March 29th 2021

Chapter 88
Our Summer of Love

"We could start a club now, you know? TXNY Kids… There's more of them than there are of us by now, I think…" Rosa reflected as the six of them sat around a booth at Ma Maggie's one morning.

To call it morning almost felt presumptuous here, but then maybe it was just that the sky hadn't completely chased the colors of the rising sun. Also, to say that there were six of them was another lie. The six in question were the band members, active, substitute, and paused. But there were three more, lined up in a couple of highchairs and a car seat… and before long there would be more. On top of that, they had three others via Skype. Around them, the diner was very quiet, barely occupied. They had been open for all of ten minutes.

"Members, all combined, come to nine," Isadora informed them from the phone propped up on the table. It was slightly more morning out in New York, but by the looks of Ada and Bertie sitting next to and on Isadora's lap respectively, breakfast had not been so long ago, and the day was young. "As to the children, at the moment eight and soon nine."

"So, there'll be as many of them as there are of us. I stand by my idea," Rosa nodded, making the others laugh.

"I don't see how they'll make it here for a couple of hours, so we should order," Nadine suggested, looking to where Mia sat. "The longer you keep her waiting, the closer the riot gets," she intoned, making a funny face that got her daughter not only laughing but emulating her.

So, they went about ordering. They'd never had a gathering like this, and now that they were here it did get to feel like maybe they should do it more often. If they did do it again, they would really have to pick a better time. This one had been chosen out of necessity more than anything.

Way off in Sweden, Kayla and Will were about to have their baby.

Only the fact that some of them were prone to wake up in the middle of the night, or in the wee hours of the morning, had made it so that any of them saw the message from Will as early as they did. There was no way they'd get to go out and be with their friend and former bandmate, and Kayla didn't expect them to. Still, the rest of them out here had made a sort of pact, so that when the moment would come, they would get together, all the members of TXNY and, to welcome the newborn when he arrived, the others of the 'band kids,' too.

Maya and Riley had been up with Marianne and Nicky, and they'd quickly started shooting messages back and forth before they'd finally agreed: they'd made a promise, and they had to keep it, no matter what. They knew this, and so would the others. By some luck, it was Nadine's day off or else she might already have been at the hospital and unable to join them.

"Did it happen? Is there a baby?" a child's voice asked, a couple of hours later, and the band turned to find Zola Obi moving toward them across the now crowded diner.

"No, not yet!" Maya beamed as she opened out her arms and the girl ran into them. It was incredible to look at her sometimes, already seven years old. Oh, how she remembered the night she was born, how worried they'd all been for Willow. And yet now here she came, leading five-year-old Sekani (nearly six, he'd remind you) and four-year-old Liam toward her friends' table.

"I'm hungry!" Sekani informed them, a slightly grumpy look on his face which they could in no way blame him for. They'd be grumpy, too, if they'd been packed in the car this early for a long ride like that.

"Got your menus right here," Nadine waved the boys over and they went at once, dropping into the free seats and scanning the various images on the kids' menus.

"How was the drive?" Rosa stood to go and hug Willow. The two of them and Kayla had all come into the band at the same time, and it was easy to see how it had bound them together all these years.

"Long, loud, over now," Willow declared in barely contained exasperation even as she smiled. She wouldn't have missed this for the world, but she could have done without wrangling the kids out here this early.

To look at the trio now though, they could almost already forget the last two hours. Sekani and Liam would point to their menus and ask questions of Riley and Morgan, while Zola made a beeline for the little children, always so happy to see them. She took her big sister role very seriously, which according to her was a necessity, what with that pair of hellion little brothers she had. They were all fairly close to one another in age, but she was the eldest, the only girl, and very disciplined, she'd have you know. It also didn't hurt that, of the three Obi kids, only she seemed to have inherited her father's height as of yet. She towered over the boys.

Willow and her children had plenty of time to settle in, order, receive and consume their food, and then just sit and talk amongst themselves before they all got the call from Will. At once, they did their best to get around where they'd all get to see the screen. Will appeared, standing not too far from what they'd realize was his laptop screen.

"Good morning, everyone!" he signed. He had that exhausted-but-overjoyed look to him they all recognized easily. The responses came in signs in many hands, which probably made it impossible for Will to catch more than a couple of them, but it really didn't matter. The message got across in its execution alone. They were all happy to see him, too, and they were happy for what he was clearly about to tell them. "Thank you very much for being there, all of you," he went on, as Riley gasped and reached over to hold up her phone, so he could also see Isadora and the kids and they'd be able to see him, too. "The baby was born about an hour ago. He and Kayla are doing great." The group around the table expressed their cheers in a mix of signs and outcries, drawing eyes from across the diner.

"What's his name? Did you two decide?" Maya asked. Will smiled.

"His name is Oscar."

Soon, Will moved the wheeled table on which his laptop sat, and they were treated to the sight of Kayla, sitting up in her hospital bed with the newborn in her arms. By the look of surprise and the swell of tears in her eyes, she'd had no idea who Will was having this call with. She'd had no idea that all her former bandmates and their children had come together to be 'with' her and her own child as he would come into the world. But they were out there, and it made the ocean between them feel like no distance at all.

Already before the breakfast started to disperse, Maya had been turning an idea over in her head. Months ago, she and Lucas had discussed adding to their birds, a little swan to represent Marianne, born in October. She couldn't do it, not back then, but they didn't mind waiting until she could. She wasn't thinking about that one right now though. They had not gotten their swans yet, but Lucas had the tattoo she'd drawn for him, her hand and Marianne's together, their names… It sat on his arm, and it mattered a great deal to him. Maya had been thinking all this time how she'd need to have one for herself to match it, one to combine her husband and their daughter, something for her to carry as she went.

Now, maybe for having been part of this moment, with Kayla and little Oscar, the decision felt clear. The swans would come, maybe later in the summer, but right now she wanted to see about making things even.

Next thing she knew, she was catching a ride to Houston with Willow and the kids. It was kind of perfect, actually. Cara was taking Marianne back home, and Lucas was out in Houston already today, visiting his grandparents to bring them a few things his parents wanted them to have. He would be able to drive her back. She was taking a big chance, as she didn't know if their favored artist, Cheyenne would be available today, but past experiences suggested they'd be just fine. Halfway to Houston, the appointment was already booked.

Maya: On my way to Houston w/Willow. Wait at the house and I'll meet you there in a few hours?

Lucas: OK, but why?

Maya: You'll see…

He knew her enough by now to see the grin in those two brief words, or possibly in those three dots on the end. Either way, Lucas did as requested, which was not difficult. He didn't really get to see his grandparents nearly as much as he'd like as it was. Now that he was here, sticking around felt like bonus. Patty Robinson was going on about her semi-retirement, which was to say that she would no longer teach regular classes, but she would still guest lecture on occasions. It had not been an easy decision, as she loved teaching, but she wasn't getting any younger, and it was getting harder for her to maintain all of it. She preferred taking a step back which would allow her to at least hold on to some part of her work.

When Maya finally arrived, she didn't get to stay too long. Much as they would have liked to stick around for dinner, it made more sense for them to head home. They had a big drive sitting between them and their daughter.

"So, do I get to find out what this is about now?" Lucas asked as they got in the car.

"At home," Maya told him, and there was that grin he'd found in her words.

They had long been experts of making the drive from Austin to Houston feel shorter than it actually was, in the years they'd spent living away from home, back in college. Even now, when it had become a lot more infrequent, they fell easily into the old habits.

"Alright, here's good," Maya stated as Lucas parked the car outside their home.

It was getting dark by now, the sun setting, and so she reached to turn on the lights inside the car. He barely had the time to wonder why she'd reached over herself and used her right arm to do it, rather than her left which was closer. Right then she carefully worked to take off the light and loose vest she'd been wearing since Houston and he found out why. There was plastic covering over the section of her arm above the inside of her elbow, where below sat her birds, and further still her clock.

"At some point I wondered if maybe I should have said something ahead of time, but then I kind of wanted it to be a surprise, so… surprise…" she explained as he held her arm so that he might get a better look.

His own 'mother and daughter' tattoo was on the arm opposite his birds, though it was on the same as her 'father and daughter' one, so they had that. Also, the two tattoos were designed on the same principle, so they felt like a matching pair. Where his had Maya's hand palm out with Marianne's little hand sitting there, hers showed his profile, with little hands stretching toward it, fingers at the ready. Like his, it was encircled, and there were the names. Lucas & Marianne. She'd drawn it on the ride to Houston, under the curious eyes of Zola Obi sitting at her side.

Lucas looked at it and to Maya it was like the night of their anniversary all over again. This was exactly what it had to be, and he was overwhelmed to see it on her, for all the days to come.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners