July 26th 2021
Chapter 207
Our Party For Kids
Marianne did not need to work very hard at all to end up sleeping between her mother and father on the night before her second birthday. She'd been up there, sitting in her mother's lap, resting against her while her father read her a bedtime story. When he'd be done, she would know that it would be time for her to go off to her little canopied bed. So, instead, as soon as Lucas read 'the end,' she bolted from Maya's arms and went diving under the blankets until her mother and father could see nothing but a round, shifting sort of bump. She could easily have been put in her own bed anyway, as in the time it took before Maya and Lucas ceased humoring her and wondering where she'd gotten off to, Marianne had fallen asleep. But it was the night of October 30th, so Maya pulled her from within the blankets – pointing out how the whole thing almost felt like a flashback to the night when she was born – and brought her close. And that was how they spent the night, the three of them together.
Maya woke first, but Lucas wasn't far behind, and they were both ahead of the alarm clock. All the better. Marianne went on sleeping, sprawled between her parents with her little hands almost reaching to each one like her subconscious had been well aware that they were right with her, keeping her safe.
"If I squeeze my eyes just right, she almost looks like a baby again…" Lucas whispered, looking upon their daughter with the same love Maya did, with the awe of recognition over the fact that their baby girl was two whole years old.
"And when you unscrew them?" Maya wondered.
"With a sleep posture like that, spitting image of her mother," Lucas teased.
"Hey!" she 'protested' very quietly.
"Not recently, of course. But I haven't forgotten those movie nights when you'd fall asleep at my house back in high school."
"I didn't see you complain, Pillow," Maya countered.
"You're lucky she's right here," Lucas chuckled, looking down at a very opportune time and discovering the birthday girl was now awake. "Morning, little pumpkin," he grinned and leaned forward to press some good kisses to her cheeks. Marianne responded by reaching up her hands and holding his face. She didn't exactly poke at him the way she did when she was a baby anymore, but this was a welcome replacement to the old gesture.
"Happy birthday, Annie girl," Maya scooted down in the bed, and a moment later Marianne rolled to face her and went grasping to be pulled into her mother's arms. She was more than happily obliged. Two years… Two whole years since Nadine had pulled that baby girl from her and put her in her arms… Even now, there would just be something special about her being up here on this bed with her daughter, in the place where they had 'met.' On this day, it was felt even deeper.
Oh, she would have loved nothing more than to stay in that bed with her all day long, holding her that way, but she couldn't, could she? It was Friday, she had to get to school. That was alright though. Halloween at school was always a highlight of her teaching years, and at the end of the day, she'd be right back here with her pumpkin for some more Hallowannie good times. Next year… Next year, her third birthday would be on a Saturday, or… No, a Sunday, leap year… They might not get to stay there all day, but they would have a bit more time to themselves, wouldn't they?
For this year, after breakfast and getting ready, Maya kissed the two-year-old goodbye until after school and took off with haste. She needed to finish getting her class ready, and she needed to achieve her transformation into the Sun 2.0.
She was just returning to her class after completing her transformation when Khalil came jogging down the hall toward her, dressed as some character from a video game if she wasn't mistaken. She was about to ask him about it when he reached her, and she noticed his look, bordering on urgency.
"I need your help."
"What's the matter? Are you…" she started to ask, but he shook his head.
"It's not for me," he explained. "Overheard some of the guys in my year talking about pulling a prank on that freshman kid, Foster? I tried to talk them out of it, but they played like they didn't know what I was talking about. They haven't gotten over Garrett's folks transferring him to that private school, I guess…"
Maya immediately felt sick at the thought. What were they planning to do? Whatever it was, it would only make things worse for Cade, and he didn't deserve that.
"Who were they?" she asked Khalil. When he told her, she asked him to stay in the class and wait in case she didn't make it back by the time the bell rang. Soon, the Sun was stalking down the hallways.
It wasn't as though the freshman boy had undergone a total transformation in the near two months since the school year had started, but compared to day one, where she'd barely been able to get his name and age out of him, it might as well have been a whole other person. He was still a boy of few words, but he did speak up, just enough, or at least he did so in her class. Outside of art, in his other classes, getting him to participate remained very difficult, as his teachers would attest. For that, he continued to be a regular in detention. His week's suspension had brought him back among them bearing some marks from the fight, still, though much less than what it had been back in the infirmary. Of course, people were very aware of what had happened with him and the senior boy, and while he would have been satisfied to disappear into the scenery, suddenly he might as well have been walking around with a spotlight following him wherever he went.
The most he spoke – without words – was in his diary. Maya had hoped to make him understand that he could communicate with her, that she would listen to him, not just hear his words but listen to them. He'd done so, but in those pages. There, little by little, she could see some of those walls falling away and the boy on the inside emerged. He wasn't giving her total access, but it was a start. What she'd found so far, for one thing, was that he had definitely not taken art looking for an easy pass. He could actually draw, and he enjoyed it. Now that he was actually letting himself open up some, she could see in his work how this had gone and lit a small spark of joy in him, one he continued to feed every week, with every page. The image it gave his teacher was that of a boy with a lot of pain and conflict in his head, though as of yet she couldn't say what that was all about. Even when she'd met with his father, at parent teacher night, she hadn't gotten anything to fill in the picture.
It didn't surprise her to find that Cade came without a costume today. Maya approached and spotted him turning the combination on his locker. She barely had time to spot a small pack of older boys moving away with their phones in their hands, like they'd been about to record something until they'd seen her coming. In the next moment, Cade opened the door, and he almost jumped back from surprise at the things that came spilling out. He hadn't brought a costume, but apparently the seniors had 'generously' provided him one. They'd managed to get inside his locker and inserted the components of a very stereotypical 'prisoner' outfit, with the black and white striped clothes and a ball and chain and handcuffs to top it off.
She doubted that he'd even realized she was there to see any of it. After he recovered from the shock, he looked down the hall and dropped his school bag like he was about to run after whoever had done this. Maya stepped in at once.
"Hey, hey, stop, breathe," she caught his arm. He tried to pull away.
"Let me go, I have to…" his voice sounded so young, so hurt, and his face looked at once pale and flushed.
"Cade. Cade. They're not going to get away with it, do you hear me? I saw them, I'm going to talk to the principal as soon as possible, let's just pick all this up before people start coming, okay? Come on," she guided him back. He didn't resist anymore. He stood by while she crouched and picked up his 'gifts.' "I'll make them disappear, alright?"
"It won't matter. They're never going to leave me alone… They won't be happy until everyone knows, and then I…" he shook his head. She'd never seen him so openly afraid like this.
Maya finished gathering the costume, which she could thankfully stuff in her own change bag, and she asked him to follow her. She closed his locker, took up his backpack, and led him off into the teachers' lounge. By this time, it was empty. She got him to sit and went to grab a couple small chocolates from the candy bowl. She absolutely believed in the comfort it could provide. She held them out to him, and, after a moment, he took them, stared at them.
"Cade, what happened back there…" Maya started slow. "Can you tell me what that was about?" He looked up at her, and it was the first time she could really look into those chocolate eyes of his and see how much he'd come to trust her and rely on her. Right now, he looked like he didn't want to answer her question, didn't want it to end up affecting, changing, anything about that. "It's between you and me, okay?" she held his gaze, mustering every bit of Shawn Hunter she'd picked up over the years so he would know: when she made a promise, she kept it.
"I… My m… My mom's in jail, and they found out. I-I don't know how…" Cade shook his head. What startled surprise she might have felt, Maya kept it veiled, not one bit of it visible on her face.
"How long's it been?" she asked.
"Since I was four," Cade revealed, playing at the wrapper on one of the chocolates. Behind the veil, Maya felt her heart going out to him. Twelve years… most of his life. "She almost got out a couple of times, but then things happened that… I don't know. My dad doesn't really tell me anything. I get to visit once every other week and that's it. But I write to her, and she writes back, I… Sometimes, I send her some of my drawings."
Maya started to understand a few things better now. The incident, the fight. Cade hadn't been worried about his father showing up because of any trouble with him, not exactly. But he'd been afraid of how he might perceive his actions, when his father had wanted nothing but to protect him from the family's situation. Even at parent night, Mr. Foster had been the picture of the involved and caring father, and she could guess at how Cade's behavioral issues had to be weighing on him.
When the bell rang, Maya asked if he was ready to go to class. She would walk him there, so he wouldn't get penalized for being late. He was ready, as ready as he would be.
"I like your costume," he spoke quietly as they left the teachers' lounge.
"Thanks," Maya gave him a smile. "Next year, you might put one on, too. Let them see who you are, not who they think you are."
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
