March 27th 2022
Chapter 86
Our Summer of Campers
The morning after Cara and Mateo's wedding, while the newlyweds were leaving Austin for their honeymoon, there were many other people coming into the city, people and horses, all converging on Sullivan Stables. The third run of their summer camp was finally kicking off and there were sixteen kids and nearly as many horses coming along. With the way the camps, in their many incarnations, had become such an important part of the ranch over the past two years, it never stopped being a thrill when they hit day one of any of their camps, but this one… this one in particular, naturally, as it was the only one to have had a second and now a third run.
Almost immediately, when she'd seen him at the wedding, Juliet had told him that he should take the morning easy, to sleep in and let her handle the arrivals. He'd pointed out that he was supposed to be learning to take over for her, but she'd only volleyed back with her rebuttal: he wasn't the big boss yet, so he might as well enjoy it while he had the freedom.
"And once I don't have it anymore?" he'd asked with a smile. She'd returned that smile. Obviously.
"Delegate."
Maybe she'd just been on to something, but he definitely slept past his alarm the next morning. Lucas suspected that Maya, in a similar spirit, may have turned it off. All he could say for sure was that, when he did wake up, she was no longer in bed next to him, their door was shut, and he ended up finding her in the nursery – that door also closed, like an extra barrier against sound – sitting with a barely awake Lucy in her arms. Their sweet bun-bun was holding on to her mother, little eyes fluttering, like she could conceive of no better place to rest.
"Morning," Lucas signed, the better to maintain the quiet, and Maya responded with a smile and a simple wave of her index finger, the only one she looked able to release from the hold. "How's the morning after going?" he asked, and she squinted at him. "Hangover?" Her expression suggested something somewhere in the middle, so maybe just exhaustion, which he understood very well. "I don't have to go today. I can stay and look after the girls with you."
"No, it's okay, really," Maya spoke very quietly, barely a whisper. "Have a good day at camp," she smirked, and he bit back the urge to laugh. Okay, fine, he would go.
"But I'm taking Marianne with me," he countered, and on that she would have had difficulty arguing. There was no way she was going to miss all those new people coming over and all those horses, too. The night before, when they'd reminded her of how they were all coming today, she'd been so excited, wanted to know how many of them there would be, what they would look like, how old they'd be, their names… and that went for the campers, too.
They were receiving sixteen kids this year, four more than the year before, and four times as many as the year before that, their inaugural year. Once again, they were keeping four rooms, two for the boys and two for the girls, each room with someone in charge. Three of those were those same as last year, part of their original quartet, namely Scout Anderson, Kiana Burley, and Catherine Endecott. Their fourth, Kabir, now nineteen, had aged out, just as this would be the final year for eighteen-year-old Catherine. Heading up the fourth room was returning camper Timothy "TK" Knight, now fifteen. They had seven other returnees spread out through those rooms, along with five first-timers, three boys – seventeen-year-old David, and Kel and Jason, both thirteen – and two girls – fifteen-year-old Veronica, and their youngest ever in the summer camp, Kimiko, who was eleven.
Not at all unexpectedly, Marianne was the most chipper person in the house that morning, so she had no problem going about getting ready all by herself when she was asked to do it. All she needed help with anymore was her hair, and Maya took care of that for her. Taking the morning in stride, Lucas decided to take his daughter to breakfast at Nando's diner before they headed into the ranch. This turned out to be a beneficial coincidence, as they ended up running into one of their new campers.
It was impossible not to wonder if that was what was about to happen when they pulled up to park in front and spotted the very hard to miss trailer and its passenger.
"Horse!" Marianne called out from her seat in the back. "Can we go say hi?"
"Hold on there, Hucklebucket," Lucas chuckled, taking a look at the plates, then peering through the diner windows. The morning rush had dissipated by now, but the diner was never exactly empty, so he couldn't say for sure that they were in there yet, but… No, scratch that. There she is. Sitting right by one of the windows, just where she could keep a line of sight with the horse, her horse, the girl was staring back toward the trailer, making sure that the animal was okay.
Once they went inside, Lucas approached the table and introduced himself. This was indeed their youngest camper, Kimiko, accompanied by her mother and father. Soon, Lucas and Marianne were invited to join them at their table. While Marianne asked Kimiko all about her horse and she gladly answered those questions for her, Lucas chatted with the parents. They were clearly nervous at the idea of sending their daughter away for the summer like this, even if they had done it, knowing it was what she wanted. Lucas was able to reassure them, and now they would be able to head on to the property with a clearer mind, all of them.
After lunch – and a few minutes spent out by the trailer so Marianne could be introduced to Kimiko's horse, Finch – everyone regained their own vehicles and started on their way to the ranch. Lucas gladly drove up ahead of the new camper and her family, the better to show the way. The next couple of minutes were spent with Marianne talking on and on about Finch, and how sweet she'd been, and the spots she had, one of them almost like a heart…
"Mommy!" Marianne blurted out suddenly, and Lucas blinked, looked outside.
"What about her, pumpkin?"
"She was driving that way," Marianne informed him. He tried to look out the window for any sign of the minivan but found nothing.
"Are you sure? It could have just been another…"
"It was Mommy, Daddy, I know," she told him, with perfect assurance, and he chuckled. He wouldn't argue with her, though he couldn't see how it would be possible she'd actually seen Maya driving in the opposite direction.
When they arrived at the ranch, Lucas and Marianne saw to getting Finch into the right hands before guiding Kimiko and her parents toward Juliet's house with the camper's suitcases and bags. Several of the other campers had already arrived. There were enough unknown faces to suggest that all their first timers had now arrived. There was a whole cluster of parents standing to one side, on the porch, while the kids were closer on the lawn. After a moment, both Lucas and Marianne discovered that humans and horses were not the only visitors they had at Sullivan Stables this summer.
"Daddy, they're back! They're back! Wow!" Marianne bolted off ahead of him and toward the pack of campers as they stood or sat around the handful of young dogs playing together. They only had to take one look to know who they were, and both father and daughter felt a jolt at recognizing them.
Marianne had seen her mother, Lucas realized, because there was little Honey Bee running around like the most joyful of pups with her brothers and sisters. Owl… Shepherd… Sneak… Flowers… It had been nearly a year now since they had been adopted by some of the campers, taken home to locations spread out across the country, one taken up into Canada… You wouldn't know it by looking at them here, scampering along, jumping on each other.
Lucas didn't know what the sequence of events had been, but Maya had brought Honey Bee out here to be with her siblings and then she'd left, never telling him, keeping the surprise. Even with Marianne having spotted her, it was still the best kind of surprise they could have asked for. One after the other, the dogs' heads raised and turned, catching a familiar scent that sent them crowding around Marianne, happily barking, waving their tails as they greeted her, and she greeted them back. Oh, this day was getting better and better for her.
If that wasn't already so good to see, the moment they detached themselves from Marianne, they caught another scent, and they were possibly even more frantic for it. They rushed for Lucas with such a drive that he went ahead and crouched, finally kneeling down before the collision could happen rather than to be knocked off balance. There was no telling just what was going through their minds just now, but to see the wave of complete happiness coming from them, it was clear that they remembered him, that he had meant a great deal to them. This only made him even more emotional to see them again. Once upon a time, they had been several small, frail, and mistreated puppies in a box, but now… now they were grown, thriving… He didn't often get to see the aftermath of those he'd treated over his residency, not like this, and he was so glad that he got to do so with these little guys.
As Lucas learned, over the next few minutes, when the returning campers came toward him, they had worked out this plan together. Several of them had kept in touch after leaving here last summer, and as they'd been looking forward to returning, the four of them who'd adopted the puppies – Tess, Joanie, Kiana, and Juan – had been discussing the possibility of bringing their dogs with them. At first it had just been a matter of not wanting to leave them for a whole summer, but after that, they'd realized the potential of actually doing it. For one, it wasn't as though there'd be any trouble to bring them to Sullivan Stables, but most importantly, if they all brought their own dogs, then they each would get to see their siblings again. If they could make that happen, then it was as good as their own personal obligations to make it so.
Now, for a few weeks at least, the five of them would get to be with one another. Tess and Joanie were only thirteen and fourteen and, if they could, they would keep coming here as long as possible, so Owl and Shepherd would get to do this again for a while. As for Kiana and Juan, they were both seventeen this year, one more summer ahead of them, but they both saw plenty of ways they could try and bring Sneak and Flowers down to Austin again. They loved it here, at the ranch, all of them, the horses…
Finally, Lucas – and Marianne, always – was introduced to new campers Veronica, David, Kel, and Jason. Kiana was in charge of the room where Kimiko would be staying this summer, and they made sure that the eleven-year-old – and her parents – would feel at ease. Already, they made the young girl grin, realizing the two of them had similar starting names, enough so that by the end of the day they would be referring to one another as Ki and Ki.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
