- Mother Mother! - a child's cry breaks through the dream.

Cry. Again.

I startle and slide out of bed.

- Eric, everything is fine ... mom is here ... - I go up to the crib and take him by the handles.

“Put it here,” Andrey’s sleepy voice is heard. Let him sleep with us.

I lay the boy on our bed and sit down next to him, exhausted.

Happy end? Maybe it's in the books. But in real life, after the climactic happy ending, the hardest part is just beginning.

When Andrei and I rushed to find Eric, we had no plan for the future. We thought we'd...