August 19th 2023
Chapter 223
Lost, Found, Discovered
Though they knew deep down that it was possible for it to happen someday, they had always done all that they could to prevent it. And then, just a couple of days into the new year, they'd come to the sudden realization that they were short one dog. Sirius was nowhere to be found, and the big guy could not have hidden if he'd been in the house. They'd called for him outside, walked up and down the road and called some more, but there was no sign of him.
Lucas had been the first one to notice, and he'd tried to look for the dog without letting the others know that he might have been gone, but once the search had moved to calling for him outside, it had been impossible for them not to catch on. Seeing the distressed looks on his children's faces had only made Lucas that much more determined to find the missing dog. He promised that he would do all that he could to find him and bring him home again, and Maya went about putting the kids on to making posters, leaving Lucas able to head out and widen his search.
"Mama, what about this one?" Ava turned the laptop around and Maya looked. She'd let her get on the computer to seek the best photo for them to print as the base for their posters, figuring it would be the best place to start. At their sister's prompt, Elliott, Noah, and Jamie scrambled up to look before Maya could get there.
"Well, what do you guys think?" she asked the three of them, squeezing one shoulder here, there, and again. Their father had promised to look, and that was probably the only thing keeping them from losing faith at this point.
Lucas was thinking about this, too, as he sought out Sirius. The first thing he did as he first drove off was put calls in to the shelter, the vet's… anyone and everyone he could think of that might get their eyes on the dog before him. He sincerely hoped that he'd get a call from some more than others, but he couldn't be picky now. They would do better with knowing than if they were left never finding out what had happened to him, right?
He had barely spoken to them five minutes before when the shelter called to say that a dog was being brought in. A family had found him wandering and called in ahead of bringing him over, and they didn't know for sure if that would be Sirius, but the description matched him well, so they'd figured they might as well let Lucas know. He was on his way at once.
He wanted to call home and let everyone know, but he resisted until he could see the dog and confirm that it was Sirius. He could not afford to get the kids' hopes up most of all. But then he walked into the shelter, and he barely made it into the back that there was a great rise of excited barking, and then he was very nearly thrown off his feet as Sirius rushed at him, tail wagging with mad giddiness.
"Hey, hey, there you are!" Lucas returned the dog's feelings, giving him good scratches, kissing the top of his head… His eyes were stinging with happy tears, and he saw no reason to hold them back. "We were so worried about you… Wait until they hear you're coming home."
He briefly considered heading home without letting it be known that Sirius was safe and sound, to surprise everyone, but he changed his mind as he thought of his wife and children out there, worried out of their minds. It was entirely better that they should be relieved and happy sooner. So, he called Maya and told her the news. To hear her reaction, he knew there'd be happy tears on her face, too. None of them could have handled losing Sirius for their own reasons, but he was sure he knew hers best of all, and he hugged her with words until he could do so with arms.
They were all outside when he drove up, waiting on their return, and with his head out of the open window, Sirius just about jumped and crawled out when he saw them. He ran at them, same as he'd done with Lucas, but he didn't bowl into the kids, instead showing his learned restraint around the small humans who loved him best. He was returning like the beloved figure that he was in their home and their family, and he made it his mission to sweep away any and all tears he saw, regardless of their happy origins.
Lucas and Maya looked on, hearts overrun with their own relief. He told her about how Sirius had been spotted, going around on his own, looking very much like he only ever wanted to find his way home. The family who'd spotted him had recognized this much, and they'd stopped to see to him. He'd warmed up to the children at once, which might have gone a long way to their managing to get him in their car and off to the shelter. The two kids, a seven-year-old girl and five-year-old boy, were really sad to let Sirius go, but they knew he was going back to his people, and they were glad for that.
None of the kids wanted to be far from Sirius when it came time for them to go to bed, and their parents were glad to indulge them. It was easier for Ava to go and bunk in her brothers' room than the other way around, and she quickly set up her space in the Star Wars room, though the boys were off to sleep sooner than would go, which was just fine. She wouldn't be going to sleep soon, no, but she went and sat on her 'bed' with her trusty flashlight, and Sirius settled in with his head in her lap while she pulled out her notebook.
"New song?" Maya whispered in the dark. Ava nodded, and there was so much happiness in her right then that it felt like she could not sit still if she tried. That was just what was fueling her inspiration, and this Maya understood so much. It brought her back to years past when she'd followed similar drives. "A Song For Sirius?" she asked. The dog turned his head at the sound of his name, and Maya pet him, to his delight.
"No," Ava admitted, and her shy little smile filled in the blanks.
"A Song For Kelsey?" Maya asked, and to see her daughter and know she was blushing with hope… with the spark of first love… "Good. Then she needs to be the first one to hear it, yeah?"
"What if she doesn't like… my song?" Ava hesitated, catching her mother's eyes.
"What if she does?" Maya countered, and Ava understood what she was getting at. It would be better to know. That was almost the theme by now, wasn't it? First with Sirius, now this…
Ava promised that she wouldn't stay up all night to work on her song, and Maya trusted her enough not to go and check up on her when her bedtime rolled around. When she did look into the room before heading to bed though, she looked to find four sleeping children, huddled around a sleeping dog, on the floor, and it made her smile.
In the morning, while her brothers spent the time waiting for breakfast playing with Sirius and reminding him that he should not wander off, Ava would sit at the kitchen table, working away at her composition, scratching lines out, scribbling new ones in their place… This was easily the most important song she had written in her young life, and she wanted it to be perfect, they knew. Lucas had been made aware of the project, with Ava's permission, and he gave her what encouragement he could.
"Word of advice?" Maya leaned in to tell her daughter. "Don't overthink it. You'll never stop tinkering if you keep going." Ava looked at her, at her notebook, then pushed it toward her mother.
"Can you look at it? Please?"
"Are you sure?" Maya had to ask. "You don't want to wait and let her be the first?"
"To hear it, sure. But that's just the words," Ava pointed out, and Maya chuckled. Fair point.
"Alright, let me see," she pulled back a chair and sat down. She was becoming very familiar with her daughter's handwriting by now, which was probably the only way she could make sense of the mess currently holding cut lines and rewrites and see the song in the middle of it. She read it, and she smiled, which only made Ava more nervous. "Why'd you cross that one out, it was beautiful," Maya pointed to one lyric she could make out through the lines over it.
"I… I thought it might have been too much, I guess," she admitted.
"You do what you want to do, but if you're asking for my opinion, I say keep it," Maya smiled at her. Ava considered the advice as she took the book back.
As she walked into the middle school a little while later, Maya was glad to have both the fact that they'd gotten Sirius back safely and the prospect of Ava's sharing her declaration song with Kelsey as all that she could need to feel prepared for her meeting with the principal. She'd been nervous about it before, as strange as it could feel, but now here she was, feeling better than she'd done in weeks, and she just wanted to get in there now and figure out the steps for her return to work.
Only Ava knew that this was where she'd be today, out of all the kids. It wasn't that she didn't want the boys to know, but it did feel as though it would be better to situate them with an actual date for her return to work, and she wouldn't have that until after her meeting, so for now the subject of her teaching job remained unmentioned, and everyone carried on as they'd done since she'd gone on leave. The one who did know had been happy to see her off that morning, though she'd also advanced the idea of her bringing Sirius along. Ava insisted that it was because having him around was always so calming, but Maya and Lucas both had a feeling that it had more to do with her not wanting them to leave the dog alone all day and risk him getting lost again.
Dogless as she was, Maya got through the meeting with the principal just fine. The two of them had always gotten along very well, and Maya had never felt anything but completely supported, especially after losing Sara. As she left the building, she now had a date for her return to class, and she looked forward to it so much that she had plans to make some kind of countdown piece once she was back home. She ran into several people on her way out, fellow teachers, and some of her students… They all had a good feeling as to why she was there that day and, when she confirmed their suspicions, they were all very happy to know she'd be returning. There were many smiles and more hugs as she went on her way each time.
Once she was back in her car, Maya let out a breath. She started thinking back to New Year's Eve, not a week ago. She had plenty of thoughts about what she wanted for the year about to start, and this had been one of them, but it wasn't the only one, and while she had plenty of plans for those other things, there was one that she remembered in this moment, and it wasn't just that she remembered it. She remembered, and she knew that part of her was… not concerned that she had, but still…
Maybe it was a good thing that she'd remembered it when she did. If not for the feeling in her right then and there, she might have brushed it off for later. Instead, she pulled out her phone and dug out the number to book an appointment with her therapist. She hadn't been to Dr. Eisley's office since before Jamie was born, but once she hung up with a different kind of date than her return to work booked, she felt relieved.
At the end of the day, she went to do the pick-ups at the elementary school. She had the twins with her, and after picking up all but Jamie – who would be collected by his father for a bit of father-son time to themselves – they started for home. All the while, Maya was very aware of Ava's being off in her own world. She couldn't even read her or figure out if she was sulky quiet or dreamy quiet. The boys were being a noisy bunch, to the surprise of no one, which probably did not help in the matter. Maya had to wait until they got home, where the four brothers settled in the living room in wait of their fifth, while she ever so casually directed her daughter to follow her into the kitchen.
"Alright, if you don't mind me asking…" she started before indicating Ava's face. "Did something happen today?" Ava stared at her hesitantly. Maya lifted her head, wondering. "Did you do the song, or…"
"Not exactly, but… Kelsey saw it," she confirmed, and Maya wasn't sure whether she should see this as a good thing or not. She motioned for Ava to go on. "I finished my work early, and I had my notebook, so I was transcribing the lyrics, so they'd be clean again. I was just finishing when the paper was yanked off my desk." Maya was about to show maternal outrage at her teacher doing that, but just as quickly she had a feeling that the teacher was not the problem. One of the students, on the other hand…
"He didn't…" she sighed.
"As soon as we were outside. He climbed on a table, read it loud so everyone could hear," Ava shared, and Maya could sense her frustration as she relived the moment.
"Oh, Sweetpea…" she bowed her head. "What happened?"
"One of the teachers pulled him down, took the paper back. But everyone had already heard it all anyway, so even if he got punished, which he did…"
"Did Kelsey hear it?" Maya asked, even though she knew the answer without it being told.
"She did. Her name wasn't on there, but the things I talk about in the song, she would know who was supposed to be about. All the others could tell was that I'd written it and it was about how I had feelings for someone. They didn't know it was her… or that it was a girl…"
"What did she say?" Maya asked. Ava paused again, reliving the scene some more before looking at her mother again.
"She went up to the teacher and asked for the song, the page. He knew I had written it, not her, and he wasn't going to give it to her, but… she said that she should have it, because it was supposed to be for her." Maya gasped, and Ava's small smile was everything she could have wanted. "They all heard her, too, and they only had to look at me to know it was true. So he gave it to her, and she came to see me. She wanted me to sign it for her, and I did. I gave it back to her, and she folded it and put it so she wouldn't lose it, she… She thanked me for the song, and she said… She said how glad she was that one of us had a way with words, because she couldn't think of the right way to say how she felt."
Maya was speechless, and all she could do was embrace her daughter. She couldn't say what she had most of, pride or happiness for the turn of events, but she had both, and she made sure that her girl knew about it. She very much knew, and there were no words for how happy she was that she could share this moment with a mother who loved her the way she did.
If the story hadn't been shared as it was – first with Maya and then again with Lucas once he and Jamie arrived – then they might have been more surprised at the call they received from Haruna Farrell. She'd heard the story, too, and she only wanted to check in with the Friars, to see that Ava was doing okay after her beautiful words had been shouted out so unceremoniously. Kelsey had shared the song with her and her husband, and they were amazed at Ava's composition, their compliments soon shared with the young songwriter. From there, a dinner was set up between the Friars and the Farrells for the following weekend. They already saw plenty of each other, between riding lessons, and play dates between Elliott and Max Farrell, and of course whenever the girls hung out, but this felt important to note, and Maya and Lucas agreed. Hearing that they'd all be coming over, Ava was at once giddy and nervous, like they might have all been coming over for the very first time. It was the funniest thing to her parents but also the sweetest. Their baby girl was growing up so fast, but more importantly, her great and impossible wish for the new year had come true, and a lot sooner than she would have imagined.
"How long do you think it'll take for her to fall asleep tonight?" Maya asked Lucas as they sat in the living room, after Ava had kissed them goodnight and retreated to her room.
"Hours… probably…" Lucas estimated, which made his wife snicker. That sounded like a good estimate, yes.
"Maybe I should go and sing her a lullaby," Maya suggested, half joking. Lucas nodded in approval. "Hey… What's up?" she asked after a moment, sensing a thought spinning around in his head. He looked at her.
"I think I want to start and spend more time at the shelter again," he told her. "I hadn't been in a while and after everything that happened with Sirius, I don't know… It feels like a reminder." He'd been regular there for a while, they all had been, but then things had gotten so busy, especially once the twins came along, and then everything that had been going on, the good, the bad… and they'd sort of stopped all of that. But now…
"Yeah, you should," Maya agreed with a smile. When they'd all been talking about what they wanted for the new year, he'd said how he didn't want to go on with too many plans, that he wanted things to reveal themselves as they came, more or less. Now here was this idea, which he could not have predicted for a second, and it very much felt like the kind of thing he had meant. Over and over, this day had shown itself as the herald of a good year for their family, and Maya was never so inclined to believe that it could be true as she was in that very moment. She would hold on to that belief, and she would carry it all through the year. She wouldn't let go for a second.
TO BE CONTINUED
See you next week! - mooners
