Free Vaclav & Lena by Haley Tanner Page B

without saying a word to Lena, like “Goodbye” or “Have a good time” or “I love you” or “Be good” or “I don’t care if I ever see you again; I hate you” or “Have a good time on the Cyclone and have fun seeing the ocean for the first time.” The Aunt just turned and left Lena there.
    Rasia noticed that Lena still had tiny bits of sleep-crust in her eyes, and her heart broke a little bit more. She stood in the open doorway, watching, stunned, as the Aunt stomped away, lighting a cigarette as she walked.
    “Do svidaniya,” said Rasia, though Ekaterina was already too far away to hear.
    VACLAV MAKES A GRAND ENTRANCE

…
    “L ena, come inside, is very nice to have you … Take off shoes here, please,” Rasia said, and pointed at the line of her family’s shoes next to the door: her loafers, her husband’s ugly work shoes, and Vaclav’s special new shoes with the lights on the heels and the Velcro everywhere, because in America no one, not even small children, has time to tie his own shoes, and everything must have flashing lights.
    Lena walked over to the line of shoes and stood so that her feet were in line with all the empty shoes. Lena was wearing white canvas sneakers, and without reaching down with her arms at all or changing the positioning of her torso one single bit, she used the toe of her left foot to slip the shoe off her right foot, and then used the toe of her right foot to slip the shoe off her left foot. In this way, she took off her shoes without moving very much, and without taking her eyes off Rasia.
    Vaclav was spying from the hallway and saw what Lena had done, that she had taken off her shoes with the minimum of effort, stepping to the exact place where she wanted the shoes to be so that she did not have to move them once they were off her feet. He smiled a little bit on the inside and came forward to introduce himself.
    “Hello. I am Vaclav. It is nice to meet you. Welcome to my house. Can I get you something to drink?” he said, and tried very hard not to sound rehearsed. Lena just looked down, embarrassed.
    “Okay,” said Vaclav. Vaclav started to feel embarrassed as he went over in his head why Lena maybe didn’t answer him, why she looked down at the floor, embarrassed. He had said, “Nice to meet you,” but, of course, it was not the first time he had ever met Lena, because they had been in school together and were in the same ESL class in kindergarten. Vaclav felt his face grow hot. He became worried, but he saw that Lena’s face looked hot and worried too.
    The three of them, the mother, the young magician, and the tiny girl, stood silently, looking at the floor between them.
    “Does anyone need to use the bathroom before we leave?” said Rasia.
    “No,” said Vaclav. “I already went.” He looked at Lena, but she said nothing.
    “Okay, I pee and then we go,” said Rasia, and she turned and walked to the bathroom, leaving Vaclav and Lena to stare at the floor together.
    CHILDREN UNDER FORTY-FOUR INCHES

…
    A s they walked to the subway station together, Vaclav and his mother made strange efforts at having conversations that would be of interest to Lena, and that were in clear and simple English so that she could listen and feel included, but also in no way required Lena to respond or to answer questions. They talked about how they would be starting first grade at the end of the summer, about shows Vaclav liked on TV, and about how hot it was outside, but Lena did not join in.
    All the way along East Sixteenth Street, onto Avenue U, all the way into the subway station and up the stairs to the platform, Vaclav and his mother did a dance around Lena, trying always to keep Lena between them, but Lena walked slowly, looking only down at the ground, and so Vaclav and his mother kept falling back to keep her between them, to keep up the illusion that they were enjoying the morning together.
    Lena felt unsure of what to do. She had never been out with anyone