November 21st 2022
Chapter 325
Our Production of Potential
Dear Mrs. Friar,
I have been meaning to write you again for a while, so much so that it now feels like I could fill a load of pages about what's been going on since the last time I wrote you. Back then, I had finally decided to put my studies on hold. It didn't feel right to keep pushing at it when my heart wasn't in it, and it has been the best decision I could have made. It got me to realize that I did still want to be a nurse, for those same reasons why I had wanted to be one in the first place, but I was never going to make it work, not so long as I couldn't deal with what was really going on underneath all that, which was that I had potentially screwed everything up with Mariah. I reached out to her, asked if I could visit, and she told me that of course I could.
Well, I never left. I hadn't planned it out that way, but then I got here, and I was crashing on Mariah's couch, which was fine by her and even more with Dani. She had already grown up so much in the months since they'd moved. I didn't have school to worry about anymore, and my job could travel with me, so I had no real deadline telling me when I had to fly back stateside. I just hung around with the two of them, and I worked when they weren't there… After a couple of weeks, we sort of fell into a rhythm kind of like before they moved out here, and it was really good. Dani was so happy to have me back and I felt the same, didn't want to leave the kid, and then Mariah… She knew how I felt about her by then, and I knew how she felt about me, and after week three I wasn't sleeping on the couch anymore.
For a few months after that, I just focused on Mariah and Dani and my job. Friends back home were kind enough to pack up my apartment and ship my things out, some out here and the rest back to Texas. I really thought my parents would have more of an issue with this, but they really didn't. I guess after everything back in high school, they're just glad that I'm alive and happy. Anyway, after that, when I was good and settled in, I started thinking about my studies again. There was no reason I couldn't be a nurse here, too, and I finally wanted to jump back in. I was nearly done before I left, but a lot of that last stretch had been a blur, so it was good to delve back in. And now, I'm working in a clinic, still learning but also putting everything into practice. Between that, and getting to go home to Mariah and Dani, I don't think I've ever been in a better place in my life. Part of me is afraid to really say that out loud, I think, like saying it will only make it so that something bad will happen again.
It's silly, I know, but I can't help it. I've told Mariah about it, been honest with her about everything, like you once told me, and she gets it. She's been doing her best to let me feel it all openly, and I don't know if it's working or if she's just that cute when she's trying, but I think she's getting somewhere.
Until next time, big hugs to everyone,
Helena Zimmerman
PS: Adding a few pictures from my first day on the job. Thought you might get a kick out of them.
PPS: Dani heard I was writing to my art teacher, so she insisted on sending you a drawing. She's a good little artist, isn't she?
.
Dear Helena,
Please give Dani some big thanks and a hug from me for her drawing, it absolutely made my day! Tell her she can always send me more whenever she wants to.
You both made my day, with that drawing and with your update. I had heard that you'd gone abroad, but I had no idea that you'd moved out there. I am so happy for you and Mariah and for Dani as well. Whenever you come back to Texas to visit your parents, you three are always welcome to drop in here, too. I've been following your story for a few years now, and there you are. It seems surreal to think that I haven't been your teacher in nearly eight years, but only because I count myself so lucky to have been allowed to continue knowing you and seeing your progress out in the world.
Thank you also for the pictures! Looking at these, I can see just what you mean when you say you've never been in a better place. Mariah is absolutely right about getting you to feel it all, and I'm sure if you haven't gotten there yet, you will in time, with her and with Dani there to back you up.
I hope you are having a wonderful day, and I'm sending much love to you and yours.
Until next time,
Mrs. Maya Friar
PS: My own little artists wanted to send you something, please find it enclosed!
x
Maya, Sam, and Cara were picked up the following morning by Joey Garcia. He came to collect them from the hotel, bringing along his wife and daughter. Of the three of them, Cara was understandably the most familiar with dancer/choreographer Erica Liu-Garcia, but the others had met her a couple of times in the past, whenever Joey had come home to visit his family in Texas. It had been several months since they'd most recently flown out, and this had been done to introduce little Liana Garcia to the extended family and friends. She had been no more than three and a half months old at the time, whereas now she was coming up on eleven months, turning one in March.
It was just as well that they were all significantly early. They very quickly deviated into a lot of excited reunions, a lot of awe toward the two baby girls in the room, both of them so grown since their last in-person visit. To see Aubrey and Liana bonding as babies would, they could have spent the whole day just like this, but alas they had business to attend to… not that it was boring, far from it. The three siblings were on their way to auditions, the first day of it, while Erica would hang back with Liana to join Lucas in taking his own girls into the city.
"How long do you think it'll be before they talk him into checking on Mickey and Minnie?" Sam asked with a laugh as they got into Joey's car.
"Who?" Asher's twin asked, in one of those instances where they couldn't help but be reminded that this was who he was, identical as he and his brother were. Very simply, Maya recounted how they'd found the two small dogs the day before and taken them to be treated.
"They were named that by the woman at the hospital, when she saw the blanket one of them was wrapped in," Maya explained. "I don't think the kids are sold on it though, and I say this knowing very well that if there's even the sliver of a chance that we could take them home they will be all over us to do it."
"Yeah, sounds about right," Joey smiled.
"We would, of course," Maya added. "They're not the only ones who get weak at the prospect of new pups in the house," she sighed, thinking that Lucas had better text her if there were updates.
They had no idea what to expect when they would show up for these auditions. For as much as they had all been delving into this world in recent times, preparing for this step, it was impossible to know for sure. There was a very real thought, bordering on a nightmare, like no one would show up, no one would care… From everything they had been hearing, from Joey, from Cara, from Katy, everyone who had been taking steps to make this happen, they needn't worry about that. Something they had worked to make happen was to get people talking, build up curiosity, and interest. Maya, Sam, and Cara would be lying if they said they didn't have their eyes set on certain people in particular for certain roles. They might not have gone around assuming them to be easy gets in any way, but they weren't selling themselves short and thinking that they didn't have a shot at getting them either.
There was no word as of yet where those overtures had been made, but Joey had a strong feeling that things might start and change on that front depending on how the next few days went, what kind of cast they started to assemble.
When they arrived, they were introduced to some people they'd been hearing about, who would be involved with the audition process along with them. They were in for what could be a very long day, but they were very eager to begin. Maya barely had to look at her siblings out of the corner of her eyes as they sat on either side of her to know that they were both exactly where she was in feeling like she was dreaming. It had taken so long to get to this point, but they had actually made it…
Several of the people they would see that day would audition with a song penned by Maya Hart, either something she had written for Ree Forster or another artist through her contract, or – if the auditionees had done further research – with a TXNY song. For some it truly felt like they were trying to kiss up to her, but with others it came off more as something appreciative, as much to say that they were fans as it could say 'this is what I sound like, singing your work.'
It was a whole other world than what she had experienced, in the last several years, auditioning kids for the school musicals. It wouldn't even be finished by the time Maya and the others went back to Texas. But they'd wanted to be here, to see the people in person at this point in time. They would still be involved with the remainder of the casting process, just from a distance. They were all looking at some possible return trips in the weeks and months to come – with or without their spouses and children – but they weren't there yet. Today, this week, they were here, and they would focus on that.
At the end of the day, with many auditionees still there with them, Joey Garcia took on the initiative to call out his old friend and her co-creators, asking that the siblings take the stage together and treat their hopeful would-be cast members to one song of their choosing from their musical. There was little chance of them refusing, especially with the loud wave of encouraging cheers rising to echo through the auditorium. Maya looked to her brother and sister, and they had the same smile on their faces, almost literally, thanks to their father. Of course, they would go. A chance like that? Sam would happily set aside his usual aversion to letting most anyone – save for his children and his nephew and nieces – hear him singing, and Cara would go up with a sweet thrill in her eyes that reminded Maya of the young girl she'd first met, at the thought of stepping on this stage. To Maya, it would feel like a call, a sign that maybe she needed to make a push soon, giving more focused attention to her song writing than she'd done in a while, musical aside.
For now, Maya Friar, Sam Calahart, and Cara Arroyo, once upon a time only the Hart siblings, stood there, under the lights, and sang for their auditionees, ending with a lively bow when their song ended in applause. How far they'd come, over all these years since they'd started this… It was far from over yet, but there was no denying it now… They were on their way…
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
