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Last week at this time, she was with Mathias’s family. It had been more fun than she had expected it to be. Mandy and Mia were always fun to spend time with, but Mathias had been on his best behavior all day. Well, except at church and then at her apartment when they were fighting … and maybe the after-church sex should not have happened.
All week she thought that she would hear from him, like it had been a date or something. But nothing. By Friday, when she drove out of town, she had slowly given up hope of seeing him. The sex definitely shouldn’t have happened.
But today, she was with her family, and he wouldn’t bring her down. Next to Tess sat her brother, Sergey, who shushed them. Tess looked at him and rolled her eyes. He cracked a smile at her.
Excusing herself, she headed to the bathroom in the basement, needing a break. An hour-long church service sounded pretty appealing right then. Once she was done in the bathroom, she hung out for a little bit in the basement, away from the steady monotone Russian of the priest. She needed to get away from the stifling heat, thankful for her white sundress.
“Terezilya, what are you doing down here?” Ilya asked as she came down the stairs. Her sister was just an older version of Tess, leaving Tess no doubt what she would look like in eight years. Luckily, she would be aging gracefully.
“Going to the restroom,” Tess stated, but she was looking at a picture on the wall across from the restroom, which had its door open, revealing that no one was using it.
“Me too,” Ilya replied, but her tone told Tess her sister thought she should be in the pews upstairs.
Then Ilya went into the nearby restroom.
Tess waited for her sister to leave the bathroom to walk up with her, but when her sister came out, she looked Tess up and down. Tess wondered if her sister didn’t think her dress was church-appropriate.
“What is wrong, Terezilya?” Her sister could always read her moods.
“Nothing,” Tess said but sat down on a bench running along the wall.
Ilya sat next to her. “Talk to me. What is it?”
“I think I am going through menopause,” Tess whispered.
“What?” Her sister sounded as shocked as Tess felt about it.
“The change; the end,” Tess tried to explain.
“I know what it is, Terezilya. I have already gone through it, but you are not old enough.”
“The internet says any time after thirty-five. I am thirty-seven.”
“The internet does not know. I just started going through the change a few years ago, and mama had you at forty-two. Thirty-seven is too young in our family,” Ilya argued, shaking her head.
“But it has stopped.” Tess bit her lip. It had been years since she had talked to her sister about periods, yet it was still just as uncomfortable as when she was in high school.
“Could be another reason. Have you seen a doctor?”
“No, I just started to worry about it. I do not think it is a doctor kind of thing if I am just getting old.” Maybe she should stop in and see Mandy at the clinic one day. Mandy would know; she is a nurse practitioner.
“You are not old enough. See a doctor and make sure it is not…” Ilya stopped dead and stared at Tess, eyes wide.
“Cancer?” Tess said the word her sister couldn’t.
“Do not talk like that, Terezilya. You are fine.” Ilya looked at Tess and asked quietly, “Could you be pregnant?”
“No way,” she replied quickly. Of course, it wasn’t that. Sure, she had sex recently, but she had been on the pill, and they had used a condom. And it was only last week that they relied only on the pill. There was no way she was pregnant.
Ilya hugged her little sister. “Go to a doctor and have them look. Then call me.”
“I will,” she said as her sister got up.
“Come up when you are ready.” Ilya squeezed her hand and went back to the service.
Tess followed soon after, wondering what she was going to do if she had cancer. Who would take care of her when she got really sick? Would she be able to work? The first thing would be to get into the Mayo Clinic in Rochester; it was only an hour from her family. Then she would have to decide about her job, her friends, and her life.
After sliding into the pew next to Tasha, she noticed that her friend was cradling her youngest and trying to get the little girl to sleep. Tess did her best to hold back tears as she wondered whether Natasha’s kids would remember her when she was gone. How would her mom handle burying another child? She had lost four back in Russia, and Tess knew it still bothered her that they were so far away, buried in a cemetery where nobody remembered them. Would that be her?
