A/N: [November 23rd 2024]

November 23rd 2023

Chapter 327
We Live in Our Village

Lucas had needed to leave early that morning, and while he could have brought Ezra with him for the day, he knew that he wouldn't have been able to see to him a lot of the time. He didn't like to bring him just to hand him over, and besides, Maya had been so happy at the thought of taking him to school with her, so he left it there. The two of them would have a great time, while he would have his interviews as scheduled.

The choice had been made, their exchange campers for the following year, the same for their host families. Today, he was set to have a call with their families to discuss everything and confirm the matches. They had to make sure, as ever, that everything would go as it should. All the students, camper and host, needed to have a good year, and all the parents, sending and receiving, had to know that all needs of care and safety would be met.

He was early, to be in his office when the first call would come in. There was already some activity, the activity of early morning. It was quiet, and calm… It was his favorite, had been since he'd first started working there. He didn't get to be there early like that these days, wouldn't have felt right to leave Maya to see to all the children on her own unless he had to. She could do it fine, she had things under control like that, but it wouldn't feel right, and besides, for as much as he loved the quiet of the ranch in the morning, he loved the noise of his home and his family even more.

His first call would go all the way to Greece, to the mother of thirteen-year-old Sophia Georgiou. Her father, as he'd learn that day, had left the family years ago, and so it had been Sophia, her mother, and her little brother ever since. She was a bright girl, she loved music… and horses… She had gained that love in her relationship with her father and, despite the fact that he had abandoned her, she had not lost her tie to horses. That was why she had not only been submitted to be part of this program but she had been thrilled at the chance to take part in it. She had been paired to be hosted by Kennedy Bell, who would be starting the seventh grade in the coming fall. Ash's younger sister was sure to bond well with her guest so far as the music went. Unfortunate as it was to say, she might bond with her over complicated family situations, too, after being removed from her mother's care and placed with her father. According to Ash, when they'd been over for the most recent band practice, their little sister had already started doing work on her room ahead of Sophia's arrival, even if it wouldn't come for four or five months.

After his first call, Lucas was free to see to some of his daily morning tasks, the first of which would be to check in on the horses. He started with Dovey. By now, there was no need to keep her anywhere but the regular stables, not the close care stables, but he couldn't make himself move her. She liked it here, and it didn't feel right to bring her anywhere else after what had happened the day she was born. They'd get around to it sooner or later, but there was no rush at all.

"Good morning, sweet girl," Lucas smiled when she spotted him and came giddily up to greet him. "I'll come back after I finish my rounds and we'll go out for a walk, yeah?"

He kept his promise, as he would. When he returned, Dovey looked like she might as well have been a kid who'd put on her coat and her boots and was now waiting to leave. All she had needed was for him to come, and now he had.

"You remind me of my girls, do you know that?" Lucas told the young horse as they left the stables. "You've met them, you know what I mean. Yeah, I know you love them as much as they love you," he chuckled. Someday, in a few years' time, he had a good feeling that Dovey would make the perfect team with one of his younger children, and he couldn't wait to see which one it would be, couldn't wait to see what they would do together. For now, Dovey would still be so disappointed when their walks would be over and she'd have to go back to the stables, and he'd stay with her a while once they got there before leaving her.

It was time by then to make his second call, this one to Louisiana, to speak with Calvin Larose's family. The twelve-year-old would be attending sixth grade while he was in Austin, joining a lot of the kids who had been spending fifth grade with Shonagh. Now, in the fall, he would be coming to spend a year in the Okafor home, with Marianne's friend, Mosi. From what he got to hear of him, Calvin would get along very well with Mosi. He was very quiet, so very shy, leaving him to an isolated and lonely childhood so far. He wasn't miserable for it, he would be very satisfied to play on his own, or read… His favorite subject, to no surprise here, was horses. That was where he was the most alive, and he could talk and talk about the things he'd find out about them. He had seen several of them in his life, but only rarely from close enough to touch and never in any moment where he could ride them. But he would do that now, in Texas. It was all he could think about.

Lucas had barely hung up with Mr. and Mrs. Larose that another call came in, from across the property. There was an incident on the sets. Fire… When he heard this, Lucas felt a chill blaze through him. He couldn't help thinking of his grandfather, the very man whose story he was writing about. He hurried from his office, climbed aboard one of their vehicles, and drove as quickly as he could toward the sets. He wasn't the only one moving in haste, though he doubted that any of the others went there with the same fears to push them onward.

He wouldn't understand it until after he heard from her, but Katy had been there outside the gates waiting for him, because she'd known that her son-in-law would be concerned, thinking about another fire at the ranch.

"It's alright, it didn't spread, it was already put out," Katy told him when he pulled to a stop and climbed out to join her.

"Was anybody hurt?"

"A bit of smoke damage, a couple minor burns. They're being looked to now, they'll go to the hospital to be checked out again, and obviously we had to shut down for the rest of the day, but that part doesn't matter," she explained. To hear her tell it, he guessed that this was her opinion, but that others were very unhappy at the loss of time and the need to rebuild. "I'll keep you updated, okay? I know you're busy today, your calls? How's that going?"

"Good, it's going good," Lucas frowned, resettling his thoughts. "You're sure that…"

"Very sure," Katy smiled. It was impossible not to see Maya in that smile, or some of their daughters. That might have convinced him to go back to his office more than anything.

His next call was with the father a sixteen-year-old out of Arizona, and he reread her application to put the incident out of his mind. Deanne Wallis… She'd lost her mother, only a few months ago, and as her father told him, she'd been struggling with the adjustment. It had all happened too fast, there'd been no preparing for it. When Lucas had found this out, he'd felt immediately that this girl deserved to join them. He knew what that kind of loss could feel like, and he hated to think that she'd suffered it at this age. Her father was going through it, too, losing his wife as he'd done, and he didn't love the idea of being away from his daughter for a year, but the two of them both needed this… reset. She needed to get away, and he needed to cope with what he'd experienced without letting her be neglected in the process. She would be spending sophomore year with Angie Anna Bowles and her family. It had been an uncertain match, knowing that the Bowles girl might go and be hurried off to the hospital for days, or weeks… But Angie Anna had her heart set on it, so they were on.

He had time to wait for his last call, so he made his way back to the sets, on foot this time, to see how things had evolved following the fire. As 'small' as the burn had been, it was still enough to have left an ugly mark on the space where it had occurred. The crew was working to clean up and repair, and they were making progress, but they weren't going to be filming again that day, or the day after, so there wasn't too much of a rush about it.

"How's everyone doing? The ones who went to the hospital?" Lucas asked Katy when he found her.

"They're fine, everyone's fine. We don't have a timeline for when we'll be filming again just yet, but we'll get there," she told him, and he noticed now that there was a bandage around her hand that hadn't been there when he'd seen her earlier. She saw him look and gave a shrug. "It wasn't a big deal, they needed help first."

"Try and tell Maya that… or Shawn… or any of the others," Lucas told her, and she laughed.

"Believe me, I've been getting a script together. I might go and see if any of the writers have anything that could help me."

"Award-winning stuff," Lucas agreed.

They had been bonded for years, as mother and son-in-law, but after Tanner, they had bonded for having lost a parent, something they would have given anything not to. Sometimes, he would look at her and feel as though she had committed herself to being there for him, as her old friend Melinda had been, as she knew Melinda would have been for Maya and her siblings if anything were ever to happen to her. He would not soon forget it.

Last of all on this day, he would be on a call with the eldest of their exchange campers for the coming year. She would not be staying with them, but she'd be very nearby, as she would be hosted by Amy Dixon and her family, up the road from the Friars'. She was seventeen years old and coming to them from Japan. She had grown with dreams of being a veterinarian, which had been all the motivation needed for her to want to come to Austin for this exchange. Her name was Himari Aoki, and it wasn't until this day that Lucas discovered that she had been blind from birth. She hadn't wanted to hold it back so much as she'd wanted to make sure that this wouldn't be used to disqualify her before they'd given her any due consideration. Now that she'd made it to this point, all she wanted was to show how well she would do as one of their campers. Lucas was not concerned in the slightest. Everything he heard told him that she would be as fine of an addition to the ranch next year as they could want. Between her and the other three, they were going to do great.

TO BE CONTINUED

See you tomorrow! - mooners