My Little Roza

The sound of the front door sounded, and Olena came into the house, dripping wet. A nine year-old Dimitri jumped off the sofa, Sonya, carrying a nearly one-year-old Vicktoria, following not so far behind.

She was standing in the entrance, a duffel bag slung over her shoulder, her hands full, holding a bundle of something.

"Mama, where have you been?" Sonya asked quietly. She didn't want to wake Vicki after it took so long to get her to sleep.

"Were you two alright? Where's your sister?" Olena asked her two children.

"She's upstairs in her room," doing God knows what Dimitri thought. "What are you holding mama?"

Olena sighed and walked towards the vacated living room. After putting down whatever she had in her arms on the couch and dropping the overstuffed duffel bag to the floor, she turned to Sonya to relieve her of her baby duty. "Could you go call your sister down here? Tell her she needs to come now." With that, Sonya took off to get her older sister.

Dimitri, always the observant one, sat on his knees in front of the couch to see what was wrapped up on the couch. Olena had plopped down next to it, and asked Dimitri tiredly to get her a towel. He really just wanted to know what was in that bundle, but time would time, he presumed. Even for a nine-year-old, Dimitri was brilliant. On his way to the linen closet, he saw his sisters coming down the stairs. They proceeded to the living room. Dimitri didn't want to miss out, so he quickly retrieved the towel to give to his mother.

"What's wrong, mama?" Karolina asked impatiently. She probably wanted to get back to her room in the land of teenagers.

Olena took a deep breath, preparing to break the news. "Okay now. I know this may come as a shock but…things are going to be a little different around here from now on."

They all stared at her inquisitively. Dimitri returned to investigating the bundle on the couch. He put his hands on it, trying to feel the shape so he could guess what it was. Surprisingly, it was warm. He started to pull away the many cloths wrapped around the object.

His mother seemed to sense his anticipation, for she turned to see what her son was up to. "Dimka, what are you…Dimitri, wait! Don't-!"

But he had already unraveled the blankets to reveal…a baby. Well, maybe not a baby but a little girl. Her eyes were closed and she had on a dress made up of many colors. In her ears were bright red jewels and around her neck were exquisite necklaces. To Dimitri, she looked like an exotic princess. He moved in closer, and saw that she had tanned skin and long eyelashes. Her cheeks were round and she seemed to hum in her sleep. Or maybe that was just the music playing in Dimitri's mind at the sight of this beautiful child.

"Mama, you had another baby?!" Sonya exclaimed.

"No, stupid. She probably got that baby from somewhere else. Is that where you've been today?" Karolina said.

"Karolina, do not call your sister stupid," Olena chastised. Sonya stuck her tongue out at Karolina who only rolled her eyes. "And yes, that is where I've been today."

"But why? Why would you want another one of those?" Karolina asked with distaste as she pointed to her baby sister. As if on cue, Vicktoria awoke and started a low wail. Olena patter her back and rocked her gently, narrowing her eyes at her eldest.

"Need I remind you that you were once one of these? And there are…special circumstances in which I came about acquiring that child."

"But why, mama?" Sonya asked now. Dimitri stayed silent, entranced by the sleeping face of the 'princess'.

"Let's just say…a family friend did a VERY big favor for this family, and he needs me to take care of his daughter for some time, while he works things out. He's in a rough place at the moment and wishes his daughter to be safe. So she will be staying with us, understand?"

The children nodded their heads, all except Vicktoria, who continued to drool on Olena's shoulder.

"What's her name?" Dimitri asked his mother, looking up at her with his big chocolate-brown eyes.

Olena looked at her son and smiled. "Rosemarie Mazur. But while she's here, she'll go by Rose Hathaway, okay?"

"Okay," Dimitri and Sonya said in unison. Karolina merely nodded her head in understanding.

Dimitri turned his attention back to the child as she began to stir at the mention of her name. Her eyes glazed open, and Dimitri came to see two dark hazel orbs. It may have been the reflected light from the jewelry but there seemed to be gold flecks in her eyes that made them shine. She sat up and rubbed her face. She looked around the unfamiliar room at the unfamiliar faces. Her face slowly started to contort into a frown and her eyes became glossy.

"Rose, it's okay. I'm Olena, and I'll be taking care of you for a short time. Your parents want you to stay here, but they will come to pick you up as soon as they can, okay?"

This news did not seem to comfort her, for she started to sob.

"Oh great. Just what we needed, another crybaby." Before her mother could scold her she left out of the room, back to her own, most likely.

Sonya went to kneel next to Dimitri, who was still staring at Rose. "She's kinda…weird looking."

"That's because she's not from here. And it's not nice to make fun of someone who is different, Sonya." Olena gave her a stern look.

"I wasn't making fun of her. I was just pointing out that-never mind. Forget it." Sonya straightened up and left the room as well, after giving her mother a kiss on the cheek, of course. She was still a good kid.

Olena looked back at Dimitri. "Are you going to leave too?"

Dimitri continued to look at the child who had big globs of water running down her cheeks. Her cries weren't loud. They were like a breath of a ghost every few seconds. It was even more heartbreaking. Dimitri didn't want this girl to cry.

"Rose, don't cry," Dimitri said. The girl only turned her face towards Dimitri. "Rose, it's okay. Rose, Roza, no more tears." Dimitri moved his hand to caress her. She flinched at his initial touch but soon, she calmed down. Olena smiled, and got up to go to the kitchen with Vicki.

"Roza…" Dimitri said in a quiet, singsong voice. She opened her teary eyes and really looked at Dimitri. "Ro-za…" he said again.

Then, something beautiful happened. Rose smiled little teeth and all. It was like sunshine in the middle of the storm outside. He poked her nose, and she giggled swatting at his hands with her smaller ones. He caught them and brought them to his face. They were so small and warm. Rose looked at Dimitri with a blank face. She scooted forward on the couch and brought her face close to his. She smelled of flowers and some other perfume he couldn't name. He liked it. With her little hands she poked his face in different places.

"Mama, I think she likes me," Dimitri called out to his mother.

She peeked her head into the living room to see Rose attempting to climb onto Dimitri's head. "Indeed, I think she does," she chuckled. A wail started from the kitchen. "I'm coming, Vicki, I'm coming."

Dimitri pulled Rose from off of his head and onto his lap. She looked up at him, grabbing his shirt. "Mama's going to be busy with Vicki, so I'm going to take care of you." Rose pulled his shirt some more. "My name is Dimitri," he said, looking into her eyes. He read in one of Olena's baby books that it's important to look into a baby's eyes when you're trying to teach them something. "Dimitri." It's also good to repeat the word clearly.

Rose giggled some more and rocked back and forth on Dimitri's lap. "Dimitri," he persisted, smiling at her antics.

"Dym…" she gushed.

"Dimitri."

"Dyaaai…"

"…Dimka, then?"

"Mmm…Dym?"

Dimitri sighed. This was not working.

Olena walked back into the living room, with Vicktoria crawling in behind. She still had her bib on so she must have just eaten. Olena sat on the couch where Dimitri and Rose seemed to be playing on the floor.

"Remember Dimitri, she wasn't born here. She's not use to the words and accents. With the few words she probably can say, they are most likely not in Russian." Olena rubbed Dimitri's head.

Dimitri held up Rose's arms. Rose flapped them up and down. Vicktoria laughed from where she was on the carpet, finding this funny. What did she know? She was just a baby.

"What language does she know?" Dimitri asked his mother.

"Turkish. And maybe a little English since her mother is American," Olena informed him.

Dimitri thought about this for a moment, thinking if he knew any words in either of the two languages. Turkish: nothing. English: …some. He thought about a word that she could call him.

"Comrade?" He said in English, with a Russian accent.

Rose stopped flailing her arms like a madwoman and looked at him. "Cumree…"

"Comrade," he said more clearly.

"…Com…rad."

"Comrade."

"Comrad!" Rose cheered.

Dimitri smiled. He pointed towards Rose. "Roza." Then he pointed to himself. "Comrade."

Rose immediately copied him. "Rosa…Comrad!"

"That's right!" He smiled excitedly. He had taught his Roza!

"Yay!" Rose squealed and jumped into Dimitri's chest, wrapping her little arms around his neck.

Olena smiled at the endearing moment. She heard the phone ringing and got up to answer it. She picked it up and answered "Hello?" while staring at Vicktoria crawl after her.

"Olena," said a male voice from the other side. She recognized it immediately.