Maverick Effect (Chapter 24)

Maverick slipped on his reverands coat.  It was getting toward fall, and even though it was the desert, it still got cold during this time.  All the girls knew that Maverick hated being cold.  He reached his hand out and Angie extended the case toward him.  Maverick took the Red and then looked at the girls. 

  “Okay, we’re going to meet my mother, my two older sisters, my cousin and her kids.  My mother’s name is Anna, my sister are Athena and Ruby.  My cousin is Tina and her kids are Alan and Janie.  I want you to follow me in this order.  Angie you go first since they know you best.  Lily, you go second since you’re the one they heard about first, then Mari, then Natalie, and then Jessica, since you’re the one they’ve heard about most recently.”

  “They know about us?”  Natalie said, suprised.  Maverick had never brought up his family or given any indication that he still kept in contact with them.

  “Yes, they know your names and your faces.  They know a little about each of you, just basic things.  Just relax.  Just be yourselves and everything will go alright.  Are you all ready?”

  They nodded and Maverick turned around and nodded at the flight attendant.  She opened the door to the jet and Maverick moved toward the door.  He stepped through and the girls followed after him in the order Maverick had specified.  They all took a deep breath as they stepped out of the jet.

  The sun shone bright and the sky was blue.  The temperature was lukewarm, but a cold wind blew in the air.  They saw a small group of people standing a little ways away from the jet and to the side.  They could see that the rental cars had already arrived and stood waiting for each of them.  As Maverick walked by the first rental car he slid the violin case in the trunk without pause in his stride.  The girls saw an older woman and the two younger women with her rush to meet Maverick.  Maverick’s step became lighter, almost as if he was bouncing with each step.  Finally Maverick’s mother rushed into her son’s arms.  They saw a protectiveness, a fierceness in his embrace that they had never seen before.  As Mari squinted in the sun, she noticed that Maverick had taken off his sunglasses, something he never did for anyone in the sunlight.  They watched as he pulled his sister’s into the embrace and held them just the same as he had held his mother.  Maverick looked over their way and beckoned them forward.  Anna came forward and hugged Angie.

  “It’s good to see you again Angie.”

  “It’s good to see you too Mrs. Panagua.”

  Maverick’s sisters hugged Angie as well.  Anna turned to Lily, Mari, Natalie, and Jessica.

  “I want to thank you all for supporting and coming with Dax.  He always speaks highly and warmly of you all in his letters.”

  Maverick introduced them all formally and the girls met his cousins as well.  As they arranged to meet with the family, at their home, in a couple of hours, after they got settled at the hotel, they parted.  The girls barely noticed this though.  As they got in the cars and took off toward the hotel, only one thought went through their mind.

 ‘Why didn’t Maverick tell us? Dax?”