We returned home for New Year’s Eve. Again, I thought about the tricks of fortune, all the reversals in a period of one year that seemed as long as a lifetime The previous New Year’s Eve I was a miserable, abandoned, hurt, impoverished woman.
Today everything was almost obscenely contrary. I called my son.
“Hi, dear.”
“Hello, Mom.”
“Vova, Mike has proposed to me,” I started right off the bat. “I said yes, but am very scared. Everything, however, can still be canceled.”
“Mom! Come on! That’s great! What are you afraid of? Why cancel? Mike is a good man.”
“How do you know what kind of man he is?”
“I feel it.”
That was true. Vova often “felt” people, especially when he was little. Some people could easily get his trust while others could not, neither for love nor money. When he began talking, sometimes, pointing to some of our guests, which were always in quantity in our home: “This is a good man. And this is a bad woman.” And we also had the opportunity to find out that the kid was always right.
“And even more,” Vova continued, “you are a young woman. You need to have your own life, because if you don’t, you’ll be like many mothers being a royal pain in the neck to their children. In this case, me. Of course, I will try to be a good son, but you know that would not be right.”
I couldn’t but agree with that. Some of my single female friends really could not find a better occupation than to be nuisances to their kids with their advice, illnesses, and problems.
One point for Mike. And an important one.
But I still had my doubts.
“But I’ll have to go to America and leave you here. And little Vanya. Everyone will assume that I’ve betrayed my motherland.”
“Oh, Mom. Why betrayed? Now the whole world opens its borders. People live where it’s best for them, but not always where they were born. And what do you mean, betrayed? You’re not selling the secrets of our country. You haven’t stolen anything or killed anyone. You’re just arranging your personal life.”
Two points for Mike!
“And me, you’re not abandoning me. I am an adult, a married man, capable of solving my own problems. After all, we do not see each other often, and you can call us from there, too.”
Three points for Mike!
“And what if my life will not be good there and it won’t work out?” I protested weakly.
“If it doesn’t work out, you can always come back. This is not the Soviet Union anymore. Now people are free to move around the world.”
Four points for Mike!
“What are you counting there, Mom?”
“Oh nothing! Thank you, dear.”
So Mike won, and my son brought him the victory. That made me happy.