To Sing Frogs Chapter 1a

 

Prologue

A Dose of Reality

       “That’s enough, Sarah! Someday you’re going to have to accept the fact that the world is a bad place. Bad things happen. I’m sorry but feelings don’t change reality.” Sarah Katerina already knew there was bad in the world. Actually, she had far more reason to accept that fact than I did. Reality was knocking at the door. The time had come for my daughter to remember—life is more than a fairytale. Tears streamed down her face and her heavily accented voice shook as she continued. “When will I see her again?” “Look, Sarah, you made a good choice when you decided to have a family. You understood when you left that you wouldn’t see your friends again. You knew that.” “No, Papa. We made promises!” “It doesn’t matter! The world doesn’t care about promises. The world is a bad place. There are laws stopping us from keeping those promises. You need to realize, some things are just impossible. You need to be a grown-up, Sarah. Grown-ups understand that some things will never happen no matter how  much they want them to or how long they wait.

 

Chapter 1

The Other Half Is Stone

       They shaved her head. She was a beautiful little girl and they shaved her head! Who could do that?! Why didn’t they just buy the appropriate shampoo, give her some time with a fine-tooth comb, hug her, cuddle her, and treat her like a child? She was magnificent; like a butterfly. She was fragile; like a flower. They forgot all of that and turned her into a number. Just like my adopted daughter’s best friend, Marina, thousands of other children entered the Partizansk Children’s Home over the course of many years. A very few got out with families. Someone should write a book about them. This isn’t that book. This is a true story about oil and water, exquisite and repulsive, compassionate and heartless, even good and evil. It’s a story about a cynic. It’s a story about me. Some people believe that once in a great while, perhaps once in many lifetimes, stars align. Their wise ones speak in hypnotic tones and teach them to be ever aware, to wait and watch for signs that manifest wrinkles in the cosmic fabric of the universe. Such conditions reveal opportunities where anything is possible. Enlightened ones might harness universal power available only at these moments and accomplish much in bringing to pass harmony. Eventually, all things will blend together perfectly, enlightenment will fill the universe and then there will be peace. Hogwash! I’m an engineer. Numbers don’t lie. Somebody told me that once and I took it to the bank. They say that half of who we are is what our ancestors were. The other half is made up from our environment; more correctly, how we react to our surroundings. If that’s true, we might spend our entire life in continuous improvement and change the way we act in various circumstances. We’ll never re-weave our DNA. Half of who we are is pliable. The other half is stone. My wife, Amy, is an enigma. Either her genes came from some obscure place several generations back, or her mother was having an affair. The slime-bag who calls himself her father is a notorious sex felon and the woman who gave birth to her was a prescription drug abuser. It’s hardly a surprise that Amy entered foster care at the age of fifteen. Even though evidence indicates her parents didn’t care about her or what she would become, Amy excels in almost everything she does. I’d call her the perfect wife and then go on and on, but no one likes to listen to someone boast. Let’s just say Amy beat the odds that were stacked against her. Regardless of how my wife turned into who she is, she and I are polar opposites. Everyone knows that opposites attract. Nature doesn’t have a problem with it, why should I? Still, there are significant differences in how we view our environments. Areas where we “agree to disagree,” are some of the universal drivers for many of the conflicts in today’s world.