Timewarp: Las Mañanitas! (Mike)

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

March 31, 2017

Nory was determined to make this a surprise. She parked her car a block away from Mr. Batista's house and selected the best approach for stealth. This began with sneaking into his front lawn via the next door neighbor's shrubs to avoid being spotted from inside. Thankfully she was practiced in covertly exploring property (Adam called it trespassing), and she knew Mike's house extremely well. She approached the front door from the bedroom side, which was farthest from the kitchen and had the fewest number of windows. Once she rounded the corner of the square bedroom, she dodged underneath the windows and clambered up the side of the front porch. Having gained the door, she paused for a moment to catch her breath. Her bright red bellhop costume and large acoustic guitar had made the process more difficult than she expected. 

Nory had been attending Greenview Community College for a full semester now. The plan was to get her AA and then decide if she wanted to continue at a four-year university after that. By that point Adam's teaching contract at Hammel would be finished, and either or both of them could relocate as they saw fit. Presently Nory was enrolled full-time (General Anthropology, Intro to Theater, and Inorganic Chemistry) and lived in a house with five other girls, two cats and a hedgehog. She loved the freedom of college life, and just when she thought it couldn't get any better Adam and her dad bought her a car as a joint graduation gift.

But with her new found independence came responsibilities, responsibilities that required money, and so Nory began job hunting. By Christmas she still hadn't found anything and was starting to get desperate, and then she spotted an ad for Pink Confetti Singing Telegrams in the back of a local paper. Did it have any benefits, health insurance or discounts? No. Did it pay enough to fill up her car once a month? Barely. But it left plenty of time for school and she was getting paid to do something she was good at and would have happily done for free.

Today's visit was on her own time. It was Mr. Batista's birthday, and she would not let the occasion pass without celebration. So she straightened her droopy sombrero, checked her face paint in the shiny bronze letterbox, and adjusted the guitar. Then she readied her fingers on the G chord she had learned last week and rang the doorbell.

[Mike Batista]

For the most part, given his chosen occupation and his status as foster father to a long line of angry and/or otherwise emotional compromised children, Mike was difficult to surprise. However, the sorts of things he looked out for were of the less whimsical variety. The old trainer might have expected the Spanish Inquisition, but he was completely in the dark about singing telegrams. Though really, given the personality range he'd mentored at Hammel, he should've.

Now that a lot of his family were older and had grown or growing children and careers, his birthday was a less exact thing. He'd gotten congratulatory phone calls yesterday and the day before, cards in the mail, a few presents from his friends, and the annual offer of birthday sex from Stefan. He was going out for lunch with Lyn later that day, but otherwise it was business as usual. Training, his fosters, etc.

So... why the doorbell was ringing... he didn't know. Suspected nothing. And not because of Nory's ninja skills were improving. And yes, it was trespassing.

At first he didn't quite know what he was looking at. A medium-ish person in a loud red outfit and a very bad sombrero... oh goodness.

Even before anything happened, Mike started to laugh.

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Nory's heart jumped with anticipation when she heard footsteps coming up to the door. She had been doing this for a few months now and was accustomed to the various reactions people had upon receiving a telegram--laughing, half-hearted protests, blushes that could boil a pot of water, grins, singing along, bolting for the nearest exit. But she still got excited for the surprise of it, and the look of blank shock and confusion on Mr. Batista's face when he opened the door was well worth the difficulty of jamming her friend's roommate's guitar through the hedge.

His first burst of laughter came over the sound of a strummed G chord. Nory's own face had split into a huge grin and she was struggling to keep from doubling over herself, to say nothing of actually singing her song. She played the chord a few more times to stall, once or twice and then in a quick drum roll. G G G GGGGGGG...

Having mastered herself but still grinning, she cleared her throat and began,

Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el rey David.
Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti.

Despierta Mister-Batista, despierta, mira que ya amaneció
ya los pajarillos cantan la luna ya se metió.

She had a sweet, tuneful voice, and had clearly put some time into learning the lyrics and accent correctly. Every few words she would play a different chord on the guitar; thankfully the song only had 3 or 4 different ones.

[Mike Batista]

The whole thing could've been pronounced like a gringo, off-key and randomly strummed, and Mike would've loved it. As it was, he was touched Nory had gone to the trouble, and just seeing her dressed so outlandishly (though really, if she'd shown up at Hammel back in her student days like that he'd have never batted an eye) was hilarious. Clapping along in time to the tune, he tried to stifle himself so he could enjoy her singing, but bursts of laughter kept popping out. He couldn't help it. It was so absurd, and so funny.

[Nora Marie "Nory" Gwinn]

Nory stared fixedly at Mr. Batista's chin while she sang. She was certain that if she made eye contact she would start laughing even harder than he was. She was thrilled that her old trainer was enjoying it so much. And so she sang and strummed on:

Qué linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte
venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte.

El día en que tu naciste nacieron todas las flores
y en la pila del bautismo cantaron los ruiseñores

Ya viene amaneciendo, ya la luz del día nos dio.
Levántate de mañana mira que ya amaneció.

The last two verses were the ones she had practiced the least, and she stumbled on a few of the words and chords. There were two places that the song required an A minor chord, but she had never learned it and just played the G again instead. Nevertheless she finished strong, singing over another drum roll of Gs. "...que ya aaaaaaaaaa-man-ciiiióóóóóóóóóó!"

She pulled her arm away from the guitar with a final bang on the strings, then bowed at the doorway. The motion almost caused her sombrero to fall off, and she clapped one hand to her head and stood up. Her eyes were sparkling and her face flushed pink, even under the facepaint. "Happy birthday Mr. Batista!" she chirped, rather redundantly.