This is what I presented to my loving Olechka last Summer with a three foot tall ship I carried on the airplane,
along with a thirty minute movie my staff and I made with all the video and photos from previous trips to Russia. Jet has seen the video. The guys that work for me in my studio had a blast in post production. Now that Olga is here they just love it when Olga cooks those great Russian dishes, when we have to work very late and finish either a settlement documentary or trial presentation. I will warn you its a long one so grab a vodka and I do hope you enjoy.
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Olga who lived in a very small town not to far from the top of the world. She was quite pretty, though she would not let anyone else know that she believed it, when they told her so. And she was intelligent! By night she studied the heavens and the stars, carefully watching their movements across the great sky
As the seasons changed from spring to summer to autumn and then to winter. By day she studied music ,art, literature and poetry, so she could be a productive member of society and teach the children of her kingdom all she had learned. The people of the valley where the small town stood, were regular people with regular hopes and dreams, but life was not so easy there. No one really noticed it was difficult because that was the only life that they knew. They never gave much thought to things being much nicer somewhere else. Olga was different in a way than those around her, she was inquisitive. She knew that there was much more to the world than just what was near the castle and she wanted to learn about the strange people and places that lay beyond her valley. She longed for the adventure that exploration and the unknown would bring. So, over the course of time she prepared as best she could. She read what she could read and studied languages of far off places to try to teach herself to read, write and speak the way people beyond the valley did. As time passed she learned the strangest of these languages, it was spoken by many different people around the world, but all who spoke it, did it so differently! People in two different places would use the same word to describe to completely unrelated objects, and yet for the most part, they could all understand each other. This language used many unusual symbols she had never seen before, only a few even resembled the letters of her own alphabet, and they all had different sounds than what she thought they should. Even so, over time she got very good at writing and understanding it. The speaking part was not so easy because there was nobody around her to speak the language! But Olga persevered, and when she thought she was ready, she sent a message out across the great oceans to see if any of these people from far off lands would write her in return…
In the tropics, near the equator, where it never gets cold and the seas are a mix of emerald green and cobalt blue, lived an adventurous man, self-reliant and intelligent. He had seen most of the western hemisphere and some of the eastern hemisphere in his travels. He had seen the majesty of the tallest mountains to the tranquility of the smallest islands. He had gone through snow drifts twice his height, and rainstorms that blew whole kingdoms away. He had walked with lions and tigers, and fought the big fish of the sea. But he was a calm and gentle man, happy with his life and the small home in the forest by the sea where he now spent his days. He had no reason to be angry or mean, his life had treated him well and brought him much excitement through the years, and he was happy to sit back at the end of a long day and listen to the tree frogs and parrots as they played in the last light of the evenings, just before the sun slipped behind the horizon. One evening late of autumn, as he came back from a long day of legal consulting, he discovered this note:
Hello, My name is Olga, I live in the far north,
This my poem written for my star of hope:
Sometimes the quiet deafens heart-rending cry.
Sometimes the rage is Weaker then butterfly
And the far star is brighter than dazzling sun,
and autumn rain is more then fun.
Sometimes I cherish thought about you,
and gloomy sky becomes light blue.
I write you without much time...
My days have been long
at the great theatre in the center
of my region in the far north…
I came to this world in a small village of here
I don’t remember my father
For he passed on when I was three
My mother had to work hard.
Two grandmothers taught me to cook, to knit,
to sew and gardening,
But I liked to be with my one grandfather
in his garage.
Some creative abilities I took from my mother.
The elder brother of my father taught me to read, to write
before school and to play chess and draughts.
When I was not playing football and pirates with boys.
I spent my time in the library
And was reading and helping librarians.
I graduated from music school and can play the piano.
After school I graduated from pedagogic college.
I was studying part time in academy.
I’ll write about me more if you want it and answer
on all of your questions.
Sorry, my English is not very correct.
With my best wishes, Olga.
He did not understand why, but he seized the moment and replied with a
passionate desire. They started to send messages back and forth across the great ocean almost every day. Olechka told him stories about her valley, its river and the ice and snow that covered the forests and meadows for most of the year. And he, in turn told her stories of the exotic animals that shared his tropical paradise, the sunsets over the water, and the house in the forest not far from the sea. He was starting to understand the voice inside that had urged him to answer Olechka’s letter. There was something special about this woman; he could not quite figure it out. She intrigued him. She sparked his imagination. She made him think about things he had long forgotten. The difficulties and problems of everyday life in the tropics did not seem so important any more, and while his life was a happy one. Everything around him seemed better for some strange reason. The grass was greener, the birds sang more cheerfully, and the smell of morning dew was somehow sweeter. Even though fall was fading and had barely turned to winter, it was as if the season’s were not changing in his new paradise. They laid in bed at night and dreamed fantastic dreams of each other while they slept. Every now and then, if only for a brief moment, they could hear each others voices as if they were standing side by side. As time went on there was almost nothing they didn't share with each other. He told his family of her...and she told hers, of him. Strangers passing by, could see the happiness on each of their faces, as they went about their daily lives.
One day, the two decided they could not wait any longer; impractical as it was -- being separated by two continents and an ocean; and needed to be together even if it was only for a short while. The talked about making the expedition across the sea to her valley. While he knew that he could easily make the journey, it defeated the original purpose of all her hard work learning the new language. So he came up with a plan, which she quickly agreed to: They would each set out from their homelands; He would travel northeast following the constellations in the northern night sky, and she would travel west following the setting sun. They would meet in her king’s city. Meanwhile, she went to the king and asked for permission for him to come to their kingdom. The king told her it was not so simple to just say “yes” or “no”. The king needed details and papers to record this event, “Who is this strange man from across the great sea?” Together the two got everything the king asked for. The king took a long time looking over the papers and reluctantly agreed to let him come to her. Everyone rejoiced at the good news, and the final preparations were made. The only thing left to do was to wait for a day when the winds were favorable, and the two would be together at last.
Despite the beautiful winter in his paradise, there came a day that seemed perfect for the trip, the day was cool and sunny, the skies were dotted with fluffy cumulous clouds. He grabbed his bag, filled with provisions he had collected while waiting for this day, and set a course northeast across the great ocean toward this very cold land in the northern hemisphere where they had chosen to meet. At almost the exact same moment, Olechka, with supplies of her own, started her journey West over the hills and through the frozen meadows. She ventured to the port where she two had agreed to meet. She arrived at the port with much time to spare. She took some time to think as she waited "Would the trip be a safe one?", "Will I know him when I see him?", "Is he really going to be there waiting?", "Will he be in real life, the man I have come to love from all the long letters we wrote?". On and on it went like this for a long time, as soon as she put one question out of her head, she would think of another. This was all so exciting, but frightening at the same time. As she stood there in port, answers eluded her for a time which seemed like eternity. She could barely stand as she battled to stay afloat in her pool of relentless self-doubt. “Would he love me for me?” “Will he see the beauty of the person he has fallen in love with or be disappointed and turn around and head home?”
By now, his journey had reached it's end. It was a smooth and comfortable trip but seemed longer than he had ever taken before. His vessel came into port. She watched it unload, passengers stepping one by one onto this frozen land that she now realized was a different world than where he calls home. One by one they gathered their wits and possessions, and then met up with the one whom distance would no longer play adversary. One by one they laughed and cried. Then another unwelcome thought came to her mind. Could they actually be laughing at her? In fact, one by one they found their match. Everyone. Everyone but the girl in the Bowler hat and the gray fox coat. Would she be the one left by herself? The one left all alone to fend with the harshness of a winter that just earlier seemed all but existent? Fairy tales are fairy tales and life is life. As the distinction began to become evident to her, there he was. There he was! As the port grew nearer, the time to meet the love of his life, the woman he had dreamed about, ensued. There were questions in his mind, "Would I really know her?" And then, like an angel, she appeared! It was her! It had to be her; the girl in the Bowler
hat and the gray fox coat. There is no doubt it is her, I knew she would come, and I would know her as soon as I saw her! Olga smiled a smile that spoke a thousand words as they made their way through the crowd, toward an open area of floor. They stopped right in front of each other, looking deeply into one another's' eyes. They stood there holding each other and passionately kissing for some time, and although there were thousands of
other people around they felt like they were the only two in the whole place.
And now the journey begins…
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