Cause I'm Five Minutes Older

Russian Families and American Families

When I woke, Mikhail was laying next to me his fingers tracing the barely visible scar that runs from my ear to my collar bone. Before opening my eyes I make a promise to myself to tell him everything because he makes me feel special, he treats me like I am the only one he cares about. I have a feeling about him. It reminds me of a song.
“Dorogaya, no sleep now. Mikhail know.” I opened my eyes he knew I was awake. I smiled, but he was frowning. “These?” He felt the bump.
“Promise you will still love me?” I ask he gives me a confused look. I get up and bring over my laptop. I type into Google translate my story. I don’t go into deep detail because that would be disgusting. I translate it into Russian and turn the computer toward him. He nods and starts typing switching the two languages on his own laptop. I looked to the screen.
‘We start over now. Anything that happened before doesn’t matter. If you are perfectly healthy, we do?’
“Da.” I say. He types again and I wait. A knock on the door makes us both jump like we thought we where the only two in the world. He yells something to the door. It opens. A young girl with long dark brown braids walks in and immediately goes to back out.
“Bozhi moi!” She blushes turning.
“Anechka, my nichego ne delaem. Prihodyat v.”
“Izvinite, Mikhail-” She stopped now staring at me. “Bozhi moi! You are Abbi Jonas!” She jumped up and down. “I love you! Mikhail, pochemu ona zdes’?”
“Ona moya zhena. Ne mat’ tebe govoril?” He responded to his sister.
“Verochka! Come here!” I was surprised the younger girls knew English. A girl who looked exactly like Anechka came tumbling down the stairs. A young little boy came following behind her. He was a mini Mikhail. Both looked star struck seeing me there. “Mikhail brought Abbi Jonas to our house!” The other girl screamed.
“No, Vera it’s even better. Abbi is Mikhail’s zhena, wife!” Anechka jumped up and down again.
“Bozhi moi! Nick Jonas is my brother-in-law! He is so hot.” I blushed and they both looked at me. “You and Nick are my favorite twins ever besides us!”
“Tak vot pochemu vy hotite vy uchit’ angliiskii yazyk?” Anechka asked him grinning. Mikhail wrapped his arm around me.
“Da.” He smiled down at me I got caught in his eyes.
“Eto tak romantichno!” They both fell it to each other fantasizing. Mikhail kisses my head I lean into him.
“Potselui yee! Kiss her!” Verochka giggled happily. Mikhail looked down at me asking for permission with his eyes pleading me to say yes. My limbs tingled excitedly as I looked up in to his eyes. He smiled and took my face softly. His lips against mine made me want to let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t realize I wasn’t dreaming again until Ane and Vera started clapping.
“Vy dvoe tak milo!” They cheered. “You two are so cute! YA ne mogu zhdat’, chtoby vy imeli rebenka!” Mikhail blushed and hid his face in my hair. “Ty lyubish’ yee bol’she, chem ktolibo?”
“Da.” He answered.
“Do you love Mikhail more than anyone ever?” They asked me.
“Yes, more than I have ever felt.” I told them.
“When did you meet?” They pestered.
“A month and a half ago.” Their eyes got wide.
“How long have you been married?”
“Since last night.”
“But when I came in you were fully dressed…”
“Yeah?”
“Last night you didn’t-”
“Nyet. We did not.” He sounded like he was preoccupied in thinking. I could tell by his face he was thinking about it though. He subconsciously played with my hair. “I looked this morning.” He couldn’t figure out the rest of the sentence, but I could see what he was saying.
“The ceremony didn’t work it, wasn’t real. We aren’t actually married yet, but we want to redo it. Have a real wedding. Fly my family here, and some close friends. And have a really awesome wedding. That’s what we where talking about before you came. He was telling me about his family starting with you two. And since I don’t have many close girl friends I was wondering if possibly I could have you two as bridesmaids.” They laughed for a minute.
“You mean on the bride’s team. You have much to learn if you are to have your wedding here. We will gladly be on your team.” Verochka said smiling.
“What about Ekaterina? Or Inessa? Stephania?” Anechka asked.
“Stephania, Inessa to young.” Mikhail told them.
“They could be flower girls.” The girls laugh again.
“There are no flower girls. Mama, Calina, and Ekaterina will explain later.” Anechka smirked.
“Da.” He replied still playing with my hair. It made me smile. His arms were around my shoulders and his chin rests on my head.
“We will get to the details after I talk to my family.” I explained to them. Verochka asked Mikhail a question in their language. The only word I understood was Luka. The answer contained it too. Mikhail answered shaking his head. I looked at the two and the little boy still staring at me. I went over to him and knelt down. He started moving his hands sign language. I looked back at the twins to make sure.
“He’s deaf. I forgot he followed me down here.” Verochka replied. I smiled.
“Someone I can always understand.” I was glad that I had in the few months I was home started remembering a few things. Like mom teaching me and Mandy sign language. I turned to the boy. And signed to him hoping he knew American sign language. ‘Hello, my name is Abbi. What is your’s?’ Apparently he did because he grinned and began to respond.
‘Pavel. You are Mikhail’s wife.’
‘No, it wasn’t legal.’
‘But you will be?’
‘Yes. We hope for it.’
‘Mommy makes wedding dresses.’
‘I will consult with her on that.’
‘Mommy doesn’t speak English. She signs and speaks Russian, French, and German.’
‘I will speak to her in French.’
‘Yes. I must go.’ He starts climbing the stairs. I stand again and go back to Mikhail.
“That’s mama’s little sweetheart. Her favorite. He’s usually away at his special school.” Anechka tells me. A woman’s voice yells from the top of the stairs. The girls rush up. Mikhail sighs.
“Dress.” I quickly put on the skinny jeans and ask Mikhail if I could borrow a smaller shirt. He hands me one and it’s only really long. He dresses and we tromp up the stairs. A whole group of people sat along the huge table in the room he brought me to. They all looked at us as we walked in hand in hand. He introduced me to the table. He stood behind the man at the head of the table. “Papa.” He moved as he named them off. “Semyon, brother. Calina, his wife. Doroteya, niece. Galine, niece. Ekaterina, sister. Rurik, cousin. Anechka, sister. Verochka, sister. Olezka, cousin. Nikita, cousin. Inessa, sister. Pavel, brother. Evengii, brother. Stephania, sister. Mama.” He lead me to sit by him between Ekaterina on his side and Rurik on mine. Everyone was staring at me. I sat up straight in my chair. Mikhail put his hand on my knee and spoke to his family. Anechka looked at me from across the table.
“He’s asked me to translate for you.” Mikhail started talking fast he stopped momentarily. “We got married, but it legally didn’t go through. So, we are going to plan a wedding where our families can be present. Mama, Anechka and Verochka told Abbi about your business in weddings. Abbi wanted me to ask you if she could be honored with wearing one of you dresses on her wedding date.” I smiled and mama started talking. “I would be happy to make a dress specifically for you. As I was planning to do for all of the brides in this family. You are family now. When will your family be coming?”
“Mikhail needs to ask my father for permission to marry me first. My family is very old fashioned when it comes to these sort of events.” Anechka followed me speaking to her mother. Mama got up from her chair clogged Mikhail on the back of his head and yelled at him in Russian. She looked a lot like my mother when Joe did something stupid. I am thinking they are the same with these customs. She sat back down.
“Mama said You didn’t ask her father. How can you be so disgraceful?” Anechka and Verochka giggled. Mikhail rubbed his head and started talking again. “She asked if the girls wanted to be on the bride‘s team. She doesn’t keep many close friends because of an accident she recently went through that left her without much of a memory.” Mama nods and looks to the excited faces of the younger girls for an answer. They all nodded except for the oldest sister, Ekaterina looked to her brother and spoke. “I will not accept until I get to know her.” I nodded at that. Mikhail went on.
“Mikhail now get to the business of asking her father.” Mikhail got up and motioned for me to follow.
“You speak with hands well. I can.” He told me. Then started speaking to me. ‘Pavel taught me how. Like Verochka and Anechka teach me English. I am fast learner.’
‘We can speak this way until you understand English fully. My mom knows sign language so you can talk to her too. We can go to your room and I can have you meet them on computer.’ We traveled down the stairs. I hopped on to his bed and grabbed my laptop he moved his to the floor and sat beside me. He kissed my cheek. I giggled. He cuddled up closer to me. I opened Skype and called Nick. I moved the laptop so Mikhail was mostly off screen. Nick’s face popped up on the screen.
“Hey, Abs. I talked to people your stuff can be delivered from a pharmacy in Moscow to the address you are at now.”
“You spoke to the pharmacy people here?”
“Yeah, why?”
“They are Russian. Do you-”
“Speak Russian. Yes I learned that when I was ten.”
“Dang I wish you could twin fax that over to my brain.”
“You learned too you just don’t remember. You will eventually, I guess, like the French and Sign. I figured since you are surrounded by Russian’s that you’d have remembered by now.”
“Never mind I’ll text you the address later. I’ve called to call a family meeting.”
“Okay.” He got up from the chair he was in in his bedroom and carried the laptop downstairs. The little tour made me a little homesick. He set us down on the coffee table and connected us to the TV to make the picture big enough. “You got us on a good night Kevin and Dani are even here.” He left the screen for a bit. He returned with the whole Jonas clan including Leila, Elvis, and Riley.
“Hi everyone.” I gulped a little nervous.
♠ ♠ ♠
You are getting A few tonight.
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<3 Kelsey