May 13th 2020

Chapter 134
Their Invitation to Grow

"Alright, give it to me…" Maya breathed after waking up to the distinct impression that she was about to be caught in a deluge of confetti.

"It's just really hard to believe that now, every day, you're getting closer to thirty than twenty…" Lucas intoned, perhaps not reaching her actual pitch but giving an overall spot on impression, borrowing the exact words she'd given him, all of eight months ago, the day he had turned twenty-five.

"I'm starting to see what you were saying now," she cringed, her 'distress' over reaching her own milestone soon nudged aside in favor of celebratory kisses, which felt as though they had been intended to number up to twenty-five before the two of them reached something of a 'but how about we do this instead…' level, right up until…

"Happy birthday!" Sam's voice was heard – loudly – right before the previously expected confetti came out in a burst that blanketed them both. The deployment was followed by the sound of the boy's laughter as he disappeared back into the hall.

"You'll have to run pretty far for me not to catch you, Samuel!" Maya shouted.

"I love you, too, sis!" Sam shouted back. Lucas could only laugh, brushing confetti from the top of his fiancée's head.

Much as they would have loved to just forget about school, and work, and the whole world outside their house in general, they had to go. Lucas and Sam were school bound, while Maya was off to the theater. She had recently gotten to work with Lindsay Alcott up at the school once again, which had been just as wonderful as the Fall Festival had been. She would get to have another go of it, when spring came along, and she couldn't wait.

Before heading to the theater, she made her stop over for the usual coffee and treats, where she found someone had already paid off her order before she got there. There were a number of potential candidates for this act of birthday generosity, from those who would be receiving the items that weren't hers, but she had a sneaking suspicion this had been the work of her good man Huckleberry. Whoever it was, they sent the birthday girl off to work in an even greater mood.

Inside the theater, as she made her way to the office area, Maya crossed any number of her co-workers who either wished her a happy birthday in passing or stopped and embraced her, asked her how she felt now that she was 'a year older.' She tried not to look like all she wanted was to get to her office after a while, thanking each one with a some variation on 'same as yesterday.' When she finally reached her office, she now suspected that this had all been a ploy to stall her, the better to let her 'invaders' complete their work.

"Surprise!" Gracie gasped out, the first to see her, as she raised up both arms as high as they would to, each grasping a trio of colorful balloons. Almost at the same time, Haley turned from where she'd been shadowing Shawn's attempt to straighten up his side of the banner he and Katy were hanging over the wall behind the desk. The youngest Hunter went dashing over to her big sister, who barely had time to set down her things on Lily's desk before she was roped in by the two-year-old, soon followed by MJ and Nellie both, who had been hiding in wait. There was no point in continuing to hide, was there?

"Hi! Hey! Okay!" Maya laughed, grasping on to the open door to steady herself from the onslaught of small arms. Finding herself prisoner of so many arms was a happy trade off, when she could look down and see those four faces staring up at her like that. Sometimes, she did have to wonder if the age difference between them might not confuse things to some degree, like they didn't look at her – the younger two especially – as something like a third parent. If that was the case, then she counted herself more than up to the task. "What are you all doing here, don't you have school?" she asked, looking to the twins especially. As reasonable as the question was, it was asked also in a bid to give herself a moment to not feel so overwhelmed by the fact that they were all here, doing this for her.

"We are, but Daddy said it was okay," Nellie informed her, pointing back to Shawn, who gave his daughter a look like 'oh, you're ratting me out now?' which made Nellie laugh.

"I'm taking them there after we leave here," he specified now, as he and Katy came up to have their turn in greeting their eldest.

"I couldn't just let today pass by like any other birthday," Katy told her with that sort of smile that felt so much like a thread back to the past, to the days of just the two of them, on the road from New York to Texas.

For so long it had been for the most part something that was theirs alone, that time in their lives. When Shawn had come along, and Lucas, too, they had been taken into it all, though it couldn't be said that they understood it in the same way. Now… Now, the twins were getting to be old enough that they would get curious, that they would start and ask questions. It couldn't be helped, could it? They understood that Maya's father was not Shawn, not in the same way that he was their father. They knew that Maya's father had been Kermit, who was also Sam's father, and Cara's, Eliza's, Wyatt's… the same way that there was Abigail, who wasn't Maya's mother that way.

For all that knowledge, it was clear to see that they didn't understand the rest, through no fault of their own. But they wanted to know, so how were they going to tell them? What were they going to tell them?

After this quick surprise visit had been over, Shawn had taken off with the kids, Katy had gone on to her own office, and Maya had gotten to work in her cheerfully decorated space. Her siblings had wanted to make her office feel happy, to make the day go by while never forgetting that this was her special day, and later she would be able to tell them it had done exactly that.

"Your ride is here…" a sing-song voice caught her ear as she was cleaning up her desk and readying to leave. Looking up, Maya smiled to find Nadine leaning to the open door.

"Hey!" she picked up her bag and went around to greet her.

"Decorations are nice," Nadine pointed around the room.

"So were the decorators," Maya nodded with a grin.

"Happy birthday, Superstar," Nadine snatched her up into a hug that nearly tipped her off her feet, much to her enjoyment.

"Ugh, another one!" Maya dramatically complained as they trailed off down the hall toward the parking lot. "The last one just happened, I swear they're coming faster now…"

"If you want, we don't have to do anything tonight, I will just take the cake back home and eat the whole thing," Nadine shrugged.

"No no no, you're talking nonsense now," Maya waved her hand at her and Nadine laughed.

She was doing well enough now, even though those first few days after the turn of the year, after she and Zay had learned they weren't in fact having a baby yet, had been a bit hard to get through. There was a reason why they had intended to keep their trying a secret, and it was this right here, with the false hope, and having to burst all those balloons when they found out they hadn't achieved anything after all. Maya had just seen it in her friends' eyes, as much as they hated to have to tell the others, it was their own disappointment that felt expanded, every time they were denied. It had only been three months or so since they'd started, they had to be patient.

"Do I need to close my eyes? Are there blindfolds involved?" Maya asked as Nadine's car turned on to the lane.

"There was some debate, it got weirdly heated, and then they just decided that you should get to do whatever you want, so it's up to you. I'm not even sure if there's anything outside the house for you to… Oh, never mind…"

In what they would refer to as the Great Balloon Shortage of 2027, the house could be seen from far up the lane, so populated with the colorful globes as to give the impression it would take off at the slightest breeze and turn into the house from Up. Maya could not have closed her eyes if she tried, feeling herself tearing up at the sight of it all. Soon, she had her phone out to take pictures. She didn't have to wonder whose idea this way. She'd sort of forgotten all of it, how she and Riley, when they were little, had decided what they wanted on their twenty-fifth.

When her own mother had turned twenty-five, Maya was seven. It would be Katy's first birthday since Kermit had gone away, which only added to what she'd been hearing, where everyone seemed to be under the impression that this number was a Big Deal. Maya and Riley were still new friends at the time, but close enough that the question had turned to what they would want when they were that old. Clearly, it had to be an eternity away.

"Balloons. Lots of balloons. All the balloons." That had been her wish. She sort of recalled thinking how if she had all those colors around her, making her world so bright and alive… she could only have an equally colorful, bright, and lively day. And now here they were, and her prediction had been correct. The fact that Riley was here with her to celebrate this day, eighteen years later… oh, that meant so much, too.

"You remembered," she laughed and cried at the same time when she got her arms around her oldest friend.

"Of course I did," Riley replied, sounding much as she did. Within months, it would be her turn, her twenty-fifth, and Maya would remember that, too.

All those years ago, she doubted that her little self would have any idea just how many people would be there in the world, wanting to celebrate her birthday with her. Many of them were at the house that night, others could not be there in person, due to distance or availability, but even absent they made their presence known in one way or another, whether it was through a call, or a card, or a present. Not until all the guests had gone did she receive the last of these.

"Maya?" Sam went to find her, taking more pictures with her proper camera now.

"Yeah?" she asked, taking another shot before looking at him. There was an envelope in his hand, and without seeing anything more she knew exactly what it was. "Oh…" she breathed, leaving the camera to dangle around her neck before reaching over to take the envelope from him.

To Maya, on your 25th birthday

"Near the end, when he was starting to have more difficulty with… everything, he gave that to me, asked me to pass it on," Sam explained solemnly. Whether this was the only one he'd been entrusted with, she didn't think so, but she wasn't going to inquire any further. She preferred to wait and find out, for herself, for him, for the others.

"Thank you, Sam," Maya nodded. "Thank you." He nodded back, quiet as though he'd gone off into that old place in his head at the memory of their father. She knew it well, and she hugged her brother close, thankful every day that she got to know him, that he existed as a person in the world at all.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners