67 - On With The Show

Despite being pregnant again—or maybe because her pregnancy hormones made her even more emotional—Maia was still prone to bouts of helpless tears. 

She just couldn’t get over Reid, or at least the idea of him, and what being in a relationship could mean. And David Shawkti wasn’t someone she felt like she could go to for cheering up since he really wasn’t more than an acquaintance who had helped her to conceive for her challenge. But Isak was a true friend and became Maia’s rock, doing whatever he could to comfort her when she broke down.

After a long and emotional pregnancy, Maia finally went into labor. Isak drove her to the hospital since he didn’t want her to labor alone, and David met them there.

Maia gave birth to a son, whom she named Zak.

Zak was a happy baby; playing with him always put a smile on Maia’s face, even when little else could.

After her maternity leave had ended, Maia went right back to work. She had a lot more clients seeking her fortunetelling guidance now, so she spent longer hours at Lucky Fortunes than ever before. That also left less time for her to obsess about her own life, and avoiding those feelings was all she could think to do for the time being.

One evening after she finished her last divination session of the day, Maia’s boss approached her.

“There’s a carnival coming to town this weekend,” Shravan told her, “and I’ve commissioned a scrying tent to be set up there for Lucky Fortunes. I was going to run it myself, but I’ve noticed how amazingly your own gifts have grown with your dedication here, so I thought that maybe you might like pick up a few extra shifts there too. You’d be a great asset, and moonlighting at a carnival like this could be a help in getting an even larger clientele base. What do you say?”

Maia thought it sounded like a fabulous idea.  It had been awhile since she had taken her kids on an outing due to feeling so down as well as trying to keep herself too busy to think, so she figured she could spend some time with them at the carnival in between shifts at the scrying tent.

Maia’s family had a great time at the carnival.  They played all sorts of games, got their faces painted, rode the carousel and stuffed themselves silly with carnival food and cotton candy.

Later in that night, they even got to see an acrobat perform a show on stage. Instead of “breaking a leg” as they say in show business, he tried breaking his face.

But the show must go on!

And in the end, Maia earned quite a bit of money for Lucky Fortunes by doing crystal ball and palm readings, as well as making some good tips for herself and building up her clientele.

By all accounts, the weekend had been a success, and Maia felt she should be extremely pleased. But although she tried to force herself to feel happy about her accomplishments, those triumphs felt empty to her and she couldn’t muster any feelings of satisfaction, and the guilt that she didn’t feel the way she thought she should made her feel even worse.  It was a vicious cycle.

Before she knew it, it was time for her children with Isak to age up to teens. Maia had no idea where the time had gone. To make matters worse, she hardly felt like celebrating, but she asked A.C.E. to use his happiness beam on her so it would be easier to put on a cheerful face for the sake of the children.

Happy birthday Tesla!

Happy birthday Pascal!

Shortly afterwards, the twins made Winks and Blinks real.

Maia taught the four of them to drive.

And then it was prom night for all six of her teenagers. Ryder was crowned Prom King and Winks was Prom Queen.

Although Maia was present for important events and she did all the normal tasks she always had, she continued feeling disconnected as activities went on in a blur around her.

Time just seemed to keep on flying by and her toddlers were ready to become children.

Happy birthday Phineas!

Happy birthday Sibyl!

Happy birthday Cassandra!

And it seemed like she’d just barely had the party for the triplets when it came time to hold yet another celebration, this one for Ryder and Hobby. Both were ready to become young adults and graduate from high school.

Happy birthday Ryder!

Happy birthday Hobby!

Both boys graduated with highest honors and Ryder was named class valedictorian.

Ryder had developed a deep love for all animals and wanted to open a rescue shelter for homeless pets so that all of them could be adopted into a loving family.  And Hobby decided to become an acrobat just like the one they’d all seen perform at the carnival, only he hoped he wouldn’t fall flat on his face!

Maia hugged the boys goodbye, and then they were off to begin their new lives.

With Ryder and Hobby moving out and Zak due to age to a toddler very soon, Maia suddenly realized it was time to become pregnant again.  After checking out her list, she decided to go over to the Goodman residence and have one of Shravan’s brothers father her next child.

It was Mickey Goodman who answered the door, so Maia took it as a sign that he should be the next daddy.

She explained the reason for her visit, but invited him out to see a movie so they could spend some time getting to know one another a bit better first.

There weren't too many people at Le Cinema Plumbob, so Mickey and Maia felt free to talk as they ate popcorn and watched the show.

The theater was playing a romance flick, and Maia was glad for the distraction that chatting brought; she knew she would’ve started thinking of the lack of romance in her own life otherwise and the last thing she wanted to do was start bawling in public... Good grief!  Why couldn’t she just get over this?!

But all the onscreen make-out scenes seemed to put Mickey in the mood, so Maia sneaked into the elevator with him to complete their “date” and progress in her task.

Although the public woohoo was exciting in a way, it lacked the depth of emotion Maia dreamed of having someday with a true partner. But it had to be enough for now because believing otherwise was hopeless.  And Maia was doing her best to go on with the show for as long as she could...