Overnight Guest

Maximus arrived with Maximillian bearing gifts for the three children. The reunion was heart warming and filled with laughter. The four children soon with their heads together playing games. Each child so unique and different. Maxine our oldest growing into a young woman, young Maximus greeting his father man to man yet such a young boy hugging his father so tight, Madeline who is so full of energy and interest in anything the others are doing, and Maximillian, a young man so comfortable with his brothers and sisters that you would not think they lived in separate homes. I have to say I enjoyed the evening very much.

Once the children were rapt in their games, I took the opportunity to talk to Max. Something that has been on my mind for a very long time.. something I feel is the right thing to do for the four children more than anyone else needed to be discussed. I have asked if he would like to try a trial period of having our three go to Port Cos with he and Maximillian. Of course this was met with suspician and I could feel Max trying to figure out what I was up to or hiding, as the case may be. He questioned me about Jula, why I left, and what happened between me and Akil. I told him pretty much what happened. Our home had grown quiet and Dawson, whom I had known a great many years before, challenged me to live life and so I did. I suppose Max saw a little bit through the vagueness but what is there to tell. Life is not about enduring it but living it and I have finally stopped waiting for Max. I suppose part of me will always have wished it had turned out differently but at the same time.. living on hope has become very old. I am inspired and my focus held strongly in a different direction. Max said he should pull me over his knee and spank me for my elusiveness and that may have brought a blush to my cheeks and thankfully we didn't have to experience the surprise on his face. He agreed to take the children for two months to start and see how it goes... I am very hesitant, nervous as well but this is for my children, not me. They need to know the City that is theirs, the home that is theirs.. their father and their brother. My greatest fear all along of letting them go was that they would be taught that I am less than their mother. Being their mother is the one thing I have done well, that is one thing I will not have taken away from me.. I have been a good mother. It is time I trust Max to remind them of that on occasion and to not allow our children ever to think less of me. A hard decision but it is done and it will be good for them to have experiences away from home. I have full invitation to come to Port Cos at any time and see them.

It grew late, Max was given a room to stay in and Maximillian stayed in young Maximus' room. I imagine the two boys were up half the night goofing off. Max and I have become so civilized yet I will say that Aris was a bit more protective of the door of my chambers during the night. Aris and Max will probably never mend their fences.