January 16th 2023

Chapter 16
We Haunt With Stories

The eve of Marianne's birthday and this year's Halloween had come to land on a Friday, which was far more perfect than they could have imagined… for more than one reason. One of these was that, after pulling off what felt to her like the coup of the year, Maya had secured privileges to host a sleepover at the school that evening. She was out there now, which left Lucas in charge of seeing after their girls back home. This was where the further benefits of their being at the end of the week, with no one due at school of any kind, presented themselves. Marianne wanted to use this night before her birthday to treat her little sisters to some bedtime stories befitting the time of year, doubling down in asking that they disregard their regular bedtimes just a bit. On most any other night, Lucas knew as well as the birthday girl that it would be asking a lot, that even though her parents would have loved to humor her, they would have had to say no. But it was Friday night, and they had nothing better to do in the morning except to start and get the house and the family ready ahead of parties and games of the birthday kind, of Halloween kind… So, Marianne's request had been granted.

The whole thing was very secretive. Marianne had confided her plans in her little sisters coming up to the day, and since then there had been anticipation brewing through the house. It was never so intense as on the day itself. From the moment they all got up in the morning, one could have easily thought that every last one of them would have set aside anything else happening that day so they might stay in their PJs and find a dark corner with a bed where they could all sit together, the better for Marianne to tell her stories. They had finally been convinced to wait, but only because the triplets were eager to have Halloween at preschool and at the ranch with green group, getting to wear their costumes in both places, while Mackenzie and Aubrey were very aware – and excited – that they would be spending the day with their Granny Mel, and she had some baking to do that demanded some of her very best baking assistants. If not for all that, oh, they would have stayed at home, but what could they do?

It only became 'worse' once they got home after all of that, just Lucas and the girls. Wyatt promised he'd be there later on, but he had plans with some friends from school, and no one was about to get in the way of that for him. Facing off against six little blondes, Lucas had much more power than they would sometimes believe, but there were still limits, and they were plenty… much more than he'd openly admit. It all depended on how much he'd actually allow to happen, but he wasn't about to tell them that, was he? On this night, for instance, as soon as they arrived home, it was very clear to all of them that they were drawing very, very near to the big moment they had all been looking forward to, and so it was going to be on all of their minds like very precise tunnel vision. It would be very important to all of them that they follow the rules they had set themselves, and the biggest one – as Lucas soon gathered – was that it was going to be just the six of them, no Daddy or Uncle Wy allowed. There was still some debate on whether the dogs would be allowed or not once they entered their 'sanctuary.'

Oh, Lucas was oh so graciously invited to be involved there, but only so that he might help Marianne and set everything up so that it would be as they wanted and needed it. She wanted them to get to spend the night up on the second floor, in Maya's art room and under the skylight, just as they would sometimes get to do over Sleepsters. For this occasion, she wanted them to have some kind of giant bed, big enough that it could be all of them together in a big sleepy huddle. And it had to have the right atmosphere to it, too: it was Hallowannie's eve…

"Are you sure you're going to be alright up there, huh?" Lucas asked Aubrey as he lifted her in his arms. The seventeen-month-old stared at him out of those bright blue spheres and she felt so much more grown than she had any reason to be, small as she still was. It wasn't so long ago that he'd held her, hour after exhausted hour in that hospital room, and now here she was, running all over the place along with her sisters…

"Yeah! Yeah!" Aubrey quietly informed him in her little chirp of a voice, and Lucas couldn't keep a smile off his face as he tried to pretend like he was disappointed.

"Alright, guess I'll have to miss you, all by myself down there with no stories…" he 'sighed.'

"Daddy, stop playing tricks on her. She's little," Marianne appeared and quickly held up her arms. "Give her here." Lucas bit back a new laugh, especially as he obliged and lowered Aubrey into the waiting hold and he watched his firstborn walk off, carrying her baby sister in practiced arms and all the while giving a 'reproachful' look that was the spitting image of her mother, especially as her expression morphed, in the span of her turning her head toward Aubrey, into such a glowing smile. The littlest Friar hugged her arms around her sister's neck and set her head at her shoulder.

Lucas stayed out of the way, as he'd promised, though he wasn't so far away that he couldn't dash up if needed. He sat on the couch, the television volume on low, joined first by a few of the dogs, as they'd been kept below in the end, and then by Wyatt once he came home. He couldn't well get to his bedroom, not when it would take him into his nieces' sanctuary. So, he told his brother-in-law about his evening, which had been cut short for him by an early shift at work the next morning. It didn't take very long that he was sunk low on the couch and curled up on himself, sleeping soundly, and it was once again down to Lucas and his canine companions.

Whether credit went to Wyatt's being a heavy sleeper or his not being a father with a finely tuned ear, the college freshman didn't so much as flinch when there was the first sound of frightened shouts, the kind that so often accompanied scary stories. In this case, seeing as it involved his daughters, Lucas couldn't help but start on his way up the stairs at once. He didn't know what kind of spooks a seven-year-old… nearly eight-year-old girl could conjure up, but then when that girl was Marianne 'Hallowannie' Friar and her audience consisted of three four-year-olds, a two-year-old, and a one-year-one, it would only be that much easier to get them wailing, wouldn't it?

He went up one flight of stairs, and he knew already as he ascended nearer the second floor that Marianne was trying to get things under control but struggling. Lucas was very familiar with the domino effect from seeing to the triplets especially, and it seemed here that the more some of the girls sank into the fear she had summoned in them, the more the others had started to feel the same, so the whole thing had degenerated. He barely made it to the top of the stairs to be seen that they were converging on him like a post of safety rising out of the chaos, five of them making a mad dash to him while their big sister sat disappointed on their big bed.

Rather than call the whole night a failure, Lucas convinced the girls to return to the bed, and slowly but surely, they were coaxed down to fall asleep until the only one still awake was Marianne.

"Hey, don't feel bad, alright?" Lucas motioned for her to scoot around where he might hold her, and she came at once, careful not to hit her sisters as she went but sliding quickly into her father's waiting arms and just as quickly being hugged by them. "It's not everyone who comes into their full… Halloween head as early as you did," he whispered at her, and she quietly laughed. "They'll get there, I promise."

"I know, Daddy," Marianne sighed. "I just thought…" she started, shrugged.

"What story did you want to tell them?" he asked, and she smiled.

"One with ghosts," she told him, nodding firmly.

"Oh, that'd be the one," Lucas agreed, to a nod of agreement from his daughter. In the past year, she'd gone with that conviction in her, a belief that ghosts were very real. And now she had wanted to extend this world and share it with her little sisters. "How about you go ahead and tell me the story? I mean, unless I'm still not allowed…" he went on, with just the tone to appear as though he was dramatically sad about this exclusion. Hearing a light laugh, he turned his head around again to look at her, and at once she pressed her lips together, trying to come off innocent.

"I want you to tell me a story," Marianne decided instead.

"You do?" Lucas asked. She nodded. "Well, it is getting about time for your story of the month with…" he started to say before seeing that she'd jumped to fish something out of her slipper, lying with its partner on the floor. She presented her find up to her father, and Lucas made a face to suggest he'd caught the scent of stinky feet. Marianne stifled a laugh and pointed, so he looked at the photo she'd given him. "Looks like you were ready for this, imagine that," he tried to look surprised. Marianne just nodded. "Wanted to pick a really good one for your birthday, huh?" he guessed. Another nod. "Oh, you picked very well then. You know where this is from?" he asked of the picture.

"The haunted house," she replied at once. "The day before you and Mommy became boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Oh, so you already know this one, I don't need to tell you…" he played, knowing what her response would be.

"Yeah, I do, I do!" Marianne pleaded, and he smiled.

"Alright, then, if you really do…"

It was one of the easiest stories to tell, wasn't it? The following night would make it twenty years since the night it happened, not that it felt like that long, but then he guessed all the best memories felt that way, instantly as near and familiar as their present 'yesterday.' They would always say how kind the years had been on them since that night, and just now, looking back on it while holding one of his daughters and looking upon the five that had followed her… It went far beyond kindness, which made it no wonder then that both he and Maya should feel infinitely blessed by and indebted to the universe, to life…

Marianne started drifting off to sleep near the end of the story, and for still hanging on she got to sleepily request that her father stay with her. Well, it was her birthday the next day, wasn't it?

"You know, it's probably a good idea," he declared, moving to find a hole where he could lay down. "I hear there's a lot of ghosts hanging around this place…"

"Daddy, do you think so?" Marianne blinked up at him, just a bit more awake again. Lucas brushed at her brow, determined to get her to fall asleep again.

"I do if you do, pumpkin."

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners