June 7th 2020

Chapter 159
Their Progress Toward Evolution

"Good morning," Siobhan paused with a smile as she found Maya sitting in the front row of the empty theater. She walked through here, every morning when she came into work, like clockwork, always with this look in her eyes like maybe she was remembering some production they'd put on, some performance she had witnessed… Knowing this, Maya had made sure to arrive ahead of her on Tuesday morning, to be here when she passed by. "Doing a bit of morning contemplation?"

"I was waiting for you actually," Maya told her. "Do you have a minute? Or a few?" Siobhan looked at her for a moment, like she'd flicked on whatever part of her was more mom than theater owner, the part who'd known this young woman nearly half as long as she'd been alive.

"Is everything alright?" she asked, taking a seat next to her.

"Oh, yeah, it's nothing bad, I just need to talk to you about something. Actually, I meant to talk to you last Thursday, but I didn't get to, and then yesterday…"

"Why didn't you just call me over the weekend, or at home?"

"I… didn't even think of that," Maya blinked.

"Well, I'm here now, and I'm all yours, so… what can I do for you?" Siobhan sat up, motioning to her, and Maya smiled. She could still remember the first time she'd met the woman, how she'd felt that immediate and inexplicable connection you'd get in meeting some people, when they were just that kind. With Siobhan there had always been that added layer of being a creative person, like she was.

"Right, well, when I was at the high school last week, helping Lindsay Alcott for the prom," Maya started, and Siobhan nodded. "The principal was there, and he wanted to talk to me. The reason they needed my help over there was that their art teacher quit, very suddenly. The year's almost done, so they're getting by for the remainder of it, but now they were seeing applicants to fill the position and… he wanted to know if I might be interested."

"Tell me you said yes," Siobhan reached out and touched her hand, the look on her face possibly not so far off from the one her own mother was likely to give, once she finally found out. To have it come from Siobhan now, Maya felt some of her concerns dissipate. She had dreaded telling her, dreaded the possibility that things might be thrown in shambles between them, and now that they sat here, she didn't know how she could ever have believed she would receive anything but support.

"I had the interview yesterday," Maya nodded. "I really wanted to talk to you before, to tell you before I went in there," she added at once. Siobhan waved this off; she didn't mind.

"How did it go?" she asked instead.

The question brought her back to the moment when she'd come home the day before. She'd ended up falling asleep on the couch, after lying there to just… breathe, and not allow herself to fall in the trap of reviewing every second of the time she'd spent in that office until she'd find out one way or another about the outcome. When she'd woken up again, she could hear Sam and Cecilia in the kitchen, probably working on dinner, and there was Lucas' face overhead. He'd looked back to ensure the others wouldn't be listening in before crouching next to her and asking about the interview.

"I think it went pretty good," she nodded. "Not that it means I got it. I'm sure a lot of the other applicants were good, too, better even, with experience. When I was in there, it was like I turned off that part of my brain, I was just focused on the interview, but now that I have to wait it's all been turned back on and put on full blast," she gestured at her head.

"Call it favoritism, but I don't see how they could find anyone better suited for it than you," Siobhan declared with a firm nod that made Maya laugh, her heart thudding happily in her chest.

"But what happens if I do get it," she finally had to ask, getting them to the proper reason why she'd needed to speak with her boss.

"Well," Siobhan sat up in her seat, not so much switching caps strictly back to boss mode but maybe halfway from one to the other. "I would recommend perhaps that we wait until we know exactly what your schedule will look like, should you get the job. There's no reason to disrupt things as they are for the time being. I brought you on here to see after the Stage Ready program, and that has been yours from inception. I would never dream of taking it away from you. It really would not be the same without your guiding hand, Maya," Siobhan smiled, and Maya felt ready to cry, seeing once again how ready people were to show this appreciation for her work, in one place or another.

"If I do get the job, I don't see how much time I'd be able to spend at the theater… if any…" Between actual class time, and then preparations for those classes, and everything else in between…

"You might consider your assistant," Siobhan told her. "She's been with you practically from the beginning, hasn't she?"

"She has, yeah," Maya nodded. Lily had been indispensable in helping her bring Stage Ready from an idea on a page to what it was now.

"I would say the two of you should get together on this, come up with a plan on how to go forward and then bring it to me. From that point, we will see what we will do. How does that sound?"

"Like… we can definitely do that," Maya breathed.

"Excellent," Siobhan smiled, motioning for her to lean over and hug her. "Now breathe a little, you look like you're scared of me. I'm not scary, am I?" she asked, pulling back.

"I don't know, there were a couple of Halloweens when you let out your inner villain," Maya smirked, which made her boss laugh. "It's not that I was scared. For almost as long as I can remember, there have just been people who've come into my life, who've been… unwavering in making it better… And the last thing I would ever want would be to let any of them down, and this just felt like that, right here, for me and you, not just because of Stage Ready but all this time you've been in our lives…" If it wasn't for Siobhan hiring her mother to work at the theater, all those years ago, their lives would have been so, so different.

"You know, I was your age when I took over this place from my father," Siobhan pointed about the room, turning a smile to Maya, who couldn't help but blink. Somehow, even though she'd known for a long time just how long Siobhan had been in charge here, she'd never stopped to put it into context like that. "This place was his dream, and he put everything he had into it. My mother had passed away before I could even remember her, and it was just me and Dad, all my life. He'd say the theater was his dream, but I was his miracle. He sacrificed so much, for this place, and for me, so much so that it just about killed him in the end, made it so I took over for him.

"When your mother called about the job, she told me how it was just the two of you. Actually, after a while she practically told me your whole life story, you and her. She'd been looking for new opportunities for you both, back in New York, and nothing was panning out. But then it turned out that the woman who had the job before her was an old friend from acting class…" Maya had heard the story, about how she'd heard about the job at least. "Listening to your mother on the phone, there was just something about her… I understood exactly where she was coming from, because that was just how my father was. So, I took a chance, for your sake as much as hers."

Maya didn't know what to say. She remembered though… She remembered the first time her mother had brought her into the theater, and she'd met Siobhan. She had been so immediately kind to her, and looking back on it with this story in mind, she could just see how important it had been to Siobhan, too, to meet both of them, because she had been where Maya was. And now, today, the thought that she would get to do this job she had wanted to do for so long… Of course Siobhan would be right there with her to find a way, to continue nurturing this project of hers and all the while get to go after that dream.

Maybe for that unseen connection between them, Siobhan had quickly pieced together the fact that Maya had not yet told her mother about this job opportunity, and the reason behind it. Her advice here was simple: Go and tell her.

"Principal Wilcox said I should know within a week, I'll just…" Maya shrugged, tried to tiptoe around, but Siobhan held her gaze, and the words were still there in her eyes. "I don't want to get her hopes up until there's something…"

"Or you don't want to disappoint her more than anyone," Siobhan suggested knowingly. "Because of everything she's done for you." Maya sighed. "That is just the reason why she'd want you to tell her, why she'd want to wait with you, why she'll be with you no matter whether you get it or not."

Maya had parted ways with Siobhan as they'd reached her office. As she continued down the hall toward her own office, Maya would have to pass by her mother's door, and with her boss' words swirling through her head, there was just no chance for her to just walk by. And of course she would have stopped anyway, to say hello, so instead of just popping her head in or knocking at the small window and making a funny face, Maya had walked in and shut the door.

"Good morning," Katy smiled. "What's…"

"So, I have news…" Maya started, before launching into the story of Wednesday and the prom decoration session at the high school, which had led to her talking with the principal, and what he'd said about her, all boiling down to The Big Thing. "He asked if I would be interested in applying for the job, and I said yes, and then yesterday I did the interview, and now I'm just… waiting for the call to know if it's all going to happen or not, and I'm just… maybe freaking out… a little bit… which is to say a lot…" she breathed out, before starting again. "And I know I haven't said anything about it the last few days, I just wanted to wait until I knew, but then I had to tell Siobhan, because she's my boss, and she made a lot of great points, and so I'm here, and…"

"Breathe?" Katy suggested. Maya did as told, while her mother got up from her desk and came around to join her. "How did the interview go?" she smiled. "Tell me everything, set the scene for me."

For a good hour, Maya sat with her mother, recounting her interview and her encounter with Cory Matthews right before it. By the time she left the office, she was feeling so many things. A lot of it was nerves, still, though talking with her mother seemed to have pulled some of that away. Some of it was feeling how much their relationship had grown over the years, until she found herself here, an adult like her mother. And some of it was feeling more than ever a connection to Siobhan Hughes and this theater. She would find a way… She was not ready to leave this place.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners