Memories of Maya: Part One

Let me preempt my story by saying that I am a horrible, selfish member of this community. I have been squatting here for these past months, indulging in your beautiful GMs, and not offering up many of my own. I have been sitting on this bombshell for quite some time, always unable to get the words out. While there have always been smaller GMs swirling around the larger, I couldnt find a way to introduce you all to my lgf without telling you the whole story. So I told you nothing.

That ends today.

This post has been a long time coming, mostly because I was having trouble putting all of my thoughts into words. I didnt think (and still dont) that I could do Maya justice by describing her in this limited medium. Haha, I wish I could just invite you all over to meet her, then you would see for yourself how wonderful she is. Maybe in a few decades such things will be possible ;-). Until then, I guess well have to settle for GC. This community is amazing, given the current circumstances, but hopefully someday we will have more freedom.

Now, my story:

A couple of years back, my uncle met a woman who captured his heart. He introduced her to the family, and we all welcomed her with open arms. My uncle was in his tenth year in a run of bad luck at choosing women, but it appeared to us that he had finally made a good choice. It was not long before she started joining us in family activities (dinners, holidays, etc.). My family is very close, and we get together at least once every week or two. The gatherings consist of my grandmother, all of her children, and all of her childrens children, about 15 people in all. My uncles girlfriend told us that she had two young daughters (7 and 9 at the time) from her previous marriage, but she only did things with our family at times when her daughters were staying with their father. She was one of those parents that feel uncomfortable participating in romantic relationships with her kids around. She didnt want them to get upset about her trying to replace their father. So, it was quite some time before we met them.

The family came together for Thanksgiving, and my uncles girlfriend finally decided to take the leap. She introduced her daughters to our family. I was struck immediately by how beautiful they both were. Ill call the older girl Rhoda, and the younger girl Maya. Both have brown hair and brown eyes. Both are small for their ages. Rhoda is a little skinny, but not to an unhealthy level, while Maya is neither skinny nor fat. During that first meeting, they were both well-mannered, though they were shy with all the new people around. I only managed to have a short conversation with them and to play a bit of soccer after dinner. While there was only minimal interaction between me and the girls, I left the dinner with very high spirits. I made a wish that night that my uncle would find happiness with his girlfriend, and that their family would eventually join with ours.

During the following months, the girls came to many family gatherings (one or two per month), and became increasingly open with the people in my extended family. I have always been the adult in my family who plays with the children, so I started to get to know them pretty well. Maya is small, but she has a big attitude. She is incredibly cute, and she knows it. She thinks she is a tomboy, but she has more girly tendencies than most LGs I have come across. Rhoda is very cute as well, but she sometimes begs for peoples attention, a quality I dont find to be desirable. Rhoda will, from time to time, feign illness or injury to get people to hold her and comfort her. It doesnt occur often enough to detract too much from her desirability, but it does make me a bit uncomfortable when I see it going on. Because I am unwilling to appease Rhodas false pleas for attention, she doesnt like me as much as Maya does, but our relationship is still relatively strong. My favorite activity during this time was sitting and watching movies with the girls. Maya began sitting next to me shortly after we became acquainted with one another. After a few weeks, she became a little more adventurous, and this turned into cuddling and crawling into my lap. It wasnt long before the time I spent with the girls became the highlight of my month. I was so excited whenever I arrived and saw that they were there. I smiled, and they would run up to me and hug me and jump into my arms. Nothing beats that feeling of excitement when you see a LG you love, and see that she is just as excited to see you.

From here on in, I am just going to share some of my most treasured experiences I have had with the girls.

This following memory is the event that caused me to sign up as an active member of this community. It took the Mods a while to get me set up, and by the time I was online, it didnt seem practical to talk about something that had happened weeks earlier.

Independence Day 2008:

I began the day by walking to a parade with my brothers, sisters, and my mother. I have never been much interested in parades, and this was no exception. I only go along with it because it is one of my familys many holiday traditions. I had stayed up late the night before, and this resulted in me viewing the parade from the comfort of a blanket which I laid on the ground on a hill behind most of the crowd. About halfway through the parade, I became especially dissatisfied by the hordes of church groups, politicians, and city workers strolling along in front of me. I laughed bitterly, considering the parade to be a bad omen which foreshadowed the extreme level of dullness which would continue throughout my day.

Independence Day has never been on my list of favorite holidays. I am not very patriotic, and I dont usually enjoy the large groups of people or the price gouging that occurs in my town on the 4th.

A few minutes later, I finally gave up and closed my eyes, planning to sleep through the remainder of the parade. Just as I was nodding off, I heard the gruff voice of my uncle as he joined our party. I was not expecting him to come, so this came as a bit of a surprise to me. I opened my eyes a sliver to try and survey the situation without fully abandoning my plans of sleep. At that moment, my day took a dramatic turn for the better. I looked in the direction of my uncles voice and noticed that Maya and Rhoda were tagging along behind him along with their mother. I sat up just in time to have Maya jump on me in an enthusiastic hug. I pretended that she knocked me over and I pulled us both two the ground. She released me from her embrace, and I pretended that I had fallen asleep again (though I obviously hadnt had the time to do so). She started poking me in cheek to wake me up and I didnt respond. She proceeded by stealing my glasses and rubbing my face softly with the back of her hand. After that, I guess she decided she didnt care if I woke up or not, because she moved behind me and started running her fingers through hair. I felt unbelievably blissful as I laid there, warmed by the heat of the sun and relishing her fingers, which were now making circles in my hair. After a few minutes of this, I decided I couldnt lay there any longer with my eyes closed. I had started imagining her beautiful face, and I knew that the image in my mind dulled in comparison to the real thing. As I opened my eyes, she leaned in above me, upside down from my perspective. We smiled at one another, and I sat up. After that, she crawled into my lap, and I held my arms around her as we watched the floats go by. I couldnt help being vicariously excited as I watched her smile as the people and vehicles passed by. Out of more than twenty times seeing that parade, this year was undeniably the best of my life.

After the parade, we all went back to my house and settled in for the family socializing that would continue for the rest of the day. I luckily got to spend the entire day with Maya as my dad took over as host of the party. We played board games, ran around outside playing tag, and, for a good part of the day, she sat in my lap in my favorite armchair and we watched television and movies. We snacked at various times throughout the day until around 5:00, when we all got together for a barbeque outside on our deck. Maya demanded that she get to sit next to me, and I happily appeased her. At this point, Mayas mother said Wow Captain, Maya sure wants to spend a lot of time with you today, it seems like you have yourself a little girlfriend. I laughed along with everyone else, and blushed noticeably, but most of all I was overjoyed to hear that out of someone elses mouth, even if she only intended it as a joke. I also laughed to myself that she used the exact term for it that we use here, although little girl friend is admittedly not that much of a creative leap.

After dinner, Maya asked her mother if I could take her to the carnival in the park. Her mother said no at first, but premised it with I think you are hanging on Captain to much today, you need to give him a rest. After I assured her it was no trouble, she sent us on our way. The park is sort of far away, so Maya ended up riding piggyback most of the way. The carnival was expensive, but I didnt really mind at the time. I ended up spending a lot on rides and junkfood for the two of us in addition to the $10 that Mayas mother sent with us. It wasnt really that I was spoiling her in fact, I had to cut her off in the end. It was just that the carnival was so damned expensive. The money we spent only bought us four rides, some cotton candy, and a funnel cake. I cant believe how different things are from when I was a kid.

After the carnival, we walked over to another part of the park where we met my family for fireworks. The fireworks passed by in a manner very similar to the parade. I spread a blanket on the ground and Maya came and laid in my arms as we watched the fireworks. Its amazing how every activity is 1000 times more enjoyable in the presence of a little girl. I cant imagine how I will ever enjoy regular fireworks again. I can only hope she accompanies me again next year.

We concluded the holiday by heading to another uncles house where we watched him blow up a few of his own fireworks and spent a few more hours socializing. At around 1:00 AM, Maya fell asleep in my arms. I held her and watched some of my younger cousins trying to blow themselves up with firecrackers in the distance. At 1:30, we all gathered up to leave, and Maya woke up as I was passing her to her mom. She clung on to me and said that she didnt want me to go. I was so moved by her and her futile, sleepy grasp that it almost brought me to tears. I told her I would see her soon, and kissed her on the top of her head. After that, we went our separate ways.

I spent a full 15 hours with Maya that day, and I treasure every moment of it. I doubt I will ever have a better Independence Day in my life. I doubt that I will have one that even comes close.

That seems like enough for now. I will share more memories with you soon. Sorry if I bored out too much with my windbaggery. I love her so much I get easily carried away. Take care.

~The Captain~