March 10th 2022
Chapter 69
Our Memories of Family
The moment she'd been permitted to go – as they were pretty sure that everyone upstairs was now awake – Marianne had gone off climbing the stairs to the second floor to find her grandparents, aunts, and uncles. By the look of some of those who began making their way down in the next few minutes, they may have been awake physically, but they were really not there yet mentally, whether the girl realized it or not. The most hilarious of these, as far as Maya was concerned, were Nellie and Gracie, specifically the former, who had come all the way down the stairs with her eyes opened little more than a sliver and a firm hold on her twin's arm. How she didn't stub a toe or trip or bump into anything was a wonder.
When she reappeared, Marianne was being carried down by her Grandpa Shawn, perched against his side, arms around his neck, and telling him about what her parents knew would be the latest installment in her dream saga. Ever since she'd started preschool and discovered her 'fort,' the one defended by Winnie and her, she'd started to have dreams of some of these quests. And because her imagination had been copiously fed since she was a baby, here it was given full rein to invent a world spilling with wonder. Maya had been sketching some of those stories for her ever since she'd first asked her to do it.
Now, there was a sketchbook on a shelf in Marianne's room, containing all of those images. On each page, Maya had also taken time to write in the prompt as it had been received and illustrated. To Marianne, they were an ideal means of recalling her past dreams and so, in turn, when she would go and tell her little sisters a bedtime story, she had started bringing her dream book. She would select one image, and she'd show it to them, and then she would recount the story that went with it. By now, the triplets would sit and lie there in their cribs, and they would have this look of curiosity and fascination in their eyes… Maya and Lucas hoped she went on coming up with these new tales and continued to share them as she and her sisters would grow.
It was some time before they got everyone into the kitchen, but already by then several of them were in the process of attending to breakfast. Coffee was being made, water heated for tea, juice poured here, milk there, while the counter was taken over with the preparation of various food items. Mugs, plastic cups, bottles, all were handed out as needed once the people made their way into the crowded and noisy kitchen.
"You know, it's strangely reassuring to see that you're still a zombie in the morning," Maya smirked as she passed a coffee mug to her younger sister. Cara groaned and then hummed as she breathed in the offering. She went and took up a chair at Mateo's side, looking as though she would just climb on to the seat with her legs pulled in, like a creature of the wild. Her fiancé looked at once very familiar with this display and eternally enamored by it.
"We had a dog just like him, years ago," Charles declared. He'd been approached by Artie as soon as he'd gone and taken a seat at the table. The dog had always favored him the most out of the household's pets, and from the moment he had arrived the day before, he'd followed him around with the joy of one reunited with an old friend. Charles reciprocated the affection, giving the three-legged dog some good scratches as he sat there with his head at the old man's knee. Luna looked down at him, hardly a stranger to the pup and yet she suddenly gasped, as though hit by a long-forgotten memory.
"Chester…" she spoke the name, and her father nodded.
"Some neighbors were moving, couldn't bring the dog with them. They had a son, he and Kermit were friends, and they were already upset at the idea of being separated. Well, Lizzie had the idea that we should take the dog and keep him, so the boys would have that at least to comfort them. I wasn't so sure at first, but finally I agreed. It would be good to teach Kermit responsibility."
"When was this?" Abigail asked, listening to the story just as everyone else did.
"Kermit was six, Luna was on her way," Charles replied, turning a small smile to his daughter, who smiled back with a nod. The pet had been in her life since before she could remember. "We had him for five years, until he was run…" he stopped himself mid-sentence, eyes showing an awareness of the little children. The rest of his audience understood the sad demise of Chester the dog without his finishing the sentence. "Never had the heart to get another one to replace him after that. Now I can't help but think we might have benefited from that kind of presence," he went on instead, continuing to give Artie all the attention he demanded and deserved.
"I think Dad told us about him once," Sam turned to Cara and Eliza especially, sparing a look to Wyatt as he would have been too young to remember. That was an unfortunate but inevitably foregone conclusion most of the time. Wyatt never looked especially upset by this. If anything, he yearned for those stories as they filled in some of those blanks for him.
"Yeah, the first time we made the whole puppy pitch to him," Cara laughed along with her little sister. "We went all out. There were posters and everything. We cleaned our rooms so much."
"We made a song," Eliza recalled, and laughter erupted around the room.
"Why wasn't this in any of the videos last night?" Maya asked, sounding as though she'd been robbed of such glorious hilarity.
"Oh, we never got the chance," Abigail told her with a chuckle. "It was winter, there was a very bad storm, we lost power for three days. The entire puppy campaign happened over those days, the song and all. I don't remember the words, but I do remember it was catchy… and effective. Kermit was humming it for days after, he tried to get them to do it again so he could record it, but I guess they'd gotten it out of their system by then because it never happened."
"No, but it survived… sort of," Sam told his mother. When it looked like she didn't understand what he was getting at, he nodded over to his daughter. Little Francesca was sitting in Dora's lap at the moment, just like the other small children were seated with a parent or relative, to compensate for their numbers and the available room around the table. It took a moment, but then both Abigail and Cara had their own look of surprised recognition.
"Wait, her lullaby?" Eliza pointed to her niece. "That's where the air came from? I knew it sounded familiar, I just figured you modeled it on some other song you knew."
Abigail may have forgotten the lyrics, but Sam had not. To prove it, he crouched in his seat to be closer to his daughter's line of sight, next to him, and started to sing. The melody was the same as the lullaby, and Francesca smiled when she recognized it, but then the words were different, which confused her at first. But the other words were kind of funny, so they made her laugh. The first few lines were enough to help Cara remember and chime in along with him. Eliza sort of remembered but not enough to join in, while Abigail could only watch her son and daughter with the amusement of a mother pulled back to days past, when her children were… children. When they were done, the response was a mix of applause and laughter and – from Francesca May Calahart – a big hug to the songwriter.
"This is the best thing…" Maya told her siblings and fellow musical creators, even as she tried to pull her laughter under control. She had Kacey in her arms, and the poor thing was looking up at her like she had no idea what was going on with her mother.
"Puppy?" Francesca asked her parents excitedly. It was really the only conclusion they could have expected her to reach after that number, and now Sam and Dora had to look to one another and decide. It hadn't been the plan, and Sam had sort of walked them into the situation without realizing, but regardless of how it had started, they had to tell her something. Over her head and out of sight, Dora signed to her husband. It is allowed, she pointed out to him, which those of them who could sign interpreted as there being nothing in their lease to forbid it. The statement also provided her stance: she was up for it if he was.
"Yeah… I think so," Sam told the girl perched in his lap, and her excitement was as sweet as one would expect. "Not today though," Sam specified before she could get too excited. But his mother cut in.
"Why not today?" Abigail asked. "I mean, we're all here," she pointed out, indicating herself and the other visitors from Tucson.
"Yeah, I want to meet this pup," James nodded along with his wife. Sat on his lap though she was the eldest of the kids to do so, Maisie seemed equally enthusiastic at the idea.
"But… Dad's day…" Sam reminded them.
"This whole idea only came around out of stories about him," Luna told her nephew with a smile. "If you ask me… There would be no better way to honor him today."
That settled it. Between having both Lucas and Mateo involved, they could look forward to a trip to the shelter that very afternoon. Mateo happened to have a few candidates in mind already, though he would keep those for when they actually went, and only in the event that they didn't find one on their own. They weren't about to send the entire group descending on the shelter, but while they went out there, the others would either go and seek out the supplies they would need or stay at the Friar house to get started on the evening's meal.
Just like that, they had a good part of their day figured out. They'd wanted it to be this way, not overly planned ahead, more spontaneous, conjured up by the gathered family. Now, as they continued on with breakfast, they considered what they would make of their evening. The previous one had been dedicated to the many home videos they had at their disposal, and it had been a very important time for all of them, but it had also been heavy on their emotions. They wanted this second evening, the last one before the visitors returned to Arizona or to their respective homes here in Austin, to be something more upbeat, not necessarily a party, but a thing that would celebrate Kermit's life without reminding them so much of the fact that he'd been dead these past ten years.
"Mommy, I know! I know!" Marianne turned to Maya, tapping her arm.
"Yeah? What is it?" Maya asked with an intrigued smile. Marianne moved off from where she sat in her Aunt Luna's lap and went to stand under the box on the wall where they kept the keys. It took a moment, but Maya got what she was suggesting, and her smile grew. "Pumpkin, I like the way you think," Maya told her daughter.
After passing Kacey over to Eliza, Maya grabbed the keys and led Marianne out the back door. They walked along the path to the Hex and disappeared into the studio. A minute later they returned, Marianne skipping along ahead of her mother but all the while looking back toward her, like she would have wanted to be the one to carry the instrument but had been convinced that it would be safer if her mother brought it. They walked back into the kitchen to present the gathered group with the guitar, the former possession of Kermit Hart. That evening, the Friar house would have music.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
