December 27th 2020

Chapter 362
Their Moment of Memory

For Start Tour – Day 22 – Show 13 – Athens, Greece

More and more, her afternoon naps got to feel in every way indispensable. Her involvement in the shows may have been absolutely as low impact as it could, but it was still enough that, by the end of it, she would be wiped out and generally dead to the world the next day, if she didn't go into it already as rested as possible. Something about being up there, with the lights, and the sounds, and the energy of the crowd spread about as far as the eye could see that just demanded something out of her as she either sat or stood there, singing. Add to it all the traveling, and all the shows which had recently preceded the one they were giving now…

This one was definitely going better than the last one had done. Oh, as far as the people out there would know, she'd given as good of a show as she had done before and would do after. But she hadn't slept that afternoon. Instead, she'd been on a Skype call with the little Hunters back in Austin. They'd had a couple days now without their parents and, as much as they loved having their grandparents there, truly… they just missed their mother and father, and they missed their big sister and their brother-in-law, and because they knew there was next to nothing they could do to make it better, it made them feel like they didn't know what to do, and so their longing felt heavier for it.

Maya was in about the best position to understand what they felt, and so she'd spent that afternoon talking to each of them in turn, doing her best, either by herself or with Lucas, or Cara, or Shae, to make Nellie, Gracie, MJ, or Haley feel as though the distance had faded away into nothingness and they were all there, together again. It had been the one and only thing for her to do, despite knowing the consequences.

And so she'd gotten on stage that night, and on the whole the 'stage effect' took hold and she was good all through the show. When it was over though, all she could think to do was get to the hotel, to her room, and to her bed. She really only had vague recollections, if any at all, of leaving the hotel the next morning and getting on their flight to Greece.

"I really didn't want to get that face on you," she'd sighed, waking up shortly before they landed. Lucas was looking back at her, asking if she'd slept alright, but his eyes just said 'maybe they were right, maybe it's too much.' "I'm feeling a lot better now, better than better. And I learned my lesson. Naps, always naps," she'd promised.

"Yeah?" he'd asked, his hand at her belly.

"The second I thought I was heading down the way of doing anything to put her in danger, our butts would be on a plane back to Texas, no half-measures," she'd vowed, holding his gaze, and it had tugged an inescapable chuckle out of him before bringing him to press a kiss to her forehead and then her lips.

Even standing backstage tonight, waiting to go up, she could feel the difference. The last show had been held together on little more than stage willpower, but not this time, and never again. They were heading into a string of back-to-back nights. Two on, one off, two on, one off, two on… and none of them in the same countries. She couldn't say how much of those places she'd get to see, other than hotels, airports, and their show venues, but there was something like a consolation prize in that she had been to many of these places before. Sure, it had been about eight years since then, but it would be good enough.

Every night that was a show night, when it would all be over, Maya would be rejoined backstage by Lucas and the girls, and they would head on back to the hotel together. When this show ended and she went and found them, she could still see concern at the back of their eyes, and she had to wonder how bad she must have looked the last time. Dr. Jill had examined her earlier that day though, on Maya's request, and she'd assured her that all was well.

She felt a whole world better though, and maybe she looked it, too, because the worries soon faded away. They went back to the hotel, discussing the night's show, as they usually did. Maya would have liked to go to the pool, just briefly before bed and mostly just to dip her feet, but it was closed, so Lucas had helped her compromise by drawing the bath in their room. She sat on the edge, and then he did, too, and they swished their feet about in the water.

"Do you ever stop to think about everywhere we've been in the last three weeks?" Maya asked, dragging her big left toe through the water like a witch stirring at her cauldron. "And really I just mean how crazy it is that we're not even halfway through."

"I kind of do," Lucas nodded and smiled. "A lot of these places, I never thought I'd ever get to go, even if it was just for a day, barely that."

"Should I have put our names on the sign, too?" Maya wondered. Like 'Lucas, Maya, and Marianne Friar were here!'"

"Seeing as she's inside you, it's kind of implied that if she's there then so are you?" Lucas smiled anyhow. Maya laughed.

"Good point."

"I kind of like the sign the way it is," he added.

"Yeah, me, too," she breathed. There were several more stickers now, some of them more like pieces of paper taped or glued down when they couldn't find stickers, but all the flags were there, from Australia down to Greece today.

"We should hang it in the nursery when we're back."

X

For Start Tour, Day 26 – Traveling day, Poland to Sweden

By now, travel days had become so much of a habit. But with this next stretch of days where they would sometimes have show days, and travel days, but also travel days which were also show days, the strictly travel days were proving to be the most relaxed of them all. Packing away, taking off, flying, landing, and a quiet rest of the day… It would all depend whether this meant the quartet stayed at the hotel, or Maya stayed behind while the others went out, or they all went for a bit of sightseeing together.

It was a tough call to say what tonight would look like, after they arrived in Sweden. The tour was just coming off of one show in Romania, followed by another in Poland the very next night, and Maya had more or less boarded the plane and settled right down to nap. They were supposed to go and visit Kayla and Will at their new place though, so maybe she just wanted to make sure she'd be good to go by the time they got there.

It felt like something of a small miracle that they got to touch base with some of their people along the way, first with Georgie and Toph back in Brisbane, but now especially with their recently relocated friends. Who knew how long it might have been before they all got to see each other again otherwise?

By the time they landed, it became clear that it would be just the two of them headed up to find Kayla and Will. As they had learned, Peter Sutcliffe had spent a good part of his adolescence out in Sweden and he still had enough of a connection to the country that they came back, him and Ree and Christina, whenever they got the chance. Now, Christina Sutcliffe wanted to get to show Cara and Shae around some of her favorite places, and so the girls would be tagging along with the girl and her parents, much to everyone's delight.

After having checked in at the hotel, they had called for a car and were on their way to see their friends. For having known about the pregnancy, and seen plenty of evidence of it in photos and video calls in the past several weeks, Kayla greeted her now former bandmate's arrival with the energy of one who was discovering it all for the first time, embracing Maya, setting her hands to her growing belly, all the while growing overwhelmed with feelings of joy for her friends. Having them there, like this, might have called up feelings of missing home, back in Texas, and for that Maya and Lucas both could easily sympathize.

Kayla would be the first of present and past TXNY members who would get to see the show, and Maya debated with herself whether she should mention her discreet letter signs at the start of the show or let her find them the following night. In the end, she didn't so much decide not to tell her as she forgot until after they'd returned to the hotel.

Not unlike when the Hart-Lanes had joined them back in Japan, it felt so good to see familiar faces that they had gotten lost in conversation. Maya and Lucas talked about the tour so far, and about the pregnancy and their own perspectives as they advanced toward welcoming their baby girl, while Kayla and Will shared their adventures in moving out to their new home, unpacking and settling in, familiarizing themselves with their new neighborhood, making friends…

"It never occurred to us that we should have maybe had the wedding before we moved out here. It was all so fast, and we had to get ready to go. Now we're here, and we can't imagine making everyone fly out here for us to have the wedding, but we don't know about going back to have it back in Texas either," Kayla told Maya when it had been just the two of them. Will was seeing to dinner prep, and Lucas had offered to help. "We might only fly our families out here and have a very small ceremony," Kayla went on, looking moderately sad but mostly worried that Maya would feel in any way upset for being left out.

"You should do what feels right," Maya told her at once. "Even if we're not here in person, we can always find a way. We'll still be with you." Kayla's smile, followed by the hug she gave, spoke as strongly as any sign. Oh, she had missed her friend so much.

"We will really need to find the time for a visit sometime in November or December," Kayla made sure to note, making Maya laugh and nod at once. Marianne had to meet all her aunts and uncles, both near and recently far away.

The next night, as they would return to the hotel and head swiftly to bed, the better to get a good sleep before they flew off to Germany, Maya would receive a very long and all caps filled text from Kayla, giving hers and Will's impressions of the Stockholm show. Of the entire message, which came broken down in several chunks, Maya was most glad to discover that her friends had indeed spotted the letter signs to her hip as she'd taken the stage. She had a feeling this would make its way back to Texas, for the rest of the band to find out, too, but as it turned out, the ship had already sailed. Someone way back at the New Zealand show had spotted the signs, and others who had attended shows along the tour stops had come to look out for that covert little nod to the band when she would step out on the stage.

X

For Start Tour – Day 30 – Show 18 – Milan, Italy

Maya took many more memories than her old humbling standard along with her as she stood in wait of her cue that night. She thought of this morning, the start of their day in Italy.

They'd spent their evening out here, after arriving from their trek out of Munich, and though they would return to the hotel room early enough, they could not escape taking a stroll around with Cara and Shae, who had been looking forward to being here, easily their top spot of the European leg of the tour. Even after they had returned, they'd had a great little evening, with the nice breeze from the open windows, and the room itself, which was really one of the most stunning they'd seen so far, and what was an ongoing and pleasant sort of tradition instigated by the girls: a sampling of snacks from their present host country, enjoyed along with a sampling of television programs.

This morning, maybe still carrying some of that evening with her, Maya had woken with the sun, feeling a surge of energy she now cherished. Getting out of bed while Lucas slept on, she'd gone and taken in the city skyline, and it gave her that very best sort of tingling in her fingertips, like she couldn't wait to pick up a pencil and get drawing. Instead, she'd just stood there, taking it all in, like she could maybe lend her own vision to the baby in her belly. She was moving around just then, so maybe she did get some of it…

She remembered that moment, standing in the wings, and she also remembered what had come along, later on. This was to be a big day, not just because of the show that night, oh no. This was a day most looked forward to by one of their quartet of For Starters, one Miss Shayla Blake.

Every morning, whether they were gearing up to head back on the road or just down to the dining room for breakfast, it would usually be that Maya or Lucas would go and knock at the girls' room door, whether it was across or down the hall from theirs, or in an adjoining room, separated by doors on either side of a wall. Cara and Shae would come and join them when they were ready to go, and then they would head out. Today, Shae was all dressed and ready to go, while Cara was still giving a solid impression of 'Maya in the morning, circa 2019,' blond hair all over the place and eyes full of mistrust for wakefulness until it could finally kick in.

"How do you sleep in the same room as her?" Lucas had asked Shae, calling up the pronounced snoring. He'd asked the same of Eliza when the Hart-Lanes had been to see them, and the girl had simply shrugged and said she'd gotten used to it. For her part, Shae had laughed before revealing a box of ear plugs on the nightstand near her bed.

With the 'beast' tamed and much more energized to face the day, they'd headed down to the dining room, where Shae's eagerness to move along continued. It wasn't until afterward and much closer to lunch time, that the wait had finally paid off with the arrival of the Blake father and son. Skylar Blake, at ten, continued to hold the mantle of 'annoying little brother' on most days, the way Shae would speak of him at times, but underneath it all, they knew enough to see she did love him. As for him, well, if he was generally agreeable, it would be a good day.

So when he had seen his older sister and immediately gone off at a run to be reunited with her, there to be received with a sweeping hug, it had taken Maya, Lucas, Cara, and Mr. Blake by a much appreciated surprise. Skylar had very quickly collected himself, the better to 'maintain his image,' but he was definitely smiling more, and speaking to his sister with genuine interest. Their father, who had struggled so to play moderator between the two in the years since his wife had passed away, looked like he could barely believe his eyes. He had been so hesitant to send his daughter out on this tour, and now he was truly so glad that he'd said yes, if this what the separation had achieved.

Working to keep that spirit going, Maya had arranged it with Ree so that Shae's family could attend sound check that afternoon, and she and Cara would once again take to the stage, giving a performance as they had done back in Seoul two weeks prior. Her father and brother both had gotten to see her standing out there, her voice resonating all around and perhaps giving a preview of things to come for her, in the years ahead of them.

They were out there tonight, the reunited Blakes, with Lucas and Cara, as Maya readied to head on to the stage for their eighteenth show. Only two more and they'd be halfway through, which was just unbelievable. They'd be leaving Europe in a little over a week, bound for a brief stop in South America before heading north. It'd be August by then, which tended to make their eventual return home that much more imminent, even if it would still be nearly four weeks away.

"You know what's my weirdest regret of something I didn't think to do earlier on the tour?" Maya asked that night, as they climbed into bed.

"Not getting another one of those cakes back in Japan?" Lucas answered, and for a moment Maya looked like her mind had flown back that way.

"Yeah…" she hummed, then, blinking, "No, no. But close. I should have gotten Sam up on stage back there. It's so rare that I can convince him to use that voice of his, that would have been so good…"

"You could always try to get him on there later. Is he going to be in Arizona when we pass by there? Otherwise, there's always the Austin show." The fortieth and final… Yes… Maybe she could…

X

For Start Tour – Day 31 – Show 19 – Paris, France

As much as they had looked forward to every stop so far and would look forward to those stops ahead of them, it was difficult not to be just a bit more eager about this one. It had been two years since they'd been here last, just the two of them, on their honeymoon. They'd been married two years now…

They had been flying out from India to the Philippines on the actual anniversary, which had given them very little chance to mark its passing when it had come along, but they had already decided what they would do about it. Seeing as they would be back in Paris just three weeks later, they would hit pause on their celebrating until then. They would be back at the same hotel where they'd stayed the last time, which would bring it all back for them.

"Some things have changed…" Lucas had remarked, as they settled into their room. He was looking at her specifically as he said this, which made her smile, her hand resting at her belly, coming along as ever. Twenty-four weeks done, just about… They had never been so prone to the thought of 'so close yet so far away' as they were now.

"But some things stay the same… sort of," she'd presented him with an envelope, the logo in the corner showing it had come from their hotel back in Romania a week ago. When he opened it, he found two letter-sized pages, the first headed with the logo of their hotel in Greece, showing the composition – scribbles and all – before having been copied over neatly on the page matching the envelope. The Friars, year three it said, and Lucas laughed, his face beaming. Their yearly song.

"I wasn't sure we'd get to it this time, with the tour."

"Like I was going to forget," Maya had smiled back, earning herself a kiss and arms to hold her close.

"Okay, but the big question here is how are we going to record it? The Hex is kind of… far. You're not going to make me go on the stage today, are you? I'm more of a watcher, getting really good at it," he smiled.

"No, no stage, although now that you mention it…"

"Please, no…"

"Do you think that your crafty wife hasn't thought of everything already?"

"No, I'm sure she did, I'm just waiting for her to tell me about it."

She'd been thinking about the whole thing about as way back as their actual anniversary, when they had decided to wait for Paris. It wasn't until shortly after arriving at the hotel in Athens, when the song had started to come to her, that she'd pieced it together. She'd mentioned it to Ree by Poland, and she'd gotten that smile out of her, the one that said 'my dear friend, don't you worry about a thing, leave it in my hands and I'll have you sorted out in no time.' By Germany, she'd come back and told her that she had it all handled, but with the constraints of time they would have to be sure not to be late.

So, after she'd given Lucas the lyrics, she'd also given him a very bare demo she had recorded, on to her phone, sitting up in their hotel room the day before, while he'd been out with the girls and the Blakes, so he could listen to it and learn it as they drove from the hotel. He looked so happy, sitting next to her with his headphones on, like he could have been satisfied listening to this version forever and the other one would have been wholly unnecessary.

But tradition was tradition, and he knew how happy it made Maya for them to do this. It made him happy, too, no mistake about it, but it didn't change the fact that they were markedly mismatched in voice talent. The funny thing was that he hardly noticed it anymore, not once they sat facing each other, singing together. Last year, they had been back in the Hex when they record Year Two. This year, they recorded Year Three in a studio in Paris, owned by a friend of a friend of Ree's.

"This right here is starting to be an issue," Maya laughed as she picked up the guitar and held it before herself.

"I'm getting this weird image of her kicking the back of that guitar," Lucas joked, picking up his own.

"If she can kick that hard, I'm signing her up for soccer right now… possibly lying down first," she laughed, and he did, too, nodding along.

Even with the ticking clock of their needing to get back to Ree and the others, they never had to rush. They recorded the song in a comfortable record time. For reasons obvious to the both of them, it was hard not to have a soft spot for this one. It spoke so well to what they were experiencing now, looking forward to their daughter's birth. Maya told him how she'd tried without success to incorporate the fact that 'year three' was literally 'the year where we became three.' To look at the lyrics though, to listen to the song when it was completed, they could both agree that she didn't need to put it there in those exact words. They could feel it all, in the words and in the melody. Standing for her cue that night, Maya could still hear it, playing at the back of her mind, and it might have been her favorite thing she'd ever written up to now.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners