This chapter jumps ahead. Dialogue written in italics means it was said on the actual show, because we are now beginning to cross into that part of Red's life.

"Sloppy handwriting, your argument is confusing, and it sounds like you gathered your material for this paper by skimming the Coles notes at the public library!" Galina scolded Maxim. She had pounced on him the moment he and his brothers had arrived home from school on a chilly Wednesday afternoon and had insisted on reading the essay he was expected to turn in to English class the next day. She'd received his midterm grades in the mail that afternoon and hadn't been pleased in the least. Her follow up call to the school had only upset her more.

"Did you even read the book?" Galina demanded to know, while Yuri and Vasily exchanged silent glances behind her back and just considered themselves grateful that it wasn't them she was angry with at the moment.

Galina didn't mean to yell, but the stress of everything that had happened that day had been building up inside her like a tsunami of terror and she had been waiting to go off all day. To Maxim's poor marks and his teachers' comments about his lack of focus in class and commitment to his homework had just been the perfect excuse. She was disappointed in him when she'd always emphasize the importance of education. However, she knew her son was also currently being the scapegoat to what was really going on.

The person she was really angry with right now was herself. She had been pacing back and forth all afternoon hoping Dmitri would walk through the doors and yell at her, punish her, say whatever he was going to say but hopefully-dear god, hopefully-have some solution to what she had done. Galina couldn't think of a way to make it right-she hadn't been thinking at all in the heat of the moment, which was the problem. She just wished she could go back and undo what she had done that afternoon, and it was taking all of her strength not to show her children how terrified she currently was. Yelling about a poor school report was actually an effective way to channel her anxiety in a way that would not arouse much suspicion. If she thought about it, Maxim had given her a gift by the way of a temporary diversion. For the first time since the "Tit Punch" had occurred, Galina found herself temporarily distracted from it.

"Sort of," Maxim answered sheepishly from his seat at the round table near the door of their shop. He supposed he should just be grateful that there were no customers currently there to bear witness to his mother scolding him. She didn't look like she would hold back for anything right now.

Having looked determinedly down at his clasped hands while she had been reading his poorly written composition, Maxim now snuck a quick glance up at his mother's face. He noticed immediately that her eyes were red and her cheeks were blotchy, as though she had spent the entire afternoon crying. There were scratch marks along the pale skin of her neck, like she'd been digging her fingernails into her flesh.

Maxim wondered if that was all because of him, although he considered that to be quite an overreaction to a few mediocre grades if it was. He had always been a good student and he would be again. He opened his mouth to speak, and promise his mama that he would work harder from now on, but Galina just held out a hand to silence him.

"What do you mean "sort of"?" she mocked, with an angry roll of her eyes. "Did you or did you not read this book before sitting down to work on this essay? And did you seriously expect Mrs. Cashen not to notice?"

"I didn't read it," Maxim admitted, looking back down at his folded hands. "Mama, I tried to but it was so long and I didn't have enough time-"

"Don't make excuses," Galina told him sternly, as she dropped his notebook onto the table in front of him. She'd noticed Maxim had been slacking a bit since school had commenced two months ago. However, now that he was a freshman in high school she had wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and allow him the opportunity to take responsibility for his own schoolwork without her continually checking over his shoulder. Now she believed that to have been a mistake.

"There was plenty of time, you were just being lazy," Galina snapped. "And laziness is not something that I am going to tolerate from any of you boys," she added, turning around to glare pointedly at Yuri and Vasily who had been helping themselves to the Vatrushka set in the display case. There mother usually prepared a snack for them to eat when they first got home. However, she seemed to have forgotten that day and so they were helping themselves.

"Mama, I don't even have any homework tonight because I got it all finished in class today," ten-year-old Vasily told her proudly, once he had swallowed the food in his mouth.

"Good boy," Galina praised her youngest son with a weak smile. Vasily was the only one of the three who still seemed to seek her out and desire attention from her. The other two were now in high school and went out a lot more with friends and had their own things going on. Galina was fine with this, so long as they continued to make good grades and were behaving themselves. However, she was currently regretting not keeping a closer eye on her middle child.

It honestly surprised her, because Maxim was easily the most laid back of all three of her boys. Perhaps that was the issue, if left to his own devices he wouldn't have the motivation to get the job done. He was quite like his father in that way. Dmitri might get ambitious ideas but he had no clue how to carry them out without depending on her. He'd forced her to do several things to save his ass that she was uncomfortable with. Most especially after what had transpired that morning.

"Come bring me your bag so I can make sure," Galina instructed Vasily, before turning back around to glare at Maxim. "And that goes for you too," she added. "If I can't trust you to complete your assignments on time and acceptably, then I am going to have to watch over you like a little boy to make sure that you do. So from now on, you leave your agenda and homework on the counter for me to look through every day."

"Oh, Ma!" Maxim complained, though he knew it would do himself no good. He was deeply regretting his procrastination now. He had made the unfortunate mistake of getting too swept up in the excitement of a bigger school and less supervision to pay as much attention to his studies as he should have. He knew perfectly well that arguing would get him nowhere. His mother took their educations seriously and had been actively involved in their school council their entire lives. If he wanted to be trusted to handle his classes himself again, then he would have to earn it. So, suppressing a sigh, Maxim stood up from the table and walked around the counter to begin peeling the carrots for their supper. He deeply regretted adding to his mother's already high stress levels.

Times had been rough for their family lately. And although Galina never spoke about her financial concerns to her boys, they all were aware of it. That was part of the reason why they were eating supper downstairs in the shop instead of in their apartment kitchen. Galina had extended the store's hours into the evening, which meant they needed to be there in case a customer came in. She'd begun opening every Sunday as well, a practice she didn't mind because it had drawn in a whole new customer base and kept her busy now that the boys were always with their friends on the weekends and didn't need her very much.

"You didn't think she'd find out?" Yuri rolled his eyes at his brother, before reaching for a fresh loaf of bread from the pile in his mother's shopping trolley. He briefly wondered why she hadn't put all of the bread away by now, before shrugging it off assuming that she had gone to the bakery later than she normally did. Maybe the lunch hour had been busier than usual that particular day, he sincerely hoped that it had been. He thought his mother looked extremely worn out. He'd have liked to suggest they go upstairs after supper to relax and watch a movie, but he knew she probably still had things to finish first.

As he had grown up, Yuri had gotten an even greater appreciation for everything his mother did for them. She worked really hard-without much support from his father, Yuri was forced to admit, and she never complained about it. She loved them and gave every piece of herself to them every single day. He felt guilty sometimes for not spending as much time with her as he used to. He was busy with homework, going on group outings that included the girl he liked, and with the school's track team. He knew his mother was proud of him, but also suspected she was pretty lonely now that they were all getting older. For so long, Galina's life had revolved around her children and now, besides work, she didn't have much to distract herself with. Yuri knew his father wasn't around much and he didn't think his mother had any friends, aside from a few customers she chatted with while she served them their coffee and assisted them. He thought she deserved more.

"Is Papa coming home for supper tonight?" Vasily asked, as he gathered four plates instinctively to set the table with. Dmitri rarely was home in time for dinner. He was usually out working odd jobs that he refused to give his sons details about when they asked.

"I don't think so," Galina had replied indifferently, though all three of her sons noticed the way she glanced at the clock and then nervously back towards the door. Digging through Maxim's backpack thoroughly, Galina pulled out his agenda and grimaced at the appalling way he had scribbled down his homework.

"I'm not sure I can even read this with my glasses on," she shook her head disapprovingly, as she adjusted the new reading glasses she had perched on her nose. She had stubbornly refused to accept she needed them for the longest time, before finally giving in and scheduling an appointment with an optometrist. Vasily had gone with her and helped her pick out the violet frames. He'd thought they were pretty. He liked to play with the string she hung them around her neck with when they cuddled late at night when he couldn't fall asleep and would come find her reading in bed.

"I can read it," Maxim replied quietly. "And I was the only one that was supposed to, so I didn't think it mattered. My essay is written neater."

"Barely," Galina told him curtly, squinting down at his agenda. "And since I am going to be checking this again until further notice, I would appreciate if you wrote more neatly. Honestly," she exhaled loudly as she shoved the planner back inside her son's backpack and then packed up his English notebook too.

"Maxim, after supper I expect you to finish reading the book and then fix the mistakes in your essay," Galina ordered. "I want it rewritten so that your teacher can actually read it."

"That will take all night," Maxim argued.

"Then I suggest you work quickly," Galina told him unconcernedly. "I have some more things I need to take care of down here, so you boys will be on your own. Yuri, darling, if I'm not up before nine, then I need you to make sure Vasily has his bath and gets to bed on time. Alright?"

"Sure, Ma," Yuri agreed smoothly. "But I wish you would take a break for just one night. You've been working so hard lately."

Galina smiled sadly and found she suddenly could not meet her son's eye. "Don't worry about me," she replied softly, before nodding over to the stove. "Let's focus on getting supper finished so we can eat."

XXX

Several hours after the supper dishes were cleared and she had sent her sons upstairs, Galina sat in wait at the round table by the door of her shop. The sky was now black, the street lights shining through the picture window cast an illuminating shadow over the floor, wall, and Galina's hands as they lay firmly clasped on the tabletop. The ticking of the clock on the wall was the only sound in the entire place. Through the ceiling, Galina had been able to hear the television in her living room playing through the evening, but like good boys, she'd heard it promptly flicked off around ten and knew that Yuri had done as she'd asked and was probably making Vasily get to bed.

She'd expected Dmitri back at least an hour ago and was awaiting his homecoming with a mixture of eagerness and dread. She hadn't spoken to him all day but she knew that Ganya had surely filled him in about what had happened. As the time continued to crawl with no sign of Dmitri, Galina grew increasingly agitated. She'd already scrubbed the shop from top to bottom and organized the books to perfection. With nothing more to distract herself with, Galina stood up from her chair and began pacing the shop, wringing her hands together in anxiety.

She knew that Dmitri had to be with Ganya. He was often out doing mysterious jobs for him after dark, but never this late and if he had intended to be, he'd have surely called. She worried that Dmitri might be lying on the streets wounded. Beaten up, or worse, by those scary goons that followed Ganya around and that had been accompanying him to her shop more and more frequently lately. Perhaps Ganya had saw fit to punish Dmitri for what his wife had done. Or maybe there was a simple explanation to her husband's absence. He could have gone to see his sister, who now lived off welfare checks and all by herself in the apartment since their parents had passed. Maybe he had decided to leave her and the boys at long last. She wouldn't even blame him after what she had done. There was no way to justify herself to him.

Walking back and forth like a caged lion, Galina was facing away from the door when she heard the sound of a key turning in the lock and turned around to see Dmitri standing there.

"Dima," she whimpered, relief coursing through her at the mere sight of him. He looked unharmed and his face was a comforting sight right about now. Dmitri was never much use to her with the kids, with work, or emotionally, but his presence was at least a reassurance that she was not actually alone. Though she might feel like a single mother much of the time, she did have a husband who occasionally came through for her. Maybe he would know what to do.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" were the first words out of Dmitri's mouth when he stepped over the threshold. His hands were twitching in fury and Galina actually took a couple of steps back from him, although he'd never slapped her in all of their years of marriage. She wouldn't have blamed him for being tempted to take a swing at her right now though, she had been beating herself up internally all day.

"After all Ganya's done for us!" Dmitri hollered, his voice rising as he took several steps towards her. Galina found she couldn't meet his eye or even face him right now while he yelled at her as she'd been anticipating. She knew she deserved it but that didn't make it any easier to take. She turned away, walking into the back of the store as Dmitri kept step with her, walking behind her with thundering footsteps and continuing to chastise her.

"He loved those tits!"

"He'll get them back. There's plenty more of them back at the tit store!" Galina snapped, her defenses rising although she knew what she'd done was inexcusable.

"Did you count to ten? You're supposed to count to ten!" Dmitri asked frantically, and Galina flushed as tears brimmed in her eyes. Words alone could never express how stupid and embarrassed she was feeling. After years of telling her boys to take the high ground and use their words, instead of their fists, to solve disagreements, Galina had behaved like an impulsive child.

"I never even wanted to speak to those Pizdy!" Galina exclaimed, as though that would make a difference. "You made me!"

She resented Dmitri so entirely for putting her in bad positions all the time with no regard ever given to her feelings or concerns. Aside from the fact that those women had made Galina feel wrought with a shyness and insecurity that she thought she had overcome as an adult, Dmitri had completely dismissed her when she told him that Ganya and his groups' presence made her uncomfortable and that she didn't approve of Dmitri getting caught up with them.

Dmitri had been doing so on the sly for several years and for the most part Galina had done her best to turn a blind eye and not ask questions she didn't want the answers to. It didn't take a genius to configure that Ganya and his small-run produce business could not support the extravagant lifestyle that he and his family lived. There were whispers up and down their neighbourhood part in Little Russia and though for the most part she felt safe in her community, there sometimes news headlines with unsolved crimes suspected to be linked to gang activity that hit a little too close to home.

Obviously, Galina wanted her sons shielded away from any such exposure or potential danger, but sometimes things Dmitri had said would make the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She didn't like that he worked for cash under the table and had frequently urged him to apply for legitimate jobs in the plants and factories around their industrial part of the city. However, one of Dmitri's greatest flaws was that his employment history had always been shoddy and wrecked by terminations and layoffs. Ganya had come through for him for years, perhaps because he sensed in Dmitri a simple person who would be loyal and capable of keeping his mouth shut.

It was difficult for Galina to dispute that when they needed the money and the constantly rising costs of everything made running her business very difficult. She knew she couldn't financially make it on her own and cash income they didn't declare or need to pay taxes on allowed them to survive. So she'd kept silent while Dmitri became increasingly more valued by Ganya and given more responsibilities, moving from just packaging deliveries to actually getting to sit in on strategizing meetings, revealing to him the world behind the produce business that was the front to an entire criminal enterprise.

Dmitri hadn't shared any of this with Galina, but him offering their store as a meeting place had crossed the line and given Galina much more insight into the mob players that her husband was rubbing shoulders with. It was an invasion that still brought tears of alarm and rage into Galina's eyes at Dmitri's lack of regard for his family's security, but she'd handled the situation by keeping her head down and going about her work as though they were just like any other customers frequenting her shop. Galina had never even wanted to speak to them beyond taking their food and drink orders, but at Dmitri's insistence she had made the effort. There didn't seem to be any choice in the matter, from where she had stood. Although now of course she'd wished she'd refused more strongly.

"Why did you do such a thing?" Dmitri demanded to know, cornering her with her back against the wall. They were so close together. His stale breath could be felt against Galina's cheek but she didn't even register it right now. In her emotional state, her defenses dropped and the tears she'd been struggling to hold back from defiance now gushed down her cheeks as her entire body trembled.

"Because they left me out!" Galina shrieked, her voice cracking and she blurted out the most honest answer she had probably given in years. "Because they made fun of me! Because no matter how hard we try or how much we want it, there's the people who serve the bread, and the people who eat the bread! And for once, it would be nice if you would be on my side."

The walls she'd carefully built up between them to endure this strained marriage and tolerate her husband's many faults came crashing down. She was holding nothing back and Dmitri actually took a step away from her in shock at the explosion. He'd expected a frosty and defensive response from her, but instead was now faced with a woman in a state of hysteria. He'd never seen her break this way.

Galina was usually a pillar of strength, who gave him every non-verbal impression that she did not need him and usually preferred to be without him. She was an excellent mother, she ran their home and shop meticulously well, and Dmitri never really bothered to give more of himself in the same way because he knew he couldn't do it as well as her and never felt appreciated when he'd tried anyway. Now she was crumbling, a broken woman who had behaved ridiculously and endangered all of them. He'd been tempted to leave her after this, pack his bags this same night and walk away so that she couldn't destroy him along with herself. However, how pathetic she looked right now was in someway endearing. She wasn't nearly as strong as she wanted to think that she was. As he watched her, Dmitri found his anger dissolving into sympathy.

"I'm on your side, Galya," he told her, in a much gentler voice. "I'm with you."

Dmitri pulled her into his arms and enjoyed the way she just melted against him. Galina's hands clenched at the fabric of his shirt, balling it into her fists as she clung to him. She didn't have a friend in the world, which wasn't anything new, but which Ganya and his associates wives had forced her to realize. As resentful as she had been about Dmitri forcing her to socialize with them, the hardest part was admitting to herself that she had tried really hard to get them to like her and hadn't fit in.

She wished she could say she didn't care what they thought about her, but a few minutes into their first stifled conversation had been enough to make her feel desperate for their approval. Then, to realize they had excluded her and been laughing at her had been the ultimate blow. It made her feel exactly like the little girl she used to be. The one the other students had passed notes about, who had eaten lunch in the cafeteria alone, and who had never been asked to dance by a boy before meeting Dmitri at the age of eighteen. As much as it pained her to admit it, Dmitri was the closest person she had to a real friend. At least he had wanted her back then and stayed ever since. There was a lot to be said about that.

"And together we've got to figure this out, cause this is bad. Real bad," Dmitri said, while continuing to hold her tight in his arms. Galina sniffled as she pulled back just enough to look at him. Her gratitude to him right now was not to be overlooked.

"How bad?" she forced herself to ask the much feared question.

"They want, $60,000," Dmitri told her slowly. His eyes were wide with panic, though his hands were strong and reassuringly cool when he reached out to hold both of hers.

"No boob job costs $60,000," Galina cried, as a fresh pool of tears raced down her cheeks. "That's crazy."

"This one does," Dmitri replied defeatedly. Galina's hands were shaking in his but he held them tightly. Neither needed to say it out loud. They both knew they were completely screwed. After Dmitri had been let go from the last honest job he had worked, changing oil and rotating tires in a garage, they had been forced to take out a second mortgage which meant their home had barely any equity to it if they were to sell it now. They had no savings to speak of either, having been paycheque to paycheque for the entirety of their married life. Even if they gave up absolutely everything they had there was no way they could come up to a sum of money that would be even half of what Ganya and Marina were requesting. They both felt trapped, and it was all Galina's fault.

""I was...I was just...they're so mean," Galina stammered, but there was no justification for what she had done and for the trouble she had just brought down on her family. She had just snapped. Without rhyme or reason, her hand had moved of its own accord and shoved into Marina. It was so stupid and senseless.

"So are the men they married," Dmitri told her darkly. "They meaner."

Galina nodded her head and brought their clasped hands up to her lips so she could kiss his rough knuckles.

"I'm sorry, Dima," she whispered and a surge of love and affection for the man rose within her, along with relief, when he pulled her back into his arms for another hug. Galina was pretty sure that she wouldn't have been as understanding if their positions were reversed right now and she could feel her dissatisfaction for everything he was not melting away as she hugged him back.

"We'll figure something out," Dmitri whispered into her ear. "We always do. It's okay."

XXX

They'd gone upstairs together holding hands the entire time and found the apartment as silent as it should be around the stroke of twelve on a school night. The cat came to greet them at the door with a friendly mew, unbeknownst to all of the new problems her mistress had brought on them. Dmitri made straight for their bedroom, pulling Galina's hand and looking back in surprise when she shook her head.

"Come to bed," he urged her. "I will go back and speak to Ganya tomorrow morning. I'll make a deal to work for free until the money is paid. It will be okay."

"It will take years to work that back," Galina told him quietly. "Do you think he will be patient for that long?"

"Let me worry about that," Dmitri replied. "I shouldn't have-I never should have brought them here or got you involved with them at all. I know what they are. I should have kept you out of it."

"You shouldn't have started working for him in the first place," Galina whispered back. "You knew what they said about him."

Dmitri shook his head. "There's no going back. Now, are you coming to bed?"

"I want to check on the boys first," Galina replied, as she let go of his hand. "You go ahead." She walked into the living room, yawning. Her head was pounding from all the crying she had done that night and in the afternoon before her sons had come home. Her eyes were dry and every bone of her body seemed heavy with exhaustion. She was so tired that she almost didn't register Maxim, sitting curled up on one end of the sofa with his notebook in his lap and a novel set beside him until she was right in front of him.

"Maxie," Galina whispered, "why are you still awake?"

Maxim gave her a funny look. "You said I wasn't allowed to sleep until I rewrote my essay."

"Oh, right," Galina replied flatly. Taking a deep breath she walked over to the couch and sat down in the center cushion so that she was directly beside him.

"Listen, honey," she began. "I'm sorry I yelled at you today."

"Oh, yeah?" Maxim muttered, his eyes still focused on his notebook as he added another sentence to the bottom of the page in very neat penmanship.

"It wasn't about you," Galina continued. "I was upset about something else and I took it out on you. Of course, I want you to do better than you have been doing in school but that's only because I know you're capable of doing very well when you put in the effort. I only want what's best for you. I don't want you to end up like me and Papa, struggling every single day to barely make ends meet."

"Is Pop not working again?" Maxim asked her bluntly, putting his pen down. "Is that why you guys stayed downstairs all night, just to yell at each other?"

"No," Galina shook her head. "Honey, no. Papa is working very hard. I shouldn't have said anything. Everything is fine. I didn't mean to worry you. I just meant that I want your life to be easier, but we're okay."

"If you say so," Maxim shrugged.

"Are you almost finished?" Galina asked. She put her glasses on and then leaned closer to him so that she could read over his shoulder.

"I think so," Maxim replied. "I guess I should look it over. Make sure that I didn't make any spelling or grammatical mistakes. You know if we got a computer so that Yuri and I could type our papers out it would be a lot easier."

"Well, I'm not sure that I can help you with that at the moment," Galina replied wryly. "But I will help by proofreading this for you tonight so that you can get to bed. It's late."

"Thank you," Maxim said, with a deep exhale. "My eyes were starting to go blurry."

"Get some sleep, honey," Galina told him with a small smile. She scratched her nails lightly against his back and leaned over to kiss his cheek. "I'm proud of you."