"We can not just keep a strange child, Marina. Have you gone crazy from the loss?" Dmitri yelled in annoyance. It was 9 pm and he had just come home from work, expecting to drink a glass of wine and have some nice food. He is tall and healthy man, in his late 30s.
"I am not crazy! Just look at him…he is afraid of physical touches and his face has burises and his body might have too....He must have suffered something and I cannot let him suffer anymore. What do you know about our loss? You buried yourself in your work! I was the one who had to sit at home and feel every moment of the loss of our second child!" Marina cried out, kneeling on the floor and clutching Ivan closer to her chest. Our boy was standing behind the couch, scared of the yelling and loud noises. He had been standing there, clutching his torn teddy bear ever since Dmitri got home. Dmitri had eyed him as soon as he entered which made him recoil in fear and discomfort.
"Look Marina, I know that was hard..but please, we can not just adopt a kid that you saw and brought home not even 24 hours ago..." Dmitri kneeled down to her level, holding her cheeks in an attempt to comfort her. "But Dad, I want to have a brother too....." Ivan spoke softly peeping out of his mother's embrace. Dmitri pulled him out of his mother's embrace and hugged him, patting his head. He glanced at our boy who was standing behind the couch gripping his tattered teddy. He couldn't say anything to his own child because he would not understand the gravity of this absurd situation that his mother was desperate for.
"Come here, what's you name?" Dmitri asked turning his head towards our boy again, who took two steps back in nervousness, holding his barely attached teddy tightly. "Don't be scared of me, kid. I don't bite" Dmitri said with a small chuckle in an attempt to make our boy feel at ease, but it only added to our boy's nervousness. "He barely spoke..." Marina replied on behalf of our boy. "Must have seen horrible things to make him like this....".
"I will not allow you to adopt him immediately, I would rather have him at our house for a few days, run him to a psychologist and then make an informed decision" Dmitri spoke with a stern tone to which Marina could not argue back. She nodded while keeping her gaze lowered. Dmitri fixed his coat and went inside the bedroom to freshen up. Marina glanced at our boy and Ivan with a sad expression before returning to the kitchen.
"come on,let's have dinner.." Ivan whispered to our boy holding his hand and dragging him to the dinner table. Our boy tried gawning his wrists free but to no use. The four of them sat at the dinner table in silence, with Ivan occassionally trying to make Grey laugh."Open your mouth" Ivan said to our boy holding a spoon full of rice in front of his mouth. Our boy hesitated for a moment but opened his mouth to take a bit just like in the morning when he was spoon fed noodles. "It's warm..the rice is warm. His hands are also warm…" our boy thought to himself. He had barely experienced something like this before in his life. At times, he felt overwhelmed and wanted to run away, but to where?. The dinner was long and awkward.
"Ivan show him to your room, it's time to sleep" Marina ordered Ivan to which he grinned and grabbed our boy's hand again taking him to his room. The room was filled with different toys, video games, and books. The walks were painted in various colors making the room appear even brighter, as if there was no night in this room. Our boy was amazed and confused to wintess that there are wall colors apart from paper white, or rusty brown. He couldn't take his eyes off the overflowing toys from the cupboard, the different picture books, the video games. His hands again loosened on his own tattered teddy, almost letting it fall. He reached for a toy car but refrained himself from actually taking it. He sat on the very edge of the color full bear shaped bed. The colors and drawings in the picture book felt like some strange foreign object for him, which he needs to avoid at any cost. "I.....want to go....home" our boy whispered barely audible but Ivan heard it and questioned him "where is your house? In another city?" To which our boy did not have any answers. Ivan did not press it further, he gave our boy's hand a gentle squeeze. Sensing that he might be tired because Ivan himself was sleepy and tired, he tucked him into his bed like a mother would do to his son.
Our boy felt great discomfort when Ivan laid beside him in the single bed, holding him close to him as if it he was one of his plushies. "atleast he's not looking at me..... don't let me see his eyes..." Our boy whispered mentally, turning away from Ivan so that his back faces him. The exhaustion, both physical and mental, wore him down into deep sleep in the next few minutes.
Dmitri was lying in his bed, reading some of his office papers. He adjusted his glasses when the earlier chaos from the evening crossed his mind. "He had bruises…why.." he thought to himself, trying to map out the situation and how to handle Marina and her desire for adopting that boy. He looked at her, sleeping peacefully beside him. He tucked away a strand of hair from her face and took his glasses off, to sleep.