Hello, Privet! #1: Hello/Привет

Chapter 25

SOPHIE

On Wednesdays, Alison's daughter Chelsea has advanced math tutoring, so it's just Ayelet I'm taking to the park today. But when we're halfway there, she tells me that she doesn't want to go anymore.

When I ask her why not, she merely blinks at me and says, "I'm ready for my snack. What are my options?" she asks.

It used to crack me up that she can speak like a little grown-up. My mother says that was exactly how I used to speak to her when I was about three years old. One of her favorites is, 'Would you be interested in joining me for a game of Hi Ho Cheerio?'

"Well, what do you feel like eating?"

"Ice cream," Ayelet responds.

I wouldn't care if she had ice cream, but I can't give her ice cream because her mother thinks she's lactose intolerant. I know she's not, but Sharon doesn't want her eating any ice cream, and if Sharon ever finds out I gave her daughter ice cream, I would never hear the end of it. So I say, "I'm sorry. I don't have any money for ice cream." I hate lying, especially to little kids, but I don't want to risk Sharon's wrath. "But, you know, playing in the park is free."

Ayelet shakes her head. "I don't want to play in the park."

"Of course you want to play in the park. We just went yesterday with Chelsea."

"I do not want to go, Aunt Sophie," Ayelet insists.

"Um, what's going on?"

She shrugs.

"I promise I won't tell anyone else." I pause. "But you can tell Aunt Sophie. Come on."

"There is a boy in the park," she begins.

"Yeah?"

"You met him."

"I did?"

"Yes. When we build castles, he kicks them."

"That little guy with the spiky hair?"

"He does this all the time," says Ayelet. "Since preschool."

She will be starting second grade in the fall, so the boy had probably been bullying the other kids for over two years.

"And what did Agnieszka do about it?" Agnieszka is the nanny. She's from Poland.

She shrugs. "Agnieszka says that if a boy destroys your castle, he likes you."

I stare at her. "What? That's bullshit." Then my eyes widen, realizing what I just said. "Sorry, you didn't hear that," I say hastily. I kneel in front of her and get her to look me in the eye. "Now, I don't know in which universe that's true, but in our universe, if a boy likes you, he will never destroy your castle," I tell her. "In fact, he would punch the guy destroying your castle, got it?"

She nods.

I stand up and I take her hands in mine. We start walking again. "Or he'd hire a lawyer and sue him," I add as an afterthought.

ANTON

After my appointment at Dr. Rosenbaum's, I find the paparazzi waiting for me downstairs. There is nowhere for me to go but run to the park across from his building. I am wearing sunglasses and now I am pulling the hood of my sweatshirt to hide myself. From Dr. Rosenbaum's window he used to show me this park where he says he used to take his daughter and where he used to run with his wife. He invited me to run there many times, but it is only today that I decide to run there. Too bad I am running there now only to avoid the photographers.