August 7th 2020

Chapter 220
Their Blaze of Losses

It was late enough by the time Maya and Lucas left the house on their way to the hospital that they could have made record time, with smooth sailing the whole way. The ride had been quiet all along as they went, and Maya was left to wonder what might have been going through her husband's mind. His father's call had come as such a shock, and even though that was to be expected, with the news he was given, she had not foreseen the level to which it would affect him. It was as though all this time his parents had felt contained in this safety bubble, where nothing could touch them, and now… now something had touched them, hurt them.

"Wait," he spoke, so unexpectedly that she'd been startled by the sound of his voice. "Sorry…" he added, upon her reaction.

"It's fine," she promised him. "What is it?"

"I need to make a detour real quick," he told her, and he didn't need to add more for her to know where he wanted to go.

He needed to see it. He just needed to. They wouldn't be stopping anywhere once they'd picked up his parents, so he just had to get his peek while he could. So, they made the detour, Maya turning up the speed just enough to stay within limits while getting them there quicker.

As they approached, the image was just a bit contradictory. The front of the house looked entirely untouched, like nothing had happened. But then everything around it clearly showed that something had happened, that the firefighters had been here, doing whatever they had to do to control the situation.

They got out of the car, approaching the house with what felt like inappropriate caution. They were walking like they were headed to a haunted mansion, abandoned, scary… But they weren't, were they? They were going to his house, his parents' house, site of so many adolescent memories for her, and for him… This was the place he'd grown up, from the day he was born until he'd moved to Houston for college. It, like his parents, was meant to be something solid. From the front, it was.

They didn't go into the house, didn't know what to expect, and as it was the door was sort of cordoned off. Instead, they walked around the side of the house. The closer they got to the kitchen windows, the illusion of normalcy felt as though it was wearing off. They'd been boarded up, and there were shards of glass cracking under their feet as they moved along. When they tried to look through some of the windows which remained intact, it was almost impossible to see a single thing. It was so dark outside, and there were no lights on inside. Even with the flashlights on their phones, they got very little. The back door was boarded up, too, as though there was anything at all that would make them want to go inside. Maya could only speak for herself, but it gave her chills.

"We should go, they'll be waiting for us," Lucas spoke quietly as he turned away from his childhood home to return to the car.

"Hey, hey, hold on," Maya caught his hand, just managing to get in front of him. She set her hand to his chest, her words existing in her eyes. Breathe. Lucas looked back at her, and though he could not think of what to tell her, he pulled her into his arms, and that was enough. She held him as he held her, and they gave themselves a minute before finally getting back to the car and continuing on their way to the hospital.

It wasn't so much of a detour that they wouldn't have been here just a couple minutes earlier if they'd gone right from the house to the ER. When they came up after parking the car, they found Thomas and Melinda sitting on a bench just outside. Of all the images they might have conjured in their minds as to what the two of them might look like when they arrived, it was hard to place the one they got.

To have known Melinda Friar now for nearly half her lifetime, Maya had always known the woman to feel very tall, and vibrantly joyful. Sure, there had been a few times where that mood had been challenged, like the day of the accident with her and Lucas, and the time Pappy Joe had been hurt… This was different though, and for obvious reasons. On those occasions, the people she cared about had been put in harm's way, and it was not something she wanted to see, but then as frightening as hat initial incident was, once it was over she could move directly into caretaking mode, and then the buoyant Melinda would have control. Today… Today, she had been the one hurt, the one left to carry this trauma, and it left her just… small, and quiet, and so unlike the woman who now demanded to be called Mom by her daughter-in-law, and who sought so indiscreetly to be called Grandma.

Meanwhile, sitting next to her, Thomas Friar looked… Well, to be honest, he looked the most like his son than Maya had ever seen him. It was as though father and son had left the posts where they normally stood and were brought to meet in the middle by this event. Lucas' father had always had this sort of impressive air to him, the kind that might make some unsuspecting stranger believe that this man was hard, and all about rules and disciplines and business. Sure, some of that was true, sometimes, but that wasn't the whole picture, and it certainly wasn't the heart of the image. Thomas Friar was the man his son had always aspired to be, and Maya could vouch for his successes, every day of her life since she was thirteen years old. This whole family had become so vital to her, the moment she'd met them, and now she was a part of it, and now… Now here was this man, sitting by his wife, so focused on her as to not realize his son and daughter-in-law had arrived.

"Mom, Dad…" Lucas spoke, and they both looked up at once. A light came on in Melinda's face, a flicker strong enough to lift her to her feet, the better to pull the pair of them into her arms. Lucas and Maya both hugged her as fiercely as she did them, showing how much they had worried for her. She said nothing, and like Lucas earlier, she didn't have to. The tremor in her said enough, it said 'it was so horrible, I was so scared, I'm so glad you're here now.' "Are you alright?" Lucas asked, his voice cracking as he found himself having to be the one to comfort his mother, when she had done it for him so many times before. He rose to the task as they would always expect him to.

"Of course, sweetheart," she spoke, almost on reflex. Her tone had difficulty selling it, even as her voice came rough. They knew she'd taken in some smoke, and here it showed in a painful way.

"Are you sure?" Maya had to ask. "Maybe they should keep you overnight, so they can keep an eye on you in case…" Melinda looked to her, touched her cheek. Maya leaned into the touch, looking at her, truly, as a mother.

"Yes, I'm sure, honey," Melinda nodded.

"Let me get you to the car," Lucas told her, and Maya split off from the group hug to let them go. She could tell Lucas wanted to see to his father as well, but then even Mr. Friar would have wanted them to do the same. Now Maya turned to her father-in-law, and getting a look at him, she noticed for the first time the bandages covering both of his hands, possibly part of his arms.

"Are you… Is it okay if I hug you right now?" she asked, indicating his hands and the rest of him as though to ask if he was hurt anywhere else.

"Let's risk it," Thomas nodded, and that was all she needed to hear. She hugged the man just as she'd done his wife a moment before, and he gave as good as he received.

"How bad are they? Your hands, your…" she asked, when they pulled back.

"Oh, well," he looked down, lifting his arms, wincing some. "Can't really point so well, but the right one goes nearly to the elbow, and the left one hardly made the wrist. It's really not as bad as it looks," he insisted. "It'll heal."

"You know, I have known your son long enough to know, down to a hair, when he's putting on a brave face and hiding behind it? I've also known you long enough to know where he got it… Dad…" she gave him a pointed look. As much as her words were shaped like a reprimand, it acted instead as the means to pull a laugh from him, a true one, with its own brand of healing.

"Nothing gets by you," Thomas Friar guessed, as they started to walk back to the car to rejoin the others.

"I'll give you a pass for tonight, but don't think this conversation is over."

"Yes, ma'am."

Lucas had considered bringing the car closer, rather than to have his mother walk, but when he'd asked her if she wanted him to do that, she'd shaken her head. She wanted to walk, wanted to breathe the air. It wasn't so cold tonight, which was good. He'd already shuffled off his jacket and slipped it over her shoulders. Neither she nor his father looked to have gotten their hands on anything to put over themselves after what happened at the house. She was still in what could only be described as a Melinda Friar Christmas Classic, with reds and greens and golds… It had started out that way at least, until the fire, and now it had grown dull and gray in places, possibly burnt in places. Suddenly Lucas was having to realize that their holidays would have to be altered in consequence, if they happened at all.

His mother didn't speak as they walked. She held to his arms like a lifeline though, and that was all he needed to know. When they finally reached the car, he settled her into the front passenger seat. Part of him wanted to get in next to her, but he knew they might be better off if Maya drove again. At least it would give him a chance to be by his father's side. When the two of them arrived, Maya walked around to take her place, while Lucas looked to his father, seeing the bandages for the first time as well.

"Can you get in alright?" he asked, after quickly getting the back door open.

"I believe so," Thomas went and lowered himself to the seat before swivelling his feet in, keeping his hands from pressing down in any way. "Can I trouble you to buckle me in?" he looked up, just a bit humbled. Lucas obliged without a word, finally closing the door and going around the other side. Once he was seated and buckled up, Maya took the car out of the lot and back on the road home.

"How bad is it? Your hands, you…" Lucas asked his father.

"It'll heal, son," Thomas nodded to him, even as his look travelled to the rear view mirror, and his daughter-in-law's brief but pointed look. "We can talk it all over once we get... to your home," he course-corrected his response.

"Our home," Lucas told him, as once again they found themselves with new lodgers, for however long they would require it. "Yours before it was mine."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners