Hot Air Balloon Ride

Reed and I dozed for awhile after Dr. Singer had left. Later in the evening, Alexei came by, and I asked him for an update on the kids who were still at home.

"Montana brought home this permission slip for you to sign." He handed the form to me. "His class is taking a field trip to the historic district downtown."

"That sounds like fun." I signed the form.

"Nevada came home sneezing and with a runny nose. I'm afraid she's coming down with a cold."

"Oh, no! Now everybody will catch it, and Reed sure doesn't need that right after having had ear surgery!"

"No, he doesn't," Alexei agreed. "We'll just have to try to stay positive."

"How are the twins?" I asked.

"They begged to sleep in our bed with me last night, and I let them, soft hearted chuvak that I am." He grinned.

I laughed. "You're a very soft hearted dude. That's one of the many reasons I love you so much."

Alexei stayed with Reed while I ate dinner and showered, then left to relieve Mom of her babysitting duty. Reed woke up and played for awhile, and then I gave him a pacifier and rubbed his back until he fell asleep, then fell into an exhausted sleep myself.

Alexei arrived right after breakfast the following morning. He kissed me hello and then ran his hand over the top of his sleeping son's head.

"How's Nevada?" I asked.

"Still coughing and sneezing, plus she was running a low-grade fever this morning. I kept her home from school and told your Mom to do her best to keep the twins out of her bedroom. I sure hope she's successful."

"Me too. We sure don't need three sick kids."

Dr. Singer arrived about thirty minutes later. By that time, Reed had awakened and was playing quietly in his crib.

"Well, how are you today, little man?" She reached into the crib and lightly touched his shoulder, and he looked up at her and grinned. "He seems to be feeling all right," she continued to us.

"He slept through the night and ate a good breakfast this morning," I told her.

"Glad to hear it." She picked Reed's chart up and glanced over it, then looked at him and signed 'bye-bye.' He grinned and signed the word back to her.

"Looks like he's ready to go home today," she told us with a smile.

"His older sister's got a cold," I said. "Is that a problem?"

"Just try to keep him away from her as much as you can, and if he spikes a high fever, call me right away. A nurse will bring your paperwork in just a moment, and then you'll be free to go. Bring him to my office Monday morning at nine."

"What about the packing in his ears?" I asked.

"Just leave it alone, but if it falls out on its on, don't worry about it. Sponge baths only until after I see him again, and if he experiences any pain, give him baby Tylenol."

"Thank you," said Alexei. We packed the suitcases, and as promised, the nurse soon arrived with the discharge papers and a wheelchair. I sat in it holding Reed while the nurse pushed us outside, where we waited for Alexei to drive the car around to the curb.

We returned home to total bedlam. The twins were fighting over whether to watch Nickelodeon or the Cartoon Network, Simba was barking his head off, and I saw that a pile of dirty dishes was stacked next to the sink.

"I haven't had a chance to get to them yet," Mom, who was stirring a pot on the stove, apologized. The aroma of chicken soup wafted from it.

"Oh, that's all right!" I gave her a hug. "Thank you so much for watching the kids for me!"

"No problem at all!" She took Reed from me. "And how is this little man?"

"He came through surgery just fine," I told her. "They only had to give him pain medication once after the operation."

"That's great!"

I kissed my son's cheek, then hurried to Nevada's bedroom, where I saw the little girl sitting up in bed watching one of her Power Puff girls videos. A box of Kleenex sat beside her. She turned her head as I entered the room. "Hi, Mommy!"

"Hi, sweetheart." I sat beside her on the bed and gave her a hug. "How do you feel?"

"Awful!" She sniffled. "I wish this stupid cold would go away!"

"I'm sorry you don't feel good," I replied. "You'll feel better soon, I promise."

"So can Reed hear now?"

"We don't know yet. He has packing in his ears. He goes back to the doctor Monday morning, and we'll find out more then."

"What does it look like? Can I see?"

"There's nothing to see. It's all on the inside."

"Oh." She looked disappointed.

"Which one is this?" I nodded toward the television.

She giggled. "The one where the bunny scientist beats up Patches."

"Oh." I laughed along with her. "That one's pretty funny, huh?"

I sat with her until it was time for Montana to come home from school, then went to greet my older son. "How was school today?" I asked him.

"It was OK. We watched a movie about going to the dentist."

After dinner I spent a couple of hours playing with the twins, then got everybody tucked in and went to bed myself.

I gave a huge yawn as I slid beneath the covers and into Alexei's arms. "So how does it feel to be home again?" he asked me.

I chuckled. "I forgot how exhausting it was!"

He kissed my lips. "Well, it's wonderful to have you back in my arms again. The kids and I really missed you."

"I really missed all of you, too." I snuggled more deeply into his arms, and we were both soon asleep.

My stomach was full of butterflies as Alexei and I prepared to take Reed to his appointment with Dr. Singer the following Monday morning. "What if there's been no improvement?" I wondered out loud.

"What if, what if." Alexei walked up behind me and gave my bottom a playful swat. "Please try to be positive, Addison. Chances are the operation really helped a lot, but if it didn't, he'll still be OK."

"I know." I sighed. "It's just so hard..."

He embraced me. "I know."

We didn't have to wait long before the nurse called us back. "How's he been?" she asked.

"Pretty good," I told her.

"Luckily, he never caught his sister's cold," Alexei added.

The nurse sat Reed on the scale, then checked his temperature and blood pressure and smiled at us. "Dr. Singer will be in to see you in a few minutes."

The doctor arrived about fifteen minutes later. "How's this young man doing?" she asked us.

"He seems to be doing fine," I told her.

"Any pain?"

"Not really. We've been giving him Tylenol to prevent it," said Alexei.

"Great!" Dr. Singer glanced at Reed's chart, then took him from me and placed him on the examination table, where she took the packing out of his ears. "Everything looks fine," she told us. She conducted another hearing test on him, then returned with the results. "There seems to be some improvement."

"How much?" I asked, unable to keep the eagerness out of my voice.

"His hearing in his left ear is about five percent better, but there hasn't been any noticeable change in the right. That's good news, since it's only been a week. His hearing should continue to get better over the next couple of months. I'm going to make another appointment for a month from now, and in the meantime, continue to talk and sign to him, and encourage him to talk and sign back."

"Thanks," said Alexei. We scheduled an appointment for Reed in mid-October and then returned to the car.

"Well, I guess a five percent improvement is better than none at all," I sighed.

"It's a lot better, and remember, this is only the beginning." He smiled and gave my hand an encouraging squeeze before cranking the car to go home.

I felt pretty good until we got home, but after Alexei dropped us off to go back to the station, I felt a cloud of gloom settle back over me. Determined to be positive, I pasted a smile onto my face before entering the house, where I found Kristina sitting on the sofa watching Nickelodeon with Juniper while Jade drew with chalk on the blackboard side of her artist's easel. "How did it go?" she asked me.

"It went really well. He has a five percent improvement in his left ear, which Dr. Singer said was really good considering his surgery was only a week ago."

Jade danced over to us. "Hi, Mommy! Hi, Reed!"

I put Reed down so I could sign 'hello' back to her.

"Oh, yeah. I forgot." She signed 'hello' to her younger brother, and he signed it back to her.

"Thanks so much for watching them," I told Kristina.

"Oh, it's no problem at all!" she replied.

I made lunch, then got everyone settled down for a nap. I ended up falling asleep but luckily awakened in time to pick Montana and Nevada up from the bus stop. Alexei came home from work several hours later, and I fed everyone dinner.

"I'm so nervous!" I told Alexei as I took Reed out of his car seat.

"What's there to be nervous about?" he asked. "Our little Tsarevich is doing great!"

"I'm afraid...I'm scared there won't be any more improvement since last time, and then Dr. Singer might say that's the best we can hope for, he's not gonna get any better."

"Well, why don't we wait and see what she says before we worry about it too much, all right?"

I sighed. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right!" He grinned and swatted my butt.

In the waiting room, Reed ran to the display of magazines and then looked at me, crestfallen, and signed 'book.' I took the board books I'd brought along for him out of the diaper bag, and he grinned and ran back to me.

We were called back a few minutes later. After the nurse weighed Reed and took his vitals, Dr. Singer arrived and took him back for another hearing test. "Good news," she told us when she returned. "There's been even more improvement."

"How much?" I asked.

"He now has twenty percent normal hearing in his right ear and twenty-five percent normal in his left."

"And will he continue to improve?"

Dr. Singer frowned. "It's hard to say. It's been almost two months since his surgery. Most significant improvements will happen in the first six weeks after surgery."

I felt my heart fall. "So he probably won't get any better?"

She sighed. "I'm sorry, but considering there was also significant conductive loss, probably not."

"Can't we at least try hearing aids?" Desperation had brought the tone of my voice up to almost a squeak. Alexei patted my hand and gave a slight shake of his head. I saw the sorrow in his eyes, and it tore at my heart.

"It wouldn't hurt to try, but there's no guarantee it would help." She went to get them, leaving me alone with my husband for a few minutes. "Well, at least we'll never have to pester him to turn the music down." Alexei tried to smile but didn't succeed.

"I'd give anything in the world to have to do that," I replied, struggling to keep my composure.

Dr. Singer returned a moment later with a couple of hearing aids and an audiometer. "Let's try this one first." She began to fit one of the hearing aids to Reed's ear, and he whimpered and buried his face in the front of my shirt.

"It's all right, sweetheart." I kissed the top of his head.

Dr. Singer finished arranging the equipment and then performed the hearing test. When it was over, she shook her head. "No change. Let's try the other pair."

She repeated the procedure and got the same result. "I'm very sorry," she told us, allowing us a moment to process the information.

Alexei sighed. "Well, at least we tried."

Reed grinned at him. "Da-da!" He signed the word at the same time he spoke it.

Alexei's eyes widened. "Did you just say 'Da-da'?" He laughed. "Clever boy!"

Dr. Singer smiled. "He's going to be just fine. I'd like to see him again in a couple of months. By then, we'll have a better idea of where his hearing will settle. How does early January sound? That'll give the holiday season time to settle down."

"That's fine." Alexei's voice sounded hollow, and I saw that he was blinking back tears.

I was able to hold my own back until we got home, and then I sat on the sofa and bawled my eyes out. A moment later, I felt the seat beside me dip as Alexei sat beside me, and right afterwards, I felt his arms embrace me.

"It's going to be all right, darling. So he'll have to use sign language and maybe go to a special school - that's not such a big deal. He still has the chance to grow up happy and well-adjusted."

"I couldn't even give you a healthy son!" I moaned. "I know how badly you wanted one to carry on the family name, but what kind of future does he have? What kind of job can he do? Will he ever fall in love and get married?"

"There's no reason in the world why he can't have a normal life like everyone else," he told me. "Of course he'll have some extra challenges, but there's no reason he can't overcome them."

"But he'll still be different from everybody else! I don't want him to get made fun of in school or when we go places!"

"You can't protect him from the world forever, Addison. Of course some people are going to be cruel, but if he holds his head high and ignores them, he'll be fine."

"I feel like it must have been my fault. Maybe it was something I did or didn't do when I was pregnant with him. Something I ate or drank. Some medication I took."

"None of the doctors we've taken him to have suggested anything like that at all."He sighed. "It just happened, Addison. There's no way it could have been prevented, and you're just going to have to accept that."

I watched as Reed toddled around the room, sucking his thumb. "He's such a beautiful little boy," I said. "You'd never in a million years guess there was anything wrong with him."

"Stop talking about him as if he was a freak!" The anger in my husband's voice made me shrink back. "He's a perfectly normal, healthy little boy who simply happens to have a profound hearing loss."

"I'm sorry," I sniffled. "I didn't mean to imply that I love him any less because of it."

"That's sure what it sounded like to me," he grumbled.

"I love him just as much as I do the others."

"He's going to need us more than the others will."

"I know."

By the time the older kids got home from school, I'd composed myself enough to return to my normal routine of caring for them and meeting their needs. Oblivious to his discouraging prognosis, Reed greeted them happily, as he always did.

"Kayla gave me a package of cookies," Montana told his brother. "Want one?" He took one of the cookies out of the package and showed it to Reed.

Reed grinned and made the sign for cookie. "Ookie!"

"C-c-cookie," Montana told him, emphasizing the first letter of the word.

"Ookie!" Reed sang.

Alexei and I looked at one another and laughed.

For Halloween that year, we dressed Reed up as the Pillsbury Dough Boy, and everyone was charmed by him. We spent Thanksgiving with Alexei's family, since we'd spent it with mine the previous year.

"Look, Nevada!" Xenia exclaimed. "Both my front teeth came out!" She showed her cousin the gap in her top gum.

"Mine too, and my new tooth is part of the way in on one side!" Nevada replied.

"So is Reed really deaf?" asked Pavel. "How come he doesn't wear a hearing aid?"

"It wouldn't help with the kind of deafness he has," Alexei explained.

"That's really sad."

"It's all right. He's learning sign language and how to read lips."

"But what about when he goes to school?"

"We've looked into that. With a special helper signing for him, there's no reason he can't attend an ordinary elementary school."

Pavel frowned. "But won't the other kids make fun of him?"

"If they do, he'll just have to learn to hold his head high and ignore them. He's going to need a lot of support from all of us, and we'll have to be prepared to give it to him."

Sonya, who was seven months pregnant by now, was huge and looked very uncomfortable. "When's your baby gonna come out?" Montana asked her.

"Not until January." She grimaced. "I feel like I've been pregnant forever."

Although Xenia and Nevada got annoyed because the twins kept interrupting their play, we had a pleasant visit, and we went to my parents' house on Christmas Day. "How's my big boy?" asked Mom, reaching for Reed. She and Dad both knew just a little sign language but not as much as the rest of the family.

"Grandma," I said to Reed, signing the word at the same time.

"Ramma!" Reed giggled. "Ramma!"

Mom laughed. "That's close enough!"

In a white shirt with a Santa head on the front and red trim on the collar and sleeves, red pants with white trim, and a red bow in her hair, Winter was beautiful. "Hi there, precious!" I reached for her, and she grinned and went into my arms.

"I'm your Aunt Addison! Remember me?" I asked her. A few minutes later, she whimpered and reached for Lauren, so I handed her back to her mother.

On New Year's Eve, Alexei got Chinese take-out for dinner, and after the kids were in bed, we sat up drinking and watching television, waiting to help ring in the New Year. At about eleven thirty, Kristina called. "Mom just called me from the hospital," she told me. "Sonya's in labor, and they just took her back."

I relayed the news to Alexei. "Well, it looks like we'll have a new niece or nephew by this time tomorrow," he remarked.

We went to bed not long after that but received another telephone call from Kristina at a quarter to three the following morning. Alexei took it. "Oh, she did?...Wow, that's great!...all right...all right...We sure will! Good-bye!"

He was grinning when he turned to me. "Sonya's baby was born about fifteen minutes ago. Her name is Elektra, and she weighs six pounds, five ounces."

"That's great!" I said. "We'll have to go see her tomorrow."

"Later on today, you mean."

"Oh, yeah."

The kids got us up at about ten that morning. We fed them breakfast, then took them to my parents' so we could go to the hospital. First we went by the nursery to see little Eleckra. She was asleep, with her little hands balled into fists at either side of her head.

"She looks just like an angel," I breathed.

"She does," Alexei agreed.

We were ready to go to Sonya's room to visit her when we both noticed a dark-haired man in his early twenties who was also looking at Elektra with a proud smile on his face. "That's my daughter!" he told us.

"Rolan?" asked Alexei.

"Yes?"

Alexei grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him close, and the look of pleasure on his face turned to one of sheer terror.

"I'm only going to say this once," Alexei growled through clenched teeth. "A spineless bastard like you doesn't deserve to be a father. After what you did to my sisters, both of them, I ought to kick your teeth in. If you want to be in Elektra's life at all, you'd better go to child support enforcement and set up a payment schedule right away!"

"But I don't even have a job!" Rolan whined.

"Then get out of her life, and stay out. Otherwise, you'll have to answer to me."

Alexei let go of Rolan's clothes, pushing him back, and the younger man turned and shuffled away as fast as his feet could carry him. "Way to go!" I patted my husband's shoulder.

We made our way to Sonya's room, where we found her sitting up in bed, smiling.

"She's beautiful," I told her. "You did very well."

"It sure did hurt," she told me. "They had to cut me and then sew me back up, and that hurt almost worse than the actual birth."

"I know," I told her. "I've been through it myself."

"I wonder if she was the first baby for the New Year," Alexei commented.

"She wasn't," Sonya told him. "Another woman's baby was born about five minutes before she was."

"Oh, well," said Alexei. "A few minutes of fame would have been nice, but it doesn't really matter."

We visited with Sonya for about half an hour or so, then went back to my parents' house to pick the kids up. "Your new cousin is beautiful," I told them.

"Does she have brown eyes or blue?" asked Jade.

"I couldn't tell," I replied. "She was asleep when I saw her."

"What color is her hair?"

"Brown."

"Is it long or short?"

"Very short." I laughed. "I've never heard of a baby being born with long hair."

"Sonya's getting her picture made today, so you'll be able to see what she looks like very soon," Alexei told his daughter.

Jade nodded, satisfied.

One Sunday afternoon, Alexei and I were watching the kids at play when Nevada started crying. "My tooth hurts!" she wailed.

"Which one?" I asked.

She opened her mouth and pointed to a tooth in the very back.

"I'll give you something to make it feel better," I promised, going to the medicine cabinet and taking out a children's Tylenol. "Here, chew it on the other side of your mouth."

She did, but instead of going right back to play with her siblings, she lounged on the couch between me and Alexei for the rest of the day, her face a mask of pain. She refused to come to the table for dinner, saying it hurt to open her mouth.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to call the dentist tomorrow," I said to Alexei, who nodded.

The following day, I got Montana up early to get ready for school but let all four of the other kids sleep in, and as soon as he'd left on the bus, I called the dentist, Dr. Payne, and explained to his nurse what had been going on with Nevada. "You can bring her on in this morning," she told me.

I called Mom right away. "Could you please come over and watch the kids?" I asked her. "Nevada has a really bad toothache, so I have to take her to the dentist."

"Of course! I'll be there right away!"

I'd no sooner gotten off the telephone than Reed started screaming his lungs out. I went to check on him and saw that he was tugging on his right ear, and when I picked him up, his skin was on fire. "Oh, no!" I moaned. "Not you, too!"

I gave him some baby Tylenol, and by the time Mom had arrived, his screams had dwindled down to sobs. "I think he's got an ear infection," I told Mom. "I'm gonna have to call Dr. Tanner as soon as I get back from the dentist."

I went to check on Nevada and found her awake but groggy. "I couldn't sleep all night long, Mommy," she told me. "My tooth hurts too bad."

"Well, I'm taking you to the dentist today," I told her. I gave her some orange juice, then helped her to dress and walk out to the car, and then made the twenty-minute journey to Dr. Payne's office. The sun shone through the windshield, warming our skin, and I played my Enya CD.

When we arrived, I parked in the shade, and Nevada and I walked along the sidewalk to the entrance.

The waiting room was dimly lit, and along the wall was a row of differently colored chairs. In the middle of the room was a rug with letters of the alphabet, and on that was a toy box. Several child-sized chairs were arranged in a circle on one side.

Nevada sat beside me with her head on my shoulder, napping, until we were called back about half an hour later. The dental assistant helped her sit back in the big chair and fastened a napkin and a few minutes later, Dr. Payne came in.

"Open wide!" he told her after saying hello to her.

He used one of his instruments to poke around inside her mouth. "Ow!" she screamed.

"Looks like you've got a bad tooth," he said after a few minutes. "It'll have to come out, but no reason to be afraid. We'll give you some special medicine so you won't even feel it at all."

Nevada began to cry, and I did my best to comfort her. A few minutes later, the assistant arrived to give her a shot of Novocaine. She really howled then, but only for a moment, and a little while later, she touched her cheek.

"Why does it feel funny, Mama?" she asked me.

"They had to numb it so it wouldn't hurt when the tooth comes out," I told her.

Soon afterwards, Dr. Payne arrived and pulled the tooth, then gave her a wad a gauze to bite down on to control the bleeding. He then gave me a package containing more gauze. "Make sure she keeps biting down on the gauze until the bleeding stops," he told me. "If it gets any worse, take her to the emergency room."

I took Nevada's hand and led her back out to the car. Glancing at my watch, I saw that I'd have to pick Montana up from the bus stop before I could take Reed to Dr. Tanner.

"When's my mouth gonna quit feelin' funny?" Nevada's speech was slurred because of the gauze.

"When the medicine wears off," I replied.

When I got home, I found Mom sitting in the rocking chair, holding Reed, who wasn't asleep.

"How did it go?" she asked me.

"Nevada had to have a tooth pulled," I told her. "How's Reed?"

"Very fussy. The sooner you can get him seen about, the better."

"I was a good girl, Granny." Nevada ran to Mom, and Mom embraced her. "I didn't cry at all!"

I called Dr. Tanner's office and made an appointment for an hour after time to pick Montana up from the bus stop, then made sandwiches for Mom, the twins, and myself. Then I cleaned up and played with the twins until time to go to the bus stop.

Montana's bus turned out to be running a little late, and I began to worry that I might not have time to get Reed to his doctor's appointment, but at last I saw it coming and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"I have to take your brother to the doctor, so I'm gonna just drop you off at home and then take him straight there," I told Montana as soon as he was seated. "Your Granny's there."

When I got back home, I kissed the older kids good-bye and then took Reed out to the car, buckled him into his car seat, and took off. I arrived to find the room so full of parents with their crying children that I had a very difficult time finding somewhere to sit. While I was waiting to be called back, Reed had a poopy diaper, and after I changed him, I still had to wait another hour before his name was called. Luckily, he slept for most of that time so was in a slightly better mood when they called him back.

"How have you been doing, little man?" Dr. Tanner smiled and chucked Reed under the chin.

"He woke up screaming and tugging on his ear this morning," I explained. "I'm afraid he might have another ear infection."

"I see." He gave my son a thorough examination and then told me that he did, indeed, have an ear infection. "Give him Amoxicillin for ten days, and make a follow up appointment with my secretary for two weeks from now," he told me. I did so, then went on to the pharmacy to drop off the prescription.

"It'll take about an hour or so," the pharmacy assistant told me. "Do you want to wait or come back for it?"

"I'll come back for it," I told her.

It was after dark when I arrived home to total mayhem. Montana sat on the sofa watching television while the twins bounced around the room. "Somebody make them be quiet!" he yelled.

"Good, you're here," said Montana, who was cleaning up from a pizza delivery dinner. "An emergency situation has come up. Sonya's baby was kidnapped!"

"Oh, no!" I felt as if all the strength had just been drained from my body. "How did it happen?"

"She'd put her in her crib and went to answer the telephone, and when she came back, the baby was gone." His face tightened. "I've got a pretty good idea of who took her, too. The challenge will be figuring out which direction he went."

I nodded. "Rolan."

"Well, I'm off. Wish me luck."

A surge of anger pulsed through me. You mean you're leaving me all alone with all this? I wanted to explode. Instead I just sighed, got Reed settled, and began to clean up the mess.

It was close to midnight when I finally got all five kids in bed and the house reasonably clean. I was about nine tenths asleep by the time I finally trudged to bed.

When the alarm clock awakened me the next morning, I found myself in Alexei's arms. He was snoring gently. Carefully, so as not to awaken him, I extricated myself and went to get the older kids ready for school. After watching Montana and Nevada board the bus, I stopped by the drugstore to pick up Reed's antibiotic.

Alexei awakened around noon. "Did you ever find Elektra?" I asked him. He rubbed his eyes and yawned, then nodded.

"Good!" I sighed with relief. "Was it Rolan?"

He nodded again. "Sonya told us he has an aunt who lives in the next state over. We had a hunch we'd find him there, so that's where we went. We notified the police department in her city, and they helped us find her address. It was about four in the morning before we finally found where she lived. It was in this little trailer on some dirt road way back in the woods, and sure enough, Rolan and Elektra were there. We arrested him and brought both of them back. He's in jail, and and Elektra's back with Sonya."

"Thank goodness!" I exclaimed. "I hope they keep him locked up for good so he can't do it again!"

"He's been charged with kidnapping and taking a minor across the state line. If he's convicted, he's looking at a long prison sentence."

"How's Sonya?" I asked.

"All right, considering the circumstances. She was thrilled to get Elektra back, of course. They all were."

I chuckled. "She's lucky to have a cop for a brother."

"I suppose so." We embraced.

"I'll have to go see how she's doing when Reed gets better," I said.

"She'd be glad to see you again."

Reed was on the antibiotic for ten days, and by the time he finished taking it, he was back to his normal, cheerful self. One morning after dropping Montana and Nevada off at the bus stop, I paid Sonya and Elektra a visit. I found her sitting on the sofa nursing the baby while watching music videos.

"Hi, Aunt Sonya!" Jade called to her.

"Hi," she replied. "Are you Jade or Juniper?"

"I'm Jade! Can't you tell us apart? Mommy can!"

"Well, I don't see nearly as much of you as your Mommy does." She smiled at me as I sat on the sofa beside her. "I'm just enjoying this while I can. When I go back to work, she'll have to go on the bottle."

"Some women pump breast milk at work and then take it home to their babies afterwards," I pointed out.

Sonya rolled her eyes. "I'm not anywhere near that organized." Elektra finished nursing on one side, and Sonya switched her to the other.

"I'm just glad you got her back," I told her.

"So am I! Even now I can't stand for her to be out of my sight for even one minute. I really dread having to go back to work."

Reed toddled up to her and patted the pink blanket she'd wrapped Elektra in. "Bay bay."

"That's right!" I encouraged, making the sign for 'baby.'

We stayed and visited for an hour or so, then returned home. "I went to see Sonya today," I told Alexei when he got home that evening.

"How's she doing?" he asked me.

"She seems to be fine, although she says she dreads having to go back to work. I can sure understand that, especially after what happened." I sighed. "I wish there was some other way for her."

"Rolan can't pay child support while he's in prison," Alexei pointed out.

"I know, but if they let him out, he'd just take the baby again."

For our sixth anniversary, I wanted to do something special for Alexei but couldn't think of anything. An article on the internet suggested a hot air balloon ride.

"What a great idea!" I exclaimed. "That's something I've never done before, and I'll bet Alexei hasn't either!"

Right away, I called the office nearest us and made reservations for the Saturday before our anniversary. That Friday, I arranged for the children to spend the night with my parents, and when Alexei got home from work, I told him we'd have to go to bed early that night. "We're going hot air ballooning early tomorrow morning," I explained. "That's my anniversary present to you."

He grinned and shook his head. "Wow, Addison, you're unbelievable!"

We got up at about four the following morning, ate a quick breakfast, and drove to the launch site. We climbed into the basket and waited for the lift off. As the balloon slowly rose, it occurred to me that it was a lot like riding a Ferris wheel, except that instead of reaching the top and then beginning to descend, the balloon just kept rising higher and higher.

"This is just like flying!" I exclaimed.

The trees and houses below us looked so tiny! The road looked like a thin grey ribbon, and a lake far below us looked like a mud puddle. I felt incredibly calm and at peace. All my cares were forgotten, and the only things I was aware of were the wind in my face and Alexei's arm around me.