A Doctor's Secret

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“No,” Sasha corrected, keeping a straight face, “they think of you as the baby. The last little bird to fly out of the nest.” She felt for her sister, but at the same time, she couldn’t help teasing her. Lifetime habits were hard to break. “I’m not sure they’re ready to acknowledge your flight plan, Marysia.”

Marja preferred answering to her nickname, but she only allowed her family to use it. Didn’t even mention it to anyone else. They had enough trouble with Marja. For the outsider, “Marysia” became nothing short of an unrewarding, gabled tongue-twister.

“Well, whether or not they acknowledge it, I’m out of there the second Natalya says ‘I do’ to Mike. I’m not even going to stick around for the reception,” she said loftily, licking her fork to get the last of the lo mein, “just hitching the U-Haul to Sasha’s car and bringing my stuff over.”

Finished, she crossed back to the kitchen to throw the empty container out and toss the fork into the sink.

Natalya and Kady exchanged glances, shaking their heads. Marja might have graduated at the top of her graduating class, but she still had a bit of growing up to do.

Sasha grinned. As if leaving the house where she was born were that easy. One by one, they had moved out of the house in Queens, to be closer to the hospital where they all ultimately worked. Her parents had gone through the experience four times already. The fifth and last time was definitely not going to be a piece of cake, not if she knew Mama. Or Daddy, who was more versed than most about the kind of lowlife that was known to sometimes walk the streets of New York.

“Daddy will probably want to supervise,” she told Marja. “You know how he is.”

Marja sighed, planting herself beside Sasha on the love seat. “Yes, I do, God love ’im.” It wasn’t that she didn’t have the utmost admiration and respect for her parents, and she did love them to death. She just wanted the opportunity to miss them once in a while. And to leave the house occasionally without verbally leaving a detailed itinerary in her wake. Whenever she tried, her father made it a point of telling her that he was asking because, just in case she went missing, they’d know where to start looking for her.

“Girls, they are going missing all the time,” he told her with feeling. “You, we will not have missing. So, where is it you are going?”

Marja knew the dialogue by heart—and wanted to put some distance between it and herself until such time as she could hear it without having it set her teeth on edge.

She glanced from one sister to another, looking for support. It wasn’t as if this was something new, a phase their parents were going through. This was everyday life at the Pulaski residence.

“I just really need some time away from them. A vacation,” she added because it sounded less harsh.

Natalya nodded, feigning sympathy. “Yeah, I know how it is. Hot meals, clean sheets, no rent to worry about, laundry done.” She sighed loudly, shaking her head. “Must be hell.”

“Oh, like you didn’t leave the first chance you got,” Marja reminded her.

“I had to. Sasha was lonely.” She glanced toward her older sister. “Weren’t you, Sasha?”

“I was too busy to be lonely,” Sasha deadpanned.

“It’s not that I’m not appreciative,” Marja persisted. “It’s just that I want them to stop looking at me as if I was their little girl.” The others might not have thought so, but it really was no picnic, being the youngest.

“News flash.” Perched on the arm of the love seat, Tania leaned over and pretended to knock on Marja’s head. “You’ll always be their little girl.”

“We all will,” Sasha interjected. “Even when we’re in our nineties.”

Marja shivered at the very thought. “Well, we need to fix that.”

Sasha curved her hand protectively over her abdomen that was just beginning to swell. “Can’t. It’s a fact of life, Marysia. I’m already beginning to feel extremely protective and the baby’s not even here yet.”

Marja leaned over her older sister’s stomach, cupping her hand to her mouth as she addressed the tiny swell. “Run, kid, run for your life. This is your aunt Marysia speaking. I know what I’m talking about.”

“Idiot.” Sasha laughed, thumping her youngest sister in the head affectionately.

If she didn’t move this along, they’d never get to the reason they were all here. Kady looked at the last arrival. “I thought you said you were coming straight home to fall into bed.” She’d all but had to twist Tania’s arm to get her to agree to this get-together. It was called at the last minute because all five of them were very rarely off at the same time and she wanted everyone’s input.