November 8th 2022
Chapter 312
Our Holidays With Song
The Silvan Hughes Theater was a hub of activity that day. With the schools let out for the coming holidays, the brief seasons of Stage and Backstage Ready camps were running, bringing a number of children and teens to occupy some space or another in the building, whether it was their usual space or not. If they were displaced, it was because of other activities happening there that day. For one, the theater was presently holding auditions for an upcoming production, and for another, the bands of TXNY and We Are Sisters were set to perform at a charity event held by Siobhan Hughes, and so they were hanging about, too, either rehearsing or figuring out any plans that might need some tightening up. They'd been doing that for the last couple of days, and today was the last chance they had to make changes if they wanted to. The event was happening that evening, which only made it an unfortunate coincidence then that the auditions were also happening and thus taking precedent on the stage, over the bands and over the camps.
Maya's favorite part in all this was whenever she could have any of her girls there, hanging about. This had mostly been Marianne, who had been with her each day, thrilled at the chance, but she'd also get the triplets hanging around here and there, and Mackenzie, and Aubrey, although the smaller girls had more trouble with being in the middle of everything without showing any kind of distress. Today, it was just Marianne. Lucas had taken the other five up to the ranch with him, and Maya could very easily imagine them all over there, Girl Dad Huckleberry taking his tiny ladies along on his rounds through the stables, or to visit Donna, or Carson, or showing them the slow process on the house's work… And while all this was going on, she had her not-so-small little shadow trailing after her.
Marianne would follow everything she did, quietly observing, asking questions when she wanted to… If Maya and the band got to pick up their instruments and do something with them, Marianne would sit nearby, and watch, and listen with a happy smile… It made it hard for Maya and the others to keep playing and singing with a straight face to just see the seven-year-old sitting there on the stage, legs crossed in, tapping out the rhythm of the music on her knees… Today, she was instead standing in front of the stage, arms stretched out over the edge to tap at its floor instead, making it look like she might have been dangling from a roof and trying to hold on. As she told it, she'd worn her nice dress and didn't think it would be right to sit like before. That might have been the work of Granny Mel and her etiquette coaching. Either way, she was there still, and that was what mattered.
She was all dressed up for the evening's event, and it was absolutely no surprise to see how much she was looking forward to it. It got to feel like a very special occasion when she was able to go and attend one her mother's shows now that she was a bit older, the oldest of her sisters at home. She'd made it to the point now where having her there to watch, either in the audience or in the wings, was far from too much, and that fact was as exciting to Marianne as it was to her mother, who had been picturing her there all the way back to when she'd been little more than a baby, maybe even before she'd been born at all. She had grown up with her mother's music, had been singing it for as long as she was able to speak or even make noises in any way like what she heard, and by now she could easily have come up with them and sung along. They would joke that she was just waiting for her chance to step in as a sub, or even join one of the two bands, and even though at seven her voice still had so many avenues to follow and develop, it sometimes felt less and less like a joke and much more like a prophecy.
They had been lucky to get this time on the stage to practice, but even now, there was Siobhan, coming to stand with Marianne to look on, and even as she was smiling at them and at their very special audience of one, they knew it meant they would have to wrap it up, leaving the way open for the day's session of auditions. It was a pretty solid bonus that she got to check in with Marianne, too. Maya's firstborn was finally getting to know and understand the part that the woman had played in bringing her mother and grandmother from New York to Texas, allowing among other things for her mother and father to meet and fall in love. In some ways, she was getting to feel like one more grandmother to her, as though she didn't already have enough of those.
"Thank you, thank you," Maya played up when the end of their song earned them hearty cheers by the pumpkin up front. "Want to come help us move everything?" she asked with a laugh. Marianne looked from her back to Siobhan, seeming to whisper to her. Siobhan smiled and nodded at her, pressing her hands at Marianne's shoulders before motioning for Maya to come up and join them. "What's up?" she asked when she came up to the stage's edge and crouched. Again, Marianne turned to look at Siobhan, as good as showing that her old boss was far better placed to speak here.
"Well, now, the other day, I was talking to this one about how we were going to be holding auditions for next year's production of Les Mis, and one thing led to another, and at the risk of getting ahead of myself, I figured you would be on board with this," Siobhan explained, hands still on Marianne's shoulders.
It wasn't a big leap for Maya to understand what she was getting at from there, and she blinked in surprise as she looked back to her daughter. Suddenly she saw her whole look that day under a new light. She wasn't dressed for the charity event; she had made sure to look nice… for her audition. Cosette… Young Cosette…
Maya stood back up and moved to climb down the steps and join her daughter. She looked into those blue eyes that could at any time feel like a perfect copy of her own or of Lucas' eyes, and she knew without a doubt that Marianne meant it. She wanted this. She wanted it… and if Maya said yes, it would happen that very day. She would audition, and then it would be up to others to decide if she got the role or not, but still… Her baby girl could soon be featured on the same stage where her grandmother had starred, where her mother would be performing that very night.
"I… How long before…" she pointed vaguely back to the stage, and Siobhan understood: she wanted to know if there was time to call Lucas and get him out here to see it, too.
"Mommy? Can I?" Marianne asked, not following her mother's train of thought. Maya looked down at her, feeling that her eyes had to be so bright just then. She reached forward, embraced her daughter.
"Of course, you can," she breathed. She bent to kiss the top of her head even as Marianne hugged her tight. "Easy, alright," Maya laughed. "I need to call your dad, okay?"
She might not have expressed herself properly when she called him, but Lucas showed up all of twenty minutes later on his own. He'd left the girls at the ranch, left to think maybe that there was something wrong and he was needed…
"Hey…" he came to find Maya, sitting to the side along with the rest of TXNY and rising to meet him when she spotted him. "Where's Marianne?" he asked.
"Backstage with the other kids," Maya easily replied, but then sensing the slight hiccup in their discussion, she laughed and reframed what she'd told him so that he'd understand why he'd been called over: Their daughter was auditioning for a role in a musical, and he'd been brought out here so he would get to sit and watch it happen.
"Oh…" Lucas blinked, about as surprised as Maya had been. Then he laughed. "Oh, okay, wow…" he smiled, and Maya chuckled, nodded. "I had no idea that she wanted to do this," he shook his head in awe.
"Hey, neither did I, although…" Maya thought aloud. "I mean, she did ask to hear the soundtrack," she pointed out, and Lucas knew just what she meant at once, which made him smile; she had a point.
With whatever musical they had seen in the last few years, the ones done by the school or not, it hadn't been long that some rules had come into play, initiated by Marianne herself in some cases, and her golden rule was simple: She didn't want to hear any of the songs ahead of time if she could help it. She didn't want to know before. This had been inspired into her by Lea Sullivan-Reyes, and she'd stood firmly by it all along… until the day before, when she'd wanted to hear the soundtrack to Les Misérables. She'd listened to it all with that very focused face she'd get at times, leaving her parents or most adults who saw her to struggle at not bursting out laughing.
"So, guess we should have seen it coming, huh?" Lucas reflected, and Maya agreed with a slow nod.
Well, they were both there, so now they could only sit together and wait until their girl was called on stage. When the moment came and she came striding out with such confidence, long blond hair swinging as she walked, it was a wonder that Maya and Lucas didn't start to loudly cheer… them or the rest of the band sitting there like the pack of proud aunties that they were. Marianne still saw them sitting there, and her smile ensured that the cheers were unnecessary in this instant.
She didn't sing anything from the musical for her audition, not even one of her mother's songs. She sang a song that had been one of her favorites for about as long as she could remember, one she had learned out of her dearly departed Granny Lizzie, the very same one she'd sung at her funeral. It was nothing short of a protection for Marianne. It made her feel strong, and she used it today to show why they should pick her to play the young Cosette. She was the youngest there that day, but she was about as tall as all the other young girls who came up to try their hand at the role. Maybe they were biased about it, but where Maya and Lucas were concerned, Marianne had been the very best one.
They would hold on to the video that was ever so kindly captured by Riley until they knew whether she got the part or not, or until Christmas, whichever came first. That was what Marianne wanted, so they would follow her lead. She was looking forward to letting others in the family know about it, sure, but right now she was just so happy that she'd gotten to do this part, and she wanted to exist with it on her own for the time being. If she ever wondered for a second what her parents had thought of her performance up there, she'd only have to see their faces, see those tears that were every bit some happy, very happy ones. She was blowing their minds every day of her life, and they knew that sooner or later the rest of the world was going to feel it, too. Marianne Christine Friar was on her way.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
