What do you wish for? (complete)

Chapter 14

A week after we arrived in Baia, we went to get another blood test done on Roza. The blood test showed, that we were having two boys and a girl.

When we got home we passed out the ultrasound pictures, that we'd had done before leaving Missoula, to my family. Then told them, that we were going to be have a daughter and two sons. They were all ecstatic, but Paul's reaction topped them all.

"Yes!!! Thank God, I won't be the only boy anymore."

Everyone laughed at him. But he was so happy that he couldn't have cared less. Although, he was a little put out that we hadn't gotten him a copy of the ultrasound picture of his new cousins. So, Roza gave him hers and she and I shared mine. After that he was ecstatic.

"Paul, you are not the only boy I'm a boy too."

"Yes, I know uncle Dimka. But you're a big grown up boy, I mean I want another little boy a kid like me."

"Ohhhh, ok. I'm sorry I misunderstood you."

"It's ok uncle Dimka everyone makes mistakes." He told me with an understanding smile as he patted me on the knee.

For the next four weeks, we stayed in Baia with the family. Everyone getting either re-acquainted or acquainted to begin with. Thanks to Oksana, Roza recovered some of her early childhood memories.

Unfortunately, amongst those memories was also the day that Janine stole her away from all of us. And the day, that Janine abandoned her at St. Vlad's. But she did her best to push those memories to the back of her mind. Trying to act like the new information that she had remembered about those days didn't bother her. But I could tell that it did I just hoped that I was the only one that could see it. Though knowing babushka as I did I probably wasn't the only one who could tell.

Mama brought out the photo albums of when Roza was with us. Some Roza remembered and some she didn't. But never the less we laughed at most of them. When Roza saw the ones of me holding her when she was a baby they made her cry.

She said that I looked 'sooo cute.'

One day we were sitting in the swing on the back porch. When she stood up and walked over to an old cedar tree in the back yard, she ran her hands over it. Like she was wrapped up in a dream or a memory of some kind. Suddenly she started giggling, just like she did when she was a little girl, then she suddenly started running around the tree.

"Bet you can't catch me this time Mitya." She called out to me, her voice lite and filled with the joy of a child.

We ran around that tree for a few minutes. Me always close enough to be sure that she didn't slip or fall.

"Do you remember chasing me around this tree Mitya?" She asked breathlessly as she leaned back against the tree in question. It seems that her pregnancy was already having an effect on her physical capacity for exertion.

"Many, many, many time Roza. And every time you would say, 'bet you can't catch me this time Mitya.' Just like you did earlier." I told her as I rested one of my hands on her hip and the other against the trunk of the tree right next to her head.

When we finally sat back down in the swing she told me some of the other things that she remembered about being here as a child. I could tell that she was very happy about being back 'home again' as she called it.

A couple of days later we were sitting down to dinner. When Roza got that all too familiar glazed over look in her eyes. I knew what was going on, but it scared everyone else except babushka. I had to explain to them what was going on before they would calm down.

She'd frozen with her fork half way to her mouth, so to keep her from spilling her food. I took the fork and lay it back down on her plate and lay her hand in her lap. Then we all waited for her to come back to herself. I told everyone to go ahead and eat because there was no telling how long she would be like this. Eventually, with some convincing, they did so.