“Can we be done now?” I whined, looking over at my mom as she checked yet another item off her back to school shopping list. She smiled, sliding the yellow number two pencil she was never without back into her ponytail and flipping the cover on her small notebook before sliding it into the strap of the baby carrier slung across her chest. My baby brother Reid let out a delighted gurgle as she pulled down his little bucket hat and tickled his toes, making faces at him and my little sister clinging to her skirt. I rolled my eyes, hoping no one I knew was around. High school reputations where everything, and the last thing I wanted to do was start the year as the guy who shops with his mom. “Just about, Caleb. Let’s head over to Rack Room. Both of you guys need sneakers.” “Oh! Can I get purple sneakers?” My little sister, Lily, danced around us, reaching up to take my mom’s hand as we crossed the parking lot to the shoe store. “If they have purple sneakers, I don’t see why not.” “You know we could have gotten all of this online right, Mom?” She sighed. “Yes, Caleb. I know I could have gotten everything online and delivered to the house while you hid up in your room and played that game the whole day. Can we just enjoy being together? I go back to work next week. Is it wrong to want to spend time with my kids ‘IRL?’” She held up her free hand, miming finger quotes as she said IRL. “Please don’t do that.” I grimaced. “Just saying,” I added, opening the door to the shoe store. “You also can keep lists on your phone like a normal person.” “Noted, Caleb.” It felt like hours later when we finally walked out of the shoe store, bags in tow, and headed towards the mini van. Lily had found every pair of remotely purple shoes in the place, insisting on trying on all of them before landing on a vibrantly violet pair of Converse. Though I’d never admit it to my mom, helping Lily find the most outrageously purple shoes had been kinda fun. She skipped along beside me as mom pulled her keys from her pocket by their black lanyard and punched the button to raise the hatch and start the car. “See, that wasn’t so bad,” she said as we piled bags into the back. I ducked my head to hide the smile caused by Lily’s infectious joy and grunted. Walking around to the sliding door, I helped Lily into her booster seat as mom closed the hatch and went around the other side to get Reid strapped into to his car seat. “And we’ve still got plenty of time to get home, so you can go play whatever-its-called with your friends online before dinner.” I mock-scowled at her playful grin. Moms. Over her shoulder, I saw three guys get out of a black van a few parking spaces down. Though it was late July and the summer’s heat was brutal, each of these guys had on a black jacket, the nylon stretched tight over their bulging arms. They could have stepped right off the screen from one of my first-person shooter games. Hulking enforcers from their buzz cuts and slick shades down to their combat boots. The other two flanked the driver as they looked our direction and followed his lead as he started for us. “Uh, Mom?” I said, pointing behind her. She smiled, not even bothering to look at them as she stowed the baby carrier underneath the driver’s seat. She reached over, checking a strap on Lily’s booster before running her fingers over the straps on Reid’s. “I know, Caleb. Get in the car and buckle up, now please.” I stared, watching as the guys drew closer and unable to move. If this where one of my games, I’d be shouting into my headset, urging my character to move as my thumbs flew across the controller. But this wasn’t a video game. My brain blanked. Mom cupped my face across the space of the car. My gaze shifted to her face, the hazel eyes I’d inherited demanding my attention. “Caleb, do as I say.” I nodded quickly, punching the button to close the side door and jumping in the front seat. Fumbling for my seatbelt, I watched as mom pressed the button to close Reid’s door and took a step back from the car. The men came to a stop on the other side of the empty parking spot next to us, squaring off as my mom stared at their reflections in the window. “Oh my god, oh my god,” I muttered, my heart hammering in my chest. What was mom doing? Why wasn’t she getting in the car? Licking my lips nervously, I reached for my phone, ready to call my dad or the cops or anybody. Mom’s eyes flicked toward me, a sly smile flashing across her face. Lily looked frantically at her and whimpered. The door locks clicked into place. “It’s okay, Lily-Billy. Caleb, put the phone down, baby cakes.” She turned to face the men, keys clutched in her hand and lanyard wrapped around her wrist. Her arms were loose at her sides. “Really, Boyden? In front of my kids?” The lead guy, smirked, the other two fanning out beside him. “Not like we have a better time, Kiara. Or is it Kerri now?” He slid off his sunglasses, gesturing at the van with them. “Nice van.” My phone clattered to the floorboards. He knew mom? Who was Kiara? What was happening? “Gets us from A to B,” Mom replied. She shook her head, her honey-brown hair ponytail brushing along her shoulders. “You know I’m on leave right?” “Not back till next week,” he replied, tucking the shades into the neck of his shirt. The two other men closed in. “Thing is, I got a ticket here from another house. Double the money if you don’t make it to next week.” “Taking jobs from the other team?” Mom whistled. “Management isn’t going to like that.” “Management is going to be too bothered to deal with me. And well.” His hand slid in to his partially unzipped jacket. “You really won’t have to worry about it, will you.” Mom lunged forward, whipping the number two pencil from her hair and stabbing it through his arm and into his chest. She spun, kicking out with her right and catching the guy on her left in stomach before bringing her knee back around to smash into the other guy’s nose as he lurched forward to grab her. He fell back, head slamming into the ground. She looked back, wrenched the pencil from Boyden’s arm and pulled his hand free from his jacket, sending the pencil and the gun he was holding sailing across the asphalt and under the car. Her arm came back, keys held firm in her fist, and slammed it over and over into Boyden’s face. He reeled back, stumbling, blood streaming from a gash on his cheek. Lily screamed, a piercing high-pitched note that threatened to break glass. Reid wailed in reply. Mom whipped around, her mouth set in a firm line as she caught the reflection of the first guy, swinging his leg in a wide arc at mom’s head. She ducked and rolled, shoulder checking Boyden into the car in the next spot. His head dented the side as mom used his prone form to launch herself at the first guy, catching him with a flying elbow strike across the jaw. He dropped and lay crumpled on the asphalt. The third guy steadied himself, blood streaming from his busted nose. Mom squared off to face him, her keys hanging by the lanyard from her wrist. He growled, bounding forward. She swung the keys up, catching him again on his already punished nose and whipping them across his cheek as she kicked him solidly in the chest. She followed quickly behind with a leaping roundhouse, her skirt spinning around her calves as her sneakers came to rest on the ground and the final guy fell to the blacktop. Still guarded, she walked backwards, unlocking the car and quickly climbing in. Throwing it in reverse, she sped out of the parking spot, the rear right tire bouncing over something that definitely wasn’t a curb before she threw it into drive and floored it out of the parking lot. Lily and Reid where still screaming in the back while I sat in the passenger seat, pressed against the window, my jaw-dropped and gaping at my mother. She punched a button on the dash and the display screen opened, revealing an entirely different control panel. She punched a few buttons and then the panel closed. “Shh. Shh, babies,” she cooed. “It’s okay, Momma’s here. Everything is going to be fine, sweethearts. How about a song? Lily, where’s Cuddles? How about you sing Cuddles and Reid a song?” Lily hiccuped and brought her favorite stuffed puppy to her chest. She nodded, wiping her little tear-stained cheeks and singing “Twinkle, twinkle” softly to baby Reid. Reid quieted after a few moments and clapped his pudgy hands. “That’s my big girl.” Mom smiled, focusing back on the road ahead and weaving in and out of traffic. She turned up a kids sing-a-long playlist and drummed her fingers along to Old MacDonald. “W-What the hell was that?” I stammered. “Caleb, language.” “No, Mom! What the hell just happened? Why did those guys attack you, are they dead, and where did you learn to fight like that?” Her eyes flicked toward me. “Baby cakes, take a breath. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything.” “Reasonable? No. You go to book club and bake scones and knit. You’re on the PTA! You coach Lily’s soccer team. You’re a mom! Our mom! Not some Black Widow assassin!” My fingers fisted in my hair as my brain tried to wrap itself around what it had just seen. My mom was a stay-at-home mom who wrote to-do lists and organized closets for fun. She liked bubble baths and books. She wasn’t some trained secret operative. Was she? “Right?” She reached over, patting my leg and smiling at me. “Baby cakes, you’re going to hyperventilate. Take a deep breath and put your head between your knees.”