March 23rd 2022

Chapter 82
Our Look Back on Campers

The triplets were left to their aunts the following morning. Lucas, Maya, and Marianne were to escort Ella and Tori to the airport, where they would meet up with Taylor and his parents and Lea and her fathers and siblings. There was no time to spare, so everyone was on task. For Ella, it had to be as comforting as it was amusing to see how much her parents fretted over her. From the moment she'd come into their world, she had been in close proximity, but now… Now, she and Tori both would be flying off, bringing so many miles and an actual ocean between them, so how could they not be feeling the press of nerves in them? They both had healthy imaginations, one of them reasonably more so than the other, so to be faced with this scenario… Oh, the things they could think of going wrong…

"You can write or call any time, okay? Day or night, maybe both…" Maya told Ella as her daughter closed her arms around her, cheek pressed to cheek. "Actually, both is good, let's go with both." She could feel Ella's face was lifted in a smile. Maya did not mind being vocal about turning into a concerned mother. Actually, between her grown girl, her preschooler, and three babes growing by the day, what would have been more concerning would have been a lack of concern, no? More and more, her respect for her own mothers, birth, step, and in-law, increased.

"I mean, I'm not going to give you a minute-to-minute breakdown, but I'll keep you up to speed, I promise," Ella told her. What more could she ask for?

So, the quartet boarded the plane, after many more hugs and a healthy number of tears from the gathering still in the airport. With nothing more for them to do, they soon split off and started for home. Sensing maybe some leftover emotions needing support, Lucas and Maya decided that they needed an early lunch at Ma Maggie's. Breakfast had been pretty brief and rushed, hadn't it? Everyone agreed that what they all needed right now were some waffles and pancakes… and potatoes… Couldn't forget the potatoes…

Deciding that this felt like something they should have shared anyway, Lucas suggested that they next head on home, pick up the triplets, and head over to Sullivan Stables. He was already supposed to go there that day, Marianne along with him, but after their 'strange' morning, it felt more appropriate to have the rest of them there, too.

Two things were happening at the ranch that day. The first of those was that they were saying farewell to their XCs, the first pair of exchange campers they had hosted. Aliana and Patrick were headed home, and Rosemary was on her way to Alaska for the summer. It was only right that they should mark the event. The days and weeks had just flown by, but they had also been very fruitful. The two teens had freely expressed how much they had enjoyed being at Sullivan Stables all this time, not to mention their experiences in their new schools, with their host families… They had been the first to go through this program of theirs, and seeing that it had been a genuine success, Juliet and Lucas were already looking to repeat the experience, potentially for a year-long presence in the coming fall.

On top of all that, today would be a sort of graduation/closing day for the after school program. The groups and their respective assigned colors went by age. Four and five-year-olds were green, six and seven were blue, eight and nine were red, and their oldest, the ten to twelve, were yellow. There'd been plenty of talk about how these groups might grow and change as the kids aged, and the rules were allowed to remain in limbo so long as they were still within that same school year. Lucas couldn't help but want to stay with Marianne, and to allow her to hold on to her favorite color, but how would that make sense? Some of the green group had or would turn six, over the summer or somewhere between September and December, so they had to move on to the next group, but then what about the colors? No, they'd just have to keep the colors where they were. It would make sense. Anyway, as much as Marianne loved the color green – and she did… so very much – she was a great reflection of her mother in that she loved the others, too. She would just as proudly display the blue bandana when she graduated up to the six and sevens. That wouldn't happen until the year after next. And when that happened, there was benefit in shuffling their monitors along, wasn't there?

Today, after their farewell to the XCs, Sullivan Stables would say farewell to those who aged out of yellow group, and they would mark the passing of remaining campers from green to blue, or blue to red, or red to yellow, before saying goodbye until they resumed the program at the start of the new school year. They wanted to make it all feel fun and exciting for them to advance, and it really felt as though they did. They had games to play, like a non-spooky version of Halloween at the Friar house, and prizes to hand out by raffles, awards, or in exchange for tickets received at the games. And they had food, today provided by Nando's diner. The man was entertaining behind his counter, but by comparison to how he was there that day, it would seem as though his talents were being wasted back at the diner. The kids who were regulars in any way out there already knew him and loved him, and those who didn't know him yet wanted to know him some more.

"Daddy, look what I got!" Marianne appeared, brandishing a trio of stuffed toys, specifically a bear, a cat, and a rabbit.

"Wow!" Lucas laughed. "You won all of those?" She nodded and recounted her determined tossing of the little ball she'd had to toss, again and again, enough to be able to pick out all three of the toys. When she'd seen them, sitting next to each other, she'd thought of her sisters, and she had to win them. Lucas bit back his laugh, recalling how he had been the one to set up that stall and its prizes. He'd been the one to put them side by side, because they'd reminded him of his little daughters.

"Uncle Zay said I have your arm?" Marianne stated, slightly confused, because there was her father and he had both of his arms… also did arms come off? She chased that thought away and looked down to the stuffed toys. She couldn't wait to give them to her sisters.

By the next day, the nursery would be home to the cuddly trio and already loved by their respective owners. The big question would be whether they should give them names or wait and see if Kacey, Lucy, or Remy would come up with names of their own in time…

Actually, the bigger question would have more to do with Ella and Tori and the others. They were still waiting on a call of some kind, letting them know how they were doing. They knew that they had landed safely, and everything was going well with the hotel. It might have been one thing for them to work things out more along the lines of what Lucas and Maya and their friends had done on their Europe trip if it wasn't for Tori's presence. For that, the Friars had insisted on giving them an upgrade as to their accommodations along the way. This was eventually matched by the other two families, who frankly considered this some personal reassurance, even if it would only be one part of the equation. The graduates were still paying much of their own way, but they would also have better rooms to turn to at the end of their days abroad.

With the concert on their first night out there, they all expected the delay in communications and tried not to think too much of it, but that didn't stop Maya or Lucas from feeling a flood of relief when Ella finally called, and they heard her voice. All was well.

"It was amazing! I've never seen anything like it!" she excitedly told her parents before giving them more of the story.

There had been some concern about what they would do with Tori on that night. It would have been way too loud to bring her, but they really wanted to go, and as much as Ella shouldn't be deprived of the experience, she also couldn't just leave her in her room. Luckily, with a bit more parental pull, Maya had been able to provide her with a very trusted 'babysitter,' in the form of one of Ree Forster's musicians. The guitarist and her family had been on the For Starters tour, and she and Maya were still in touch, so she was more than happy to look after Tori for that one night. It would be the only of these events the others would attend on their trip, so after that there would be no need to leave Tori behind. And from what Ella told her parents now, she'd had a blast with her own evening. The plan had been made weeks ago and, knowing her tendencies, they had made it so that Tori and her sitters got to know each other on video calls. Once they met, they weren't strangers.

With that call received and nerves soothed, they were able to move forward and start looking toward the days and weeks to follow. Now that the trip had started, every day that went by would bring them closer to the travelers' return. It wasn't as though they were just counting down the days, obviously, they wanted everyone to have a great time. The next time Ella called home, she mentioned something that made her father smile, specifically that Tori had insisted that they all get funny shirts. They soon had pictures of the quartet posing in their selections, once with normal faces, once with comically twisted faces.

As the photos started rolling in – in a highly appreciated and constant stream – Maya had a thought that was quickly implemented. It required a trip to the paper store, for which Marianne was very giddy, that resulted in her buying a brand new sketchbook. She started to fill the pages with what looked like a collage of those pictures, as reproduced by her hand. When the trip would be over, she would be able to offer it to Ella as a memento. It might also have been that making this travel diary helped her stop from going to That Mom Place in her head too much.

"I like that one," Marianne commented, and Maya nearly let her pencil slide in surprise as she looked down and spotted her standing next to her, hands clamped on the edge of the desk.

"Yeah?" Maya asked as she lifted her to sit on her knees so she could see better.

"It's like your one," Marianne remarked.

"It is, yeah," Maya agreed. "Which goes to show, you can't mess with a classic," she smirked, hugging the four-year-old close, which made her laugh.

"Can I do one?"

"A drawing?" Maya asked, and she nodded. "Of course, you can. Ella will love that, she's a big fan of your work, as I am. Can I finish this one first?" She could. "You want to stay here?" She did. "Alright, just don't move around too much, yeah?"

"Okay," Marianne promised, and she stayed where she sat, watching quietly as her mother finished an image of Taylor, with Tori on his shoulders, and Ella and Lea on either side of him, the latter holding out her phone to capture the image, smiling faces underneath a monument towering behind them.

TO BE CONTINUED


See you tomorrow! - mooners