Love, Mischa

by Desiree Hart

  "Mommy, it hurts!" Sage wailed, tugging at his ear.

  "I know it does, baby," I said. "But it's gonna be all right."

  A few minutes later, a nurse appeared and took Sage's temperature. "A hundred and two," she announced.

  "Poor baby!" I exclaimed. "No wonder you feel so bad!"

  The nurse finished checking Sage's vitals. "The doctor will be with you shortly," she told us.

  It was a very long time before the physician finally arrived. Sage drifted into a fitful sleep, the pain awakening him every so often. As desperately as I tried to stay awake, I found myself nodding off after awhile. Mischa put his arms around me and let me rest my head on his shoulder.

  At last the physician arrived and examined my son. "He has a raging ear infection," he announced. "He must be started on antibiotics right away, and I'm also going to give you a prescription for pain relief."

  It was in the early morning hours when we finally left the hospital. Mischa drove us home.

  "Thank you so much for driving me to the hospital, and for staying with us," I told him.

  "It was no problem at all," he replied. "I was happy to help."

  "I'm sorry our first date had to end this way," I said.

  "That's all right. There will be other dates. Are you going to be all right?"

  "We'll be fine," I assured him. I watched as he walked back out to his car, feeling a bit sad to see him go. Then I got Sage settled and, exhausted, went to bed myself.

  The following morning, I called the hospital and told them I wouldn't be coming in that day, then called Jeff's mother and told her about Sage. She offered to keep Meadow for as long as I needed her to. I thanked her, checked on Sage, and then went back to bed.

  ✽✽✽

  After several days on the antibiotic, Sage was feeling much better, and I returned to work. At lunchtime, Mischa hesitated only a moment before sitting across from me. "How's Sage?" he asked.

  "He's fine. They both are."

  "I've got a great idea for our next date," he told me.

  "Really? What?'

  "Not gonna tell." He grinned and winked at me. "It's a surprise, but it's nothing you'd have to get all dressed up for."

  Our next mutual day off was not too long after that. Having no idea how long we'd be out, I arranged for an overnight babysitter.

  Mischa was wearing jeans, a polo shirt, and sneakers when he came to pick me up. I was so glad I'd decided to wear flats instead of heels.

  For dinner he took me out for chili cheese fries and milkshakes, but he told me that wasn't the surprise. After dinner, he drove me to the goofy golf course.

  "So this is the surprise?" I asked.

  "I hope you're not disappointed," he said. "I just wanted to do something different for a change."

  "I think it's neat!" I exclaimed. "I haven't played goofy golf since I was a teenager!"

  "Great!" He grinned. "It's about time, then."

  I had a blast over the next couple of hours. Mischa won, but only by a couple of points.

  "Congratulations," I told him as we left. "You played really well."

  "So did you," he told me. "I'm so glad we came. You know, I never could do this type of thing with Tina. All she ever wanted to do was hang out at bars."

  When he took me home, I invited him in for a few minutes. He saw my CD player with my Tchaikovsky CD sitting on top of it. "Hey!" he exclaimed happily as he picked it up. "I didn't know you liked Tchaikovsky!"

  "Swan Lake's pretty cool," I told him. "We went on a field trip to see a performance of it in fifth grade."

  "My great grandmother saw the Tsar's former mistress perform in it a few years before the Revolution," he told me.

  I slipped the CD in and then went into the kitchen and got a couple of bottles of wine for us. As we sat together on the sofa drinking our wine and listening to the music, he kissed me.

  At first it was gentle, tentative, almost as if he wasn't sure whether or not he should proceed. When I responded enthusiastically, it became more fervent, and I felt his tongue slip into my mouth. My heart began to pound madly as, encouraged, my hand began to slip from his knee slowly up his thigh. Right before it reached his crotch, I felt him gently take it into his own.

  "No, Tracy," he said softly. "It's...it's just too soon. I'd like to get to know you a bit better first."

  "But why?" I could feel tears of disappointment stinging my eyes.

  "I made a mistake once. I don't want to make it again."

  Suddenly I realized why he was afraid and felt slightly guilty. "I'm not Tina, Mischa."

  "I know you're not." He smiled. "You're such a special woman, Tracy, and I want everything between us to happen at just the right time, not before."

  "I feel the same way," I said. "I'm sorry if I was too forward."

  "Not at all!" he said with a smile. "Take care, Tracy, and I'll see you again real soon." He kissed me again, a soft, tender kiss this time, and then he was gone.

  Even though I understood the logic behind his words, I couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed as I went to bed that night. Did he really find me attractive? Was I really capable of turning him on? Although I told myself that I was being silly, I couldn't help but feel just a tad insecure.

  The next day I was eating lunch when Mischa slid into the seat across from me, this time with no hesitation at all. "Hey, Trace!" He was all smiles.

  "Hi," I said.

  "Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed our date last night." He took my hand and gazed into my eyes.

  "Well, at least it ended a lot better than the previous one did," I noted wryly.

  "Yeah. I'm so glad Sage is all right now," he replied. "And I'd love to go out with you again soon. Not necessarily for goofy golf, but...well, you know what I mean."

  "I'd like that too," I told him.

  Chapter 6

  I

  'd told my parents that I was back in touch with Mischa, but so far they hadn't really said too much about it. I suppose too many other things had just come up too quickly, but one day my Mom called me out of the blue about it.

  "Do you think Mischa would like to have dinner with us?" she asked. "I don't know if I can get a hold of any caviar, but I can make stroganoff, and your Dad has some Smirnoff. I'm not sure if that's really the authentic stuff or not but maybe it'll do. Adam would love to see him again after all these years."

  "I'm sure Mischa would love to see him again as well," I replied. "I'll ask him next chance I get."

  Mischa was on duty the next time I went to work. "My Mom wants to know if you'd like to come over for dinner," I told him. "She said Adam would love to see you again."

  "Sure, that would be great!"

  On the appointed evening, he arrived at my home dressed very nicely. I noticed that his hands were shaking slightly with nervousness.

  "We're going to see my Grandma and Grandpa," Sage told him.

  "I know," Mischa replied. "It'll be nice to see them again."

  "You mean you've seen them before?" Sage's eyes grew round with surprise.

  "It was a long time ago, before you and your sister were born," Mischa told him. "I came to your country by accident. I was lost, and your Grandma and Grandpa made friends with me and helped me to get back home. Many years later, I was able to come back, and here I am!"

  "Where did you used to live?" asked Sage.

  "My country is called Russia, and it's a long, long way from here," Mischa told him. "All the way across the ocean. It's very different from your country. It gets a lot colder there. It snows a lot, and there are forests with bears. The men wear tall fur hats, and the women wear colorful dresses and scarves. There's balalaika music, and fish and cabbage soup and borsch."

  "What's borch?" asked Sage, mispronouncing the word slightly.

  "It's soup made out of beets. Have you ever had them?"

  Sage shook his head.

  "They'r
e vegetables kind of like radishes, except that they're very dark red, almost purple. But I think your Mom's about ready to leave now. We'll talk some more when we get to your Grandma's, OK?"

  "OK!" Sage said happily.

  We got to my parents' house a few minutes later. Right away we were greeted with the delicious aroma of my Mom's cooking. Dad and Adam were sitting on the sofa talking. Adam's face brightened as soon as he saw Mischa.

  "Mischa!" he exclaimed.

  "Adam! Is it really you?" Mischa sounded amazed. "You've really grown up!"

  I was really touched to see how warmly they embraced. I hadn't realized until then how big an impression Mischa had really left on my brother.

  "Mischa's from Russia. They eat beets there," Sage informed my family. Everyone laughed.

  "I know it isn't like your mother's stroganoff, but it's the best I could do," my Mom said apologetically to Mischa as she brought the food to the table.

  "I'm sure it will be delicious," Mischa said politely.

  To my Mom's relief, Mischa did really seem to enjoy her stroganoff, finishing off two servings and most of a third. My Mom had made her specialty, red velvet cake, for dessert, but we were all too full to eat very much of it.

  Mischa spent most of the visit in animated discussion with Adam, catching up on all that had happened in the ten years that had passed since they'd last seen one another. We ended up staying quite late. Meadow fell asleep in my Mom's lap, and Sage was nodding off in my Dad's, by the time we finally left.

  As soon as I got home, I put the kids to bed, then said good-bye to Mischa. "I would invite you to stay for a drink or two, but it's so late..." I yawned.

  "That's all right," he replied. "Thank you for this evening, Tracy. I really enjoyed seeing your parents and Adam again and having the chance to spend time with them."

  He gave me a big hug, and I rested my head on his shoulder, wishing I could go to sleep there. He rubbed my back gently and kissed first my forehead, then my lips.

  "Good-night, Tracy," he said softly. "Sweet dreams." Obviously reluctant to leave, he kissed my lips once again and squeezed my hand before walking away.

  ✽✽✽

  For the rest of that week, Mischa and I were together at work as much as we possibly could be, taking care to keep physical contact to a minimum, as romantic relationships between co-workers were discouraged at the hospital. Even though so much time had passed, to me it began to feel just like he'd never gone away at all, as if the time we shared together now was an unbroken continuation from the time we'd first met.

  I mentioned this to Mischa and asked if it felt the same way to him.

  "Not when I look at Adam and see how much he's grown," he chuckled.

  The night before Halloween, the hospital had a hayride through a 'haunted forest', which was really, of course, the parking lot and the woods behind it decorated with scary scenes and employees dressed up as ghosts, witches, zombies, characters from horror movies, etc. I told Mischa I was planning to take the kids and asked if he'd like to come along. He eagerly agreed.

  As soon as we'd climbed into the back of the wagon, a man dressed as a mummy pretended to try to jump on right after us. Meadow startled and looked as if she might cry, and I had second thoughts about whether I should have brought her along, after all. Sage was fine. He pretended to be a pirate threatening to stab the 'mummy' with a sword.

  After that, it wasn't too bad at first. We rode past a vampire rising from a coffin and a scene from the movie 'Poltergeist.' Then a man dressed as a werewolf let out an ear-splitting howl inches from the wagon. Meadow began to cry, and even Sage turned pale.

  I held Meadow and tried to comfort her, but she still sobbed. "I wanna go home!" Sage whined.

  "I'll bet you've never heard the story of the 'Golden Slipper', have you?" Mischa asked.

  "No, what's that?" Sage had instantly forgotten the howling werewolf.

  "Once upon a time, a long time ago, there lived a young girl on a farm in St. Petersburg," Mischa began. "One day, her father brought her a fish from the market. Instead of eating the fish right away, as her older sister had done, the girl felt sorry for it and put it into the water so that it could live."

  "One day the girl's mother dressed her older sister up and took her to the palace, leaving the young girl at home to do all the work. The girl sat beside the water crying because she wanted to go, too. Her friend the fish saw her crying and gave her some nice clothes so that she could go to the palace, too. While she was there, the Tsar's son, the Tsarevich, saw her and fell in love with her, but she had to leave in a hurry and lost one of her golden slippers. The Tsarevich searched the entire countryside for the girl whose foot fit the golden slipper. At last he came to our young girl. The slipper fit her foot perfectly, and the two of them were married and lived happily ever after."

  By now both children were mesmerized. "What a cool story!" I exclaimed. "It sounded an awful lot like Cinderella, but it was still pretty good."

  "My mother used to tell it to my sisters and me when we were little," Mischa told me.

  The following night, my Mom watched Meadow while I took Sage trick-or-treating at the mall. It was very crowded, and at one point, I overheard the voices of two women standing behind me who were talking rather loudly. One was complaining of early pregnancy symptoms.

  "This was the third morning in a row I threw up as soon as I got out of bed," she complained. "Does it never end?"

  I turned to look and, to my utter shock, saw that the two women were Tina and her friend Debbie. They were accompanied by a little girl who must have been Debbie's daughter. Tina was the one who'd spoken.

  I felt as if all the air had just been knocked out of me. So Tina was pregnant, possibly by Mischa. Did he know? If not, was she planning to tell him? If she did, what would he do?

  Somehow I made it through the rest of trick-or-treating. Sage, oblivious to how troubled I now was, chattered excitedly all the way back to the car and to my Mom's.

  "Look at all the candy I got, Grandma!" he proudly proclaimed as soon as my Mom opened the door.

  "Yes, I see," my Mom replied. "Tracy, do you think that Mischa would like to go hunting with your Dad and Adam this weekend?"

  "Who cares?" After what I'd just found out about Tina, all the hurt I'd felt over Mischa's betrayal had come flooding back.

  My Mom frowned. "What's wrong?"

  "Right after I met up with him again, he had a fling with a woman named Tina," I told her. "I just found out Tina's pregnant. I overheard her talking to her friend at the mall."

  "Oh, no!" My Mom looked just as shocked as I'd felt. "Is it Mischa's?"

  "I don't know. She was sleeping with this other guy at the same time."

  "My God," my Mom said softly. "Does Mischa know?"

  "I have no idea. He hasn't said a word about it to me."

  "Well, he's a good boy," she said. "I'm sure he'll do what's right. I'm so sorry, hon."

  "Yeah." I collected Meadow and took my kids home.

  I dreaded running into Mischa the next day I worked, and sure enough, he was waiting for me with a big smile at the cafeteria's entrance at lunchtime. His smile evaporated as soon as he saw my face.

  "Trace? What's wrong?"

  I felt tears fill my eyes. "Tina's pregnant."

  “Oh Tracy!" He tried to take me into his arms, but I pushed him away. "It couldn't be mine. I used a condom with her." He frowned. "How'd you find out, anyway? When did you see her?"

  "I took Sage to the mall Halloween night, and we ended up standing right in front of her and Debbie. They were there with Debbie's little girl."

  Mischa shook his head. "If I had a kopek for every time I've wished I'd never met that woman..."

  I smirked. "You'd be a rich man."

  "I'd be a rich man," he agreed. "But I don't think there's anything to worry about, Tracy. I'm sure it's that other guy's."

  "But condoms aren't one hundred per
cent effective, you know..."

  "It's that other guy's." There was an edge to his voice I'd never heard before, and it frightened me a little. "I'm sorry, Trace. I didn't mean to sound harsh, but the subject's closed. I never want to hear anything about it again." His face relaxed into a smile. "Now, shall we go to lunch?" He put his arm around me and led me into the cafeteria.

  I found that I wasn't quite as hungry as I normally was. Mischa filled his tray with the usual amount of food. "Is that all you're going to eat?" he asked me.

  "I'm just not very hungry today." I grimaced. "Bad time of the month," I lied.

  "Poor baby." He gave me a sympathetic hug.

  We engaged in light banter for the entire meal, but I still couldn't get Tina off my mind. Before it was time to leave for the day, I couldn't stand it and went to find Debbie.

  Her eyes narrowed when she saw me. "What do you want?"

  "I need to know if Tina's pregnant with Mischa's baby," I demanded.

  "What business is it of yours?" She smirked hatefully. "Haven't you done enough to wreck her life? She already had to quit because of that stupid fight you picked with her. What are you gonna do to her next?"

  "Nothing," I said. "But I do want to know if her baby's Mischa's."

  "Well, guess what? I'm not gonna tell you!" She laughed cruelly. "And if you don't go away and leave me alone right now, you're gonna be very sorry!"

  ✽✽✽

  Mom called me later. "Did you get the chance to ask Mischa if he wants to go hunting with your father and Adam this weekend?' she asked me.

  "Not yet," I told her. "I've had other stuff going on, and it kind of slipped my mind."

  "Other stuff? Oh, yeah," she said softly. "Whatever happened with that?"

  "Well, Mischa says it probably isn't his because he used a condom with her."

  "Well, then there's nothing to worry about, is there?" Mom said brightly, changing the subject.

  Almost right after I got off the telephone with Mom, Mischa called. "Are you all right, Tracy?" he asked.

  "I'm fine. Why?"

  "I just don't want you to be worried about anything, that's all. Everything's going to be all right."