December 2088. Colette Marin is 31, Jordan Graham is 29, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Felix and Milo Graham are 9.
previously: what if we had the most amazing life together?
Some angels on Christmas Eve. ❄️🌟❄️
Showing posts with label Johanna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Johanna. Show all posts
postcards from a fluffy moment of respite (and December birthdays)
December 2088.
What do we need a sister for?
Because taking sides in a heated snowball fight is no fun when there’s only two.
What do we need a sister for?
Because taking sides in a heated snowball fight is no fun when there’s only two.
boxes and squares #5.5: kill the fairytale (2/2)
November 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4.
content warnings: grief, despair
He went dark when he was upset, like he vanished from the whole world, Maria’s world included. And she craved a text, a note, anything. She could give him space. She wasn’t a clingy girlfriend, except that she yearned for some sort of tether, some connection, and maybe that made her clingy after all. But she didn’t want to nag. She didn’t want to be exactly what he was running from in the first place.
She didn’t need him to tell her that it was Colette on the phone. His whole body announced it with tension and grit. The last she heard of him, his voice boomed with a desperation she’d never heard before. He had already walked away from the campsite and she couldn’t hear his words, only the echo of his pleading on the rocks. Mostly she saw the way he shriveled into himself, growing smaller and smaller, until eventually, he stopped arguing back. Maria didn’t need to hear what Colette said to know it was ugly.
“Is he coming home now?”
“Soon,” Maria told her, which was only a hope, of course. She had no way of knowing where he was or when he was coming home. It had been three hours. The last time this happened, she didn’t hear from him for almost two days. But things were different now, and she couldn’t possibly wait that long before she started to panic. At the same time, she had JoJo to think about so panic wasn’t even an option.
JoJo was too riled up to go to bed, but she had finally agreed to put on her pajamas. She was too riled up to even wait inside. Outside, a sharp chill swept across the north Nevada desert, making clear that it would be December in a matter of days. Maria lit the campfire, and they sat beside it.
He went dark when he was upset, like he vanished from the whole world, Maria’s world included. And she craved a text, a note, anything. She could give him space. She wasn’t a clingy girlfriend, except that she yearned for some sort of tether, some connection, and maybe that made her clingy after all. But she didn’t want to nag. She didn’t want to be exactly what he was running from in the first place.
She didn’t need him to tell her that it was Colette on the phone. His whole body announced it with tension and grit. The last she heard of him, his voice boomed with a desperation she’d never heard before. He had already walked away from the campsite and she couldn’t hear his words, only the echo of his pleading on the rocks. Mostly she saw the way he shriveled into himself, growing smaller and smaller, until eventually, he stopped arguing back. Maria didn’t need to hear what Colette said to know it was ugly.
“Is he coming home now?”
“Soon,” Maria told her, which was only a hope, of course. She had no way of knowing where he was or when he was coming home. It had been three hours. The last time this happened, she didn’t hear from him for almost two days. But things were different now, and she couldn’t possibly wait that long before she started to panic. At the same time, she had JoJo to think about so panic wasn’t even an option.
JoJo was too riled up to go to bed, but she had finally agreed to put on her pajamas. She was too riled up to even wait inside. Outside, a sharp chill swept across the north Nevada desert, making clear that it would be December in a matter of days. Maria lit the campfire, and they sat beside it.
boxes and squares #5.5: kill the fairytale (1/2)
26 years ago: Mick is 38, Adelaide is 30, Jordan is 2.
content warnings: implied terminal illness/cancer, verbal abuse, grief, intrusive thoughts, passive suicidal ideation
It was supposed to be such a beautiful life…
boxes and squares #5.3: hindsight is a bitch (2/3)
November 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Jack Phoenix is 39, Nessa is 38, Sophie is 65.
warnings: just a peek of NSFW at the end 😘
As promised, Jordan brought his girls to San Sequoia to attend Thanksgiving with Jack’s family. “Bring the camper, stay a few days,” Jack told them. “Home on wheels, right? Why not?”
So they did.
“And this is their front yard,” Maria said, amused. “Their front yard is actually the whole San Sequoia Bay.”
“Holy cow,” JoJo shouted. “I see a boat! And another boat. And another boat!”
“How many boats does that make?” Jordan asked her.
“One, two, three!”
“Good, now tell your grandpa you learned math in homeschool.”
boxes and squares #5.2: come down from the clouds (2/2)
November 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Felix and Milo are 9, Nessa Phoenix is 38, Colette Marin is 31.
previously: climb club family // the plain-looking plucky friend // the blonde photographer // the boys always know first // they made vows
warnings: little bit saucy, additional spice linked elsewhere
Jordan had been distracted since Maria and JoJo came to join his adventure. He had skipped more climbing sessions than he wanted to admit. But now that they were settled, it was time to pick up the slack. “Go climb, my love,” Maria told him. “You’re not quitting this thing on my behalf. Isn’t it the whole reason we’re here?”
“So you guys check out the park. Nessa will show you everything, and I’ll meet up with you later for dinner.”
Jordan was quite proud of the skewers he’d grilled for the group tonight. It was his turn to make dinner for climb club after hours.
boxes and squares #5.2: come down from the clouds (1/2)
November 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Felix and Milo are 9, Lou Corelli is 29, Dom is 58, Judith is 54.
previously: a freeloading loser // that money is not for spending on your boyfriend // this beach is for dancing
Go ahead and live this fairytale for just a little bit longer.
You could almost fool yourself that it could last forever, like you can just forget that fairytales aren’t real.
boxes and squares #5.1: live the fairytale
November 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4. (Flashback Jordan is 24, Colette is 27.)
* grab yourself a steamy beverage and a cozy chair, this one is long! 5100 words and 65 pictures!
** warnings: briefly NSFW.
What are you going to do in Nevada? Not stay there, Maria would soon find out, because Jordan mentioned the wild horses in Arizona and Johanna lost her little mind over the idea. So now they were in Arizona, scouting the canyons for wild horses. Among this and many other things she never would have guessed her life could include, there was the sound of yodeling on the canyon walls. Back and forth, a booming manly echo answered by sprightly little girl song, growing closer and mixed with laughter. He taught her to yodel. Maria never would have guessed that he knew how to yodel, but so he did, and now they both did.
* grab yourself a steamy beverage and a cozy chair, this one is long! 5100 words and 65 pictures!
** warnings: briefly NSFW.
What are you going to do in Nevada? Not stay there, Maria would soon find out, because Jordan mentioned the wild horses in Arizona and Johanna lost her little mind over the idea. So now they were in Arizona, scouting the canyons for wild horses. Among this and many other things she never would have guessed her life could include, there was the sound of yodeling on the canyon walls. Back and forth, a booming manly echo answered by sprightly little girl song, growing closer and mixed with laughter. He taught her to yodel. Maria never would have guessed that he knew how to yodel, but so he did, and now they both did.
Long after their sound gave them away, Maria saw them emerge around the bend of the trail, carrying back their sacks full of treasure. Would it be rocks, pine cones, sticks shaped like swords?
“Did you see any horses?”
“No, we found bugs! We’re gonna eat them!” Johanna’s face was bright with the idea.
“Oh, God, no! You can’t eat a bug!”
“Jordan said we can!”
She gaped at him in horror. He shrugged with a sheepish grin. “How’s it different from eating any other animal?”
Maria was prepared for there to be bugs on this wild adventure, but she never imagined they were going to eat them!boxes and squares #4.5: home is wherever you are, part 3
October 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Lou Corelli is 29. Stephanie Nova is 28.
Maria felt tender and deflated about her sister’s underwhelming reaction to her news, and she didn’t know what to do about that, so she just took her sorry butt to work. For the last time, perhaps. If she was going to move her whole life into her boyfriend’s camper in a few days’ time, quitting this job was a necessary first step.
She had been so excited to tell Lou. But maybe that was dumb—Lou was always going to be Lou, too practical and grounded and allergic to joy. But if not Lou, Maria wondered who else would possibly be happy for her and this huge moment in her life?
Not her parents, for sure. Not her boss. Not her co-workers.
Thankfully, Maria could delay any more announcements until the end of their shift. It was all hands on deck tonight. Tonight was the reason she could only visit Jordan for twenty-four hours, so that she could make it back to help with this big lunch catering order they had due on Tuesday morning. And didn’t that feel silly now, knowing that she was going to quit and run straight back to him? If she didn’t have JoJo to come back for, she might have just blown them all off.
But, no, she couldn’t do that to Stephanie. Stephanie was a sweetheart and she didn’t deserve to lose the sous chef she’d poured so much energy and knowledge into. If Maria had learned anything at all about cooking, she’d learned it from Stephanie.
When Maria came here two years ago, it was just a lowly kitchen job. It was just something to fill her time and pad her budget as a widowed single mom. Who could have guessed that the people she met here would change her whole life so much?
boxes and squares #4.5: home is wherever you are, part 2
October 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Felix and Milo are 9, Colette Marin is 31, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Lou Corelli is 29.
With Maria on the train and dashing back to her daughter, Jordan had a date to keep of his own. He told the boys he’d be a little late for their usual 4:00 chat.
“Hey guys, I’m here now.” In the background of their image, the normally sterile counters were cluttered with pans and bowls. “Oh, hey, did your mom cook?”
“She tried to make mac and cheese,” Milo said. “But the water kept bubbling over and she almost burnt the kitchen down, so she got really mad and dumped it all down the sink. But then it clogged the drain, and now she has to call a plumber. You should have seen the veins in her head.”
“Oh, no. So what did you eat for dinner?”
“Ok. Well, sorry I was late. I had a visit from a friend. She just got on the train.”
“Was it Maria?”
boxes and squares #4.2: then have some faith
October 2088. Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4, Lou Corelli is 29, Jordan Graham is 28, Milo is 9.
The community arts center in Evergreen Harbor was a popular destination in the neighborhood, but Maria had never found the time to go. There was always some excuse to claim for why she was too busy. She worked four days a week, and she obviously had Johanna to care for all on her own. Nobody could claim that she wasn’t busy. But her sister suggested that she should experiment with some new hobbies and try to find something more than work and motherhood (and pining over her man) to do with herself.
So they went to the arts center one morning. There was a children’s program for Johanna, and Maria browsed through some of the adult offerings.
She really had high hopes for the wine-making class. Wine was delightful, and Maria had Italian heritage and culinary inclinations. Surely this should be a good fit!
But then she remembered that she was also squeamish. Somehow she never thought very deeply about how wine was made. But now, flat on her ass in a barrel of sloppy fruit, she didn’t think she’d ever see wine the same way again.
She finished making the bottle. It was terrible—her butt was in it, after all—but at least she could say that she tried something new.
She really had high hopes for the wine-making class. Wine was delightful, and Maria had Italian heritage and culinary inclinations. Surely this should be a good fit!
But then she remembered that she was also squeamish. Somehow she never thought very deeply about how wine was made. But now, flat on her ass in a barrel of sloppy fruit, she didn’t think she’d ever see wine the same way again.
She finished making the bottle. It was terrible—her butt was in it, after all—but at least she could say that she tried something new.
my sweetheart #10: call it what you want
September 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Ingrid Thompson is 24, Maria Boone is 26, Johanna is 4.
warnings: NSFW
“Hey! What’s the story, morning glory?”
Ingrid’s voice was entirely too energetic for eight in the morning, bubbling with the energy of a late-night party that never ended. Jordan had a sore neck and a sore back, and there was no comfortable way to sleep in the cab of this truck. Technically homeless now, he needed to find another option. It would have been much more comfortable to roll out his sleeping bag and sleep under the stars, but he had just too much pride to do that. In the suburbs, at least. He just needed to get out of here.
my sweetheart #3: feral
August 2088. Jordan Graham is 28, Maria Boone is 26, Willow Nova is 7, Johanna Boone is 4.
one day before the wedding…
Jordan balanced six feet off the ground on a step ladder, with wires and electric candles in hand, while outside there were children’s voices counting down from ten, “Ready or not, here I come!” Then, whoosh. A streak of yellow and red and loose brown hair, breezing by with such force that the ladder swayed, even though the tiny girl couldn’t have weighed forty pounds. Maria’s girl, Johanna.
One of these kids would be the death of him. Or might have been, had his days not been numbered here. So, in that regard, he wasn’t mad. Someday he knew he would even remember the chaos of all this with fondness.
But, in any case, it wasn’t safe. “Not in the barn today,” he called out.
“I need to hide,” Johanna hissed from underneath the table, in something between a whisper and a dinosaur growl.
Johanna was the littlest of the bunch. Stephanie’s girls were bigger and should know better, but Johanna was only four. Jordan came down from the ladder.
Jordan balanced six feet off the ground on a step ladder, with wires and electric candles in hand, while outside there were children’s voices counting down from ten, “Ready or not, here I come!” Then, whoosh. A streak of yellow and red and loose brown hair, breezing by with such force that the ladder swayed, even though the tiny girl couldn’t have weighed forty pounds. Maria’s girl, Johanna.
One of these kids would be the death of him. Or might have been, had his days not been numbered here. So, in that regard, he wasn’t mad. Someday he knew he would even remember the chaos of all this with fondness.
But, in any case, it wasn’t safe. “Not in the barn today,” he called out.
“I need to hide,” Johanna hissed from underneath the table, in something between a whisper and a dinosaur growl.
Johanna was the littlest of the bunch. Stephanie’s girls were bigger and should know better, but Johanna was only four. Jordan came down from the ladder.
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