May 25th 2020

Chapter 146
Their Time in Legacy

Sometimes it still felt like so much of her life now had to be a dream. This had to be her thirteen-year-old self, back in her bed in New York, thinking about what it would be like to have a family beyond just her mother. She knew it wasn't, knew it was absolutely reality, and yet… How had she gone from having hardly anyone to now having so many people as to feel like she might lose count? All these brothers and sisters, parents given by blood or marriage, cousins, and aunts and uncles, grandparents, and one tiny great grandmother… If that wasn't enough, she was given a place on another tree or two, by virtue of her relationship with Lucas. Would there ever come a time where she didn't feel like she was an outsider looking in now and again?

After she'd run out of aunts and uncles and cousins to be introduced to, Maya had been left to contend with any number of family friends and acquaintances, each as curious as the last, and Lucas had taken her hand, giving her a look to quietly ask if she wanted to step outside and get some air. That was when she'd ended up having a chat with Betsy, just the two of them, after they'd gone out and just as soon felt like something to eat and drink. Lucas had gone to get those, and Betsy had come along… When Lucas had returned, with a plate and a couple of glasses deftly held in hand, Betsy had taken this as her cue to exit, but Lucas instead informed the both of them of a new arrival.

"I think it's your great grandmother," Lucas had told Maya, and at this Betsy had turned a smile toward her cousin's daughter that felt like 'oh, you are going to love this.'

"Fair warning," she'd told both Maya and Lucas as they'd walked around the house, "Her head's not as clear as it used to be. She's mostly alright, but sometimes she'll think you're someone else. Just go along with it."

"Got it," Maya had nodded.

As they had come back around the house, they had found Maya's grandfather walking down the house steps and toward a car which had pulled up near enough so as to reduce the distance for one of the passengers. While he'd opened the door to speak to the woman in the front, the driver had come out to retrieve a walker from the trunk. When it was unfolded and ready, it was placed in front of the open door, and Tanner and the driver helped the passenger emerge.

Great-grandmother Katherine, at ninety-nine years of age, had the look of one who would fit in your pocket, if you carefully scooped her up. She couldn't have been very tall to begin with, but age had curved her back so as to make her appear even shorter. As she was helped from the car, the impression was of someone who did not particularly care to be helped as though she needed it, but also someone who had gotten to the point where she had to admit that she actually needed that help, and so she had to suck it up and say thank you. Her appearance as a whole spoke of someone who both embraced her age but also found importance in maintaining her appearances.

"How's her heart, or… I mean, how's she going to react when she sees my mother?" Maya had asked Betsy. The last thing she wanted was to see the old woman drop dead from shock.

"If anything, I'd say it would do her heart some good," Betsy had reassured her at once. "Your mom was her first granddaughter, not for nothing she was named after her. From what I've heard over the years, from the Clutterbuckets, I think the two of them might have been a lot alike. The difference was that… your mother left. It would have been a different world when she was younger," Betsy nodded to the woman as she was helped up the steps. "There was really nowhere for her to go. But then she met someone who gave her all the reasons to want to stay. Her family is everything to her… she'll be so happy to meet you, too."

"And my mom…"

"Katherine lived with them until about fifteen years ago, when she moved down to the residence in Dallas. When I'd come over, when Katy and I were little, she'd refuse for us to just stay in the house and play. Go outside, go somewhere… We would run off and do it and be glad for it, wouldn't think much of it. Now I think she just wanted us to get some ideas about the world. She's kind of the reason we all ended up in New York."

"What do you mean?" Maya asked.

"Well, that's where she went, for her honeymoon. This would have been… 1950… and she fell in love with the city. She'd never left Arkansas up to that point, barely left town, and that stayed the same pretty much up until she went to live in Dallas. Anyway, she made a friend in New York, and the two of them stayed pen pals from that day on. And Katherine, she still loved the city so much. She had this whole cabinet of figurines, snow globes, thimbles, all these trinkets with some landmark or another. Anyway, the amount of time Katy and I spent out at the house, it was hard not to have New York on the brain."

Maya smiled at this, even as she thought of this one very old looking figurine of the Statue of Liberty her mother had on her dresser back home. She was almost sure now it had to have been a gift from her grandmother.

"How did she take it when my mom left?" she'd asked Betsy.

"Better than most, I'd say. When they were all looking for her, from what I've heard, she would just sort of… ask if there were news, and that would be that. And then when they found out that she was in New York, that she was safe, she looked… happy," Betsy smiled.

They had hurried to follow after the new arrivals, anxious not to miss this last reunion. The woman who had accompanied Katherine Clutterbucket from Dallas appeared to be a nurse from the residence where she lived, who had travelled along to be there with her throughout her stay in Arkansas. From what they gathered, this was her first time here, though there had been someone else before her who the family had grown to know very well. They were introducing themselves to her now like someone they expected to interact with a lot.

"Georgia would have loved to have her mom come and stay with her, but it wouldn't have been right to take her so far away from everyone else, so she compromised by getting her into the best home she could find. This was before I started coming back around, but I heard it took about five or six moves before everyone was happy and that's how she ended up in Dallas."

Maya watched her mother as they walked in, found her chatting with her new brother-in-law until he tapped her shoulder and nodded to where tiny Katherine was coming along. She watched as her mother's face shifted, spotting the old woman, recognizing her… She would have been seventy already, seventy-one, when Katy went away, and in her head she must have been convinced her grandmother was already dead. Somehow, it hadn't come up in conversation since she'd been here, that this was not the case. And now here she was, alive and… maybe not kicking, but certainly walking… She had approached her with almost that same caution her father had used when he'd approached her. Soon, Katherine had noticed her, and she'd watched her coming forward like she was trying to figure out who she was. She looked familiar, but she didn't know why.

"Nana…" Katy called her, standing just across from her walker now. Katherine looked up at her, the name just tugging at something in the back of her mind, and then curiosity turned to disbelief, like this couldn't possibly be… oh, but it was…

"Katy girl… That's you, isn't it… my Katy girl…"

"Yes, Nana," Katy was smiling, crying. Katherine scooted up just a bit closer, looking her over.

"You've grown," she declared. "And I've gotten smaller," she added after a beat. "How's New York?" It made Katy laugh.

"It's good, Nana. Just like your stories," she nodded. The fact that she hadn't lived there in nearly a dozen years was not important for now. The way she looked at her, and stole brief looks to where she saw Maya now, it was as though she was finally realizing what Georgia had already shown, seeing just how much her grandmother and her daughter looked alike.

Once Nana Katherine had gotten to the couch and sat down, keeping a close eye on 'her Katy girl' like she meant to ensure she would always know where she was, Katy had introduced the woman to Shawn, and the little Hunters. Nellie was chatty as ever, excited at the prospect of a new grandparent and even more so at the novelty of this being a great grandparent. When MJ heard this, he took it to mean that this person was really nice, and so he liked her immediately. Meanwhile, Gracie had never met an old person she didn't like or couldn't charm, and Nana Katherine was no exception. Haley was the only one who looked mildly uncertain at first, though she'd watch the woman with clear awe and interest.

"Nana, this is my first one, my baby girl," Katy told her grandmother, as Maya came forward. When Katherine looked up at her, she let out a short sort of gasp, reaching out a bony little hand toward her, which Maya carefully took in her own as she took a seat next to her.

"I know you…" Katherine whispered, emotion in her clear eyes. Maya felt her own eyes were possibly tearing up. This was not her being recognized for the band or anything like that. She was like a memory, crossing wires in her great grandmother's mind. She could see her now, reasoning with herself, trying to convince herself that the young woman at her side was not who she thought she was. "Now, what's your name, dear?"

"Maya," she smiled, and Nana Katherine nodded.

"Like the bee…"

"The very one," Maya nodded.

"I want a tiny granny…" Sophie sighed, hearing the tale of their meeting. Maya, Lucas, and Katy had since gone up to Dallas to visit her once, at the same time getting a feel of things for when Katy would be here for her new play. There had been calls, and the promise of more visits. And there was the wedding… She could not wait to go to the wedding.

"She's pretty great," Maya smiled. "You put her in a good place, yeah?"

"Right next to me," Sophie joked.

"Your table is getting crowded now," Maya teased.

"We'll squeeze in, it'll be cozy. Hey, so, you never said, what's up with Randall's plus one?"

"Oh," Maya laughed. "Well, I told you about Nana Kat's nurse, didn't I? Well, once the family was there with her, she was going to leave, but my grandparents insisted she could stay. And then after a while, she and Randall started talking… and talked some more… Word is, some numbers were exchanged, calls were made, and according to Regan, a first date is imminent."

"Alright, Randall," Sophie cheered, which made Maya laugh once again. "Is that it then? No more new people?"

"I think you're forgetting a few," Maya told her, taking up the last two envelopes.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners