34- Nadina

"There is a spare bed in M’boku’s room. You can sleep there, until I can make other arrangements," Nadina opened the door to the larger bedroom in her flat and waved a hand toward the single bed that sat opposite from the one with the large tent on it. Alexei gave her a quizzical look, and she added, "I sometimes use that bed, when he is feeling insecure."

"No!" M’boku stomped his foot and slammed a tiny fist into Alexei’s right hip. "You can’t go in! Only ’Dina can be on that bed!" Nadina peered at Alexei’s face, watching carefully for his reaction.

"What?" Alexei turned to face him. "Why not? I thought we were friends."

"NO. WE’RE. NOT. FRIENDS!!" M’boku shouted back. "Only ’Dina!"

Nadina bit her lip. It was true that the two of them had never been friends. Alexei had clearly never approved of Mila’s inexplicable infatuation with M’boku, and M’boku had never shown him any kindness– in fact, Nadina couldn’t deny that he had actually been quite cruel to Alexei on several occasions– but she hoped that Alexei could look past all of that, and just think of how greatly this new arrangement would benefit him. M’boku was dormant now, after all. He couldn’t remember any of their interactions from the past. He was just behaving like a normal four-year-old boy. To him, Alexei was someone they had just met, and he wasn’t comfortable enough with him to share a room just yet. Whether or not that changed would depend on Alexei’s actions.

"We’re not friends, huh? Well, I guess not." Alexei glanced around M’boku’s bedroom for a moment. "That’s too bad, though. Because I know everything there is to know about cars and trucks . . . and dinosaurs. I am an expert on dinosaurs."

M’boku calmed down a bit and narrowed his eyes at Alexei, as if he were trying to determine whether or not he was telling the truth.

"That’s right," Nadina verified with a smile, "Alexei is very smart. He knows about a lot of things."

M’boku frowned. "But he has a bad-guy mask."

Alexei raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"He means your eyepatch," Nadina explained. "On television, only the villains wear them."

"Ah. Right." Alexei crouched down to M’boku’s level. "You don’t think it looks cool?"

"No. Not cool."

"I wear it to cover up my scar that I got when I was fighting a bad guy. You want to see it?"

Still unsure what to think, M’boku nodded.

Alexei lifted the patch off of his eye and gave a fake smile. M’boku’s eyes went wide. Nadina was surprised that Alexei would show it to him. She had never seen him without his patch. Mila would never have let him show his scar to anyone. Nadina blinked. It wasn’t pretty, but she had seen much worse before.

"A bad guy did that?" M’boku asked quietly.

"Yeah. I fight bad guys a lot. It’s dangerous work. I guess you could say I’m sort of like a superhero. In fact, Nadina and I have fought some bad guys together before."

M’boku looked up at Nadina. "Really?"

Nadina smiled. "Of course. Alexei is really strong, like I am. We’ve teamed up a few times."

M’boku’s eyes lit up, and Alexei’s smile turned genuine. "Maybe . . . if we were friends . . ." he said as he put his eyepatch back on, ". . . maybe I could teach you a few moves . . ." He glanced at M’boku for a moment, then added, "If I teach you how to fight, maybe you could join our team, and we could fight bad guys together . . . if that’s okay with Nadina?"

Nadina thought about that. If Alexei were careful, and just taught him a few basic moves, it might be a good idea for him to learn how to defend himself. As long as no weapons were involved, Alexei’s hand-to-hand style was simple enough that M’boku should have little difficulty learning it. But would Alexei be careful? Would it be safe enough? More importantly, could he be trusted that much? She narrowed her eyes at him. "You understand that if M’boku is harmed by you in any way, whether it is intentional or not . . ."

"Yes, I understand. You don’t have to worry– I’m not stupid enough to let him get hurt on my watch."

She felt a tiny pair of arms wrap around her thigh. M’boku hugged her tightly and stared up at her with pleading eyes. "Please, can we do it? Pleeease?"

Nadina pretended confusion. "But I thought you said you weren’t friends?"

"We are friends! I want to!"

Alexei grinned triumphantly. Nadina sighed. "Well, since he’s your friend, I suppose it would be alright."

M’boku squealed with delight and dragged Alexei into his bedroom to show him all of his toys. Nadina watched them with mixed feelings.

If this worked out, Alexei would be spending most of every day alone with M’boku while Nadina went out. She would come home in the evenings and spend an hour or so with him before putting him to bed, then she would leave again in the morning before he woke up. She would provide Alexei with instructions for M’boku’s meals, as well as daily lesson plans and curriculum so that there would be no lapse in his education. In exchange, Nadina had agreed to put a generous sum into an account every month. Nadina had managed to set the account up with a very good interest rate, with the stipulation that Alexei would not have access to the money until M’boku left for boarding school– which would be in about one year and four months. At that time, Alexei was free to do whatever he chose with his earnings. Until then, Nadina would pay for meals, clothing, and whatever else Alexei might need for the duration of their arrangement.

He also had a few rules to abide by while he was there. No drinking, no going out at night, and absolutely no gambling of any kind. Alexei had been insulted by that last rule. "I do not have a gambling problem!" he had insisted. "Good," she had replied, "Then it shouldn’t be a problem for you to abstain while you’re with us." He hadn’t had a response for that, and she had moved on to the other details of the arrangement.

Nadina sighed as she watched the two of them playing together. She wished she didn’t have to do this, but she knew that every minute that she spent with him was a risk. How much damage had she already done? She worried about it constantly. How close was he to a premature awakening, just from the time they’d spent together over the past year? Was it already too late? There was no way of knowing at this point, but she hoped that being apart from him every day like this would reduce the risk. It was all she could think to do. She knew M’boku would be upset when he found out that she would be gone most of the time now, but she knew that he would get used to it. It was for his own good.

They had decided to tell M’boku that Nadina was "at work" during the day. Perhaps she really would get a job somewhere in town, just to give her something to do while she was out. She had degrees in business and finance, among other things, so maybe she would do something along those lines.

She also intended to use the extra time to research various boarding schools. She wanted to ensure that he got the best possible education, in the most secure and comfortable environment. He would need his own room, and it would have to be somewhere that would allow students to stay year-round– she didn’t want him forced to live with her during long vacations. The whole point of sending him to a boarding school was to distance herself from him, for his own safety. She would also want to be able to live near the school, so that she could watch over him from a safe distance and be close enough to protect him, should he ever be in any danger while he’s at school. And it would have to be an institution that provided a minimum of twelve years of education, from age five to at least age 16– that had been the age at which he had awakened the last time. It would be difficult just finding a school that would satisfy all of her criteria, and then she was sure it would take some time to get him admission into such a school. The entire process would certainly help to occupy the hours that she would be spending away from home.

She only hoped that she had the willpower to stay away from him every day.