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“No, I don’t remember,” he grumbled and dried his hands off. Then he looked at Dimitri in the eyes. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced.” He held his hand out to Dimitri to shake.
He did so.
Shrieking struck out in the hallway above the living room. Euladia had pulled Andrea’s hair, nearly sending her flying. “I said, do not touch my stuff. I’m not sleeping with you or anyone else! I’m staying right here.”
The sudden noise made his dad grab him, hug him tight. “Don’t let those mean girls get me, Dad. Please.”
Dad?
Dimitri held the shaking man. “Not to worry. I’m here to protect and love you. You’re strong. You’ve built a strong family, and you have a wife who loves you more than she loves herself. No reason to worry. Nobody is going to hurt you.”
He meant the words too. He would never have been able to tell him those things if it wasn’t for his dad’s private space, that little room in his head that was the equalizer.
Thirty seconds later, his father abruptly dropped his arms and continued washing dishes.
“Did I—?” he asked and then stopped.
“Just a little one. Not bad at all.”
“Oh, good. Thanks, son.”
“Glad to be here for you. Any time.”
He excused himself and went in search of a battle to stop. He wasn’t going to even involve his dad.
At the first bedroom, Euladia’s things were strewn about the bed and on the floor. Her clothes had been ripped out of the closet. The three of them turned and stared back at him.
“You three are living here at the gracious invite of my mother, your sister, who is dying. Is this how you pay her generosity back?”
“But we have to move to make room for you. And she won’t. We drew numbers, and she was the worst guess,” said Miriam in her squeaky mouse voice. “She’s the most stubborn of any of us, Deenie. What should we do?”
“I think you all should do a sleepover on the living room floor for tonight and sort it out tomorrow. If this is how you’re going to be, none of you deserve to have your own room. And the rooms don’t belong to you anyhow.”
Just then, they could all hear Maria calling that she had to go pee, and it was urgent.
All three of them darted for the door and stumbled in the doorway, with no room to let any of them pass. Then they sorted it out and ran to her.
Dimitri had only been there about three hours and already he was getting tired. He thought maybe he’d go down to the sporting goods store and buy a big tent and pitch it in the backyard. And, on further thought, he decided maybe he’d threaten them they had to use it, bugs and all.
Euladia returned to the room and started picking up her things. With her head hanging low, she apologized. “Just seems like they always pick on me. They gang up. Andrea is so fat, no one can sleep with her, and Miriam wheezes, sneezes in her sleep, and then snores like a mountain man. I won’t get any rest at all.”
“It could be worse,” Dimitri said. “You could be dying of cancer. Think of how Mom feels. I’ll bet she’d give anything to sleep on the living room couch or even the floor, if she could sleep. I’d bet she would rather clean up after all you guys and wait on you hand and foot than go through what she’s going through now.”
Euladia, always the more sensitive and emotional one, burst into tears. He grabbed her in his arms and whispered to the greying woman, “Come on. I’ll help you. You tell me what to pick up, and I’ll do all the heavy lifting. And I have some noise suppressant earphones we use for shooting that will deafen out all of Miriam’s little squeaks, sneezes, and roaring. You won’t remember a thing and will sleep like a baby. Trust me.”
He felt her giggle in his grip.
“I was always your favorite aunt, wasn’t I?”
He chuckled but didn’t let go. There was only one way to answer that one, even if it was a lie.
“Yes, you were.”
While everyone was getting situated, Dimitri pulled his duty bag into the room she vacated, showered, and put on his kewpie doll pajama bottoms and a clean tee shirt. Each time he passed the hallway, he made sure his dad’s phone was still there. It remained there, even after everyone was in bed.
He checked on the family and laughed at the sight of Euladia lying on her back, fast asleep, smiling, the big green headphones cupping the top of her head and covering her ears.
Problem solved.
