January 13th 2022
Chapter 13
Our Leap Into Sweetness
When he was little, his mother would pick him up from school at the end of the day. Every once in a while, if she couldn't do it, one of his grandparents would do it, more often than not his grandmother Susannah. But it would be his mother most of all and, oh… Melinda Friar loved coming to collect him. Even back then, he could tell, just by looking at her, seeing how happy she'd be. Sooner or later, he'd had no other choice but to deduce that there was no other reason why she always looked so happy to be waiting for him. She just enjoyed those brief instances… coming to get him, hearing from him the tale of his latest day in the world of learning, fresh out on the other side, headed back home.
Now that Marianne had been in preschool for a week or so, he was starting to get just how much it had meant to his mother. He'd been there, every single day since the first, greeting his pumpkin as she came hurtling toward him with brand new stories and the occasional new offering of a work of toddler art for him and Maya and the refrigerator door. Lucas had no doubt that Maya felt as he did in allowing the door to fill up: there could never be too many.
Each day, Lucas collected his daughter, walked hand in hand with her back to the car – or in his arms, if she was feeling particularly cuddly – and they would drive home, all the while with Marianne telling him what she'd done that day, what she'd had to eat, who she'd played with… Lucas would give all due responses, sounding impressed when he should, disappointed, or curious…
As of yet, there was no indication of any particular friends being made, connections solidified. From what Lucas had been hearing and sharing with Maya later on, from Marianne herself and from the people at the preschool, she was about the friendliest little thing in their midst. In her still brief tenure out there, Marianne had, at one time or another, played with every single one of her classmates at some activity or another, two by two, three by three, four… She'd displayed great generosity with herself, with her toys, and her snacks. Whether this would continue to be the norm, or she'd eventually settle into a more structured routine, they would have to wait and see, but for the time being… It was easily one of those memories they'd store away, with many more already collected, memories of being very proud parents together.
Today was the first day where Lucas showed up to find a less than bouncy Marianne waiting for him. Instead, he came upon a much more anxious looking little girl, being held by one of the teachers and scanning her surroundings like she was waiting for something, someone. That was when she saw him, and oh how the relief flooded her. She grew agitated, and so she was put back on her feet. As soon as this had been done, she was off at a run toward…
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!"
"Hey…" he shortened the distance between them in a few long strides before picking her up. She clamped on so good, arms around his neck and legs around his sides, that he could have easily let his arms down with no fear of her falling. He didn't let go. The way she was behaving now, he wanted nothing more than to put his arms around her, hold her just as near as she did and let her know that all was well. Just now, it felt like his heart had its own hands, getting in on this. Seeing her distressed this way… "What's the matter? Hey…" he stroked her cheek, waiting for her to pull back, to look at him, talk to him… He looked to the teacher, asked with his eyes.
She'd lost her star. The kids had been taken to the park earlier in the afternoon, and they'd all had a great time, Marianne included, right up until it was time to head back, and she realized that the star had vanished. It had fallen off of her shirt, and she couldn't find it. They'd tried to find it again, looked all around the park, but they'd had no luck, and after that, well… they had to come back. Marianne wanted to stay and find it, but they couldn't, and from there, well, nothing had worked out for her. They tried to suggest making a new one for her, which turned out to be the absolute worst answer. For the first time, she'd felt a dire need to be with her parents or, failing that, a grandparent, an aunt, or an uncle, and there had been none for her to turn to. She had to wait until this moment here when her father would arrive.
"See you tomorrow, okay, Annie?" Miss Alma asked, tipping a kind smile to the small blonde still holding tightly to her father. Marianne turned her head up to him, and Lucas caught a big dose of blue-eyed 'do I have to?' The incident had been enough to knock her love of preschool out of balance, so now it was up to him to make sure she was good to come back in the morning…
He briefly considered taking her back to the park to look for the star, but he could not see how that would help anything. In all likelihood the star was good and gone by now and, if they did happen to find it, he couldn't imagine it would have fared very well, wherever it had landed. Really, it had seemed to both him and Maya that something like this would happen sooner or later, so this right here… this was the world telling them that Sheriff Annie's star was due for an upgrade. It still meant enough to her that they had to make it more durable, not so easy to lose. And because he'd been the one to be on the receiving end of that plea in their daughter's eyes, he saw it as his personal project.
Lucas: Permission to borrow your crafty parent privileges for a bit?
Maya: Naturally. What's the project?
He shared the whole tale with her, typing one-handed as he walked back toward the parking lot with Marianne still clinging to him. Really, he needed suggestions. The 'request' was not just him being cute with her; he needed her to tell him what to do next. He took her rapidity in responding as a mix between her being an excellent teacher and also a mother who'd been considering this very eventuality for a long while. Just like that, they had a mission.
"Hey, pumpkin? Sheriff?" Lucas asked, after slipping his phone back in his pocket and giving Marianne the slightest jostle, hoping she'd look at him. She gave him one of those looks where she consented to turn her eyes to him so long as her head and his shoulder never had to break physical contact for a second. "I wasn't going to suggest it until next month, with your birthday and all, but after today, I think we need to deal with your upgrade right now."
"Up… grade?" Marianne asked, sounding almost like she was hiccupping back tears.
"Oh, yeah. You're going to be four years old," he reminded her. "You're getting to be a big girl, you know?" Oh, she did, of course, she did, and she agreed. "So, you need a big girl star." Alright… she was listening. "Still gotta make it, and I know Mommy made the last one, but I'd like it if you and I got to do this one. What do you think? Should we do that?"
"Yeah," Marianne nodded, loosening her tight grip just a little. Lucas smiled.
"You and me, then," he held his hand between them, and Marianne gripped his with hers. "Big squeeze, big squeeze…" he encouraged, and she squeezed, and she laughed. "Okay, let's go," he pressed a kiss to her cheek before starting back to the car.
It took a bit more coaxing but, by the time they were on the road, Lucas got to hear about Marianne's morning, and lunch time, right up until the trip to the park where the loss had occurred. And then they were pulling up to Dot Cassidy's shop. Lucas' aunt was out that afternoon, but there was someone else just as exciting for Marianne to find when they went inside.
"I have something to show you," Dora signed as she sat crouched before her niece, whispering, and letting all the wonder in her eyes float out toward the nearly-four-year-old.
Clearly, Maya had called ahead, paving the way. To Marianne, it must have looked as though Dora had magical powers if she'd figured out what they were there for without ever being told. But then she'd already believed that for a long time. Plus, they would get to use sign language together. Marianne was as proficient in ASL as she now was in spoken English, and because Dora had been her primary teacher, they would more often than not let their hands do the talking.
Dora presented Marianne with a selection of wooden stars, carved in a variety of sizes, details, textures… Which one would she like? After much consideration and a good, furrowed brow that felt very close to Maya's distinctive raised brow, the little sheriff picked up one star and showed it to her aunt and father. This was the one.
"Now what?" she asked.
"I'm going to make a hole, right here, and when it's all ready, we'll put it on a string," Dora explained.
"Like a necklace!" Marianne understood.
"Exactly," Dora laughed.
The hole was made, under watchful but safely distant eyes, and soon they could move to the next step, which involved paint. They made it a good gold, so it would really sparkle. Dora could have seen to the tracing of details, as both she and her cousin agreed that she'd have a finer hand, but then this was supposed to be Lucas' mission, wasn't it? So, even if it took him much longer than it would have done if she'd done it, Lucas added the details with a fine brush and some black paint, finishing this off with the big Sheriff Annie letters on the front. On the back, thinking better than advertising their number, and with his aunt's unspoken blessing, he added: If found, please return to Cassidy & Co Woodworkers.
With the paint left to dry and sealed away with a protective clear coat, the twine was looped through the hole, secured, and closed off. They might explore different fastenings in the future, but for now Lucas got to put the new star around his daughter's neck, got to see the happiness it brought her… Already, she'd gained a new and better story for the end of this day, with the time she'd spent in the shop with her father and Dora as they waited for various coats to dry. Now, she couldn't wait to show her mother, and her little sisters… She had her big girl star.
"I know you won't want to just leave it at home from now on, but you can always ask to leave it at the preschool when you all go to the park," Lucas suggested to Marianne as they walked out of the shop. It was a good thing he was holding her hand, or she might have wandered off, even walked into a wall, with how she kept looking at the new star, swaying this way and that from where it hung around her neck.
Whatever she would or wouldn't do the next time they had an outing, the actual important part was that the next morning, Marianne Friar was once again eager to go off to preschool, with Miss Alma and everyone else. By the time he'd pick her up that time, she'd have brand new stories to tell her father in her usual animated voice.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
