Hidden in the Shadows

March 12th, 2011
Saturday
Logan Airport, Boston, MA
6:00 P.M.

She managed to get herself together and swallowed the lump in her throat. She and Sheena already in her seat and said

“Sorry I’m late I got a little held up.” Sheena saw her red eyes and said

“Johnny was the one who cried when I left.” Raina laughed and said

“I’m just an emotional mess. Maybe spending some time relaxing in Vancouver will do some real good.” Raina put her carry on bag above her in their compartment and then sat down next to Sheena. “We’ll be there in six hours around 9:00 in Vancouver time.”

“This is the longest flight I’ve ever taken.” Said Sheena.

“I went to Fiji and that was a nine hour flight I couldn’t feel my legs or ass when I stood up.” The plane started to move and turn towards the runway. Raina looked out her window and saw the plane that would take the team to Buffalo was already docked. She sat back in her seat and closed her eyes, letting her mind wander. She thought of her wedding and imagined walking down the aisle looking up at a smiling Milan who was waiting for her. He would look so handsome and be in a nice black suit. The music would be playing as her father walked down with her. As she was imagining herself approaching the alter she felt a sudden jolt and snapped out of her day dream. The plane was lifting off. Sheena had put her earphones in and closed her eyes as well. Raina watching out the window as the plane moved further up and the city of Boston grew smaller and smaller. She already missed home. She began to feel a craving come on or the Regina Pizzeria’s pizza and knew she wouldn’t be able to get a decent slice of pizza for the next 24 hours or so. She ran her fingers lightly over her belly, feeling the babies shift around. She could tell they were getting stronger. Their movements were becoming ore frequent and more prominent to her. She had brought a babies name book with her for the flight. She decided to take it out and look at it. She had written down what the names she liked in the back cover with a pen. She had only five she really liked, Luca, Rowan, Emmett, Willow, and Cheyenne. She was looking through the boys section when Sheena opened her eyes and saw what she was doing and said

“Baby names?”

“Ya,” said Raina.

“Make your kids have unique names not common ones like Ashley or Taylor or something.”

“I’m not,” she said. Sheena looked over at the book and began to look through it with her. Raina flipped to the back to show her the names she had written down that she liked. “I think the name Willow is really pretty.” Said Sheena.

“It’s cute,” said Raina.

“What does Milan like?” asked Sheena.

“For girls he likes Rowan, Cheyenne, and Elise. For boys he likes Luca, Emmett, and Cody.”

“I hope you have girls,” said Sheena. “We could buy them matching outfits.” Raina smiled and said

“Whichever gender will work, Milan wants boys so they’ll play in the NHL.” The rest of the flight was extremely boring. Sheena fell asleep halfway through and Raina was stuck watching a stupid movie on the TV. When they began to descend Raina woke up Sheena.

“We’re here,” said Raina. Sheena stretched and began getting her things together. Raina looked out the window to see the city of Vancouver lit up in the night. It took about twenty minutes before they were finally able to get off. Raina’s legs felt weak from sitting for so long and she walked slowly down the long hallway. When her and Sheena walked out into the airport she heard a woman yell

“Raina honey over here!” Raina saw Snezana coming towards her followed by Milan’s father, Dobro. Raina smiled and went forward and hugged them both. “Welcome to Vancouver!” said Milan’s father grinning. Raina introduced Sheena and then they left to go back to the house. Milan’s house was exactly how Raina remembered. It was built with light brown bricks, was two floors, double doors, and a large window over the door. When they walked in Raina heard the TV on in the living room and then Snezana called

“Nikola, we’re home!” she heard the TV shut off and then a boy appeared in the doorway that led into the living room. He looked very similar to Milan except that his face was longer and thinner, his nose was bigger, and he was around 6’1”.

“You must be Raina,” he said. “I’m Nikola.” He held out his hand and Raina shoke it. Snezana then said

“Raina you can stay in Milan’s old room, we have Jovan’s old room all made so Sheena can sleep in there, and when Jasmiina comes we have a pull out couch up in our computer room she can sleep on.

“I’ll show you your rooms.” Said Nikola. Sheena and Raina followed him upstairs. “This is Jovan’s old room,” said Nikola, pushing open the door for Sheena. “And this is Milan’s,” he said. He pushed open a door to a room across from Jovan’s. Raina instantly saw what Milan had been saying about the trophies. The room was lined with shelves and shelves of medals and trophies.

“Oh my god,” said Raina looking around.

“I know,” said Nikola. “It’s crazy how much stuff he won.” They’re not even all for hockey.” Nikola pointed to an entire shelf of rugby trophies, and another of boxing trophies.

“He told me there were a lot of awards in his room but I never imagined all this.”

“I remember when we were kids he’d get so upset if he lost anything. He played lacrosse, baseball, rugby, and hockey obviously, and he boxed.”

“I’m gonna call and yell at him.” Laughed Raina.

“Why?” said Nikola.

“Because he never told me he played all those sports.”

“He doesn’t like bragging about it to much.” Laughed Nikola. Raina set her bag down on his old bed and Nikola said “My mom says to come down after you’re settled and stuff.”

“Alright, I’ll be right down.” Nikola left and Raina still looked around the room in awe. A picture on the wall caught her eye. It was a prom picture of Milan and some girl. Raina reminded herself that the picture was from years ago and there was no reason to feel upset about it. Milan was wearing a black tuxedo and the girl, Caitlyn was wearing a blue and green dress that went well with her fair skin, and auburn hair. She went over to the bed and found another picture of them on his nightstand. It was of them again standing together smiling with the ocean behind them. She reminded herself that it was from years ago. She opened Milan’s closet and found a few things still hanging up. An old pair of worn out blue jeans, a gray T-shirt with the Vancouver Giants logo on it, and a polo dress shirt. There were a few boxers folded up on top of his dresser that looked slightly too small for Milan now. After taking another look around she went downstairs. Sheena was already getting herself acquainted with the family and was sitting at the table. Raina saw Snezana had made some sort of Serbian snack for them out on a plate in the middle of the table.

“Come sit,” said Snezana. She pulled out a chair for her and said “So how are the babies?”

“They’re wonderful,” she said. “Went to my check-up a few days ago and they said that they were both healthy and strong. The birth should go smoothly. And look,” Raina pulled out two ultrasound pictures for them to look at.

“They’re wonderful,” said Snezana looking at the pictures before handing them to Dobro.

“I can’t wait until I’m an uncle!” said Nikola. “They can call me Uncle Nikki!” Raina laughed and Snezana said

“I can’t believe I’m going to be a grandmother.”

“You’ll be the youngest grandma in the daycare.” Laughed Raina.

“You know what you should do,” said Nikola. “When Milan comes to visit you should pour some water on the floor and freak out and say your water broke. Milan will have a heart attack!” Laughed Nikola.

“That’s an amazing idea!” Laughed Sheena.

“I’ll do it!” said Raina.

“He’ll get so nervous when your water really breaks.” Said Snezana. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he passed out in the delivery room. I remember when my sister came to visit and she was pregnant. Her water broke on the last day she was here and she went into labor and Milan was sixteen. He started getting all nervous and he paced the entire time he was out in the waiting room.” Raina laughed and said

“I can see him doing that.”

“He’ll be such a nervous wreck!” Laughed Nikola loudly. Snezana shushed him and said

“Honestly Nik, you’ll wake up the neighbors!”

“I’m sorry,” he said, still laughing and wiping tears from his eyes. “I just can see him now, the big, tough, high and mighty Milan start shaking when Raina goes into labor, he’ll just fall apart.” At that moment Raina’s phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out to see it was Milan. She answered and said

“Hey we were just talking about you!” Nikola took the phone from her hand and said

“Hey bro, we were just talking about much of a pussy you are.” Raina took the phone back and said

“Sorry that was Nikola.”

“I’m not a pussy!” he said.

“I never said you were,” laughed Raina.

“Put Nik back on the phone!” Raina sighed and handed it back to Nikola. She listened to them go back and forth, joking around until Nikola handed her the phone back ten minutes later.

“Hey,” said Milan.

“Hi you in Buffalo?”

“Ya, I’m in the hotel, now I called to say goodnight.” She smiled and said

“I saw all the trophies in your room; you never told me you played so many different sports!”

“Oh ya,” he said.

“Your room is full of them! You never told me you were that successful with other sports.”

“Did you find my prom picture?”

“Oh ya, you look handsome, and the girl looks pretty too.”

“Wow,” Milan said.

“What?”

“You just complimented my ex-girlfriend, I expected you to be a bitch about her.” Laughed Milan.

“I’m not THAT jealous.”

“Oh yes you are,” he said still laughing. “You are the jealous type.” Raina ignored him and said

“Your bedroom is like the museum for Milan Lucic, I’m not gonna change it around at all.” He laughed and said

“You have any plans for tomorrow?”

“Ya, I’m probably gonna go look around at houses. I was also thinking about our apartment in Boston.”

“What about it?”

“Maybe we should move into a house. I know the apartments big enough but I want our kids to have a backyard and woods to explore and stuff like that.”

“It’s whatever you want,” he said. “But we’d have to start looking around now because we need to get the nursery ready.”

“I like where Thomas lives, his neighborhood in Middleton, it’s rural, the houses are more upper middle class size then mansions, and everyone seems so nice. Remember that time we went to the block party he was having and we met his neighbors.”

“Ya I do,” he said. “Go online and look at houses for sale on that street, I’m fine with wherever you want to go, I won’t miss my penthouse.” He said.

“We have some serious house hunting to do,” said Raina. “When I look tomorrow I’ll pick out a few that I really like and when you come here we can look at them together.”

“I’ll probably come up some time next week for a few days. I have to go to bed, I have to be up early for practice.” He said.

“K, I love you, good night.”

“Love you too, night.” Raina ended the call and Sheena said

“You’re gonna buy a house in Middleton?”

“I think so,” said Raina. “I don’t want my kids raised in the city; I want them to have a backyard.” Milan’s father nodded and said

“I think it’s smart, lots of room for them to wrestle.” He glanced over at Nikola. “Milan and his brothers would tear the house apart wrestling. I remember coming home from work one day to find the TV broken, holes in the wall, and the screen in the door cut.”

“We were all grounded for a month.” Said Nikola.

“I’ll remember to ask Milan about it.” Said Raina. She yawned and said “I think I’m gonna go to bed.” She said goodnight to the family and went upstairs. She listened to the family still talk. Sheena seemed to be getting along nicely with Milan’s family and had decided to stay downstairs. After getting ready for bed she shut off the lights and went to get into Milan’s old bed but instead she decided to go lookout the window. She pressed her face up against the cold glass and looked out onto the dark street. A long street light lit up the sidewalk. No cars were going and everything was still. None of the houses across the street even had their lights on. It gave Raina a lonely feeling. She went back over to the bed and got in. She wrapped herself up in the big comforter and quickly feel asleep.
__________________________________________________
Thanks for reading :) Please comment.

YESSS THE BRUINS WON!!!!!! I am so happy lol. I'll be at the parade tomorrow just like everyone else in Boston lol :) With Osama Bin Laden's death and the Bruins winning the cup this year has just been amazing lol.