February 3rd 2022

Chapter 34
Our Call to Imagine

To this day, Lucas would occasionally (playfully) get to tease her when he'd find that some scrap of paper or an envelope that had come in the mail had been covered with some small doodle, or a bit of a melody, lyrics scribbled down, scratched over, and adjusted… He would call them artist crumbs, and she left them everywhere, almost without realizing it. Sometimes, it just couldn't be helped, could it? Inspiration struck in the strangest of times and places.

When she flipped over the envelope to open it, she came upon a small illustration across almost half of the surface and she had to smile, but then… Oh, what if she hadn't meant to send this and she was looking for it now? Just to be on the safe side, she'd carefully fold and insert it within her own response's envelope. For now, she made sure not to rip into the drawing when she slit open the side.

Dear Mrs. Friar,
I heard from my sister today, and she told me that you'd had your babies a couple days ago. Congratulations! She said they were all girls and that they were doing okay, and you as well. I was really glad to hear it, and I hope that by the time you get to read this you have all made it out of the hospital. I'm sure my dad will have told you at some point about how Stevie and I were both born at home, and how it was what our mom had wanted. He always says that he was so on board about the whole water birth thing, but I remember Mom telling me he was just a nervous wreck both times, even after they'd had me, and I was fine. They would joke about him being a man of science and her being anything but, and how it was really why they fit so perfectly together. Do you have those moments sometimes, too, stories that come back to you about your father? When I think of those stories with my mother, it makes me happy for a bit, because it feels like she's here again, with me, but then I have to make myself remember that she's gone, and then the happy bubble just… deflates. It doesn't just pop and disappear, it kind of lingers.

I've been thinking about Mom a lot lately. The premiere is coming up, and Dad is just all over the place excited, almost more than Stevie, and she's in the show. I just keep thinking about how she would be feeling right now, thinking about her daughter being on television. She could definitely have kept Dad from spiraling out of control. Stevie already called me the other day and begged me to talk him out of going around the school this fall with the shirt they gave him with the poster on it. I don't know if I'll get him not to do that. He'll probably go and tell his classes to watch it, too. I'm not saying they shouldn't, but you know how high school is. Any chance you can talk to him? Teacher to teacher, parent to parent, something?

Take care,
Daphne Brett

Maya barely managed to keep herself from laughing too hard, picturing her colleague in a pride spiral. Oh, now she felt even worse for not having gotten to this letter until now. She was much too late to talk anyone out of anything. The show was airing, it was still doing amazingly well… And since she wasn't at the school, she had no idea what Stephen Brett had or had not done to possibly embarrass his younger daughter. She'd seen them all at the premiere party, no one had said a word of anything, but then when it came down to it, both Daphne and Stevie would just know. Their father loved them, and any resulting embarrassment came from that place of love, so they could forgive it.

Dear Daphne,
Please find included here your letter's envelope. Seeing as you didn't mention it in your letter, I couldn't imagine it was meant for me, and possibly you've been looking for this since August, so here you are. I'm sorry it took so long to respond, but I'm sure you'll understand why I was so occupied all this time. Everyone is doing very well out here, growing day by day. Stevie or your father will have sent you pictures. My mother's brought your sister out to the house some days and she loves to be around the girls. They both say it helps them to bond, to better portray their on-screen relationship as mother and daughter. I told them if they kept this up, I'd just adopt Stevie like one more sister, and she seemed to be very into that, so if you want in on this, too, just say the word…

What I'm finding out today, as I'm going through these letters that have been waiting all this time is that I really need to make sure not to fall behind like that again. How did it work out with your father in the end? As far as I've seen and heard, Stevie has not melted into a puddle of embarrassment, so whatever he did to show his pride for her couldn't have been that bad. In the future, we might need to see about some more immediate contact methods in case of time sensitive emergencies. I still have no idea when exactly I'll be back at school and able to intervene more directly. Part of me really wants to return before the year is out, but the triplets are still so small now that figuring any genuine time frame feels impossible. As difficult as it'll be to leave them behind, I am so looking forward to being back at school with everyone. I still think of the days when you counted among my students, and I won't forget anytime soon.
Mrs. Friar

X

Lucas wasn't sure why this had turned into some sort of covert operation, but Marianne looked so into it that he just went with it. They very quietly went into the house and snuck their way down into the basement before finally reaching the playroom and getting down to work. They had one very important mission to achieve today, and they had everything they would need right here, yes, they did. Just because the plan was being cobbled together even as it was being executed, it didn't make it any less effective.

"Right, let's see what we've got here," Lucas approached the craft corner. Marianne stood at his side when he crouched and knelt down, watching him with a deep, pensive brow, and nodding along as he searched. "We need paper… Green one here, couple white ones, and some glue, and markers, and…"

"The sparkle things," Marianne told him.

"Of course, we need those. And then your scissors here," he dug out the small pair. Even if it should be safe for her, they weren't taking any chances. "Alright, let's take all this to your table."

Again, he was on his knees, next to the low table, and that was just fine. Marianne watched and occasionally assisted as Lucas folded and cut a bit of the white pages, so they could glue one on the inside and one on the outside of the green paper, also folded in half. Just like that, they had the base for their card to the fairies.

"Should we do the inside first or the outside?" he asked. Marianne reached for the markers and held them to him. "Inside?" he asked, and she nodded. "Alright, then you have to tell me what you want it to say, yeah? I can help with that, and then I'll write it for you, and then you can write your name at the bottom." She liked that. She could write 'Annie' like a champ.

Dear Fairies,
My name is Marianne Friar, but sometimes it's Annie. I am four years old. I can't wait until you come. I love the magic and all the decorations when Christmas is coming. I want to tell you that I have baby sisters now. There's Kacey, and Lucy, and Remy. They're triplets, and they live in my old room. Please bring them some magic, too. Also, can you bring magic for my aunts, Eliza, and Emma. They live in the rooms on the second floor.
Merry Christmas!

When Lucas passed her the card, with the letter written in his neat hand, she took a moment to look it over. She couldn't exactly read it yet, but she'd seen others do this before signing their name, so she did it, too. She recognized several of the words, and Lucas heard her say them under her breath as she scanned the text. Finally, she nodded, and she bent over the card to trace her letters. A-N-N-I-E. She followed this up with what was possibly a turtle mixed with a pumpkin drawn next to it.

"Alright, now the rest is up to you," Lucas told her, and she resettled on her chair, ready to do her part. She drew on the lefthand side of the card's inside, and then also on the whole of the outside, where she also added – carefully, and with her father's help – the 'sparkle things.' "You know, I think the fairies will be very happy to get this. They're going to bring so much magic, we won't know what to do with it."

"Yeah, we will," Marianne argued, and he chuckled.

"Yeah, we will."

The card was sealed up inside an envelope, and Lucas marked the front with only 'To the Christmas Fairies.' Marianne gave him a look and reminded him that they needed to put the address, too, so the mailman would know where to take it. She liked the mailman very much, he was always nice, and he'd told her all about how mail worked. You needed an address.

"Well, it's different, because they're magic, see?" Lucas reasoned, and Marianne blinked. Oh, of course, why hadn't she thought of that?

"How do they get the card?" she asked him.

"First, let's clean all this up, and then I'll show you."

The playroom was cleaned up, as agreed, and then they climbed out of the basement and went out of the house together after getting their shoes and coats back on. They walked up to the big tree on the front lawn, where they'd hung a couple of bird houses last spring. On the way out of the basement, they'd taken an old cookie tin, stored there for later use as needed. It was big enough to hold the envelope.

"Right, stick it in here, pumpkin," Lucas opened the box. Marianne looked at him, then the box, then the envelope she had insisted on carrying up. "It'll be alright," Lucas promised.

"Okay," Marianne placed the envelope into the box and Lucas closed it up. "Now what?"

"Just put it down there, against the tree," he pointed. "They'll come and get it soon."

"They're coming?" Marianne gasped

"Yeah, but only if no one sees them, so we have to go, alright?" At once, she took up his hand and pulled for him to follow her back to the house.

"Come on, let's go away!"

Once they were inside, 'hiding' so the fairies could come, Marianne was busy enough pulling the eager dogs away from the door that Lucas was able to pull out his phone and shoot off a quick message.

Lucas: When you and Jenna get here, do me a favor? There's a tin box next to the tree in front of the house with an envelope inside. Can you get the envelope out and put the box back? Bring it to me but don't let Marianne or any of the other kids see you do it. I'll explain later.
Rosa: You got it. Now I really want to know what this is about.
Lucas: Christmas.
Rosa: Dad things, say no more. I've got it covered.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners