Modern Family Realness

Participants:

azami_icon.gif bolivar_icon.gif miguel_icon.gif raquelle_icon.gif

Scene Title Modern Family Realness
Synopsis The Cambria Family comes together to watch the launch of the Itinerant Dawn on Diana's birthday. They have more cranes to fold.
Date November 8, 2019

Cambria Household


Raquelle and his family are gathered sprawled and stretched over the pieces of furniture in the living room, all angled to see the laptop set up on the coffee table. His back pressed against the couch between the knees of the former cop who he loves as his better half. His daughters cuddled up on either side of their grandmother as they share a knit blanket. He feels fingers combing through his hair and he glances to the side to meet the gaze of his father with a small smile. The dogs have settled down on feet or by the sides of others. In the kitchen, dirty dishes waiting to be cleaned and Papa Cambria’s famous tres leches cake mostly devoured with the 13 pink candles in a pile of melted pink wax and cream beside it. Hot chocolate is being sipped by the blonde newly turned 13 year old and her sister is draining the rest of hers before attention goes back to the screen. And for this moment, all is well as they wait for the countdown. He holds out a hand to tilt his head to the side and take a selfie with the family behind him and captions it ‘Serving Modern Family Realness’ before distractedly sending it off to Cooper and Ellen with a soft chuckle. He knows his dad bestie is probably also parked in front of something watching this as well. The ‘Help’ text he receives from Ellen showing her father with a rocket on his head makes him laugh as he shows it up and backwards to Bolivar and sends off a quick text to Cooper that says ‘Keep it up, she’s gonna sit you on the ‘friends’ side of the church at her wedding’.

The countdown begins…and the girls goofily start counting in different languages. One in Japanese and One in Spanish. And for a moment, time stands still for the Cambria family. Soft smiles, snickers, laughter and the deep breath taken after the ‘Cinco - Go - Five’ all coming together like a linguistic sampler platter that represents the mix of cultures and ethnicities that make up the Cambria family. A snapshot of family, of love, and of connection..

There’s too much quiet for Raquelle, when the feed cuts out and he’s shifting forward to check the laptop to make sure they didn’t lose connection on their end. For a moment he feels the comforting/encouraging touch from Bolivar as he moves out from between the other man’s legs. He can hear his family behind him, the giggle/complaints from the girls. Bolivar speaking up to reassure them that the laptop is not broken. He can hear it but there’s a familiar flicker of paranoia and memory that never quite can be squashed every 8th. So the noise fades to the background and the click of keyboard buttons and checking of connection is deafeningly loud. His father also getting to his knees beside him by the laptop as they create a wall between those on the couch and the laptop.

That is when it suddenly starts again and he stares, too slow to hit mute or remember where mute is. The words seeming to echo through the room. Just him and his father able to see what flickers back on the screen and his lashes flutter as time suddenly speeds up. Various inquiries of ‘what the fuck’ and ‘Daddy, what is happening?’ and ‘Mijo?’…Bolivar suddenly by his side as well as they create a physical meatshield for the visual but cannot stop the audio.

He glances back to Azami on the couch, to see her reaction as Diana’s frowning and locking up again, making a soft keening sound as she resorts to signing 'What is happening?’. Azami had been the one helping Diana with her 1000 cranes project.

To lie to the girl and say that everything was fine would be wrong, and it would be foolish. She had already lived through too many other moments like this one in her life. Her grandmother settles one arm around Diana's shoulders, trying to decide what to say.

A minute ago, she had cheerily flashed a V during their family photo. It was just something you did. In moments of tragedy, as this surely would be remembered as, there were fewer keystones to fall back on. … But, she reflects, there was at least one.

They couldn't hide from this. But they could face it with hope.

"We have some more paper cranes to make, baby," Azami tells Diana softly. "A whole, whole lot more."

She pulls the girl in for a tight hug, looking over the top of her head to meet her son's eyes. Eyes glassy with emotion, she gives him a tight nod.

Diana is silently crying as her brain tries to process everything that is happening. She wished so hard, so wished so very hard…

BJ offers her declaration of, “Oh, this is just bullshit!” But even though her eyes are watery as she scoots forward to half wrap/cling to Bolivar even if she’ll deny it, scooting/leaning to also half lean and cling to Raquelle as well.

Raquelle just meets his mother’s gaze and looks to his father and finally back to Bolivar as he exhales softly. “Okay. Go get cleaned up. Um. I’ll get the Ice Cream.” He holds up a hand at the protests as he sways a bit unsteadily. “Just…go. Papa Miguel, your Dad, and me need to..make sure stuff is safe, go with Haha.” And he just bows his head.

Bullshit Indeed.


Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License