Love, Mischa

by Desiree Hart

  "Yes, thank you," I replied. Mischa blew on Sage's hot chocolate for him, and I blew on Meadow's. She wasn't really used to drinking from regular cups yet, but she still managed to spill only a little of it.

  After awhile we came to a miniature merry-go-round with toddler-sized horses. Sage climbed onto one, and I took Meadow out of her stroller and sat her onto another. Then we stood with our arms around one another watching the carousel go around and around. "Only two years ago, I never would have imagined I'd be here doing this," Mischa chuckled.

  "You've been a wonderful father to them," I said gratefully. It was true.

  Not too long after the merry-go-round ride, Meadow grew very sleepy, so we went back home.

  Several nights after that, Mischa and I went to a party at Yuri and Erica's. We brought barbecue potato chips and ginger ale to share and had a lot of fun meeting new people. At one point I sat on the sofa chatting with Erica.

  "I have to go for another pelvic exam in a couple of weeks." She made a face. "They found a cyst on one of my ovaries last time, and if it's still there, they're gonna have to do a biopsy. I might end up losing that ovary." Yuri came and sat beside her and took her hand.

  "Oh my god, that's scary!" I exclaimed. "So do they think it might be...you know..."

  "They didn't say the word." I could see the worry in her eyes. "But I know they were thinking it."

  "Wow, it's sure a good thing you already have your three kids!"

  "I know," she replied. "But I still dread the thought of radiation and chemotherapy."

  "Oh, I know!" I'd treated many hospitalized cancer patients since I'd started working as a nurse. The chemotherapy often made their hair fall out and also tended to make them very nauseous, and the radiation also damaged their bodies frequently. "Well, I sure hope everything goes all right for you," I told her.

  "Thank you," she said.

  On the morning of Christmas day, Mischa and I got up at about two AM to put the presents beneath the tree, then grinned at one another and went back to bed.

  It was about six when Sage burst into our bedroom shouting excitedly. "Mommy! Daddy! Santa Claus came and left me presents!"

  "Oh, did he?" I asked sleepily.

  "Come see!" said Sage.

  His shouting had awakened Meadow, and I could hear her jumping up and down in her crib. I went into her bedroom and lifted her out of it, and she raced into the living room with her brother. They both squealed with excitement as they ripped into their presents. "Look what Santa Claus brought me!" Sage crowed. "Annie and Clarabel!"

  "Dolls! Dolls!" Meadow cried.

  "Just look what Santa brought Mommy." Mischa picked up a small oblong box that I hadn't noticed before and handed it to me. Quickly I opened it and gasped with pleasure when I saw what was inside. It was a silver necklace containing two charms. One was an oval amethyst with a head, arms, and legs, and the other was a triangular ruby that also had a head, arms, and legs.

  "It's beautiful!" I exclaimed. "Thank you!" I hugged and kissed my husband.

  "There's plenty of room on the chain to add more charms, if they're needed in the future." Mischa winked at me.

  ✽✽✽

  Later in the morning, we went to my parents' for dinner. Adam and Jill were there, too. We'd bought new gardening tools for my Dad, a new sheet set for my Mom, a wallet for Adam, and a make-up set for Jill. My parents got me and Mischa a new combination CD player/radio. "Wow, thanks!" I exclaimed. "It's way better than our old one!"

  "I thought of you as soon as I saw it," my Dad replied.

  Of course, Sage and Meadow received many more new toys from my family. They whooped excitedly as they ripped into present after present.

  "Have you seen Lisa recently?" I asked Jill.

  "We're getting together at our Dad's later on today," she replied. "She and Chris are bringing Logan."

  "I'll bet he's really grown!"

  "What a lovely necklace!" Jill exclaimed.

  "Thanks," I replied. "Mischa gave it to me this morning."

  "Do the charms represent your kids?"

  I nodded. "And there's room to add more charms if we need them later on."

  She grinned. "Cool!"

  Later, we gathered up all the presents, loaded them into the car, and drove back home. Sage and Meadow were more tired than they usually were and went to be early that night, which gave Mischa and me plenty of time to work on adding another charm to my necklace.

  Lisa called me the following day. "Guess what!" she exclaimed.

  "What?"

  "My Mom went with Chris and me to my Dad's last night," she said. "It was the first time her and my Dad had seen each other in years. She was curious about Jill and wanted to meet her. Things were kind of awkward at first, but by the end of the visit, they were sitting on the sofa holding hands. I think they might get back together!"

  "That's great!" I squealed. I knew that Lisa's Mom had been very lonely for a long time and thought that it would be wonderful if she and her ex-husband got back together.

  On New Year's Eve, Mischa took me out for dinner and dancing. As we moved together on the dance floor, I thought about how good-looking and sexy, as well as kind and loving, my husband was, and how lucky I was to be with him.

  "What are you thinking about?" he asked me as we were slow dancing.

  "How happy I am to be with you," I replied.

  "I love you, Trace," he told me. "What we have together is so special. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

  That night, we sat up until midnight drinking vodka (Mischa) and wine coolers (me). Ivan and Mitzi came over to celebrate with us. Mitzi talked excitedly about her upcoming wedding. I showed her the necklace that Mischa had given me for Christmas.

  "It's beautiful!" she exclaimed. "Ivan and I want to have kids of our own in a couple of years," she added, understanding the meaning of the charms.

  In mid-January, my friend Robin came into the hospital to give birth to her second child. Her daughter Camryn was Sage's age and went to his school. "My due date's in only three days, so the doctor offered to induce me today," she told me.

  "I wouldn't do that if I were you," I replied. "I had Meadow induced, and my labor with her was a lot more painful than it was with Sage. Pitocin's a real bitch."

  "I asked my doctor about that," she said. "She said that since I'm getting an epidural anyway, it doesn't matter."

  I shrugged. "Good luck."

  I was busy all morning with a terrible car crash. Some drunk guy had flipped his car over and it had caught fire. He was still alive but had third degree burns over ninety percent of his body. I walked into his cubicle to find him swathed head to toe in bandages and on a morphine drip.

  For several hours, the other nurses and I struggled to keep his fluids and electrolytes balanced, and then another nurse arrived to relieve me, so I went up to the maternity ward to check on Robin. I found out that she'd already delivered her baby and was resting in her room. I went to see her and found her gobbling a piece of chicken.

  "So how did it go?" I asked her.

  "Terrible!" she replied. "All that Demerol they gave me made my mouth so dry I can hardly eat, even though I'm starving 'cause I wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight last night. The whole thing was horribly painful. I kept asking for an epidural and they kept telling me my labor wasn't far enough along, and then when they finally said I could have one, they checked me again and said that it was too late. The worst part was that they made me hold the baby in until the doctor could get there. I can't describe to you how painful that was."

  "I'm sorry that happened," I said. "Is the baby all right?"

  "He has club feet," she told me. "He might have to have surgery in a few months."

  Feeling a little bit depressed by Robin's sad tale, I returned to my duties.

  Later that month, I saw Yuri pacing back and forth in the waiting room on the surgical floor, looking very worried
. "Erica's in surgery," he told me. "They found a tumor on her ovary. They think it might be cancerous. They're doing a biopsy right now."

  "Oh God, I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed. "I sure hope she'll be all right!"

  "She's had a really hard time of it, you know," he told me. "Her younger sister Toni was murdered when they were just teenagers, and then three years ago, we lost one of our twin boys. He was stillborn."

  "I didn't know Mason was a twin!"

  Yuri nodded. "His brother's name was Matthew. It was a horrible time for all of us."

  "I'll bet!"

  In February, I missed my period. I'd been late before so didn't think that much of it at first, but then I began to experience familiar symptoms. One day on the way home from work, I stopped by the drugstore and picked up a home pregnancy test. I showed it to Mischa after dinner, and he gave a surprised laugh. "Wow! Really?"

  I nodded. "I've been having all the symptoms. I wanted to wait until we could find out the results together."

  I performed the test according to the directions on the package, and then the two of us stared anxiously at the strip to see what color it turned.

  Chapter 21

  “W

  e're going to be parents!" Mischa and I sang as we laughed and hugged one another and danced around in a circle. I felt as if I was on top of the world. The man I loved and I were going to have a baby together!

  "You'll never know how relieved I am!" I saw that there were tears in Mischa's eyes. "Remember that hockey injury I told you about? I was so afraid that had left me permanently sterile!"

  "Well, I'm awfully glad it didn't!" I replied. "I can't wait to tell the kids!"

  "They're going to be thrilled!" Mischa agreed. We went into the living room, where Sage and Meadow sat on the sofa watching television together. "Guess what, kids?" Mischa asked them.

  They looked at him curiously. "You're gonna have a baby brother or sister!" I told them.

  "Hurray!" Sage jumped up and down excitedly, and Meadow, who perhaps didn't quite understand what all the excitement was over, joined him. "So when are you goin' to the hospital to get it?" he wanted to know.

  Mischa and I laughed. "It'll be growing in my tummy for about seven and a half months before it's ready to be born," I told my son.

  "It's in your tummy right now?" He walked over to me and lifted my shirt. "Can I see it?"

  "Oh, no, sweetie. It has to stay right where it is until it's big enough to live on the outside. Right now it's very tiny, but when I go to the doctor, he'll be able to see the baby on an ultrasound, and I'll bring you back some pictures from that."

  The next time I went to work, I went in search of Dr. Brown and found him in the employees' lounge, drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. "Dr. Brown?" I asked.

  He glanced up from his newspaper. "Oh, hi, Tracy! What can I do for you?"

  "I need an exam as soon as possible," I told him. "I took one of those home pregnancy tests, and it came back positive."

  "Congratulations!" He smiled. "I'll have my receptionist check my schedule and see when I can fit you in and give you a call."

  As I was leaving that day, I heard someone calling my name and turned to see Dr. Brown's receptionist, Paige. "Dr. Brown can fit you in at two tomorrow afternoon, if that's a good time," she told me.

  "That's fine," I replied. "Thank you."

  The next afternoon at about two thirty, I lay on a hard table with my feet in stirrups while he poked around inside me. "You're pregnant, all right," he told me. "Congratulations."

  He asked when my last period had started. I told him, and he gave me a due date of October 25. "Come back in two weeks, and I'll do an ultrasound," he told me.

  The first people I called were my parents. "Congratulations, Mom!" I said when Mom answered the telephone. "You're gonna be grandparents again!"

  "Oh, honey, that's wonderful!" she replied. "Mischa must be thrilled."

  "We both are."

  I talked to her for a few more minutes, then handed the telephone to Mischa so that he could call his parents in Russia. He talked to them at length, and then I called Lisa and told her.

  "She sure didn't sound very happy about it," I remarked to Mischa after hanging up.

  "She's probably just surprised," he replied. "Give her some time to get used to the idea, and I'm sure she'll be just as thrilled as everyone else is."

  I was in the supermarket doing my weekly shopping that Saturday when I met up with Erica. "Guess what!" I exclaimed. "Mischa and I are having a baby!"

  "Wow, that's great!" she exclaimed. "Congratulations! When are you due?"

  "October 25. So, how did your biopsy turn out?"

  "Everything's fine. I don't have cancer, thank goodness. The cyst was benign. All they had to do was take it out."

  "I'm glad to hear that," I told her.

  Mischa went with me for my ultrasound appointment. I lay back on the hard table with my belly exposed while the technician smeared cold jelly all over it and then began to move her wand around. After awhile, I heard her give a surprised gasp.

  "What's wrong?" I asked, instantly alarmed.

  "Nothing's wrong!" She laughed and patted my arm. "It's just that you're carrying two babies instead of one!"

  "Twins?" I was so surprised that I almost fell off the table.

  "That's right!" she replied. "Do twins run in your family?"

  "Not that I know of." I looked at my husband. "Do they in yours, Mischa?"

  He shook his head. "I don't know of any twins in my family, either."

  The technician smiled. "So yours will be the first."

  "Are they both healthy?" I asked.

  "Everything looks fine so far."

  "Will I still be able to have a natural birth?"

  "As long as the pregnancy progresses normally, I don't see why not."

  "Well, I certainly wasn't expecting that!" I remarked to Mischa as we walked back to the car together.

  He laughed. "Now I'll have to make another long distance call to Russia."

  "I hope they're one of each," I said.

  "We'll love them just the same, no matter what they are," Mischa replied.

  "Of course we will," I said. "But don't you think it would be neat to have two of each?"

  "Perhaps. But it's more important to me that they're healthy." He placed a gentle hand on my abdomen and gazed tenderly into my eyes. "And that you're all right."

  Mom sounded concerned when I told her. 'You'll have four children under the age of seven," she pointed out. "Are you sure you'll be able to handle that?"

  I laughed. "Well, I don't exactly have any choice about it, do I?"

  "Well, I sure hope everything goes well for you."

  "Thanks. I hope so, too."

  It occurred to me that I hadn't even talked to Lisa since the evening I'd told her I was pregnant. Eagerly I dialed her number. "Guess what, girl?" I said when she answered. "It's twins!"

  I heard perfect silence on the line for a period of about five seconds, followed by the unmistakable sound of the receiver being placed back into its cradle on the other end of the line.

  "I can't believe it!" I gasped. "She hung up on me!"

  "I'm getting to the bottom of this," I told my husband as I grabbed my purse and headed out the door.

  "Please, Trace, you have to calm down." He was obviously deeply concerned. "You're going to hurt the babies."

  "I'll be more upset sitting here wondering what's up with her than I will be if I go on over there and find out for myself," I replied.

  "All right," he conceded. "But please be careful!"

  "You know I will be," I told him. At Chris and Lisa's, I rang the doorbell and Chris let me in. When Lisa came into the living room, I saw that her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

  "So what's the deal with hanging up on me?" I asked her.

  "Oh, Tracy, I'm sorry!" she cried. "I just couldn't deal with it anymore. We'
re the same age, and now you're gonna have four kids and I don't have any at all!"

  "You've got Logan," I pointed out.

  "Temporarily," she replied. "But if Tina ever comes out of her coma and recovers, she'll get him back."

  "Well, you and Chris will probably have one of your own in a year or two."

  "Yeah, I know." She sighed. "I guess I'm being silly, aren't I?"

  "Yeah, you are," I agreed. "But I guess I can kind of understand. I'd probably feel the same way if the situation was reversed."

  We hugged and made up, and then I asked her how things were between her parents. "Really good so far," she told me. "They've been going out together regularly for a couple of months now. I think they're trying to take it slow just to be on the safe side."

  "And how's Jill taking it?"

  "All right, actually. She never really knew our Dad, so to her, her stepfather's her Dad. She's still very close to him, and she's planning on going back to visit him soon."

  I stayed and visited for a couple of hours and then went home. By that time it was pretty late, and Mischa was in the middle of giving Meadow a bath. "I'm sorry," I told him. "I didn't mean to stay that long. We got to talking, and time just got away from me."

  "Oh, that's all right." He grinned. "We're having lots of fun, aren't we, Meadow?" She laughed and splashed him. He ducked but still got a little bit wet.

  "So is everything OK with Lisa?" he asked.

  "Everything's fine now," I told him. "She was just feeling kind of depressed, but I talked to her and got her feeling better."

  "She's lucky to have a friend like you," he said.

  "And I'm lucky to have a husband like you," I replied.

  All my co-workers were very nice and congratulated me on my pregnancy. Only Debbie ignored me and pretended I didn't exist, but that didn't bother me a bit.

  ✽✽✽

  One day I was at work and came upon Mitzi talking to a guy I'd never seen before. "Who was that?" I asked after he'd left.

  "Just a guy I dated briefly a couple of years ago," she replied. "His Mom's in the hospital right now. He wanted to go out with me again, but I told him I'm getting married in a couple of weeks."