January 30th 2022
Chapter 30
Our Call to Support
Dear Mrs. Friar,
I've actually been meaning to write to you for a while. I don't really have a specific reason, only that I've been thinking about high school a lot lately, and your class in particular. So, when I heard from Helena and she told me about your babies, I figured that was just the time to finally do it. I'm not sure when you'll get this, so maybe you will all be home by then, but I remember my mother telling me about when I was born premature. She told me about how small I was, and how scared she was for me, that I might not even make it. Every day, she would sit with me, and she would tell me: They don't know how strong you are, so you just show them.
I think she was saying it for the both of us. And now I also think that's why I've been thinking about you and your class. A lot of days out there, it kind of felt like you were saying those words to me, too, in your own way. I really hope you and your family are being strong together. I'd like to hear about them if you're okay with sharing.
Derek Boggs
PS: You know, I think about your class at least once a year, at Halloween. Even just those two years after you took over from Mrs. Yang, they were kind of the best. You made me feel so much more confident about my cosplay. Eric and I have been making more and more of them together, going to conventions and all that. I'm going to include a few pictures.
Maya had seen the pictures inside the envelope when she'd torn it open, though she'd immediately made herself look away, the better to keep them for after she'd read the letter. Derek Boggs… One of her Teacher Day One kids… He'd been a junior, so she had only had him for two years, but that made him no less memorable than the ones she'd had for four, and the same went to those of Milena's class, who'd only been her students for one year, as seniors.
Once she had read the letter, now she pulled out the small stack of printed photos, and they made her smile all over again. Eric Wilshire… She remembered him, too, one of the Think Tank quiz team, their friendly rivals, and Derek's prom date. Having been in contact with Helena, his best friend, a lot more, she had heard indirectly that Derek and Eric had a few false starts, unsure whether they would be better off as friends or boyfriends. To look at their pictures now, modeling their various characters, it was easy to see they had decided they were better being both of those things at once.
Dear Derek,
I was very happy to get your letter. I'm sorry it took so long to reply but, as you can imagine, we have been a bit over our heads the last couple of months. If there is one benefit of this delay, it is that I can give you a much better update about how everything is going here. The girls and I were out of the hospital after two weeks, and all things considered we all fared about as well as one could ask for. By now, everyone is thriving and making our days… and our nights… Entertaining? Busy? There are many other words I could use to describe the nights, but it might be better if I didn't. What really matters is the girls themselves. Thank you for sharing your mother's story and her words.
Now, I can share a little about my girls, as you requested. The first to be born was Kacey, followed by her identical twin Remy, and last but not least, Lucy. She was and continues to be slightly smaller, in both height and weight, than her sisters, though she also continues to win by a mile when it comes to hair. She is quiet, loves being held the most, and so far, she seems to look like me the most. The twins, now, they are growing to look so much like their father. It's funny to consider, and it's still too early to assume that it will all stay this way, but… Our older daughter, Marianne, who just turned four, has always felt to us like a perfect mix of Lucas and I, in looks, in temperament… The triplets though, they seem to be a combination more than a mix. Lucy looks like me but feels like her father, while Kacey and Remy look like their father, but… I have a feeling we'll have to keep our eyes on them if they're going to be anything like how I was as a child. If I'm not mistaken, I've told you guys once how I met my best friend, so you get the idea.
Thank you so much for the pictures. You and Eric are really only getting better with your costumes. Don't hesitate to send me more pictures in the future, and as always, I am very happy to hear about you and how you are doing. If you're ever in the area and available at Halloween, you could drop by class, talk to the students about what you do for your costumes.
Sending big hugs to you and the same to Eric,
Mrs. Friar
X
"Hey, Paul," Lucas laughed. They'd barely made it through the door when they'd been met by Morgan's husband, but that had been long enough for Marianne to spot him and skitter over to him.
"Hey, you," Paul bent forward to hug her when she'd locked her arms around his legs. "Your table is ready," he looked back up to Lucas and the rest of the group. He'd called ahead of their arrival, rather than showing up with their group of eight adults and seven children and ending up waiting for who knew how long before they could be seated. Paul had promised to do his best, and it looked as though they'd been lucky.
"Daddy!" Marianne pulled at his arm as they moved toward the joined up tables. Her voice was quiet with awe.
"Yes, pumpkin?" he asked, trying not to show that he knew what had her this excited.
"The fairies, they were here!" she told him, whispering, a secret between the two of them. Lucas looked around.
It was inevitable, in some businesses, Halloween barely had a chance to pass when the Christmas décor came out in full force, and Ma Maggie's was always, always part of that first wave. Pumpkins, ghosts, and cobwebs one day, Santa, reindeer, and garlands the next. He remembered when there had been something of a transitional phase, but over time it had just sort of dwindled down and finally disappeared altogether. One thing that hadn't disappeared was 'the code.' Right now, a Santa hat got you a free coffee or hot chocolate, antlers got you a free waffle or pancake. In October, Lucas had brought Marianne out here plenty of times, and he'd barely managed to keep from laughing every time their server showed up and placed a pumpkin spice cupcake in front of her without him or her having asked for it. He could have told her that it was because of her headband and its bouncing pumpkins, but what would have been the fun in that? They were going to have to get a hold of some Christmas headwear for her. The longest they could manage for her not to know where all the extra goodies came from…
"Oh, yeah, you know, they're very busy these days. Pretty soon, they'll make it down to our house," Lucas promised.
"Can the fairies, can they…" she started to ask, frowned, paused as she tried to find the right words.
"Can they what?" he asked before lifting her up and setting her down in one of the chairs. As soon as she was down, she climbed on to her knees to turn around and see him.
"They won't forget, right? They have to make magic for Lucy and Kacey and Remy, too. A-and Aunties," she added after a moment. "How are they, how do they know?"
"Ah, I see," Lucas nodded now. "You want to know how to tell them?" he crouched by her chair, coming down to her eye level. She nodded. "Oh, that's easy, you just have to send them a message," he told her, playing it casual but anticipating the intrigue in her eyes.
"How?" she asked. He held a finger to his lips and signed: later. "Okay!"
Lucas got up and moved to sit in the chair next to hers so they could have a look at the new holiday menus. They'd been out since the start of the month, but it was the first time he came here with her, and she got to see it. As he pointed out the new items and told her what they were, he considered her request, her wish. She wanted her new family to be included in the big magic of the house. They would have been, naturally, whether she asked for it or not, but her asking had allowed him to… evolve the narrative, and it made him think about the next few years.
They would preserve her belief in… Santa Claus, the North Pole, the magic, and the fairies as long as they could, but sooner or later she'd end up on their side of things, and he was looking forward to that. He could just imagine her looking forward to that big night, waiting for her little sisters to be asleep before joining him and Maya and whoever else would help them to decorate the house that year. He could see her, in the morning, anxious to see the looks on their faces. Not this year… It can wait.
"So, what's it gonna be?" Lucas asked. Marianne looked at the menu again, and she was stuck. When she couldn't make up her mind, she would sit there, hands close to herself, fingers perched on her chin and drumming. The gesture had been inspired by her great grandfather. Tanner Clutterbucket would just sit there, when they'd go to a restaurant, stroking his beard in deep concentration, and she would watch him. When she'd asked him why he did it, he said that it helped him to make up his mind. So now she had her 'big pensive moment' thing, too. "Don't know?" he asked, and she looked at him, hands still on her chin. "Stuck?" She nodded. "Between what?" he inquired. Her hands left her face now and plopped over one picture and another on the menu. "Huh… Good choices, I was stuck between those, too," he told her. "Tell you what, you take one, I take the other. You can have a bit of mine, and I get to have a bit of yours? Sound good?"
"Yeah! Yeah!" Marianne nodded, beaming that Maya smile.
"Deal," Lucas agreed. She held up her hand to him. Seal the deal. He took her hand back, and they shook on it. "Might be too much of it for the both of us, maybe we need to bring some of this back to your mom…"
"Mommy likes the potatoes," Marianne stated.
"Oh, yeah, she really does," Lucas agreed. "Someone else does, too, I can't think…" he played up the thought until she started to laugh. "Side order to go?" he suggested, and they had another deal, another handshake.
After the work they'd done over at Inga's house, the meal was just what they'd needed, players, and spouses, and kids… A lot of the time, when they'd sit around a table like this, they would end up swapping stories. School days, work cases, basketball… They could go on for hours once they got started, and more often than not it was the fact that they had the kids with them, and they'd start getting bored and restless, that made them stop. When they started to clear out, after the meal, it came down to Lucas, Marianne, Trace and his boys, and the Rawlins brothers, Tuck and Beck. This was not by chance: they had an appointment, a face-off with some turtles…
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
