed was done, I took Raymond's new frilly pink nightly, and matching gown and laid them out on his bed, ready for him along with matching pink fluffy slippers that Rachel placed under the edge of his bed, lined up with the rest of his pretty new shoes. Next to the sleepset Rachel laid out a yellow plaid, pleated thin, short sun dress.

We had even had a bedroom door sign made all in pink with flowers and the words Candice's Room in the middle of it. We hung that on the front of his bedroom door.

With everything now finished, Rachel and I stood in Raymond's doorway, or I should say Candice's doorway, admiring our work.

I took a few pictures.

"Crap," Rachel called out, eyeing something she didn't like.

What, baby," I asked.

"Something's still missing. I have an idea," she answered as she ran off to her room.

Quickly returning, she headed directly to a wall shelf where she removed a baseball trophy, a scale model of an Army tank, a stack of comic books, and an autographed football, before replacing them with a framed photo of Charlie Puth in concert, a sparkly tiara, three cheer trophies, and a pair of cheerleader pompoms.

I smiled at her attention to detail, then noticed a head-shot of Ariana Grande that was taped on the dresser mirror. I started to remove it, but then decided her makeup could serve as an inspiration for Candice and so I left it.

We then we went downstairs to the family room in the back of the house, made ourselves a nice cup of coffee, and turned on a cheezy, romantic Hallmark movie while we waited in anticipation, for Raymond to get home.