Free Vaclav & Lena by Haley Tanner

pause,” said Vaclav, rolling his eyes and pointing his remote up at the screen of the big TV and pausing David Copperfield in midair just as he was being lowered from the ceiling of a huge auditorium.
    Rasia eased herself onto the big couch. Then she patted the seat next to her, and Vaclav stood up from the floor, where he had been watching the TV. Vaclav had been sitting about two feet away from the screen, so that he could see up close and be able to guess the secrets behind David Copperfield’s tricks.
    “I met a woman today who has a girl same age as you.” Rasia paused and looked at Vaclav, who raised one eyebrow. Skeptical. Okay , thought Rasia, at least he is not angry. He is interested .
    “This girl, she is coming from Russia when she is a baby, she is having not her mother or her father around for her, and she is very shy.” Vaclav didn’t stop her, so she continued.
    “She does not have many friends, and her English is not so good, so I am hoping that you will have playdate with her, maybe help with English, maybe even make friend.” Vaclav rolled his eyes in disgust, disinterest, and annoyance, all at the same time, and then asked, “What is her name?”
    “Yelena. They call her Lena,” said Rasia.
    “Okay,” said Vaclav. He knew who this girl was, the shy girl from ESL, but she had never spoken to him or to anyone else that he knew of.
    “She is coming Saturday for playdate,” said Rasia. “Maybe for activity, we go to Coney Island.”
    HOW IT WAS FOR LENA

…
    L ena woke up on a Saturday morning and went into the kitchen. Ekaterina, her aunt, was sitting at the kitchen table in her robe, drinking coffee and smoking a cigarette and looking at the newspaper. Even though it was early in the morning, the Aunt had actually just come home from work and had not even gone to sleep yet. The Aunt looked at Lena but didn’t say anything, and Lena didn’t say anything either but reminded herself to be quiet. The Aunt didn’t feel good in the morning; mornings gave her a headache, and she hated when Lena made any sounds.
    Lena looked for things to eat for breakfast, but there was not very much there, not any cereal or any pancake mix or anything like that, and in the refrigerator there was no milk or orange juice or eggs or string cheese. The only thing in the fridge was Slim-Fast, and the only thing in the freezer was vodka, and the only things in the pantry were cans of things that are not really good for eating, especially if you aren’t very good at using a can opener.
    Lena closed the pantry lightly so that it didn’t make any sound at all. She was planning to give up and go back to her room and maybe lie in the bed and try to sleep a little bit more to pass the time. She was waiting for the Aunt to go to bed so that she could take a dollar bill from the Aunt’s purse to go buy a snack from the bodega on the corner, or so that she could drink one of the Slim-Fast cans from the fridge, if there were enough so that the Aunt wouldn’t notice one missing and would not yell at her.
    “Get dress. You are going to your friend’s house,” said Lena’s aunt. Lena was confused, because she didn’t have any friends.
    Lena also felt that she had no choice, because the Aunt told her she was going in a no-questions way, which was the way she said almost everything. So Lena went to her room and put on clothes and shoes, and made sure she was dressed and ready to go to her friend’s house.
    SATURDAY MORNING

…
    V aclav woke up very early, and his mother was already awake, and Vaclav could smell furniture polish and lemons and bleach, and the house smelled like it did on mornings when there was company coming later, or the first time every year that it is nice enough outside to open all the windows and everything feels electric.
    They had made a plan together. Rasia would take Vaclav and Lena to Coney Island on the subway, and they would ride the rides, and then come home and eat some sandwiches for