July 16th 2022
Chapter 197
Our Legacy of Care
He wouldn't have it so badly that he couldn't focus on his work, but still there had been days all through September when Lucas wished he could have been at the school with Maya, helping her, helping with everything that had been going on there… It was strange sometimes, this feeling like he was connected to the school. Sure, he had once been a student there, but so had hundreds and thousands of people in Austin today. A lot of them definitely still had some of that school pride in them, long after they'd graduated, but this wasn't it. He wasn't a student there anymore, no, but his wife was a teacher there, and even though he wasn't one like her, they were a packaged deal in a lot of things.
He knew her students, if not by face, then by name and style, thanks to the diaries that were in their home every week. They attended basketball games together, and quiz team matches together, received those kids in their home when they practiced with Maya sometimes. They had gone to many more senior proms than the average people, and he'd helped with events there, and he occasionally chaperoned along with Maya on school field trips, which he would be doing again in the days to come. Looking at all of that… Yeah, of course he was connected, and of course he would be affected by all that was happening out there. But in the meantime, he was still busy full time at the ranch. And as they turned into the month of October, they were following their own routines.
While they would spend a great chunk of their time up at the school, Britt and Raj would be among them whenever they could. The XCs would be at Sullivan Stables every afternoon after class, and then part of the day on weekends. They were never expected to be here so much that they couldn't enjoy some downtime, either at the Ríos or Farrell homes or out in the city. When they were at the ranch, they were getting to be more and more at ease with being out on the property, learning, making the most of this time they had, to live in this experience. For Lucas, the best part here was just to start and see, now that they were on their fifth and sixth exchange campers, how each of those they'd had were different, how they had their own styles, whether it was about riding or being around the horses at all. These two now had both come with their own horses – Sleet and Ginger – and the bond they had formed on the road, like instant siblings, translated in how they were inseparable whenever they were at the ranch, especially when they'd get to go riding. Lucas loved to see how the two of them would sort of feed into each other's eagerness for knowledge.
They would be here, today, as Lucas went around with the blue group. The afterschool program was back in full swing, now in its third year, just like the XCs, and yet that wasn't so mind blowing to him as the fact that his daughter and her friends now went around brandishing blue bandanas instead of green. Alright, 'instead' might have been stretching it for some of them. Marianne loved her new blue bandana, she did… but her old green one was still tied on to her schoolbag, and they would be hard-pressed to try and take it from her if they went after it. They wouldn't, of course, but the idea still made them chuckle.
The afternoons spent with the blue group weren't so different from the ones they'd been spending in green group. A lot of the activities would be the same, though they did do their best to tailor their schedules and all that would happen in each location to the groups and their age sets. It had been one thing to take four and five-year-old kids around, but these were six and seven-year-olds… They were not so small as the green group anymore, and they were going to let you know. Lucas had known several of them from back when they'd been in that younger group, and he was amused with how happy they'd been to get him back as one of their monitors.
With this group, instead of starting there, they would finish their days – before snacks of course – at the archive with Carson. They would still get stories, but these would not be from those same small books that the old man kept on hand for the little kids, no. He would tell them stories that felt a lot more like a happy medium between the little books and the tales that Lucas had collected in the ranch stories. The kids would be hanging on his every word, each day. By the time they would make it to the archive building, they would have gone through a period with the horses, much like they'd done before, though they definitely got to spend more time on the horses. Harper had been growing more confident there, though she'd still let out this breath whenever they'd help her back down to the ground, like 'oof, I did it.' Between the horses and the stories, they would get to go around and play games for a bit, the physical activity bringing their energy up before it was soothed again by stories and snack time before heading on home.
As most of them were getting picked up, a portion of blue group sometimes had the bonus privilege of being taken off to the section of the property where – on any given day – Katy's series would be filming. Marianne and her friends would stand by and watch, quietly awed, sometimes getting to go up and talk to the actors, the crew, the horses… The third season was to premiere next week, and it was impossible to tell which generation – Katy, Maya, or Marianne – was most excited at the prospect. For the Friars, it would mean the return of show nights, and for that Lucas would gladly put his name in on that 'giddy award.' He just missed it when they didn't get to sit there, him and Maya and their girls together for an episode.
But for everything else that was already going on at the ranch, he had to say, the thing that pulled Lucas' focus the most – especially in the daytime when all the kids, both after-school and exchange campers alike, were in school – was the retreat.
By now, their very first resident had gone on his way, adopted into his new family, but in his place, they currently had four other pups, in varying stages of care. The most recent arrival had been just two days ago, and this one was definitely still in the acclimating phase. Not to worry; she was in excellent hands with Dr. Bishop Nicholas in charge. Every day, he would be there, bright and early, despite the two-hour drive he had ahead of him as he came down from Houston. He would be with them until dinner time, and then he'd be back on his way. Even though he and his ex-wife no longer lived together, and Leona had custody of their daughter one week out of two, he had a story to tell, too, whether Evangeline was at her mother's or being babysat by anyone from the Zvolensky-Mantovani or Garcia-Choi homes until he got back from Austin. One week, it would be back at his place, with the four-year-old in her room there, or the other week it would be over his phone or laptop screen on a video call. He never missed story time, and neither did Leona. They would each do one, her in English and him in French.
Once Bishop would leave the retreat, the duty of being on call in case of emergency would fall to Lucas, and he would gladly take it. There was always someone at the retreat, around the clock, so the dogs' needs were always met, but if something else happened, they would reach out, and Lucas would go. It had happened a couple of times by now that he'd had to get in his car in the dark of night while everyone slept, and as beneficial as it was to the dogs in question, it also provided non-stop fodder for Maya to lovingly tease her Dockleberry of a husband, much to his amusement. He really didn't mind going out there in the night, and when he'd come back, each time, Mackenzie would be awake, like she'd somehow known he was coming back, so he would hold the five-month-old and tell her about where he'd gone and what he'd done until she went back to sleep.
Occasional emergency aside, the retreat had been up and running for over a month now, and Lucas was happy to say that it was all going very well, beyond all his wildest expectations. As much as it had been his and Ella's project, her idea born of his desire to make something of this space, it was really about the whole of Sullivan Stables. They were all up here with this great love for the horses, their care and well-being, but that just as easily extended to the dogs, too. They never lacked for extra hands to come along and spend some time with the dogs that they had in their care, whether for days or weeks. It was always very easy to tell who was on break from their regular duties if they were spotted in or around the Friar Sisters' Dog Retreat. Their guests both big and small would occasionally be seen beyond the building itself, as they'd be taken for a walk, or to play around in this great big space they had here… That was kind of the whole point, wasn't it?
Perhaps the best thing about having the retreat here now was when it intersected with the afterschool program. They would bring the kids out to see the dogs every now and again, and it would be wonderful to see how the animals responded to their presence. Whenever she would be around, Marianne would never want to leave the ranch until after she'd gotten to go and say goodbye to the retreat dogs, and if it could be done, Lucas would naturally indulge her.
She'd gotten to meet their newest arrival today, so they definitely had to go back there before leaving; they had to add the dog to their retreat log. Lucas couldn't say which of Maya's habits had inspired their daughter, but she'd provided her own thing to the retreat by suggesting that they make entries in a big book for each of the dogs that stayed with them, saying when they'd come and when they left, their name, what kind of dog they were, how big or small, their favorite toys, some memories… Lucas was more than happy to indulge this. Right now, there was only part of the information to be added, but he did it, while Marianne sat with the new dog. This one may still have been acclimating, but with her there it was the calmest they'd seen the little thing.
"Right, final part," Lucas smiled as he took up the camera and snapped a photo of Marianne sitting there with the dog staring up at her. It was printed off and stuck to the page. "All set," Lucas showed her the book, and Marianne beamed as she called for the dog to look up. She didn't seem to grasp exactly what was happening, but the two humans looked happy, and she could work with that, giving a couple of curious barks. "Home now?" Lucas asked his daughter, and she got very interested in playing with the dog. "You'll be back here in a couple of days, remember?" he crouched next to her. "And you've got some dogs back home looking for some scratches, too." Alright, that got her attention.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
