March 30th 2022
Chapter 89
Our Summer of Fun
"Can you say Dada? Dada? Can you say Mama? Mama? Annie? Annie? Ella? Ella?"
Marianne's voice echoed just a little, on top of her repetitions, as she swam around from one to the other of her little sisters as they were held by their parents and big sister, all of them in the hotel's indoor pool. Not only was it their last full day here, but a sudden and heavy downpour of rain had forced them to alter their plans. They would still try and go out after lunch, but right now, a bit of time in the pool felt like a good idea, so here they were.
"I don't think they're feeling it this morning, pumpkin," Lucas told her with a sympathetic smile. All she'd managed to do was to get the triplets giddy, kicking their feet around under the water and waving their arms around, sometimes sending a jet of water splashing out, on to whoever was in their trajectory. They were all enjoying it, so that was what mattered… and guaranteed that Marianne would keep going unless they stopped her. She looked at her father with a near exasperated sigh before diving under the surface and emerging again two seconds later. They'd equipped her with a swimming cap and goggles, and she'd been going around all week like it was such a revelation to her that they'd gone swimming, even just briefly, every single day. "Right, I forgot, you're 'turtle' right now, not pumpkin."
"Yeah," Marianne confirmed, dunking underwater again.
The last several days since they'd arrived had just flown by. They supposed it would have felt that way no matter what they did, so long as they were all having fun together, and they had definitely been doing that, the seven of them. They did some sightseeing, a little every day, but more than anything the goal was for them to just go and enjoy this time together, the summer in this place so unlike their home… Whether the triplets understood how they'd traveled somewhere far, they couldn't say, but then every so often they would get this look in their eyes like they were awed by something brand new, something they had never seen and were now discovering, and Maya and Lucas loved to see it.
Otherwise, they managed very well so far as balancing their activities. There was the swimming, of course, and tours around the city both on foot and by car, but some of their favorite times were easily the meals they'd shared, both at the hotel and at any number of restaurants. Meals meant an exchange of stories, mostly led by Marianne, and Ella. Every once in a while, Lucy would throw in a random 'Dada!' It was the one proper word she had in her arsenal, and she seemed to understand that they liked it when she said it, so she did it often.
Mornings and evenings in the hotel definitely got to feel like a very surreal slice of normal life in a place that was clearly not their normal place. They came to that conclusion very easily on the first night of going through bath time with the girls in their room's tub. It wasn't as though the one they had back home was small, but compared to this one, that was almost a pool in its own right…
They had one crib, so they'd taken up the routine of putting two of the girls in there, keeping the third in bed with them. They might have seen about getting a second one, if not a second and third, but it would have felt excessive when this set-up was just fine by all of them. In the second bedroom, Ella and Marianne had been having themselves a mini/extended Sleepster, and they'd been enjoying this tremendously. Marianne always loved to have her big sister staying with them, especially when they got to sleep in the same room. For Ella, her parents suspected, there was just a bit of transference here, with their eldest daughter having her own daughter on her mind. Oh, she was doing just fine, back in Austin with her father and her aunt, but that didn't stop her mother from missing her being nearby. Lucas and Maya also suspected that Marianne understood this, at least in part, and so she'd gladly stepped in to supply her sister with the comfort of her presence.
"What do you think we should do?" Lucas asked his wife and daughters, after they'd returned to their room and gotten dressed back in their regular clothes, all swimsuits left to dry. The rain was still coming down hard, and they could get in the car and do what they'd set out to do that afternoon, but would it really be worth the trouble?
"I don't know, what do you think?" Maya asked Ella and Marianne. With her goggles stuck on top of her head like a headband, Marianne went up to the windows and looked outside.
"I wouldn't mind staying here," Ella offered with a quick shrug. "We could have lunch up here."
"Like a picnic!" Marianne whirled around at once, sending a few remaining droplets of water flying as she did, hair sitting in ringlets around her shoulders. Oh, she liked that idea. Her parents exchanged a look and nodded.
"Done," Lucas agreed, and she zoomed off to find the room service menu for them to look at.
The 'picnic' was arranged on the floor, and they ate their final lunch before heading home the next day. Marianne continued her vocabulary lesson with the babies, as she would. After they'd finished eating, they decided that they might as well start packing, the better to have that out of the way. With any luck, they could still go out for a while that evening.
"Hey, I had an idea," Ella approached her parents as they were sorting out the contents of their emptied drawers before putting them in their suitcases. "I can watch the girls tonight, then you two could have a date night. I know you packed for it, but it never happened, so…" she smiled.
It was true, they had packed everyone a more formal outfit, 'just in case,' and there had definitely been this impulse in them that, somehow, they could slip away and have themselves something somewhere between a lowercase d and capital D Date – nothing too fancy but made to feel that way by virtue of their location – but as Ella had said, it hadn't happened. Either they'd been tired in the evenings, or they'd never felt able to put the request on to their daughter, even if she was clearly willing to do it, or Marianne would want them to have a movie night… Whatever it was, they'd both more or less accepted to put those plans aside and instead focus on their daughters. But now…
"You're going to be okay tonight?" Lucas asked Marianne, after he'd gotten changed, in late afternoon. He held the four-year-old in his arms at the moment, and she was busy 'fixing his collar' as she nodded. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to draw in my book," she told him. That was as far as she'd gotten. "And we're having pizza, Ella said," she added. Lucas made a face like he was considering sticking around for that, making Marianne giggle. "I can keep you some, Daddy."
"Well, only if you guys have eaten enough, alright?"
"Alright," she nodded.
With a brand new dress to take out for a spin – always a big success – Maya got her turn of saying goodbye to the girls for the next few hours, and then she and Lucas left the hotel.
"Well, this is bringing back memories," he commented as they stepped out the main doors to find the rain had not let up. Maya snorted. It was almost obligatory, at this point, to say those exact words whenever they got ready to go on some outing together when it was raining, recalling their very first date.
"No museums tonight," she told him, and he smiled as he took her hand and they moved shoulder to shoulder under the sturdy and oversized umbrella they'd borrowed from their 'neighbors' across the hall. They'd been meaning to try a restaurant that was just up the street from the hotel, so with this date night ahead of them, they couldn't think of any better choice. "Did you notice Ella moved the crib into hers and Marianne's room?"
"No… When did she do that?" Lucas asked as they waited for their table.
"While you were shaving," Maya smirked as she reached to touch his cheek. "I'm not sure whose idea it was, if Marianne wanted to have the triplets in there for their Sleepster, or if Ella thought we might want one night to ourselves…" she suggested in a whisper, and Lucas worked hard to keep a straight face as their server came to lead them to their seats. They looked at their menus for a few minutes, giving their orders when the server returned. A few seconds went by, the two of them exchanging a quiet look before finally letting out the laugh they'd felt rising in them.
"I don't even know what this is…" Lucas gestured between the two of them, indicating the laughter.
"Oh, aside from the fact that we're out here having a… semi-casual evening together as husband and wife, which is perfectly fine, but having trouble putting down our mom and dad… hats?" Maya offered.
"Sounds about right," Lucas had to agree. "And what does that tell us?"
"That our big girl may have had a point?" Maya replied, her hand snaking its way across the table. He took hold of it, fingers clasping together.
"I can work with that," he slowly nodded, and she did the same before they both laughed again. "Guess that's just what it's going to be from now on."
"At least while our little ones are very little," Maya countered, and he agreed to that. "When they're big, they're on their own," she joked, making him laugh again. "It's not like we never have date nights anymore," she added. "But this one is definitely the most out there we've had in a while." The way her eyes were roving about the room, he could recognize that very same impulse he'd known in her since they were both teenagers. She was in a new place, one that made her want to put the unfamiliar place to paper.
It was a good thing then that he knew those impulses of hers and generally came prepared, just in case she somehow didn't. From inside his jacket pocket, he pulled out a small sketch pad and a pen and offered them to her. She beamed and quickly took them. By now, she didn't even need to ask him anything like 'are you sure?' The gesture said it all. By the time they got their meal, she already had a good sketch put down, and their server was immediately impressed. She offered them a round of drinks on the house.
By the time they returned to the hotel, the girls were all sleeping soundly in Ella and Marianne's room. Kacey and Lucy were curled up, side by side in the crib, while Remy was in the bed, between her big sisters. The next morning, it would be time to close the book on their summer vacation, starting back on the airplane routine, but for now, Maya and Lucas could retreat to their room, all their own for this final night. Had they had this date on any other night while they were here, with no schedule to follow in the morning, they might have seen about putting on a movie, prolonging the evening a while more. They may not have been able to do all that now, but oh, they could think of other ways to make the most of a bit of alone time.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
