March 17th 2022

Chapter 76
Our Bonds With Life

Maya didn't know he had arrived until he quite literally appeared out of nowhere. There she was, in the school gym, working to hang up the banner for the art auction all by herself, so focused on lining up the left end correctly (because how could she not?), when suddenly the right end was lifting off from where it had been unfurled to the ground. She looked to the right and there was Lucas, holding the right end and pulling it higher. He found her looking and smiled.

"If you wanted to make some smooth, Huckleberry comment here, I'd say it was called for," she tried not to laugh.

"I'll wait until you're not on a ladder," Lucas told her.

"That would be reasonable," she nodded. The left end was put in place just as she wanted it and she climbed back down before carrying her ladder to the other side. Presently, with his arms stretched out, standing up on his toes, he nearly had the banner at the right height already. "I really want to complain," she started, after pointing this out, "But then I get distracted by the whole image, so… I'll allow it," she told him. She took hold of the right side's fastenings and he let go, getting back down on his feet and tugging his shirt back in place after it had gone riding up in the effort.

"Whatever I can do to help," he grinned, and she turned her head to look at him.

"Ah, there it is…" she hummed, then, realizing, "Where's Marianne? You picked her up, didn't you?"

"We ran into Miranda in the hall, she asked her if she wanted to go to the theater room…" Lucas explained with a nod, and Maya laughed. Yeah, that made sense.

When the banner was properly installed – which involved her telling him to back up and tell her if it was straight – he held out his hand to help her down the ladder and she took it without calling him on the reflex. He asked how come she had been trying to do it on her own, and she told him that her intended helper had needed to leave early and, while she did know he was on his way… She'd just wanted to get started, and it really felt like the place to start, so…

"Got it," Lucas nodded. "So, what's next?" he asked, looking around the space which was to be transformed for the next day's auction.

Maya had had plenty of time to figure out exactly how she wanted to get everything set up. It wasn't exactly complicated, but she still wanted it all to be as functional as possible, not tossed together with no thought given whatsoever. They took care of the platform stage first before getting the displays installed. Last of all, they'd have to return to the art room and collect the students' pieces, put them where they belonged along with the information… Today had been the final day for them to work on their pieces, and the next time they would see them would be the following day, during class time or later, at the auction.

As they worked, they talked about their respective days. Neither of them had had a particularly out of the ordinary day, so it could have been a short telling, but they still managed to come up with a few standout moments to tell the other. This wasn't a new concept for them, but it definitely felt as though it had become more important to them once they'd started having kids. They wanted to make sure that their daughters could see the good and memorable even in what could otherwise be considered a monotone day.

Lucas told Maya about how he'd had a good and lengthy chat with a college student up at the archive. The young man was becoming a bit of a regular up at the tables on the second floor, so he'd seen him around enough that the two of them would greet one another in passing. Today though, he'd needed to go up there to seek something in the catalogues, and he'd run into the student. Next thing they knew, they were sitting together, talking about horses, and the ranch… As it turned out, he wasn't even there because he was studying to care for the animals, no. It was simply that horses had been his lifelong passion and, when he'd found out about this place, it had been beyond his wildest expectations. Just listening to him, Lucas could have guessed how much it all meant to him, but he was glad that he got to hear about it. He looked forward to seeing him again.

Meanwhile, Maya had gotten through her day with her mind locked almost exclusively on what they were doing now, the set-up, and the next day's auction. All her groups were finishing up their pieces if they hadn't done it already, and it almost felt like what the senior class would be like right about now, so close to the end of everything, only across the board. Her biggest takeaway was discovering how some of them handled deadlines and stress, which was not always something she got to see, not with how her own class usually went. Sure, they had projects sometimes, but it was never so high stakes. This one, maybe because they'd worked on their pieces for a couple of weeks… or because of this whole idea of who'd pull the most… When she'd finally pointed out to them that they wouldn't actually know what each piece would be sold for, some of the students had looked so disappointed.

"Right, I think we're ready to get everything from my class," Maya breathed when they stepped back and looked at all they'd done.

"I look at this room and I want to buy some art," Lucas gave his assessment, which made her snort.

"Wait until there's actual art to buy," she suggested, and he pointed a finger at her as though to say, 'good point.'

As they went off toward the art room, through the quiet of a high school after the day was over, they started to hear the sound of piano playing. Without needing to wonder too long, they went and followed the sound and were guided toward the theater room, there to find Miranda and Marianne. The teacher was standing by her trusty old piano, leaning against it, and looking on with a smile while the four-year-old girl sat on the bench and played. Maya and Lucas had recognized the tune and the player from a distance; they'd lost count of how many times she'd played it back home.

She was really getting so good at it. They still remembered how excited she'd been, not only when they had brought the instrument into the house, setting it up in the living room, but when big sister Ella had started to teach her. How long had she seen both her mother and her sister play it so wonderfully…? As soon as she was given the chance, she wanted to do it, too. It never ceased to amaze them how devoted she'd be to all the things that intrigued her in the world, the things that made her both so much like her parents and also her own, individual self. Week to week, month to month, she'd continued to learn, and practice, until now she could sit there and do something like that… They couldn't take their eyes off her, never even got to think about trying to record it before it was over. She finished her well-practiced tune and they clapped for her, revealing themselves. Marianne spotted her mother and immediately bolted over to her, so Maya scooped her up.

"Hey there," she beamed and kissed her cheek. "That was so good!" she told her daughter. What a big girl you are…

They made quick work of finishing up the installation in the gym. Miranda joined them as they ferried the art pieces over. Marianne assisted by carrying the stack of information cards. As she'd tail them along, she'd take one card and hand it over to be posted where it belonged. The more of the pieces went up, they had to resist laughing as they noticed the way the child grew respectfully quiet, as though she saw all of it and suddenly assumed she was in a museum. She knew how you were supposed to behave in one of those… Once they were out of the gym and headed for the parking lot, now she didn't miss a chance to tell them about the ones she'd seen that were her favorites. Maya and Lucas would keep this in mind for the next day. Of course, they would be there, and they would be bidding. The real challenge would be for Maya not to want to buy everyone's work.

When they arrived back home, they found Eliza and Emma had been taking great care of their nieces, as they always did. They'd all had their dinner by now, whether at home for the Hart-Lanes and the triplets or at Nando's diner for 'the great decorators.' Now Lucas, Maya, and Marianne returned to find the aunts playing with the trio of nine-month-olds up in the nursery. They had started off with the intent of getting them through bath time before their sister and brother-in-law came home, but then they'd gotten distracted by the girls doing 'cute baby stuff,' so here they were.

"Hi!" Marianne wasted no time in approaching her little sisters, kneeling on the ground to get at their eye level as they were presently lying around on the floor, propped up on their arms with their feet either sweeping along the floor or hanging about in the air. "Hi, babies!" Marianne spoke again, and now they were definitely aware of her, and happy to see her.

In no time, Kacey was pushing herself up on her hands and, somewhere between activating her knees and just dragging herself with her arms, she started an eager trek toward her older sister. Marianne was so excited to see her do it that she clapped her hands together encouragingly while the others looked on, feeling on the inside what she was displaying on the outside but otherwise speechless and smiling.

Even as the firstborn of the triplets was crossing that short but significant distance, her twin saw this and almost immediately went about doing the same, until it could have been a race between them. Oh, they'd made it, both of them! They couldn't have asked for anything better! Marianne embraced her sisters in turn, even as Lucas carefully went around them and approached Lucy. She was clearly not there yet, but the way she was looking around, becoming as aware of the situation as she could, she seemed to understand that something was happening that she wasn't a part of, and it was upsetting her. She never got to the point of crying though, not once her father had her in his arms. She was looking at him, and he was smiling at her, and she knew that everything was fine, so she smiled, too.

"You take your time, bun-bun," he told her before kissing her cheek. They kept telling her that, whether or not she understood them or what they were referring to. "You know, I started late, too," he 'confessed.' She stared at him… and blew raspberries at him. Lucas laughed and brought her to sit back on the floor with her sisters, mother, and aunts. "Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. No big deal."

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners