by J Hoffman
Natalee assumed she left it there because her hands were full, so she grabbed it and set it in front of a chair for her. The girl stared at the fourth plate and scrunched her brows together in confusion. She looked from Svetlana to Natalee and back again. Svetlana responded to her in their native tongue and Natalee hoped the softer voice wasn’t just her imagination. The girl stepped back and held her hands behind her back dutifully while Natalee and Svetlana took their seats. Yana continued to stand patiently until Jonah decided to join them. Once he sat, she sat too. Natalee was halfway through her meal before she took a moment to pause and appreciate the sudden change in the atmosphere.
“I am so glad you’re here, Svetty.”
Svetlana smiled. “I am glad, too.”
“And you!” Natalee reached over and squeezed the girl’s arm. “Yana! It is so nice to meet you!”
Yana looked at Natalee with wide eyes. Her chewing slowed to a halt and she set her fork down. She took a moment to wipe off her hands before she held her right hand out to Natalee. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Natalee Denver.” Her voice was quiet, but firm like Svetlana’s.
Natalee shook her hand graciously. “Well, aren’t you just the sweetest little thing.”
Svetlana nodded proudly. “She is taught to be polite, and only polite.”
Jonah held his hand out to her. “I’m Jonah.”
Yana watched him for a moment but ignored his hand and proceeded to keep eating. Natalee shot a look at Svetlana, “Polite?”
Svetlana pointed at Natalee with her fork, “Men are pigs.”
Natalee snorted, bursting into a small fit of laughter. “Shut up. Not all men are pigs! My son is an upstanding citizen.”
Svetlana shrugged. “An upstanding citizen, who cannot stand up for himself.”
Natalee raised an eyebrow, “There was no reason to fight back, it was a misunderstanding.”
Svetlana shrugged again. “I understand. But is living with a damaged face a good way to show people you let a little ‘misunderstanding’ change your life?”
“It’s just a bruise, Aunt Svet,” Jonah interjected.
She nodded. “It is, for now. Until it happens again and then again, and then everyone thinks they can walk all over you for the rest of your life.”
Jonah stared at her for a moment. “I don’t think it’s going to be like that.”
“You do not think like that, not now. Not as a child.”
Jonah tossed his napkin on top of his plate, and he looked back to Yana, “This was very good, thank you.” Jonah then turned and headed straight for his room.
Feeling a little uncomfortable, once again, Natalee stood, grabbed the plates from everyone and took them to the sink in the kitchen. She mulled over the entire situation in her mind while she scraped then rinsed the plates and loaded them into the dishwasher. She proceeded to continue cleaning until the kitchen was nearly spotless.
She figured it had only taken a few minutes, but the time away from the intimidating Russian in her dining room was much needed. She wasn’t sure if she could hold out spending a week, or more, with Svetlana. While most of what she said may have been correct in her own point of view, the way she came off about it was so intimidating and almost arrogant. As if she had something to prove, and she needed to prove it to every person she met.
Once there was nothing else for her to clean, she headed back to the dining room to find the table wiped down, the chairs placed in their proper places, and void of all life. She looked around for a moment before she caught a hushed whisper from the living room. She walked in to see Svetlana and Yana sitting on the couch together, talking quietly to each other, smiling, and nodding together. Natalee took a slow, deep breath and briefly wondered what had changed while she was gone.
Yana was the first to notice her and she immediately sat up. She held her shoulders back and her spine straight, though her eyes were lowered, and she was looking at her hands which were crossed in her lap. Natalee raised an eyebrow but tried to soften the confusion on her face. “Hey, guys! I was just cleaning up in the kitchen.” She sat down across from them and crossed her legs with a happy grin.
Svetlana smiled in return. “We were just talking about our flight. It seems the jet lag is taking a toll on,” she paused. “My assistant.” Her voice seemed to curl around the words as she said them.
Yana nodded. “I am very tired, madame.”
“Oh, just call me Natalee,” she smiled sweetly.
“She was talking to me, Natty,” Svetlana responded sternly.
Natalee’s eyes shot to Svetlana, shocked by the strength in her voice once again. “Well, she can sleep in Jonah’s room, he will be awake all day, I can just call him down here.” Without pause, she yelled for her son. “Jonah! Jonah come here!”
“This is not necessary, Natalee. The girl can sleep in my room,” Svetlana slurred. It was obvious the jet lag was beginning to take its toll on her, too.
“Are you sure? You can sleep in our bed if you’d like? Judah will be home in a couple hours, but he usually stays up for a few hours after he gets home from a flight.”
Svetlana shook her head quickly. “That is okay. If I am tired, I will sleep. Show my assistant to the room, please. She is very, very tired.”
Natalee stood and motioned for Yana to follow her. Before she headed for the stairs, Yana stacked as many bags as she could carry, lifted them and peered around them to follow Natalee.
“Do you need any help? I can take some of those.” Natalee asked once they were a short distance away.
“No, but thank you kindly for offering Mrs. Denver.”
As they climbed the stairs, Natalee whispered to Yana. “Do you like working for her? For Svetlana?”
Yana was visibly anxious following her question, but she answered, “I am alive, and that is good enough, Mrs. Denver.”
Natalee nodded and held the door open to the guest room for her. “Okay, well if you need anything, Jonah is right next door, my room is down the hall to the left and there’s a bathroom in here for you.”
Yana placed the luggage on the floor next to the closet. She sat on the bed and ran her hand over the quilt folded at the bottom of the bed.
“My mother made that,” Natalee offered.
Yana pressed her finger through a small hole near the stitching. “It is very nice. Very loved.”
Natalee smiled. “It is. Very loved.” She watched Yana for a moment before she took a slow, deep breath. “Okay, well, enjoy your nap!” She offered happily. She stepped back into the hall and paused for a moment. She glanced over her shoulder, “How old are you?”
Yana looked up until their eyes met then she dropped them to her hands crossed in her lap and shrugged. “I have never heard.”
Natalee looked around curiously. “Never heard?” She muttered to herself as she headed back to the living room. What an odd response, she thought to herself.
Once she had made it downstairs, she found Svetlana sprawled out on the couch, the small turquoise flask in her hand, opened. Her eyes were closed, and she was taking deep breaths, but her knee was bouncing as if she was rocking herself to sleep. Natalee tiptoed over to her, pulled the flask from her hand and tightened the lid closed. She looked around before she slid it back into a pocket of a bag on the floor next to her.
Natalee sat down on the oversized chair across from her and curled up with her favorite fleece throw blanket. She stretched out to grab the remote from the marble coffee table in front of her. She flipped through a few channels before she settled on the cooking channel, and she too dozed off to sleep.
Eight
Natalee was shaken awake by Jonah, who seemed to be very panicked. “Mom, Mom!” He whispered loudly in her face.
“What?” She jumped, “What!” She yelled as she rubbed her eyes.
“Don’t you have to get Dad?”
“Oh shit!” Natalee peered at the clock above their fireplace. It was a quarter till eleven and her phone was ringing. She
pulled her phone out from the cushion of the chair where it had slipped into while she was asleep. Without checking the caller ID, she put the phone to her ear. “I am SO sorry!”
“Well, then I guess this conversation is over.”
Natalee froze at the sound of the woman’s voice, “Who is this?”
“It’s Rachel. You called me a bitch on Friday?”
Natalee’s head dropped. “What do you want?”
“Well, I was calling to see if you would be willing to apologize for what you did. We decided as a group that if you chose to apologize to us in another meeting, we would let you come back.”
Natalee scoffed. “Let me come back?”
“Yes, as of now you are banned from the PTA meetings. And events.”
“And events?” Natalee enunciated.
“Yes, you were acting irrationally.”
“Irrationally? You guys were attacking me for bringing the same cookies that you enjoyed a month ago!”
“Yes, but with the circumstances at hand…”
Natalee cut her off before she could continue, “That apology was not for you, it was for my husband. My mistake.”
“Oh,” Rachel paused with a sigh. “Well, if that’s the case then this conversation was just to inform you to stay away from any member of the PTA, including those who are incapacitated.”
Natalee rolled her eyes. “You know, I created the damn PTA at this school. Y’all wouldn’t have anywhere to bitch about your husbands if it weren’t for me.”
Rachel gasped, “Who do you think you’re talking to?” Natalee thought she heard a slight slur in her words which caused her to giggle. “Are you laughing at me now?”
“Are you drunk? Ten forty-five on a Sunday morning and you’re wasted, making PTA calls. This is fabulous.”
“Now you listen here, Natalee Denver, keep pissing me off and that son of yours won’t have a school to go to in the tri-county area.”
“Enjoy the rest of your day,” Natalee smirked and disconnected the call.
The moment she set her phone down, she heard the front door open. Judah stepped around the corner with his cap in one hand and three dozen roses in the other. “It seemed as if you were late.” He smiled to Natalee.
“I fell asleep,” she sighed. “I am so sorry.”
He shook his head and handed one set of roses to her. He leaned down to kiss her on the forehead. “You are perfectly fine, my love.”
Natalee blushed as she examined the roses. “You are something else.”
“I see Svet made herself at home,” He nodded to her friend, still sprawled on the couch and the turquoise flask was somehow back in her hand.
“Yeah, she was only here for like an hour before that happened.”
“That’s a rough flight,” Judah acknowledged.
“We should let her sleep,” Natalee pushed her way past Judah and headed to the kitchen to put the roses up.
He followed her into the kitchen with curiosity scrawled across his face. “Is everything okay?”
“Svetlana is so weird now!” Natalee whispered to him the moment he was within earshot.
“Well, it’s been fifteen years since the last time you saw each other. Of course, she’s not going to be the same person she was in high school.”
“No, no. She’s like, scary now.”
He chuckled. “Scary, huh? Scary how?”
Natalee groaned and crossed her arms over her chest. “I have no idea, I just know that she intimidated the crap out of me and that assistant of hers is just a little girl! She looks like she’s ten. Like they don’t have child labor laws in Russia or something! It’s like she’s Svetlana’s little slave. I don’t get it. She’s freaking me out, babe!”
Judah held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. Quit freaking out, you’re just going to make it worse. We can talk about it later when we know we have full privacy. I’m sure there is some kind of misunderstanding. She was probably exhausted when you picked her up.”
Natalee chewed on her lip and tried to look at anything but Judah. “I didn’t.”
“You didn’t what?”
“I didn’t pick her up!” She threw her hands in the air.
“What do you mean you didn’t pick her up?”
“I fell asleep!”
Judah threw his head back and laughed, “You slept through both pick-ups today? That’s a record!”
“Shut up!” Natalee playfully smacked him on his chest. “It’s not funny! I felt awful both times!”
Judah laughed again. “Yeah, you felt so bad you did it a second time.”
Natalee blushed. “You are being so mean!”
“At least I didn’t abandon my best friend at the airport.”
“Hey! It was an accident,” she giggled.
“No wonder she was intimidating you when she got here. You forgot about her!”
Natalee gasped, “Oh my God, you might be right!” She smacked her hand over her mouth in shock. “You really might be right!”
“I’m probably right,” Judah held his hands out mockingly.
Natalee giggled again and wrapped her arms around Judah’s waist. “I’ll try to talk to her when she wakes up. I’m sure she’s exhausted too. I know I’m cranky when I’m tired.”
“Cranky?” Judah snapped. “You’re like the banshee I never knew I married.” He rolled his eyes with a smirk.
“Oh stop, you love my crazy.”
He ran his fingers through her hair and brushed it behind her ears. “I sure do love your crazy,” he mumbled quietly, just above a whisper.
She gazed into his eyes for a moment before she pushed herself up on her tiptoes, closed her eyes and planted a kiss on his lips. He pressed his hands into her lower back, kissed her deeply, and squeezed her against his chest.
After a moment they parted but kept themselves pressed together, and continued to gaze into each other’s eyes. Goofy smiles spread across both of their lips.
“I love you,” Natalee murmured.
“I love you,” Judah enunciated.
“You are truly incredible.”
“If I’m incredible then you must be the ultimate catch.”
She shrugged, “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.”
He lifted her up onto the counter and caused her to let out a small squeal. “I think you are.”
She rested her arms on his shoulders and tried to calm herself with steady breaths. “I believe you.”
Jonah walked in and groaned loudly. “Oh gross! You guys have a room, you know that right?”
Natalee giggled and collapsed onto Judah as he lowered her to the floor. “Yes, we were just talking.”
“Yeah, I know what ‘just talking’ means at school and I don’t want to think about my parents doing it.”
Judah chuckled and approached Jonah. He used his index finger to tilt Jonah’s chin to the side and peered at his eye. “It isn’t even that bad.”
Jonah pulled away and headed for the fridge. “Aunt Svetlana says he hits like a girl.”
Judah nodded. “I can agree with that. There was no blood.”
“That’s what Svet said,” Natalee chimed in.
Jonah turned to face both of his parents while he twisted off the cap to a soda. “I want to take a boxing class.”
“What?” Natalee gasped.
“I already looked into it. I can afford it with my allowance, but only one class. There’s a gym eighteen blocks away and I already found the bus route to get there and home every day.”
Judah glanced at Natalee before he crossed his arms and leaned against the counter behind him. “It sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into this.”
Jonah shrugged. “I wouldn’t call it ‘a lot’. Aunt Svet made a good point and I don’t want to ever be in this situation again. Especially if this is a girl hit. It hurts,” Jonah cringed.
Judah chuckled. “Yeah, it never feels good to get punched in the face, no matter how hard they hit you. But they usually hit harder th
an that, I can assure you.”
Jonah took a sip of his soda before he set it down on the gray and white granite countertop in front of him. “I just found everything online since breakfast, so I know it’s pretty fast, but I need a parent’s permission to actually sign up.”
Natalee chewed her bottom lip and watched Judah. She hoped his body language would imply what their answer would be. Typically, two glances to her meant no, one glance and a shrug meant yes. She hoped for two glances.
Judah looked in her direction only once, and without a shrug. He let out a small sigh, “Let us talk about it. When is the next class?”
“They’re every Tuesday and Thursday. They have fights every Saturday and the brochure said they like all students to come to the fights.”
“Well, we’ll have a decision for you before Tuesday then, how’s that?”
Jonah groaned and rolled his eyes. “Seriously? Can’t I just get an answer.”
“Hey! Don’t talk to your father that way. He said we will have a decision before the next class and that’s what is going to happen. If you don’t give us a hard time about wanting to talk about it, we could probably have an answer sooner than that, but this isn’t just a drop of a hat decision, Jonah. Boxing could really hurt you. You’re literally paying to get punched in the face until someone says it’s okay to stop. That is really scary for a mother.”
“It’s humiliating to know that I’m the only guy in my grade who has never fought back.”
Natalee sighed, “We will discuss it, Jonah. We can promise you that.”
“Fine,” he muttered.
Judah reached out and ruffled his hair. “You’re a good kid, Jone. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.”
Jonah rolled his eyes again and he snatched his soda from the counter. “Yeah, yeah.”
Natalee’s jaw dropped as Jonah walked away and headed back upstairs to his room. “Boxing, babe? Fucking boxing?”