M For Moscow

27 | mysterious findings

"I'm sorry I ruined your trip to America."

I glanced down at my watch where the short hand pointed at five in the evening and the longer hand pointed at half past. After arriving at nine in the morning, I had taken a good seven-hour nap from the jet-lag and woke up in time to give Luka a call where it was still morning in Moscow.

He was supposed to leave to New York tonight.

I heard him chuckle through the phone and my heart warmed at the sound. Was it pathetic that I already started to miss him?

"America can wait." he reminded me. A soft thud came from the other line and I knew he was leaning against the wall on the window seat, staring out into the lights.

I bit down on my lip, anyway, thinking that the reason he was sitting there was because of me.

The line grew quiet, save from his slow breathing and the shouting from my brothers' room.

Luka laughed when Anton decided to curse ever-so-loudly.

"How are the boys doing?"

I played with the cord as I spoke. "Oh, you know. Alive."

"That's good to hear, and your mum?" he asked with genuine curiosity.

"I haven't actually spoken to her since I've been back." I answered honestly, frowning at just the thought of the awkward car silence from the airport to home.

Luka made a 'tsk' noise. "I know you guys don't get along but when I was there and I was talking to her, she seemed like she really cared about you, Mace. Like she wanted to come back into your world."

I started making up scenarios in my head where my mother would actually want to come back into my world but I couldn't think of any. Nevertheless, and for probably his peace of mind rather than mine, I told him I'd consider it.

He seemed to believe me.

I decided to change the subject before he pressed any further.

"I'm going out with Lena tomorrow. We're going to one of the malls we used to play street arcade at."

"Street arcade, what's that?" Luka asked, sounding legitimately confused.

I gasped. "Luka Emerson Gold, you have not lived!"

"I swear you have a weird addiction to my middle name."

"Only because it's so beautiful."

And because males of the twenty-first century loved to make things cheesy, he replied with, "You're beautiful."

After we exchanged cheesy love phrases in a battle of which had the most cheese, I yawned through the phone signalling that it was time for my second nap of the day. He sent a cheesy flying kiss through the phone and because he was my other half, I caught it and pressed it to my heart, feigning a love-sick sigh.

When we said our goodbyes, I hung up the phone and snuck into my brothers' room. I opened it big enough to peak through where they were playing with second-hand hot wheels, a gift from Mr. Ivanov's son.

"Can I join?" I asked through the gap.

Three eager faces turned to me and before I knew it, Egor had pulled me inside, shutting the door as quickly as I entered. Nikita had gotten up to switch off the lights.

Anton sat opposite of me, cross-legged. He flipped the flashlight in his hand and held it underneath his chin so his under-eyes glowed white. Nikita was on my right, Egor was on my left and my back faced the entrance.

"You can not tell Mum." he said in Russian. When I didn't reply, he pressed on in a stricter tone. "Обещать?"

"Да, да." I promised.

He eyed me suspiciously through the light before nodding his head to the other boys as if to say that I could be trusted. And not going to lie but I felt some hurt that they had to question my loyalty in the first place as their older sister.

"Exhibit One:" Anton continued while Egor held a pair of granny underwear at the end of a pencil. I almost gagged at the sight. "Underwear."

"Where did you get that from?" I questioned Egor, alarmed that my baby brothers managed to find lingerie.

There were so many questions.

Anton hushed me. "Please leave questions until the end of presentation."

Nikita placed a hand on my knee to show restraint. I scoffed at the both of them.

"Exhibit Two: a piece of used rubber."

Using the pencil, Egor held up a condom next.

I couldn't take it.

I scrambled off the ground and away from the leaking cum that had somehow managed to pass the barrier.

"Where?" I shouted. "Where did you find that?"

Their eager faces turned scared. Nikita, always being the most obeying one, pointed a shaking head towards the trashcan while Egor pointed at the room beside theirs: our mother's.

My face grew pale as the dots connected: my mother had let my ten to nine year old brothers snoop through her bin to find pieces of the sex life I never knew she had.

I was about ready to vomit all the airplane food when I looked over at Egor who was still holding the condom up like a prized possession. I dove forwards, snatched it out of his hands and threw it into the rubbish bin where I made a reminder to burn later.

A gnawing headache formed at the back of my head so I rubbed my temples and counted to five, like my therapist had told me to whenever there was stress.

If someone were to told me coming back to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk meant that I had to deal with my mother's used condoms and the fragility of children's minds, I would've rather stayed in Moscow where a bounty was placed on my head by Karina Gold.

My brothers looked at me in shock. I sat back down to calm them.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. I will talk to mother but please, promise me you won't ever go through her trash again — or any trash." I said in a calm-collected voice that hardly resembled how I felt inside. "Обещать?"

Egor and Nikita nodded.

"Anton?" I asked the boy opposite of me, who looked like he was about to cry.

"Да. Sorry, сестра." he replied just before rushing over to hug me. The force of his weight pushed my back onto the floor and the other two boys decided to pile on top in a perfect sibling formation.

It was at that affectionate moment, the source of our affection decided to enter the room after two knocks.

Still piled like how a house of cards would look like with a little wind, we turned our heads back to face the door, revealing my upside-down mother.

***

Sorta funny chapter to bring up our spirits before the big reveal next chapter, Shakespeare-style.

As always, thanks so much for reading and supporting me! Don't forget to vote and comment your thoughts, too!

Lots of love,
Mel