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"No fever," Nikolai murmured with a sigh of relief. Poor Elena looked near to tears. She stroked her son’s back and then allowed Nikolai to pull her into a hug. He said something to her in Russian that had her nodding. When the conversation ended, he told Maks to say goodbye to his mother. The little boy waved to his mom and then held out his arms.
Elena took him and gave him a big hug before handing him back to Nikolai. Maks had settled considerably, but he looked miserable and worn out.
I followed Nikolai out the back door that led directly into the family’s apartment. Nikolai asked Maks if he wanted to try eating something and began offering suggestions. When he landed on something the child seemed interested in, Nikolai turned to me and said, "Can you watch him for a few minutes while I get something ready for him?"
“Of course,” I said.
"Maks, can you go with Jude and watch TV while I make you some lunch?” Nikolai asked.
To my surprise, the little boy held out his arms to me without hesitation. Nikolai handed the child to me and made his way toward the kitchen. I didn't have much experience with kids, but I'd always liked them. I took Maks to the living room and sat down on the couch with him and turned on the television. Maks didn't seem interested in watching it, though. He just lay against my chest and sucked his thumb. I saw some of his marbles sitting on the coffee table. I glanced around the room to see what else I could find and then asked Maks, "You want to see a trick?"
Maks nodded.
With him still in my arms, I stood up and got what I would need from his toys and then went to the coffee table. I sat him on my lap and kept one arm around him as I used the other to create what amounted to nothing more than a seesaw. I put one of his marbles on one side and then found a little toy dump truck that I put on the end of the table. I pointed to the opposite end of the seesaw and said, “Why don't you give that a little tap?”
Maks did as I said and the marble went flying. It landed short of the dump truck, but it didn't matter because the little boy was immediately intrigued and reached for another marble. I got it set up for him again and this time when he made the shot, the marble landed in the bed of the dump truck.
"Okay, you're way too good at this," I said with a smile. "How about we make it a little harder?"
Maks's eyes had brightened a little bit. He nodded.
I kept the child with me as I began to move around the room looking for items that would help me do what I wanted. By the time Nikolai entered the living room, the simple little seesaw launcher had turned into an elaborate obstacle course similar to what I’d set up the day I'd had lunch at the Falkov house.
"Okay, Maks, let her fly," I said. The toddler put the marble at the beginning of the track and let it go. He leaned back against me as we watched the marble make its way around the room on the track I’d created using a variety of items I'd taken from the small space. When the marble ended its run and landed in the dump truck, Maks began clapping. I looked up to see Nikolai watching us both with that same strange smile that I'd seen before. I didn't really get to dwell on it because Maks immediately insisted on going again, so I returned my focus to him.
Maks played with the obstacle course for about ten minutes before he was willing to sit down and eat the food Nikolai had made for him. He only ate about half the soup, but he was considerably calmer when Nikolai settled him on his lap, and it wasn't long before Maks drifted off. I began cleaning up the mess I’d made.
"Where did you learn to do that?" Nikolai asked.
"What? Cleaning up?" I asked with a grin.
Nikolai tipped his head at me. "No, building stuff like this," he said as he motioned around the room.
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, I just started doing it." I sat down on the couch and looked at what I’d built. "It just kind of comes to me, I guess. A lot of the toys that foster families have are just bits and pieces, you know? So it was hard to play with just any one thing the way it was meant to be played with. And as you know, I wasn't a fan of the race cars, so I was always looking for something else to keep busy with. I guess when I built something, it seemed like…"
