January 12th 2023
Chapter 12
We Expand On A Kitten
"We are short one short one…" Maya reflected, smiling when the word play confused and amused her daughters in turn. Marianne's giggles were soon echoed by Aubrey's, which was a good change from the caterwauling that had happened earlier. The tiniest Friar was making the most noise as she was brought home on a stormy ride with her mother, which had done little wonder for her big sister Mackenzie. Both girls were doing better now.
Remy Friar was loud, too, but for different reasons. She loved storms, the bigger, the noisier, the better. Maya was not surprised then that she would have wandered off and ended up climbing to the window she preferred – as she so often did lately – and there giddily observed as the world beyond raged. Her mother easily heard and located her before ever laying eyes on her. There she stood, needing no entertainment in that moment, not when the world beyond held her captivated.
"Hey there, kit," Maya smiled as she approached her, and Remy whipped her head around. She had her hand plastered to the window, like maybe she needed to maintain that physical contact while she wasn't looking out there, so the storm wouldn't stop. Sometimes Maya and Lucas would wonder if they would permanently have the imprint of the middleborn triplet, there on the window, for how often it was stuck there. They'd wash it again, removing any trace, and then oops! A new print would appear before they knew it.
"It's a big one, Mommy!" Remy called out.
"No need to shout, I can hear you," Maya laughed. She came to stand behind her, wrapped her arms around her, which was as good as an all-clear to Remy to continue watching the storm. She was almost singing along, turning the whistling winds and booms and crashes into a tune. It made Maya smirk, quietly brushing the four-year-old's rain-curled hair from her face.
Though a conversation had yet to happen between Maya and Lucas, there were occasions where they would both have the same idea rolling through their minds, and this was one of those. She had also looked on to a day like this one and started to tell herself that the triplets could benefit from other activities aside from the after school program. She could think of a few things that they would all three enjoy together, which would be great, but then she could also look at each one and know that there were other activities out there suited for one above the others.
She looked at Remy, for instance, and she recognized in her an energy all her own. She had always been on that track, they supposed, but it was one thing for her to be a very lively baby, and an energetic toddler, but the more she grew into her childhood, into her personality, it became about much more than energy. Now it was just her, it was… Remyness unbound. This was who she was when most purely allowed to be herself. The world was an endless playground full of curiosities for her to discover, and when she did find ones that she liked best of all, she didn't leave anyone to wonder very long. With the storm love, they'd had to firmly impress on her that she could not let things get out of hand… or out of doors. They could so easily imagine her running right out of the house to stand in the rain and see everything from up close.
So, where did that put her with activities? Oh, Maya had a few ideas there, but one easily stood head and shoulders above the rest. It all started with Haley. The thirteen-year-old had been moving along, with gymnastics, and then with circus arts, and now recently with martial arts, with combat training, toward this goal of becoming a stunt performer. Everyone had their own idea of how good or bad or amazing or frightening this could be. Remy might have been the captain of 'Auntie Haley is the coolest' camp. She would try and do what she did, whenever she'd watch her do anything, so nowadays it was this latest new thing that had Remy in awe. She would run to her the moment she'd see her, like she always figured that her aunt would be practicing, and if so, then Remy would get to watch and try to do like her. She may not have understood all the ins and outs of what Haley was doing, but it didn't matter to her so much as how much it tapped into a very particular well of her energy to emulate her. So that could be something worth looking into for her, couldn't it? They could get her set up to give it a shot on her own. The real question then would be how she'd do without Kacey or Lucy there to…
"Woah, where are you going now?" Maya blinked and turned when Remy very suddenly dashed out of her arms and toward the pantry.
"Towels!" Remy shouted back.
"Tow… Oh…" Maya looked back out the window to see what had sent her running and soon understood once she spotted the figures hurrying across the road. They had not bothered with umbrellas, which was probably a very reasonable choice. Yes, they would be drenched just for that short distance's dash, but any umbrella they might have brought otherwise would likely have been blown out of use by the time they made it through the windy pass. Remy had rightly predicted that they would need means to dry themselves; she'd been greeted in the same way only a couple of days back and she'd smiled the entire time.
Her call was enough to summon others, especially in the quiet of the darkened, powerless house, and so the arrival of Abigail, James, and Maisie from their house across the lane was soon met with cheerful greetings and towels for drying and warming. Wet shoes and socks were retrieved by the Friar girls even as they were replaced with slippers. The activity was enough to get the previously spooked dogs further animated. More people was always good to them if it was these people, and there was so much happening now…
"We were just about to call and invite you over," Maya told her stepmother even as she had to hold Jax back from showing his great affection by jumping on the new arrivals. He would be thanked and greeted in time, but he had to wait.
"I don't think you would have been able to anyway," Abigail told her, presently crouched to allow an eager Remy to assist in her warming and drying. "None of our phones were getting service," she revealed, and at once Maya, Lucas, and Wyatt pulled their own phones from their pockets to discover they were in the same condition. "So, we came right over before you decided to try it with all of them," Abigail gestured to her little granddaughters.
Once everyone was about as dry as they were going to be – which left Remy and a couple of her sisters a bit disappointed that it was all over – the gathered Friars and Hart-Lanes soon moved toward the kitchen to tackle the question of dinner. They weren't worried at having the means to make dinner despite the circumstances, but it would demand a bit more consideration than what they'd had in mind back when they had hoped to have electricity that night. It hardly felt like the time to call for a delivery, which was just as well, seeing as they couldn't have done it anyway. They would manage just fine.
"Oh, no!" Remy gasped as they were all working to set the candlelit table.
"What's the matter, kit?" Lucas asked her.
"We're gonna miss it, Daddy!" she told him in haste.
"Miss what?" he asked, not following until he saw that she was looking at the kids' calendar, the one that was kept nearer their eye level and featured, in images that even those of them who had yet to learn to read could understand, information on what events took place on which days. There was a magnet on it, moved every day, that told them which day it was, and in the square now adorned with a golden star he saw the symbol every one of them living in this house would know as 'Nana's Show Day.' There was a new episode that night. And without power…
"It's alright. We'll watch it tomorrow," Marianne stepped in to comfort her little sister… little sisters, once the others started to catch on, too. Those nights were, as ever, a staple in their home. "Right?" she turned to her parents.
"As soon as we can," Maya promised with a nod that Lucas matched. The triplets were still upset at not getting to see the show that evening, as was Mackenzie, but on the whole, they accepted the compromise and let the matter go. The little pouts were sure to disappear as soon as they sat to dinner.
Once they could all get over the madness of the world outside and the strangeness of the dark and quietly creaking house, the children didn't take long to come around to the fact that an evening without power could be kind of special… magical… Most of them could remember the 'camping trip' they'd had down in the basement, summer before last, and even if they couldn't, then they could take their cue from those that did. This was not a scary time, no, just a fun pretending time, although…
"Are we – are we doing bath now?" Lucy quietly asked her father after having climbed on to his lap with his assistance, at dinner's end. The big blue eyes were telling him that, as fun as dinner had been, she knew what was supposed to come soon and, in their current situation, it did not sound like something she'd want to do, not even a little. It was way too dark!
"Doesn't look like it," Lucas assured her, arms closing around. Lucy was more than happy to let herself be held by him just now and she busied herself at tracing the lines of the many birds on his forearm. He leaned to kiss the top of her head. "We'll figure something about that, don't worry. Not too stinky, are you?" he asked, and she lightly laughed. "Hold on, let me see…" The laughter grew bolder at once. "No, you're alright," Lucas smirked.
There was no telling how long it would be before everything was fixed again, but generally they were certain that they'd still be in the dark by bedtime. The storm was still going even as the Friar girls were settled into their beds. Even if they were just across the road from them, Maya insisted for her family to spend the night up in the guest room, and there was no argument whatsoever. Abigail and James took the back room on the second floor. Maisie was invited to bunk with Marianne, and she happily went with her niece.
"Should we just leave the space open between us right now?" Lucas asked Maya when they went about turning in, last of all. She smirked, knowing as well as he did that there was no chance at all that none of their daughters would find their way over to climb into bed with them by morning.
"What if I need some comforting, too?" she asked him instead, with her best mock pout of fear. It only reminded him of Lucy and left him chuckling. "Big storm, so scary," she insisted when she sat down on her side of the mattress. Lucas sat as well and reached to pull her nearer. "Yes, this is much better," Maya smiled brightly and leaned to kiss him. When she pulled back, arms still looped around his neck, she remembered what she'd been thinking earlier. "Hey, so I was wondering something…"
TO BE CONTINUED
See you tomorrow! - mooners
