March 26th 2021

Chapter 85
Our Summer of Returns

She had not spent a whole lot of time in the Hex since… last fall. She'd been here, yes, a few times, when a reason had come up, but those were little more than isolated occasions. And when she pulled back and considered the last eight or so months, it really became easier to tell. Before, she'd be in the small studio… not daily, but definitely a few times a week. She would be recording sometimes, tinkering at a song other times, practicing with the band, or just playing… It was a space where she tapped into another part of herself, so when she needed to access her, she had the Hex.

She'd needed to set that part aside, all these last months. There was another part of her that demanded the spotlight right then, as well she should. She'd needed to be a mother, above any and all other things, and so she had, and the months had been… so very special, as they would continue to be. She wasn't suddenly putting 'Mama Maya' aside just because Maya Hart, singer and song writer, was coming back to the forefront again, nor would Mrs. Friar the art teacher push her any further away either. They would all learn to get along, mixing into that whole until she was just… the best version of herself.

But for now, after keeping her patient all these months, Maya Hart was delivered from her hiatus and would come out to play in full and earnest. That started in the Hex.

This morning, after Lucas had gone off to work, Maya left Marianne with Cara and made her way out the kitchen door. Her sister would be joining her later on, of course, but right now Maya needed to go in on her own, and Cara got that. Plus, she got to spend time with her niece, and you would not find her struggling to jump at the chance of that.

When Maya left them, Cara was sitting on the living room floor with Marianne, playing music from her phone and singing along, and it was compelling enough to make the babe's mother stay stuck to the spot for a time. She didn't know why she would ever be surprised that Marianne responded to music the way she did. All of last summer, while Maya was going around the world with Ree, practicing, then being at all those shows, on stage and behind it, Marianne had been there, too, growing in her belly. How much would that have become just… absorbed within her? And after she had been born, oh… the music was never far away then either.

Now, to look at the small girl just where she sat, when she would hear music, hear singing, she would be sort of… lifted. It was hard to explain, but then you'd look at her and it would be there on her face, as much peace and focus as she could ever have. Morgan would joke and say she'd grow into some little prodigy. Maya would chuckle at this, but she was absolutely curious to know what this relationship between her daughter and music would look like as the years went along. If they could have this to share, well… That'd really be something, wouldn't it?

Maya had finally left Cara and Marianne to their 'session' with what felt like a physical pull so that she'd move away and toward the kitchen. Her focus had to shift toward the studio, and to walk up the path toward it, she felt a drum of anticipation in her chest. Her little haven had felt almost forbidden for so long, and even if she'd been the one to bar herself from it, for good reason, now that she was going back for real… Yeah, her heart still beat for this place and all that it represented, just as it had always done… maybe more. Her musical life had been changing in those hiatus months. The awards in November. The awards in January. The Marvelers, The Young Frank, and everyone else in between… and TXNY… Morgan coming in, Cara subbing in, now Riley on her own hiatus… Maya had been spinning her wheels, waiting to get back in the race. This moment here was the anticipation, spinning, spinning, spinning… and here was the release, with the turn of a key.

It wasn't as though she'd suddenly go on her pages and shout 'I'm back!' She'd seen and heard enough over the first half of this year to be correct in assuming that it would open floodgates, and that wasn't how she wanted to make her return. For one thing, she wanted to give her band and bandmates the starter position, as well it deserved this. She wouldn't have any of the rest if it weren't for this group of girls, all of them together. Not giving it the respect that it deserved would have been a complete disservice.

And she'd been preparing for this, hadn't she? The creature of creation that she'd nurtured for most of her life had been chomping at the bits, the closer they got to summer, and it showed in the pages of her songbook, in the new pieces she'd been working on… almost despite herself. Part of her had been afraid that she'd get to this point, at long last, and then she'd hit a brick wall, and she wouldn't know how to go forward anymore. Then, she stepped into the studio, and she turned on the lights, and as she looked to the instruments in the booth, to the equipment graciously obtained for her by Ree Forster, she could just feel it in her. She was back, she was ready, and they'd watch her run.

"I wasn't sure you'd come," Maya gasped when a knock at the door brought the welcome sight of Riley, and of baby Nicky, who soon ended up in his godmother's arms. "Hey, fella," she beamed as she looked to him, and how could she not? It didn't seem possible that he was already a month old. Those weeks though, oh… They had helped bring out those traits in him already, showing he was wholeheartedly the son of Riley and Dylan Orlando. You had never known such a jolly baby boy, even at this early age.

"What? No, I had to," Riley smiled, looking at the two of them together like it was one of the greater joys of her life these days. "It's your first practice back! I'll just sit here and listen," she indicated the couch.

"What about this guy?" Maya asked, nodding down to the baby, who was presently giving her a look out of those bright peepers of his. "It's going to be loud on those little ears," she whispered, shaking her head.

"I'll take him back to the house when the others get here," Riley replied. "Dylan's back there with Cara now. I think he wished Lucas had been here, too."

"Dads Conference?" Maya teased, making Riley laugh.

"Yeah," she nodded. The joke had been born out of those first weekly dinners with the group since Nicky's birth, where they got to see the guys all together and just sort of… swapping stories in their dealing with some happening or another with Marianne, or Nicky, or Mia, or Giulia… It wasn't as though those of them on the Mom side of things didn't have something similar going on, but it was just particularly comical to see the way those guys would get, the turtles and Ray…

Morgan was next to arrive, and she'd barely been with them for five minutes, which she spent on the studio couch with the baby, before the others all arrived in one go. Nadine had picked up Rosa, and so once they were here, Cara left Marianne to the guys and followed. They all had a few minutes more to pack around Nicky like a gaggle of aunties before they finally had to get a hold of themselves and get started. Riley retrieved her son and carried him back into the house while the rest of them stepped into the booth and went about picking up their instruments, preparing to start.

Maya picked up Kermit's guitar to start today's session. It felt like the place to go, with this return, and when she saw the smile on Cara's face, she knew her sister thought the same thing.

"All good?" Maya asked her.

She'd been doing such a fantastic job taking her place all this time, and now she was standing in for Riley, which would be something very different, and not just because she'd be going from a guitar to a keyboard. Just as they'd seen her spend a lot of time in the Hex getting ready when she'd been starting out the first time, they'd been spying her running between house and studio in recent days and weeks. She'd been practicing, had to, taking all the songs again but now working at carrying Riley's parts of them, from the instrument to the backing vocals and leading ones when they came up. As much as Cara had been telling her that she was very happy to get to do it, whatever part of the band she needed to fill in, Maya really wanted to make sure she wouldn't feel like she was being forced out of a spotlight she'd been growing more and more comfortable under.

"Yeah," Cara smiled. "Where do you want to start today? It's your show," she nodded, her way of saying 'this is your first time back, you lead, we'll follow.' It made Maya want to hug her little sister… all her bandmates, actually. They'd been looking forward to having her back as much as she'd been wanting to return. "Now that you're going to be back in here more, is it going to be okay if I'm here, too, for when I just…" she gestured at the other instruments. She'd been dipping her toes in picking up some of those, definitely the ones that the rest of the band played. Whether she said it or not, they knew why she was doing it. If she was ever going to step in for any of them, for whatever reason, then she'd need to be able to do it, no?

"Oh, of course, you can," Maya laughed. She'd be able to help her, too… Actually, this reminded her of how she'd been learning herself, much as Cara was. There were still some she needed to fully ease into. Maybe they'd get to learn together… It was a promising exercise.

When Riley finally returned, she went to sit on the couch but was just as quickly incited to take a stool and join them in the booth. Just because she was on hiatus, it didn't mean she had to put herself on the other side of a wall. She could even lend her voice where she wanted to do it. In fact, Maya would almost insist on it. If this was to be 'her day,' her choice, then she chose to sing with her best friend again.

"So, this summer…" Rosa asked, when they paused, several songs later. They'd been making plans, yes, but they hadn't felt all too concrete as of yet. This had been brought out of the rest of the band respecting Maya's pause, and she'd been very thankful, but that was behind them now.

"Well… I've got to let some of these new songs come out to play before they mount a mutiny in my head," Maya gestured to her songbook where it sat outside the booth, on top of the console. "Definitely have enough for an album… or two… or a really long one… But if we do that…" she looked to Riley, tipping her head.

"I can record with you," Riley assured her. "But I'm not doing shows until… I don't know, after New Year's?"

"Alright," Maya replied, even as the others nodded in understanding and agreement. "We're going to have to figure out how we'll fold in Cara, maybe do… bonus track versions," she turned to her sister, who now blinked with surprise.

"Oh, you don't have to, I mean I'm just…" she shook her head.

"You are not 'just,'" Nadine shook hers back at her, a sentiment shared all around.

"All of us or bust," Rosa chimed in.

"That's what I'm going to call it now," Morgan laughed.

"Nice ring to it, accurate sentiment," Rosa added.

"We'd have been lost without you," Riley clinched it, and Cara became very interested in the keys of her keyboard for a little while, hiding what had to be a very touched smile. Maya let her work through that and looked to the others.

"Alright, so, album in the works. Now, about some shows…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners