“Like A Princess” by @shanehollandersfreckles
She’s been told 1,000 times not to go into their bedroom closet. There are “important things” in there. Daddy and Papa’s room was supposed to be strictly off limits when it came to hide-n-seek between 5 year old Natalyia and her 3 year old brother Nikolai. While her younger counterpart didn’t understand this, Natalyia knows because she’s been told several times. Despite the request, she still runs to their room and shuts herself in the closet as Nikolai babbles a rendition of numbers with his blue eyes closed.
Natalyia only ever lets her little brother struggle finding her enough to make it fun for him. Once he starts stomping and tears threaten to run down his adorable, cherub-like face, does she come out and pretend to scare him. She sits in the neatly organized closet and yanks down one of her fathers’ hoodies to cover herself with. Hopefully they’re too busy cleaning up from breakfast to spoil the game.
Minutes pass before Natalyia gets bored in the closet. She starts moving things around, trying to see in the dark what she can use to keep herself busy until Niko has the opportunity to find her. Tucking her long black hair behind her ears, she finds a few boxes. One labeled “Legal Documents”, whatever that meant. Another one labeled “Baby Memories - Natalyia Irina”. She opened it. It had her name on it after all! She found baby photos that must’ve been herself, a lock of her black hair (she gets from her Daddy) in a baggie, hospital bracelets, a paper with tiny footprints, and more. She shut the box and moved to the side to find a similar sized one, only with her brother’s name on it: “Nikolai David”. She found similar items in his box. She picked up the baggie with a lock of his golden curls. She giggled to herself because she remembers him throwing a tantrum getting his first haircut. Her Papa, with identical curls, may have cried more than Niko. Another box sits atop their safe in the corner that catches her eye. The safe, locked with a keypad and a password she will never have access to in a million years, doesn’t catch her attention like the box with Cyrillic lettering does.
She opens the old, water-damaged box. Inside, there are a few pieces of gold jewelry. Bracelets and rings. They are tarnished from years of wearing them. Small notes in neat handwriting. There are small bottle caps with Cyrillic on them she doesn’t understand. Her Papa could translate later when she brings him the box with questions. A few photographs, wrinkled by time, catch her eye. A beautiful, woman with eyes that remind her of both Papa and Niko stare back at her. She has a soft grin on her face. Her golden locks fall across her shoulders, where she has beauty marks across the skin. Another photo beneath it shows the same woman, holding a baby that looks like it could be Niko. He’s swaddled in thick, whoolen blankets. Snow piled behind the pair. The beautiful blonde woman has a toothy-expression, lips wide with a bright smile as she stares down at the baby in her arms. There’s a photo behind a few pieces of jewelry with the woman, the blonde baby, and a boy a little older than Nat herself. He’s holding the woman’s hand. He looks nothing like the woman and the baby. Maybe it’s the baby’s brother. Maybe he looks like the father. Kind of how Nat looks just like Daddy and Niko looks just like Papa. Natalyia is digging around and grasps onto one last photo before she freezes as she hears feet too heavy to be Niko’s get closer to the bedroom. Her tiny fingers grip the photo of a boy, probably a few years older than her, with a head full of blonde curls and a smile with a missing front tooth. He’s adorned in hockey gear and the beautiful woman, as Natalyia has now began referring to her in her mind as ‘The Princess’, is kneeling down her arms tight around the boy.
“Papa will help you, Niko. No tears. Is okey!” Her Papa always caves and helps Nikolai find Natalyia because he starts to feel bad when his son wanders aimlessly looking for his sister…even though it’s part of the game. She starts to shove everything back into the old box as quietly as possible. She knows she’s going to get a time-out if Papa tells Daddy she was in their closet. Plus, she knows asking for ice cream after dinner later will be a hard no after this.
“Where could Natalyia be? Hm, Malysh? Could she be hiding in bathroom?” He’s carrying Niko around because there’s an absence of tiny feet. Maybe she has time to run out and hide somewhere else.
“Potty!” Niko yells. They’re right next to the closet. They’re actually in the master bathroom inside the bedroom itself. Natalyia knows she’s going to be in so much trouble. Even if Papa helps Niko make a pitstop. They’re in the process of potty-training him, which could be of benefit to her right now. Sometimes Niko took forever and then tried playing in the toilet. Natalyia peaked out of the closet to get a look at her chances. Surprisingly, Niko’s pitstop was quick. Because the closet was supposed to be off-limits, Papa didn’t even check. He kept walking out of the room and went back down the hall. Natalyia let out a breath she had been holding and reopened the box to study the photos of the princess she has discovered. She was so distracted that she didn’t hear her Daddy’s footsteps into the bedroom. Nor when he yanked open the closet door and found his daughter sitting in a pile of hoodies she had pulled down and elbow deep in a box that she should not be looking in without permission. She didn’t understand her father’s rules. Neither of them made rules that actually made any sense.
“Natalyia Irina Hollander-Rozanov…what are you doing in our closet?”
“I’m playing hide-n-seek. Duh!” Oh, she was definetly going into time-out now. She looked like Shane Hollander but was all Ilya Rozanov in attitude. Her Daddy crossed his arms with a disappointed look. Her Papa came into the room now, Niko clapping and squealing in his arms.
“I found sissy!!” Niko’s claps and babbles faded as her Papa looked down at her hands. Her tiny fingers gripping the picture she had been last looking at. His Mama. Shane noticed the emotions hardening on his husband’s face and looked down at the picture.
“Nat, out of the closet please. We have told you several times this closet is off limits. We have important stuff in there.” He reached out his hand to her. She huffed and puffed.
“I was just looking at the photos of the princess I found! It’s not my fault Niko is bad at hide-n-seek and I got bored!” She turned to pick up the box. Shane took it from her hands.
“First of all, he’s three, Nat. He isn’t..good at anything yet…okay? He’ll get there. That doesn’t mean you can snoop.” Ilya had still stood frozen with a giggling Niko in his arms. Shane grabbed Niko from his arms and directed Natalyia to go into the living room. He handed Ilya the box with a kiss on his cheek. Ilya had tears on his waterline. He sat on the bed and looked at the photo of “the princess”. His beautiful but so, very sad Mama.
Shane was having a detailed discussion with his five year old daughter about not listening and not snooping. Ilya shoved the box back into the closet, wiped his eyes, and made his way to the living room. Niko reached up and grabbed at his legs when he came in. He scooped him up and looked at his daughter who sat on the couch with her arms crossed. She was in time-out he would assume.
“I just wanted to see more photos of the princess.” Shane looked to Ilya, who still had not said a word.
“Baby, that box is very important to Papa. It’s okay to be curious but you have to ask permission to do things sometimes. Now, what princess are you talking about?”
“The one who was holding the baby that looked like Niko! She had pretty blonde hair and pretty teeth and she had eyes that look like Papa’s!” Shane’s realization hit. He never even looked at the photo for more than a few seconds before reprimanding Natalyia. Ilya smiled for the first time this entire ordeal. It didn’t reach his eyes but it was a smile nonetheless. His daughter thought his Mama was a princess. A few tears spilled down his face.
“Who is she?” She asked.
If y’all want part two, I’ll write it!
