June 30th 2021

Chapter 181
Our Wind of Childhood

Sometimes they would wonder why it would hit them so much to notice the passage of time. Then, at other instances, they would get it, like it was the simplest thing. The best way they knew how to explain it was simply that they got to hold on to such a chunk of their childhood well into adulthood, to watch it grow and expand the way they all had done, anywhere between ten years and a quarter of a century. Great parts of it felt as close to them as though they'd happened yesterday, so could they be blamed if it startled them to think it had been over a decade?

Before very long, they would be celebrating fifteen years of TXNY, and that was just… beyond any shred of comprehension. Maya had been thinking about this. A lot. She'd been fifteen years old when the band started, so that would mean that when they hit that anniversary the band would have been part of her for half of her entire lifetime. Next thing she'd know, she would have more years on the side of her with the band than her without it.

They were still thriving. After all these years, they were still making something that people connected with. Their audience had had time to grow with them, and then a whole other generation of fans went and found them, too, and so they kept going. They'd started just on the precipice between middle school and high school, now they were most of them wives, mothers, with careers. And they continued to do the thing that they'd started way back when, one summer day at the Babineaux family party. There was no way those four girls could have ever predicted just how far that little idea would take them, some more than others.

At the start of the summer, they'd gotten together to work out some plan for the band. It was a prime time for them to schedule some shows, maybe appearances in places, and definitely some new recordings. It was not the first summer where they'd had to work it all out ahead of time, no, it was probably more like the third. Two summers ago, it had been very complicated, with Maya's pregnancy, and the Ree Forster tour, of course. And then by the next summer, Marianne was born, and so was Nicky Orlando, just barely, so Riley was still on leave from the band. And then there was Mia Babineaux to think about, too… So, they had considered all their options, and they had done pretty well for themselves. This year, they'd done the same thing, and they would probably have to keep doing it every year from now on, for as long as they kept the band going.

"How long do you think we will keep doing this?" Rosa wondered aloud to her bandmates, that day, as they sat outside the Friar house, watching some of the others grouped up around the grill, the rest either playing with the kids or working to set the table for dinner. They'd all just returned from an afternoon appearance at a local festival and as it was their group dinner day, Maya and Lucas had decided that it would be a barbecue. The day was kind of ideal for it.

"This? The band?" Nadine asked. They were all looking at Rosa as though she'd suggested they call it quits right here and now.

"I just had this image in my head of all of us as little old ladies on a stage, that's all," Rosa immediately explained. She had no desire to stop being in TXNY, not now or anytime soon. The others relaxed now, had a laugh, especially as they all gave something of their impression of what their 'little old lady' selves might say or do. The top prize may have been Riley, who sat in a chair while the rest of them had opted for the ground, as her old self called for 'Nicholas' to come and 'help your mother to the bench, dear, there's a good boy.' Her impression was then halted by the unborn Orlando's movements, which drew both Maya and Nadine's hands to feel for it as they sat on either side of her.

"Still won't tell us, huh?" Nadine asked.

"Two more months," Riley shook her head with a smile.

"Okay, I get not telling all of them…" Maya started, to Rosa and Morgan's protest. "But what about me? I'm me," she gestured to her face as though Riley needed reminding of who her best and oldest friend was.

"I haven't even told my parents, okay?" Riley laughed.

"Hey, I raised you, too," Maya squinted at her.

"Two months," Riley maintained. "You'll be happy either way, so I don't see what the big deal is about me telling you." Maya sat up to reply. "No," Riley pointed at her.

"Fine…" Maya sighed.

"Wonder if I can get it out of Dylan. I bet I could," Morgan told her colleague.

"He won't budge. If there's anyone to question, ask the little guy," Nadine wisely indicated Nicky Orlando, who was chasing a small ball to the best of his fourteen-month-old abilities, which was to say there was a lot of falling and getting back up. Luckily, he had plenty of assistance in the form of Giulia, Mia, and Marianne. Seeing the four of them together was very often as funny as it was sweet.

"Just leave him alone," Riley laughed. Maya and Nadine looked to one another. He knows, he totally knows. "He can't speak yet," Riley reminded them. "Two months."

Off at the grill, it was a pack of turtles along with Chiara, who had prepared a few things, as was her habit at each of these dinners. She never came empty handed, declared herself incapable of this, because that was how her family had always done it, and it was a tradition she would happily see her children carry on. They hardly had to worry about that if Giulia Choi was any indication. The elder of the two children born of the Garcia-Choi and Zvolensky-Mantovani households was less than a month shy of turning three. When they'd all arrived earlier, before heading off to the festival, she had insisted on carrying one of the things her Mamma had brought, because it was 'important.' So, Chiara had put a container in her outstretched arms, and she'd carried it up to their hosts like a pro and been given great thanks.

Not so far off, Lucas could see Sophie keeping a lookout over the walking and running toddlers, even as she kept the youngest of their bunch, her own Connor, perched on one hip. While his big sister was about to turn three, he was about to have his first birthday, which was just another trick of time. Then again, it was easy to miscalculate things, looking at Connor, with how slowly he was progressing. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing, more an unintended expectation created by how fast his sister had advanced. In his own ways, he was still very much a baby, and that was absolutely fine.

There had been some rumblings about when Sophie and Chiara and Asher and Ray would go about starting the process for a third child, though nothing definite as of yet. For now, all they did know was what they had always known, which was that they were all very set on the idea of aiming for four, with every mother/father combination paired to each of the children, so sooner or later it was going to happen. The only thing that really dictated the when was Chiara.

"Daddy! Daaaddy!" the grill activities were interrupted by the approach of one Mia Babineaux. As soon as he heard her voice, Zay turned around and moved to pick her up.

"Easy there, speedy, remember what we said about the oven?" he asked the girl, who immediately gave him a perplexed look before turning her head toward the grill.

"Tha's not oven," she pointed.

"No, well, close enough, so your little hands gotta stay far, far away, okay? And the rest of you, too," Zay explained, before giving his daughter's belly some tickles that made her howl with laughter. She was just a little more than two and a half now, and there was never a day where she didn't bowl her parents over with the person she was turning into, still a small child but far from the baby she'd been when they'd gotten to hold her for the first time the day she was born. "Now, what can I do for you?" At this question, Mia leaned in to whisper at her father's ear. Had the others been standing closer, and had they not been outside, they would probably have had no difficulty to make out what she said, but the message managed to be passed in father-daughter secrecy. "Oh!" Zay gave an – only slightly – exaggerated gasp before slowly nodding. "Yes, yes, that's a great idea. But after dinner, okay?"

The mystery was left to remain as such until after the meal, which was about as chaotic as one might expect with a quintet of children under the age of three. But then after they'd finished eating, Zay had gone to find Maya and pulled her aside. Lucas could see them, even as he was in the process of cleaning Marianne's face and hands. He didn't know what they were up to, but when Zay told her what he wanted to do she had such a look… Oh, he knew that look. It could mean only great if potentially embarrassing things were about to happen.

"Where did they go?" Nadine came to ask him, after they'd been gone for a good ten minutes.

"I don't know, but whatever they're up to, I don't think we'll have to wait much longer," Lucas told her. He'd just spotted them by looking up through the attic window, for a split second before they disappeared again, like they'd come to check what the rest of them were doing before they came down.

They emerged from the house a minute later and Zay was carrying a box, looking particularly proud and possibly like he was putting on an act and casting himself as someone with a valiant task and a very important delivery to make. Then Maya stopped him, and she nodded to the box. His face said 'oh, right,' and he gave it to her before moving to find Mia.

Maya went on to ask that Lucas bring Marianne, Dylan bring Nicky, and Asher bring both Giulia and Connor, while the others gathered around. Once they did, she went and crouched and knelt down before the children and their fathers. She set the box on the grass in front of her and opened it. From inside, she pulled out what was first perceived as a strip of bright purple cloth. But then she held it up properly and they saw two holes, just about the right size and distance from one another to line up with someone's eyes… a small someone like a child. If many of the others standing around didn't get what it was, the four guys standing there with their kids knew exactly what it was.

"For you, Miss Babineaux," Maya grinned as she passed it to Zay. He instructed Mia to stand still while he fastened the mask in place.

Next from the box came an orange mask, which was passed to Dylan. He showed it to Nicky before he put it on him, but then he'd already seen Mia and he was eager to have his own, so he let his father do it at once. After this, a pair of red masks were passed to Asher, and Sophie came up to help him, one for Giulia, and one for Connor. Last of all came one blue mask, and this one passed to Lucas with just the look he'd seen on her earlier. He laughed and went about putting the thing on Marianne's face.

And just like that, the merry little band were turtles, just like their fathers once upon a time. Oh, they were still much too young to know about all of it, but for now the one thing that mattered was that they had these masks, and they would have so much fun for the rest of the evening, until bedtime beckoned.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners