But the game came to an abrupt end when Aaron saw her standing in the doorway. “Mama! Mama!”
The twins, who were already in their pajamas, abandoned their positions, sitting on Alexei’s chest, and jumped up and down. “Auntie Eba! Auntie Eba!” they cheered, ridiculously cute in their matching pajamas and box braids.
Aaron came rushing over and threw his arms around her waist. “You’re up!”
She rubbed his back, a little nonplussed by the enthusiasm of his greeting.
Her confusion must have shown on her face, because Alexei sat up and said, “You’ve been asleep for over twenty-four hours.”
“What?” She searched for and found a wall clock. “It’s only 9:30.”
“9:30 the night after you arrived. Aaron was worried about you, but Maria and I told him to let you sleep.”
As if on cue, Maria appeared behind her. “You are awake. Good, good, you can finally eat.”
The way Maria proceeded to fuss over her for the next half-hour would make one think the worst thing in the world that could ever happen to a person was to not have anything to eat for a whole twenty-four hours. And Maria would not be satisfied until Eva had eaten several mouthfuls of linguine and a slice of the fresh Italian bread she’d made. Steve was working late at the consulate and everyone else had already eaten dinner, so Maria fixed bowls of gelato for Aaron and Alexei who stayed on at the table, after she left to put the twins down.
Eva hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she took the first bite. After that, getting the pasta into her stomach became her main focus to the point that she wasn’t able to talk with her son and Alexei because her mouth stayed full. But as it turned out, she didn’t have to say a word. They kept up a steady stream of conversation topics that included Aaron’s soccer team, Aaron’s dead bug collection, and Aaron’s trips to both Disneyland Paris and Disneyland California.
Aaron couldn’t believe Alexei had never been to Disneyland and Alexei gravely promised to remedy the situation as soon as possible. “But maybe I will need someone to show me around. I hear Disneyland is very large.”
“Mama and me can show you,” Aaron told him, just as grave. “Maybe we could even go to Disneyworld in Florida next time. But we’re going to have to wait awhile for me to get enough money in my vacation fund.”
Now Eva paused in her eating, waiting to see what Alexei would say. He could easily afford to whisk Aaron away to Disneyworld if he wanted to, whereas she’d have to focus doubly hard on replenishing their vacation fund after her unexpected trip to Italy and using a pay-as-you-go phone to make international calls for two weeks straight.
Alexei raised an eyebrow. “You have a vacation fund? Maybe you are very good with money, da?”
“Mama makes me put ten percent of my allowance in savings, ten percent in a college fund, and ten percent in a vacation fund, so I have money to spend when we go on vacation.”
“That is very smart. How long do you think it will take you to save for Disneyworld?”
Aaron calculated in his head. “At least until Christmas.”
Again she held her breath, waiting for him to supersede the rules she’d already set forth with Aaron, but Alexei just nodded. “Then we will go at your Christmas break.”
“Do you think you can save up enough money by then, Mama?”
She had just finished her last bite of linguine. “We’ll see. It might just be you and…your dad. Or we might have to…” She stopped again, realizing she still had no idea what the future held in store for them, and it wouldn’t be a good idea to make Aaron any promises she wouldn’t be able to keep later. “We’ll see,” she said again, and left it at that.
Alexei’s face grew serious and he turned to Aaron. “It is time for your mother and me to talk. You will go now.”
It took some effort for Eva not to laugh. That wasn’t exactly the way you talked to a seven-year-old. But Aaron didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll go help Maria with the twins.”
“Yes, good idea.”
But before he left, Aaron hugged Alexei, throwing his skinny arms around his father’s massive chest. Alexei dropped a kiss on top of his head and said, “You are a good boy.”
“You won’t leave without saying good-bye this time, right?”
Alexei looked Aaron in the eye, as somber as a priest. “I promise you, I will not.”
That negotiated, Aaron hugged Eva, too, before jogging out the room. Like many boys his age, he tended to run everywhere, as if he had energy to spare.
“So I see you two are getting along,” she said, when he was gone.
“He is easy to get along with,” Alexei answered. A small smile lifted one corner of his mouth. “He told me his allowance is based on him doing the laundry for the both of you.”
Now Eva smiled, too. “You gotta start them early. I had him sorting by two and up to full loads by five. My mama talks about me like a big dog for making him do it.”
It was meant to be a joke, but Alexei’s face grew serious again. “She should not say this thing. He is already very responsible, someone who would make any father proud. He is the best of both of us. It is obvious you have been doing a very good job with him. ”
She put a hand to her chest. “Oh, my gosh, that’s the first time anyone’s ever told me that.”
“Everyone should be telling you that,” he said. “Including me.”
“So you’re not still mad at me about keeping him from you?”
Alexei eyes grew sad. “No, I can no longer be angry with you. You did exactly as I would have had the circumstances been mine. You were right to run, right to protect our baby over everything else. My uncle would have killed you and possibly Aaron, and back then I would not have been able to protect you. My uncle is what you might call a natural enforcer. He was trained from an early age to do this work, and the most important thing you ever did for yourself and Aaron is to take his threat seriously.”
And there they were, the words she didn’t know she needed to hear until he said them. Something cracked inside her chest. All this time, she’d thought it had been her job to give others, including Alexei, closure. She hadn’t realized how much she needed it for herself as well.
For the first time in the history of their relationship, she asked him an honest question, with full expectation of an honest answer. “This is why you didn’t want to have any children, isn’t it? Because you were scared you wouldn’t be able to protect them? Not just from your family’s enemies, but also from your uncle?”