May 28th 2022
Chapter 148
Our Participation In Life
It was just impossible to put into words what it felt like to hold her siblings' children. For nearly four years now… Four… How can it have been nearly four years already? For nearly four years now she'd gotten to watch little Francesca May Calahart grow from a newborn babe to a small girl, owning her heart every step of the way. Here was this whole separate other human being, but she was also a part of her baby brother, her Sammy, and of course that would be reason enough why she mattered so much, but just saying 'oh, she's my niece, she's my brother's child' did not feel sufficient in explaining how much she loved that smiling sprite of a girl.
And now… Now she had Felix, her one and only nephew, her sister's child who she'd seen born just two weeks ago and… There really were no words for how much she loved him either.
"Look at you, I… Yes, I know, morning is very hard, isn't it, especially when you were all nice and comfortable like that in your car seat and then someone had to go and pick you up, and you woke up, but that's okay, because that someone was me, and the two of us have done this dance before, haven't we? There, see? All good, no more crying, you're good now… Hello, Felix…" Maya smiled as she felt the baby boy settle down in her arms.
"How do you do that?" Cara asked, yawning through her awe as she sat down on the couch next to her sister. She looked one good blink away from dozing off, just curling right up there, and falling asleep. Her nights had not been forgiving in that first couple of weeks with the baby, not in the slightest.
"Would it really help if I had an actual answer?" Maya pointed out, looking to her sister and then back at her nephew.
"Maybe not," Cara admitted. She rubbed at her face with both hands, trying to wake herself up. "It just seems like I can't do it like you do, and he's my kid…"
"You're sleep deprived, you clocked in on Mom Mode for the first time just two weeks ago… You were here when I had Marianne, do you recall me being a pro right away?"
"I barely remember what day it is anymore, what do you think?" Cara mumbled, drifting off again. Maya didn't try and discourage this. Right about now, a good, long nap would do her sister a world of good.
"You'll get there. I'm sure you will," Maya vowed in a quiet voice, humming… It worked on babies and sleepy mothers. In no time, Felix was asleep in his aunt's arms while his mother breathed evenly with her head to her sister's shoulder.
How she managed to successfully coax Cara to tip the other way and rest her head against a cushion, Maya couldn't say, but she did. With that achieved, she carefully stood – very carefully, as she also balanced two babies, one in her arms and one in her belly – and helped her sister's legs up until she was fully lying down on the couch. She pulled a blanket over her, and the work was done. Maya paced quietly away from the couch, bringing her nephew to sit with her by the window, seeing out on to a light rain on this March morning.
Looking down at baby Felix, her smile returned. She brushed with a gentle finger at his hair, a deep brown and very generous in quantity already. By now, his features had started to shift away from that sort of fresh out of the box, undefined quality and toward something that could start and be seen as resemblance to his parents, to the families that had created him. He was still only two weeks old, so he had some way to go, but they could definitely start to see it… Either that or they all saw what they wanted to see, but some things were undeniable. He had his father's eyes, but a lot of his face as a whole, they felt, reminded them of Cara in a way where they couldn't put their finger on what it was, but there was a quality to him that showed to one and all that he was her son.
"Definitely seeing it now…" Maya whispered to herself with a smirk, looking from the sleeping boy's face to his sleeping mother's face back on the couch. "Uncanny," she joked.
Cara would come and see her with the baby almost every day since he was born. A lot of this came from how they'd gone through their pregnancies together, even if Maya's was still ongoing, and Cara's knowing that she was home anyway. But under all that, Maya sensed that maybe it also came from a place where Cara was feeling overwhelmed, and it helped her to be near her big sister. Whatever it was, Maya didn't call her on it. She simply opened her door to her.
Having her and Felix here came with something of a bonus, in that it let her see a bit of what it would be like, once she had her own newborn in the house, specifically as it related to how Kacey, Remy, and Lucy would cope. It might have been one thing if there'd only been one of them, but there wasn't, and even though they were a lot less prone to 'cascading tantrums,' she had been wondering about how it would go down when the baby would start to cry, or when the baby was asleep, and they needed as much quiet as possible… It was one thing to call for Marianne to navigate this new situation. Even when the triplets had been born, she'd been nearly four already, so it had been easy enough.
After a few visits from Auntie Cara and Cousin Felix, Maya had been glad to see that, on the whole, the triplets did very well. They had their limits, sure, but more often than not they would grasp the situation for what it was, and they would act in consequence. They loved Felix, and they would crowd around him whenever he was there. They would be so excited to see the baby, and when their mother or father or anyone else would hold their finger to their lips, they would do the same, showing that they understood: gotta be quiet. Again, success rates varied, but the intent was there at least.
The triplets were out at the moment, spending the morning on errands with Nana Katy and Grandpa Shawn, and they weren't due back until after lunch, so they weren't the ones who rang the bell and nearly woke the sleeping Arroyos. Maya carefully saw to her nephew's carrying on his nap as she went quickly – quick as she could – to see who was at the door. When she saw, she breathed out and let her visitor in before indicating that she should be quiet.
"Oh! I'm so sorry…" Stella whispered.
"Don't worry about it, no harm done, as you can see," Maya showed, and Stella smiled, looking upon the baby. It was the first time she saw him in person, though she had heard of his birth and seen pictures by now. "If anyone should apologize, it's me, for not getting these done in time and bringing you here like this," Maya went on, indicating the boxes of diaries waiting near the door. Stella should have had them back earlier, but they hadn't been ready until just before Cara arrived.
"You're busy," Stella pointed out, excusing her former teacher's delay at once. "Only missed the seniors, but I'll be able to get them distributed later on, don't worry about it." She paused, looking at herself and back out the door. It was still raining, and she didn't want to damage anything.
"Yeah…" Maya realized the problem, too. "Here, take him for a minute?" she asked, and Stella extended her arms almost more by reflex than any true readiness at being given the baby to hold. Still, she received Felix, who didn't fuss or wake even a little.
Meanwhile, Maya went and got hold of supplies to ensure that the diary boxes would reach the car and then the school without any sort of water damage. It had happened before, not through her actions but with individual diaries here and there, and while some would see it as not that big of a deal, others might be heartbroken to see their work damaged, and she was not going to be responsible for anything like that.
"All good?" Maya asked, after Stella returned from carrying the last load over to her car.
"Yeah, they should be fine," Stella appraised, catching her breath. Maya was glad to hear it. She looked to her nephew, once again in her arms. "Do you ever think about how he could be in your class someday?" Stella asked.
"Only all the time," Maya admitted. Him, and Francesca… More than anything, part of her wondered if they would all still be in Austin by then.
It was still many years away, so what was there to say that they wouldn't end up returning to Tucson, or New York City, or… go somewhere else entirely? She couldn't assume anything, not even for herself and her family. They always said that they weren't looking to go anywhere, but then you never knew, right?
"I need to get back before next period starts, but I did want to talk about the art auction, and other projects for the rest of the year…" Stella pointed out, showing hesitation about leaving or staying.
"If you want to call over the long break, just send me a text first and we'll work it out, yeah?" Maya suggested, and Stella agreed. She said 'goodbye' to the sleeping Felix and to her former teacher and then she was hurrying back to her car and driving off to school. "Just you and me again, bud," Maya whispered after closing the door. She carefully adjusted her hold on her nephew and carried him back over to check that Cara was still sound asleep.
She could not even begin to explain how proud she was of Stella Buckley. In the time since she'd taken up her position as her substitute, she had done such a wonderful job. Oh, Maya had expected no less from her, but she was still so glad to hear about it. Sure, she was still learning, still not 'officially' a teacher, but she could not have asked for a better place for her to start and actually do the job she'd finally chosen to do. From what Maya had heard, from her colleagues but also from those students she was in contact with outside of school, like her sisters, Stella was definitely still finding her voice, but that didn't stop her from knowing just what she had to do, especially when it came to one-on-one cases.
"I'm up… I'm up…" Cara bolted awake all of a couple seconds after Felix started to cry.
"Good, because he's definitely giving me hungry face, and I may have what he wants, but that would definitely be a very weird story for him to hear someday," Maya joked as she brought her nephew to his mother. They would play around sometimes, trying to see if Felix would ever get confused, mixing up his mother and his aunt. The resemblance wasn't so striking as to get them mixed up, but with him being this small, it wasn't impossible, was it? They'd seen it happen in the past, with Marianne, with the triplets… And Felix did tend to respond to Maya in a way that would suggest he at least recognized something in her that was a lot like Cara.
"How long was I asleep?" Cara yawned as she took him.
"Couple of hours," Maya happily reported, and Cara blinked at this before passing a thankful nod to her sister. "More than happy to look after that little guy while you did."
"Yeah, but you're supposed to be relaxing, too," Cara reminded her.
"Who said I wasn't?" Maya smiled. "Put that boy in my arms, I am good to go."
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
