February 28th 2023

Chapter 59
We Marvel Every Day

They had known to expect this sooner or later, and as they'd advanced into spring and seen dates be confirmed, they knew that the time had come: parent night was happening at the high school… on the same night as it would at the elementary school, for Marianne. There really wasn't any way around it. She would be at work, meeting parent after parent, while Lucas would be off meeting Marianne's teacher.

"Should I head home after I'm done here, or would you rather I come and pick you up?" Lucas asked Maya as he waited outside Marianne's class. He could imagine her, back in her classroom, getting ready for her upcoming second batch of parents to start coming along, making sure she had everything ready, right where she'd need it. She was never so precise as she was when she'd be dealing with parents… it was kind of adorable, to him at least.

"The girls are spending the night across the road already, why would I pass up a Huckleberry buddy?" she asked, the smile clear in her voice. "You can do so much with one of those," she added, lowering her voice, leaving him to do his best and hide his smirk, sitting with the other parents, as he knew full well what she was suggesting.

"One thing at a time, Mrs. Friar," he told her. "See you in a bit, yeah? I love you."

"Love you, too, husband."

Waiting for his turn was all too easy when he was familiar with all the other parents to some degree, whether they had been in the same class as Marianne since back in preschool or here at the elementary school, this year or before. This time around however, he'd known enough to expect certain hang ups, and that had been part of the reason why he'd called Maya, to get a few minutes' peace. It wasn't the first time he had run into all these people since February, but it was definitely the longest time he'd spent sticking around, which in turn allowed them to come up and ask about how he was doing since the death of his mother. They were all very kind about it, they were, but if he was honest, he really didn't want to start getting into all of that right here, at his daughter's school, when he was about to talk about how she'd been doing in class.

In the end, he couldn't escape it entirely, not even in the classroom itself, especially there, when it also concerned Marianne. After she'd lost her grandmother as she'd done, she'd been out of class for over a week, and they had seen to her lessons at home in that time, Maya especially, but now that she was back in class, Lucas learned, the loss continued to affect her…

"She said she was…"

"Haunted," her teacher nodded. "No, visited. She believes she's being visited by her gr… by your mother's ghost. Some of the other children have been understanding, others less so. And others have been frightened by her behavior, dealing with this ghost. I figured I'd wait to speak to you here tonight instead of calling you in. It's harmless, it's… grief… But it might be a good idea to speak with her. Have you considered bringing her to talk to anyone? Our counselor…"

"We have someone," Lucas promised. "We'll speak with her. Thank you for letting us know."

When he left the classroom, Lucas walked slowly out of the school and to his car, thinking this revelation over. Marianne, their queen of Hallowannie, had proclaimed her belief in ghosts in the past, and both Lucas and Maya were more than happy to let her explore this, but they had never even considered, in the wake of Melinda's passing, what it might do to her where her belief was concerned. She'd never mentioned this thing with her grandmother's ghost, at least nowhere near enough to them that it had ever found its way back, and they were sure that it would have done, if she'd told anyone they knew directly, not just her teacher. It begged the question of why she wouldn't have said it, and he could just about figure out why that was; she wouldn't have wanted to say or do anything that might potentially hurt them or make them sad again.

He carried these thoughts with him all the way to the high school, and maybe for thinking that he'd be talking it through with Maya later on, he did his best to stop thinking about it until then. He was in the school now, walking up to the art class. From past years, he knew that she'd be on to her last group by now. He neared her classroom just as the door opened and one of the parents exited, not one he was overly familiar with, but he was almost certain she was mother and stepmother to Luke Ryan and Meadow Bailey respectively. She saw him and looked like she might have recognized him. She smiled and nodded, moving past him, and he did the same before looking up to see Maya walking to the door.

"Hey," she smiled, leaned in, and kissed him. "Still got a few appointments to go, are you good to hang out here?"

"Yeah, might go see what Dylan's up to," he smiled back, making her laugh.

"Okay, well I'll call if I can't find you." She went back into the room, inviting her next parent to come in. She looked back at him before shutting the door and he knew she was picking up on something, whatever it might have been, on his mind. It would wait until she was done.

Dylan's roster on parent night may not have looked exactly the way Maya's would, just as it would go with the other teachers, but it still kept him busy, and when Lucas showed up at the gym, he saw a similar setup near his friend's office. When he saw him back, Dylan waved, then pointed to something behind him. Lucas turned... and he smiled. A rack of basketballs had been left out and, per Dylan's invitation he knew that he was welcome to them. He knew that his friend wouldn't have understood how much he appreciated this just now, but he did, so he took up one of the balls, tossed it at the nearest hoop. He threw a couple more before going to pick them up and starting over.

Just like that, the time went by, the parent lines shrinking across the school while he played. He learned, as a ball sailed over his head and swished through the net while he was on a pickup, that Maya had finished and come to find him.

"Wish that had been an option for me tonight," she sighed as they approached one another and hugged.

"That bad, huh?"

"I hate to sound like I'm famous or anything, but..."

"But you kind of are," he smiled, and she rolled her eyes with a smile. "So, they all wanted to talk about the musical?"

"I think half of them at least thought I could hook them up with tickets." He gave her a look, reminding her with it that she actually could. "Yeah, well, keep it quiet around here, will you?" she whispered. "Come on, let's get out of here."

They made it as far as the minivan before he went ahead and told her about his conversation with Marianne's teacher, especially about the supposed ghost of Melinda Friar, come to visit her granddaughter. She hadn't heard of any of this before either, no, but now that she had... They knew her beliefs, and they didn't discourage them. Did they share them? Well, that was another matter, and it wasn't the point here.

"She's just... coping, I guess. Right?" Maya reflected, looked at him. Lucas nodded even as the 'but' of this statement hung between them, waiting to be spoken.

They couldn't just leave this unattended, could they? It was just... maybe not fun and cute, but aside from a few spooked kids, it was harmless. It might not stay that way though, and that was the part where they knew they had to intervene before things got out of hand.

They weren't going to go and ask Marianne about it that night. She and her sisters were having a sleepover with their Aunt Maisie, and they deserved to see it through. Lucas and Maya went home as planned and, in the morning, they walked across the road, to the Hart-Lane house, where they received a very warm and noisy greeting from their daughters as they ran to the two of them.

Marianne didn't come with near as much enthusiasm as her younger sisters, which suggested that she knew or at least suspected that her father would have been told some things he hadn't known up to now, which also meant that her mother would have heard. She didn't know what it would mean for her.

All the girls had a change of clothes with them for this day when they'd gone to sleep at their grandparents' house, so they got to get ready for school or wherever they'd be headed right there, with their aunt, and they were happy for this change to the usual way. Marianne didn't follow the others right away, instead turning to her parents. She wanted to talk, but she held back, like she wasn't sure what they had been told and she didn't want to say anything until she knew for sure.

"You're not in trouble, Annie," Lucas told her, and she nodded. She believed him. "Come here," he held out his arm and she hurried to hug him tight; he gave as good as he got. "If you feel that your grandmother's with you, then she is, okay?" She nodded. "We just want to make sure you'll stay safe."

"I know," Marianne promised, looking back up to him. He didn't know if it was all the things he'd been left to feel since his mother's passing, but sometimes it felt like he'd never been so aware of how, in all the ways her features echoed him, echoed the Friar side of him, she had a whole lot of the Sullivans in her. More and more, he saw the ways in which she resembled his mother. Maybe she really had visited upon the eight-year-old.

"And maybe just… tone it down a bit when you're at school," Maya suggested, smirking. "Pick your audience." Marianne beamed and nodded before moving to go upstairs and change. She stopped halfway up and turned.

"We have to go back home for a minute before we go to school, okay?"

They didn't need to ask what for. It was their way now, every day, and if Marianne didn't feel right skipping it, then she wouldn't be alone. So, once everyone was ready, they left one house, crossed the road, and went up into their own home again. There, the girls hurried off and up the stairs, to the landing, where one by one they could give their usual greeting before coming down again to where their parents waited at the door. Marianne was last of all to touch her fingers to the glass of the picture frame, new prints among many of varying sizes and varying age, going back as far as February.

"Good morning, Granny," Marianne told the picture, taking a moment to look at it before she could run down and head to the minivan with her family.

After dropping everyone off for the day – Maya included, as she hadn't driven herself home the night before – Lucas made a few stops before heading to the ranch. The first of those was right back to the house, to grab what he would need, then over to the Hunter Hart house for a request upon his father-in-law, then to a store to locate several frames identical to the one on the wall. That evening, when they would all come home, the girls would each find themselves the owner of a copy of their Granny picture. That way, as Lucas told them, wherever they'd go, wherever they'd find themselves waking in the morning, they would be able to wish their good mornings all the same. They were all very happy for their gift, none more than Marianne, who hugged the frame to herself in contemplative silence.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners