January 31st 2020

Chapter 31
Their Support of a Debt

"Hey, is it okay if Cecilia stays for dinner?" Sam asked when Lucas came through the door to find the two of them on the couch, playing a video game. The girl turned and waved with a smile.

"Hi, Lucas."

"Hey," he returned the greeting before looking to Sam again. "Absolutely. Where's your sister?"

"Upstairs," Sam replied, which would likely mean their room. They had started referring to the attic as 'upstairs upstairs.'

Reaching the room, he found Maya laid out on their bed, in what felt like the aftermath of letting herself drop to the mattress with a sigh of relief after a long day. To his knowledge, this only ever led to her dozing off when it had been a really exhausting day, good or bad. When he sat next to her and propped himself up on his side, she opened her eyes and the light in her eyes confirmed to him that it had been the former.

"I just came up here for a minute," she insisted, smiling.

"Yeah, didn't anyone ever tell you that was a trap waiting to happen?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Pretty sure you did, but you know me, you have to repeat it sometimes." He laughed.

"So, the big day happened. How was it?"

She sat up now, and for minutes on end she told him about her time at a local high school, not their old one, but possibly the one Sam might have gone to if, upon moving in with them, he had still been in high school instead of college. They had ten kids signed up for the day and rolling in and out as it went. They could not be exempted from the whole day's classes, so they would be coming to the auditorium over the span of whatever class or classes they had been released from and then leave when their time was up. That made it so they would have one to three kids at a time, and from there the team would step in and do their thing, helping them with whatever they wanted help with, whether it was singing, dancing, acting…

"We had this one boy, all I could think about was Joey, when we all realized he wanted to be on stage, you know?" He did. Back in the day, it had seemed like the most ludicrous idea that Joey Garcia, who made the word 'shy' feel inadequate, might want to stand up in front of people and sing and dance, but now there he was, off in New York, on Broadway, on television… They watched his show every week and it had not stopped being surreal. "But, oh, the voice on him, I mean I think I cried a couple times. Tim just stood there like he'd gone diving and found the biggest pearl," she went on, speaking of their vocal coach. "And he didn't even want to be in the show, he just wanted the lessons. He said no one would believe he was being serious about this if he went anywhere for something more."

"That sucks…"

"Yeah, so much," Maya nodded. "I gave him one of the program cards, the ones with everyone's info for the theater, told him to get in touch with us and we'd figure something out. I hope he does…" Lucas could only smile, watching his fiancée just stretch her wings, becoming the teacher she was meant to be, one way or another. "Okay, now what's up with you," she asked, in a distinctively 'don't think I can't see there's something on your mind, Huckleberry' look. He let out a breath.

"Coach Wiley was at the bookstore this morning." Just like when he'd told Maeve about it when he'd returned, her face had brightened with the memory. Actually, he'd had the experience with both Tanner and Julia as well, who had also gone to the same middle school, in their respective years. They had all known the coach, and they all remembered him fondly. Even tough-nut-to-crack Julia had tales to share. It might have been the most that Lucas had heard her talk at one time since he'd known her.

"Man, I haven't seen him in… years… Saw him a few times when I was working at the diner, he'd come in with the kids…"

"He's retiring, end of this year," Lucas told her, and the surprise came as he'd expected it. He went on to tell her what the coach had told him, his reasons for stepping back when he did.

"Okay, well… yeah…" Maya sighed, understanding as well as he did why the man would make this choice, whether they liked it or not.

"You know, ever since we got engaged, and we moved out here, it feels like I've been thinking more and more about the future, our future…" he confided.

"Me, too," she smiled, scooting closer, looping her arms around his. He smiled back.

"I think somewhere in the back of my mind, part of me had this image, this idea of one day, having a kid in middle school, and he would still be there, and he'd be their coach, too. I don't know, maybe he would have been gone by then anyway…"

"Well, I mean, that's like… thirteen years from now at the earliest, and it's probably going to be a few years more than that," Maya pointed out, almost apologetically.

"Yeah…" he nodded.

"It was a nice idea though," she tipped her head to catch his gaze again. "I know he meant a lot to you, still does."

"Yeah," he said, once more, feeling his mind just drifting along, back into those memories.

He doubted he'd even been supposed to know that Coach Wiley had spoken on his behalf, that he'd played any part in his return to school. But then one day he'd come home from hanging out with Zay, Dylan, Asher, and Nadine, and he'd heard voices coming from the kitchen. At the time, things had still been sort of tenuous as far as the trust he was afforded, especially so far as his just leaving the house to go play with his friends went. Usually, his father would insist on his dropping him off and picking him up, and he could only really go to their houses, no going off to the movies, or the park, the mall… But that day, he'd been sent on his own, with his father's blessing for 'widening' his options. It was to be like something of a trial run, to see how he did.

He could probably have stayed out there with his friends longer than he did, but he hadn't wanted to tempt the fates or something, so he'd come home early. And when he'd come up to the house he'd spotted a car in the driveway that wasn't theirs, so when he'd heard people talking, his response had been to approach without revealing his presence. He'd overheard what he first recognized as his mother's voice, and his father's, and then… Coach Wiley's? What was he doing there?

He'd stood there, out of sight, and he'd listened in. He could just see the man's face from where he hid. The way he spoke about him, you might have believed he spoke of his son and not one of his students. It had fixed him to the spot. Coach Wiley had talked to the principal? To the school board? He was waiting on a call back, and he would keep calling if he had to. At that moment in time, it hadn't been certain that Lucas would be welcome back to that school, ever, which he knew because of the talk that had been going on about possibly moving them elsewhere, to New York. But the way his coach spoke… It was the first time he'd actually believed it was a possibility he'd get to go back and be with his friends again, at school. His mother looked like she was going to cry, and his father was thanking the man with all the humility he had in him.

Lucas hadn't let them know he'd heard any of this either. He'd gone back and made as though he was just arriving, at which point he'd called out and made his presence known. He'd acted surprised upon finding his coach in the house, with his parents. Coach Wiley had said that he'd wanted to come and check in on him, see how he was doing, and that had been that.

"I don't think they even know that I was there," he told Maya, after recounting this. "They don't know that I know. None of them brought it up at any time. I guess he didn't want me to know, or to feel like… like I owed him…"

"But you do," Maya guessed.

"I do," he nodded.

"You want to do something, don't you?" He looked at her, that knowing smile on her face…

"Will you help me?"

"Honestly, that you think you have to ask," she shook her head, smiling as she leaned in to kiss him. She stayed close, her forehead to his, and he let out a breath.

"I know how busy you are right now, your program, the schools…"

"True, but that's in the day. I am blessed with the ability to leave all that behind once I'm back here in the evening, and on weekends. I insist that you use my assistance in whatever way you could need it."

"That's a dangerous offer," he joked.

"I'll risk it," she laughed.

They headed back downstairs, getting dinner ready now for the four of them. The way she told it, they guessed Cecilia was used to having dinner either on her own at home or up at the university so she might eat with her father, which might explain why she spent so many afternoons up there after getting out of school.

"If you're going to be alone any night, you're always welcome to join us," Lucas assured her, and Cecilia gladly accepted the invitation with a smile.

As they ate, the subject of Coach Wiley and his retirement came up. They almost expected Cecilia to chime and say that she'd been at their old middle school, too, but she hadn't. Still, both she and Sam thought it was a great thing that Lucas wanted to do something for the man. Rather than discussing any potential ideas for just what they'd do, dinner had veered into Lucas and Maya sharing stories of their middle school days with her brother and his friend.

"That's when you guys did the living art thing, isn't it?" Sam looked to his sister. "You told me about that once."

"It is, yeah," Maya nodded.

"She likes to joke that I couldn't stop staring at her," Lucas chimed in.

"Well, you couldn't, could you?"

"Because my person was posed to look at yours. And you're the one who even drew the whole thing in the first place, so I could say you made me stare at you the whole time."

"I didn't hear any complaints, did I?" Maya laughed.

"I'd love to do something like that sometime," Cecilia smiled. "Can't really draw or anything like that though…"

"Neither could I," Lucas told her, nodding to Maya and then to Sam, as though to say 'I had my artist friend, you've got yours.'

"He's not at my school though."

"Don't see why that has to stop you," Maya told her. "Just, you know, keep your ears open, you never know… In related news, I'm going to be at your school in a few days… There's still time to sign up."

"You could do like… a living storybook," Sam suggested. "Like Twas the Night Before Christmas, or A Christmas Carol…" Cecilia looked intrigued; Maya looked alit with ideas. Lucas just chuckled to himself. With those two in the house with him, he was confident he'd have his Wiley plan sorted out soon enough.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners