May 10th 2021

Chapter 130
Our Wonders For Trees

"I have this feeling like she'll be walking by the time the decorations go away again," Lucas stated as they walked through the tree lot. Maya had Marianne held in her arms and facing out, the better for her to take in her surroundings. Already, she seemed so fascinated by all the trees around her, possibly intrigued by the scent of them, too.

"The way she's just wriggling along right now, I think you might be right," Maya chuckled, setting a kiss to their daughter's head as she looked back at her. "Good thing we already have safeguards to keep the dogs from getting caught up in anything, maybe they'll keep tiny pumpkins out of harm's way, too," she said this while holding Marianne's gaze. The girl only squealed, making her mother laugh and her father as well.

"And only one of those has your DNA," Lucas replied as he directed them down another path.

"Don't think I haven't considered that either," Maya promised. "There's going to be no keeping our eyes off this one, is there? Don't give me those innocent eyes, Hucklebucket. You may be half of him, but you are half of me, too, and we won't be tamed," she whispered.

It was already to be their girl's second Christmas, which was so strange to consider. But then she'd been not quite two months old for the first one, so she hadn't gotten to do a whole lot beyond sleeping and being passed around. This time would be different, this time, even if she would still be too young to really remember anything as she'd grow up, she would at least be aware of more of what was happening around her. And even if she couldn't remember, she had parents there, and aunts and uncles, grandparents, and great grandparents, all of them prolific in taking pictures and videos, making memories later to be shared with the little one.

They could tell her about the first time she saw snow. They hadn't had too much of it this year, not so far at least, though December was barely starting and that could change. There had been one day's snow fall, just enough that it covered the ground and made it white, and then it had melted within two days. But it had been there, and they'd woken up one morning to find it falling from the skies. There wasn't much time, with both of them set to go off to work, but they hurried up and got dressed, the better to have Marianne dressed, too, and take her outside for as long as they could.

The snow suit – courtesy of Granny Mel – was a new experience for Marianne, and she'd looked a bit confused by the extra layers at first. But then Maya had carried her outside, walked with her down the porch steps until the frozen flakes could flutter down over them, and then confusion had turned to curiosity. She could feel them on her face, and she would squeal, bringing her mittened hands to touch but finding nothing. She was brought down to stand on the snowy ground, and for a moment it looked like she might take a step, but instead she just ended up sitting. Everything looked different, they could see it dawn on her. She might have been startled by this, scared, but she wasn't. She enjoyed the chill, enjoyed the spark of sunlight on snow. The pictures had made the rounds, family and friends near and far getting to see Marianne Friar sitting in pure amazement in the snow.

Now there may not have been any snow left, but they did not lose their holiday spirit, and the prospect of getting the house decorated opened up so many more chances for the girl's discovering eyes.

"Maya!" a girl's voice called from nearby, and they turned to find Desi Russell heading toward them, her pleasure at seeing them clear on her face. Much as they could see it though, they could also see something else underneath, the thing that had existed before the pleasure, and this was easy to interpret, too. Not far from her, they could see her big brother trailing after her, and their grandparents just further along. As Desi went and embraced her best friends' older sister and her brother's teacher, her arms felt loaded with expression.

The Russells had brought their grandchildren here to pick out a tree, for what would be their first Christmas since their mother's passing. It wasn't their first one without her, or without their father. Last year, they'd spoken to her via a video call, exchanging presents each party had sent and received in the mail. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. That was what Khalil had expressed, in his sophomore diary, and Maya recalled it well. Now, this year, they were all having to put that theory to the test, weren't they? This year she wasn't here or on a screen, but Christmas was still coming, and it wouldn't keep from coming just because they were still grieving, or because their father was still overseas. A choice had to be made, and evidently the choice was to carry on, in Monica's spirit if nothing else.

"Hey, Desi," Maya smiled, turning Marianne around so that she'd have a better one-armed hold on her and would be able to greet the approaching girl with a half of a hug. "Looking for a tree?"

"Yeah," Desi nodded, looking back as Khalil reached them, too.

"Hi, Mrs. Friar," he nodded to her. "Mr. Friar," he repeated the gesture toward Lucas. "Miss Friar," he turned a smile to Marianne, who was already being entertained by Desi.

"Morning, Khalil," Maya tipped her head to her student. "How's the search?"

"We only got here a few minutes ago," Khalil explained. "We're still looking." By the looks of them, Maya and Lucas both could guess that Desi was here because she wanted the tree, wanted to make it beautiful, and Khalil was here for his sister. He didn't want the tree, but what other choice did he have? If it made his sister happy, he would dress as Santa Claus himself.

"There's so many of them, I had no idea," Desi declared.

"First time tree shopping?" Lucas asked her, and she nodded. "Alright, come on, I'll show you what you need to look for," he led Desi back the way they'd come, rejoining the grandparents before leading them through the various options.

"Our friend used to work the tree lot every year when we were in high school, and college. He told us about it all so many times that we couldn't help just knowing it all by heart after a while," Maya explained to Khalil with a chuckle. He smiled. "Want to help me look for ours?"

"Sure," Khalil nodded, and they started to walk. Marianne apparently had gotten her fill of the trees. She was now clinging to her mother and just enjoying the stroll.

"So, you two are starting school again in January? It's official?" Maya asked. She'd gotten the notice just the night before, after she'd picked up the diaries from the Russell house.

"Yes," Khalil confirmed. "The counselor at Desi's school is going to be meeting with her for a while, to make sure she's okay, but I know she is. She misses her friends, hates that she's missing out on things. It'll be good for her."

"And what about you?" Maya asked him, her words carrying more meaning than they showed.

Khalil didn't reply right away. He'd always put it as though the only reason he was still home was that Desi needed him, but was he fooling anyone, really? He'd lost his mother, too. He missed her terribly, too. Maya would look at him, and she would see Sam. Their father's death had not been as sudden as his mother's, no, but it had still happened, and like Khalil, Sam had put so much of himself in looking after his siblings without stopping to consider his own grief, his own loss.

"I need to finish school, so I can go to college." So that I can look after my little sister. His mother was dead, his father was escaping in his feelings and his duty. Khalil felt the responsibility of Desi was on him now, and he wasn't about to fail.

Maya didn't argue with this. He would be back among them, and at least he would be surrounded by teachers who cared for him and would look after him, so if at any time he lost his balance and was pulled under by the sadness of his loss… They'd be there to pull him up again.

"Did you hear about the musical?" Maya asked him.

"I did, yes," Khalil nodded. "I'm not really a singer though."

"We can always use more help behind the scenes," Maya pointed out. "Sets, props, costumes, lighting, sound…" Khalil considered this for a moment, maybe saw the benefit of a new activity.

"I can do that," he told her, and Maya smiled.

"Good."

The trees were found, for the Friars and Russells both, and so the two families went their separate ways. Maya and Lucas arrived back home to find things had progressed in their absence. Cara had recruited Mateo to help her handle the lights on the outside of the house, while Granny Lizzie had started laying out what decorations she could in the house, saving the living room for when the tree would be brought in.

"You want to tell her to be careful, don't you?" Lucas smiled, seeing the focused look on his wife's face as she watched them both up there.

"But if I do that, she could fall," Maya frowned at him even without tearing her eyes away. She looked solid, so she'd just have to trust that, wouldn't she?

"Looks great so far," Lucas nodded. "I can't wait to see the look on her face when they're actually lit up," he went on, and here they had shifted the conversation to Marianne without need to try. It helped soothe some of Maya's concerns.

"Yeah, me neither."

The pair on the roof came down as soon as they noticed that Team Tree had returned victorious. The tree was carried into the house, where it was brought to stand in its place in the living room, in all its glory.

"Alright, pumpkin, let's see what we've got here," Lucas had Marianne in one arm as the boxes were opened to reveal the various items about to be hung on the tree. "We have lights that will go around and around and around, from top to bottom. We have ornaments of various kinds, some of them that look like things and some that are just colorful, and sparkly. These ones are new from this year. Some are gifts, some were bought by us, and all of them because of you," he gave her belly a tickle and got her wriggling and giggling.

They indeed had an almost ridiculous selection of new ornaments now, and as was to be expected, the theme fell in one of two categories: pumpkins and swans.

"Then we have the star, to go at the very top," Lucas showed it to Marianne, who predictably wanted to hold it. Lucas allowed this, making sure that it wouldn't be dropped. "And then out here, there's the stockings, one for each of us. See here? This one's yours, has your name on it and everything." She wanted to hold the stocking as well, and Lucas gladly took it off the hook and gave it to her. She held it like she might hold a teddy bear, shapeless as it was.

As much as this year's Christmas would be remembered greatly as the one where Sam and Dora got married, it would also be Nicky Orlando's first, and Connor Garcia's as well. And it would be Marianne's second that felt a lot like the first. They would give it all they had to make it as magical for her as they could.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners