May 17th 2020

Chapter 138
Their Invitation to Meet

The closer they had gotten to the date of their departure for Arkansas, Maya could not shake the feeling that this trip had the potential of being a total disaster. Her mother, determined as she was to go through with this, would only get more and more anxious at the thought of returning to this place she had run from and never returned to, not in nearly thirty years. All this time and she had been a ghost to most of her family. Even Betsy, precious Betsy, had been lost along the way, out of some self-preservation effort Katy had enacted three years onward.

"I keep getting this image like we'll show up out there and she'll have changed her mind," Lucas declared as they drove toward the airport after dropping Sam off at school.

"Well, your mom texted to let me know my parents just dropped the kids off at her house. She's driving the twins and MJ off to school, and then she's taking Haley on a 'girls' day' at the mall," Maya chuckled. "She's never going to give her back, is she?"

As uncertain as they had been over whether or not Katy would be good to go, she was there, at the airport, with Shawn, and in no time they were boarding their flight. A short debate had landed Maya in the seat next to her mother, while Shawn went and sat behind them, with Lucas. After seeing her through takeoff, Maya had put all her efforts into keeping her mother relaxed, finding a movie to keep her focused on something other than her impending return home. They had come upon a horror movie, which could have felt like the wrong thing, but really turned out to be the best.

Upon landing, with luggage in tow, they stopped to eat before getting their rental car and continuing on toward Katy's hometown. Shawn drove, with his wife in the passenger seat, while Maya and Lucas took to the back. The radio was on, which was just as well, as no one really spoke. They all wanted to give Katy the space to prepare herself, to take in her surroundings, to remember. In the back, Maya could only look out the window, too. This was where her mother had grown up, the first fifteen years of her life. This was the place she had been so desperate to leave. Maya had to guess that the place had changed over near on three decades, but for what she saw now, she had to wonder if it was a case of 'if this is the way it looks now, what did they even have then?' or 'so it's small, and very different from everywhere else I've been, but is that a bad thing?'

"So, what's the plan?" Shawn asked, as they pulled into the lot of the small hotel where they would be spending the next two nights. It was Friday, the anniversary wasn't until the next day, but what were they supposed to do? Were they only going to head to the house in time for the party, or were they going to go out there now, to say hello ahead of time rather than popping up out of the blue?

"I don't think you get how small this place is," Katy shook her head. "By the time we've checked in and gone out to the house, they'll know we're here. People talk."

They got proof enough of this as they got out of the car and pulled their bags from the trunk. Heading toward the hotel, Maya and Lucas both could see people walking by, watching them, talking to one another… Not many strangers around here, were there? Then, at the check in desk, the man behind the counter took one look at Katy and recognized her, announced himself as Clinton Frye. Katy had recognized him, too, and explained to the three with her that Clint had been a classmate of hers and also a neighbor.

"I had a feeling this was you, when I saw the reservation, but I didn't want to believe it. It has been so long, oh, people thought maybe you'd died. Rumor around school was that your daddy had done you in, buried you at the bottom of the well." After a beat – and after seeing the baffled looks of his guests – Clinton cleared his throat and looked to the computer. "Alright, two rooms, you're all set, here are your keys," he pulled these from a board on the wall behind him and slid them across the desk. Even as he did so, his eyes fell to Maya, back to Katy, and to Maya again. Another pull of his courteous smile, and he disappeared back into the office.

"Well, he hasn't changed," Katy went ahead and broke the silence, leading the way up the stairs to find their rooms.

Shawn: I think we'll wait an hour before going to the house. If you two want to go around for a while, we'll be here.

Maya: Okay, we won't go far.

"She's not ready, is she?" Lucas guessed, as hung up his suit in the closet.

"We've been here not ten minutes and things have already been extra weird, can you blame her?" Maya sighed, slipping her phone back in her pocket before getting back to her own unpacking.

"Not one bit. What do you want to do?"

"Conflicted as I am after the way things started, I guess I just need to push on, right?" Maya looked to him, and Lucas nodded. "Want to go for a walk?"

They hadn't exactly snuck out of the hotel, but they had definitely done their very best not to run into Clinton Frye again. The guy had definitely put two and two together and figured out where she fit into this picture, and all he needed was a chance and she'd find herself interrogated about every aspect of her life and her mother's life…

It was hard for Maya to put into words what it felt like to be in this place. Walking along, hand in hand with Lucas, she would be thinking about her mother being out here as a kid, as a teenager seeking to be anywhere else… It wasn't as though the town was bad, it was just… plain, so plain. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, not if you liked a quiet life, not unless you needed so much more…

"I could see you living here…" Maya declared, and Lucas chuckled, looking at her.

"Just me? Where are you?"

"Oh, I don't know if I could say the same for myself, not yet, but that doesn't mean there isn't a very sort of… Huckleberry quality to it, which does give it some extra appeal," she smirked at him.

"Huh…" he nodded, making her laugh. Seeing a store sign up ahead, she stalled and tapped Lucas' arm. "What?" he asked, looking to where she was looking. "Do you just have a homing beacon in you with these things?" Lucas wondered, while Maya tugged at his hand so he'd follow her closer to the music store.

"That's one change at least," she smiled. "Mom said the nearest music store was in the next town over. She and Betsy used to hitch rides out there with her cousin Randall. I wonder how long it's been open." Lucas didn't need to be told this meant she wanted to go inside; it was as good as guaranteed as soon as she'd seen the sign.

It wasn't the biggest as far as floor space, but it reminded them of Willow's grandparents and their own music store, back in Houston. The setup and the care given to the selection suggested that whoever owned it cared very much to share something that was a passion project.

"Hi there, welcome to Olsen's," they were greeted by a man who couldn't have been much older than either of them. Lucas could see Maya's ease increase. The younger they were, the least likely they were to fall into the gossip trap, right? He wouldn't have ever known anything of Runaway Katy. "Passing through?" the man guessed.

"For the weekend, yeah," Maya told him, and maybe she'd thought too soon, or there was just very little anyone in town didn't know about the social calendar.

"Here for the party up at Clutterbucket farm?" he asked. He didn't give her the interrogation feel that Clinton Frye had done, more like he just sought to confirm what was his best guess.

"Uh, yeah," she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

"Yeah, I should have known, I mean look at you," he smiled, which left both Maya and Lucas puzzled as he turned and called up the back of the store. "Hey, Charlie! Think this one's one of yours!"

"One of my what?" a woman's voice was heard calling back, even as a small girl came poking her head out before dashing over to the man, who hoisted her up into his arms. She couldn't have been more than three, holding a small toy guitar like a teddy bear.

"I don't know, cousin, I guess," he replied before turning to his confused customers. "Hey, David," he held out his hand in introduction. Blinking, Maya clasped his hand and shook it.

"Maya," she introduced herself. "My fiancé, Lucas," she pointed to him.

"Nice to meet you both, and this one here is Caitlin, say hi, bub," he poked the small girl's cheek, making her smile.

"Hiiii," Caitlin trailed off, looking down to her guitar.

"Don't be shy, it's alright," the woman finally came from the back, at the steady pace guided by the belly leading the way, suggesting little Caitlin couldn't have been more than weeks away from becoming a big sister.

Maya saw her, and she had to agree with David here. There was no way the two of them were not related. Charlie saw this as well, and she met this realization with growing curiosity.

"Charlene Olsen, hi," she offered her hand as well, and Maya shook it, Lucas following suit. "But please, call me Charlie."

"Sure," Maya nodded. "I love your store."

"Oh, thank you," Charlie nodded. "Well, it was David's father's store first, opened back when he and I were kids, then we bought it, right after we got married," she explained.

"So that explains that then," Lucas turned to Maya, who nodded along.

"Explains what?" David inquired.

"Oh, just that my mom grew up here, and there was no music store back then," Maya explained. Would she have stuck around if there was?

"Who's your mother?" Charlie asked, clearly still trying to locate her on the family tree.

"Katy," Maya told her, unsure what surname to provide at this point, but maybe she didn't have to. The moment she'd said the name, recognition had flashed over both Charlie and David's faces. He looked surprised; she looked properly shocked, enough that her husband set their girl back on the ground and stepped up to her like he wanted to know that she was alright.

"So, not a cousin then," David smiled back at them. Neither Maya nor Lucas understood what that was supposed to mean, but then Charlie stepped up and took hold of both of Maya's hands, a tremulous smile on her freckled face.

"I didn't think she'd come, I just… I took a chance. Betsy called and said how she'd tracked her down, had her address. So I just grabbed one of the invitations and fixed it up myself. I know it was reckless, but I figured this was as good of a chance as any to finally meet her, if she came… She's here, isn't she? She's with you?"

"Uh… yeah… yeah, back at the hotel," Maya responded, more on reflex than anything, as she stared at this woman, who had to be near to her own age, too. "You sent the invitation?"

"I did, yeah," Charlie nodded, with a smile as good as identical to Katy's. "I just wanted to meet my sister…"

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners