Snowflake Circus

Part 4

He was dead afraid. Standing in front of city planning committee hadn't been so nerve wrecking as it was to spend the first official day with them on beach side. He knew from the start that should he go with them, he would have to participate, but still it was eyeopening experience to someone, whose only contact with any kid was his secretary's 2-year-old patting around in the office when she did her 3 hours a day routine.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come." He concluded when they'd walked ten minutes and the boys had already disappeared behind the high bushes of grass with only the eldest, Jevgeni's straw blond cropped hair shined over it. He remembered there being a trail somewhere, but it had been years since he last walked the path.

"Giving up already?" Laura asked, keeping him company and using him as shield against big bluestem grass.

Ergo had gone ahead of them all and the rest followed in a single file. They'd kit them out with towels, toys and were carrying now two baskets with sandwiches and berry juice. It was too domesticated to his liking, scary and terrifying.

"It's not that..." He said over his shoulder and was caught off guard by the pair of deep brown eyes shining goldenly against the sun.

"You let them roam as they want and they'll ask your help when they need it. You'll be alright."

"And that! You can't be sure of it!" He concluded, pointing at her chest before his mind caught up with his head that he'd just poked a woman in her chest. He froze and gulped. She stared him back, annoyed, but seemingly unmoved by this severe intrusion of her personal space.

Her eyes hopped behind him and she shouted. "Watch where you're stepping! It's high grass, there could be snakes!"

Quick glance over his shoulder caught Jevgeni's knowing look and he knew exactly what kind of conclusions his teenager brains were cooking up.

"I should have not said that." She murmured as the wide range of young voices squealed with too much eagerness. Then her attention returned to him. "I put up with them for nine years and came out without major bone breaks or brain damage, so you can survive the two weeks!" She stepped past him, raising her basket higher over the grass to protect the sandwiches. "Besides, you can always go back to town if it's too much."

That got him moving. "And leave you alone with them? You're, what, twenty two?"

"Wiser too!" She shouted, sighing as he caught up with the part of the road, where boys had already pushed the grass further back and she could walk almost normally.

He scoffed and laughed. Honestly laughed while following the children scream as they reached the beach. By the time they reached them, Jevgeny and Joni were the only ones left on the beach. The eldest was helping him fasten the string on his trunks. Then he expertly caught the boy by the same trunks and held him back while wiggling his rubber rings around his upper arms with skills that made Maksim raise an eyebrow. The boy disappeared among the rest and left the eldest standing on the beach.

"Do you really have snakes here?" Jevgeni was suspiciously calm about it.

"I haven't seen any since I was at your age."

Maksim observed the blond youth for a moment, feeling pride over the complete stranger. He didn't understand why he felt it, but it was as if talking to an army buddy. A bit sad though as he was merely eleven and could've been running along with the rest, not looking over the herd like a small grownup.

Laura reached her hand around the boy's shoulders and squeezed her cheek against hers. She received the leftover clothes from the dressing and then he followed suit and took over Petro's attempts of testing the dept.

"Why won't you join them?" Maksim asked after a while, sitting on the twisted pine that had fallen over last year.

She shook her head. "I forgot to learn." She confessed quietly and instead began searching cones under the nearby trees, comparing them with each other.

"A do-it-yourself project?" He inquired, wrinkling his nose at the thought. He doubted the boys would like it either.

"No. Anton used to like this sort of things, you know, collecting and comparing stuff." She was kneeling in the sand and sat back, watching them tossing each other higher to make a bigger splash. Anton was the dark haired skinny boy with Spanish traits that made his eyelashes really long and thick, which was surely gonna be hit among girls one day.

"I thought I'd get him started with one. Like "How many Fibonacci series you can find in nature?" or "How many different species of pines can habitat in one place?". Two years ago he went through our entire yard and tried to figure out how many different bugs he could find. It was all fine and all until Sister Emil found out he was hiding them all in the old safe on the attic. Emiliana never liked bugs, don't know why, but most girls don't, I guess." She discarded two cones towards the trees. "Anyway, I'd like to lure him back to it. He always wanted to become a biologist and maybe..." She trailed off. He looked past her and saw her eyes fixed on a really large cone.

"Look, Anton!" She yelled over the screaming children and he pressed his ears closed. She stepped out of her tennis shoes and was running towards the water before the boys even understood what she was screaming about. The gathered around her, curiously pulling her hands to see what she was hiding. Then one of the youngest with big fuzzy white hair separated from the group and, with his hands clasped together on his back, wrinkled his nose to raise the glasses on his nose, walked straight to him.

"If I find a young snake, I'm keeping it as a pet." He announced, serious.