August 23rd 2023

Chapter 235
We Write Her Wonders

Dear Mrs. Friar,

I realized today that it had been a while since the last time I wrote you, and I wanted to do that now, not because anything big was happening in my life, or I needed advice about something. I wanted to just say hello, let you know how things were going out here. I'm sure Theo has been doing some of that for me already. The way he goes on when we talk, all proud big brother like, I can see him telling people a lot of random things. I hope it's nothing too embarrassing, although at the same time I guess I wouldn't mind it either. I've been out here long enough by now, I'm used to being far away from him, but that doesn't mean I like it. Actually, it's the one thing I hate about being here, and it's kind of a big one. I'm pretty sure if he knew how much I miss being in the same city with him, he'd be on the next flight out to get me, and I'm thinking he's got enough location-based problems as it is, with him and Lea and Broadway.

I hate that things are the way they are right now, for him and her. It's not their fault that things are lining up the way they are right now, but that doesn't make it any easier. He can't leave Tori, and he can't just take her with him, and Lea can't let this opportunity go by, it wouldn't be fair. But Theo and Lea, they love each other so much, it just doesn't feel right that their only option is to not be together. They're going to have to find a way sooner or later, and it won't be perfect, but what choice do they have, right?

I've been hearing a lot about what's going on at the school from a lot of people back in Austin. I really can't imagine how much longer this can all go on. You have to get that principal out of there, don't you? She's going to keep making things worse for everyone. Being at that school, with everything that I had going on in my life back then, I couldn't bear to think that some of the things I had could be taken away. And then all those young moms you had this year, I am so glad that they had you looking out for them. Stella put me in touch with them, so I might be able to talk to them about my own experience. I'm having a lot of trouble believing that my Anthony is going to be six this year. Every new picture I get of him, it's like looking in the mirror, and I can tell he's doing well, that he's happy, and I couldn't ask for anything else.

I'm realizing now, reading back, that I haven't really done what I said I'd do, more like the opposite, but I guess on the whole I did what I said I would, right? I let you know how things were going, and that's really it, it's just me thinking about everything that's out there, the rest of my world across the ocean.

Until next time, take care,
Nika Petrelis

PS: Any idea yet about who left you Ezra?

.

Dear Nika,

I am more than happy to read anything you have to say, so don't worry about letting your thoughts wander, really. I'm there for all of it, whenever you need me. As to the Ezra situation, I really wish I had more to share, but I don't. He's already three months old, I have no idea how that happened, but here we are. I keep looking at him every day as though he'll do something, turn his head, turn his eyes, and suddenly I'll have a flash of who his birth mother or father could be, but nothing like that has happened so far. He's just our same sweet fairy boy, like he's been since the night he came into our lives. It's the same thing at school, and I'm having to stop myself from looking at everyone that walks into my class like too much of a weirdo, like I'm about to interrogate them. I keep telling myself that it doesn't have to be a big deal, that so long as Ezra is safe, and happy, and loved, then the rest doesn't matter, but that's not true, at least not to me it's not.

It's not just about him knowing where he came from either. All I keep seeing is this ghost of a girl who managed to keep hidden that she was pregnant for all this time, had the baby, gave him up, and just went back to school as though nothing happened. This was a massive thing that happened to her, and she's not talking about it with anyone, and I don't see how she could have gone through all that and be completely okay. And then there's the father, and even if he wasn't the one to have to hide that baby and give birth at the end of it all, but he was still part of this, he had to be. He was likely the one who had to bring Ezra to our door that night and leave him there. Whoever they are, wherever they are, neither of them has been seen to in all this, and that's why I need to find them, why we both need to find him, Lucas and I.

Now here I am, rambling on. I guess that's what happens in our letters, huh? Tell you what, when you receive this, give me a call. We'll go on for hours if you're up to it.

Until then, sending much love,
Mrs. Maya Friar

X

The main exhibit area of the Simon Sullivan Archive looked entirely different than what it had done for some time now, and it was a bittersweet thing for them to see as they walked into the building that day. They had set out to come and help for this, but Carson had already been hard at work, him, and Lee Beaumont together. It had been something of a quietly entertained idea, there among the staff of Sullivan Stables, that John Carson had held a private flame for Donna Devereaux in his youth. Both of them had made their own lives over the years, and nothing had ever come of it, but now as they all coped with her passing in their own way, they could just sense his sadness, his grief. They saw it in the work he'd put into their memorial exhibit for 'La Devereaux.'

Lucas and Maya stood back for a while, watching as Ella led her little sisters along and the seven of them together looked at the pictures, the memorabilia, articles… They had screens, part of their usual displays, that visitors could touch to get a video started, and now they had been set up with videos of Donna in her competition days, or from here at the ranch as event coordinator and teacher. They would stand there, eyes fixed in wonder, hands clasped with whoever was nearest to them on either side. Even once they moved on to the upper floor, to help with the search there, they would get caught up in one picture here or an article there, and they would all move from where they were sitting or standing to check out what one or another of their sisters had found, sticking all their heads together and letting whoever was nearest (and able to read) show what they'd found.

"Hey, is this the one?" Maya asked. Lucas turned his head as she held up the album she'd pulled out. He only had to see the cover and he nodded confidently. She set it on top of the cabinet and he walked over, opening the album with extra care to find what was inside. Already the pictures told him they might have been on the right track, but he wouldn't know for sure until they got to the right page and to the right image… and there it was. He tapped it with his finger and looked to his wife with a smile.

"This was my favorite picture of her when I was little. There was a copy of it, in my grandparents' house… I always thought she looked so regal, so elegant… When I told her how much I loved it one day, she was so touched. She said how this was from her favorite competition. She didn't actually win anything that day, and she didn't mind it. This was when she knew that she wanted to be a dancer for the rest of her life. I think you can kind of see it in her eyes, can't you?"

"Yeah, I really think you can," Maya beamed, then laughed as their private huddle of two very quickly became crowded with several blond heads vying for a spot, one raven haired one showing patience behind them. "Hey, guys," Maya told them.

"That's Donna!" Lucy recognized.

"Yeah, that's her alright," Lucas smiled down at her.

"She's so pretty," Aubrey declared, standing up on her toes and gripping the edge of the cabinet until her mother lifted her up to see better.

"Yeah, she is," Maya nodded.

"Mom, can you do a painting? Is it too late?" Marianne asked, straightening with the sudden nudge of inspiration.

A reasonable person might have said that it was too late, and for the most part Maya was a reasonable person, but then what could she say? Sometimes, it had to be said, her reasonableness was very different from other people's. So, by the time that people gathered at Sullivan Stables for Donna's wake, they came to find a rendition of that favorite photo, as done by Maya Friar. Later on, after the wake, the funeral, all of it, the painting would come to hang in the officially named Devereaux Dance Studio, as a reminder to one and all of the woman who'd made the place what it was for so long.

It would have been very easy for the whole affair to be quiet, somber for the loss, but then the people who'd come together that day had all known and loved Donna Devereaux, and for that none of them could in good faith spend this day just standing around, quietly talking to one another, no. There was a lot of talking, naturally, but most of it was done in great open circles, the better for others to listen in, to jump in and share their own stories, and it left everyone smiling broadly, laughing…

And then there was dancing. How could there not be dancing on this occasion? Anyone who had spent any regular amount of time around Donna knew her tastes in music – the kind you could dance to, obviously, regardless of the genre – and so they had a constant stream of new songs ringing out through the ranch, inviting one and all, young and old, to go ahead and just dance. An easy favorite to watch went from the small children and then the slightly more professional dancers, those who had learned from Donna over the years, or who simply admired her work. Misha and Mila Makovetsky were in Austin for the occasion, and they performed for the gathered guests. They'd had a wonderful bond with Donna in the year they'd spent at the ranch, and there could not have been a more fitting tribute where they were concerned. They were joined in this by a fellow XC. Britt O'Connell felt by no means prepared to step into her mentor's shoes as event coordinator, but she would have help in the weeks to come to get her to where she needed to be. Donna head believed in her, in her capabilities to replace her, and that was really all any of them needed to know. She would do just fine.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners