To Sing Frogs Chapter 32d

Simmons Family in Autumn of 2005

The time had arrived to begin the battle on the other front. I called Stass.

“Yeah. It’s good to hear you too—No, great. The kids are fine—Yeah. Everybody is fine. Amy’s great. She sends her love,” I lied. Amy would have sent her love but she didn’t know I was calling. “Hey, I need some help—Yeah. Remember Sarah and Celeste had siblings there?— Yeah. Older ones, uh huh—Still in orphanages, right—Uh huh. You said either two or three were already adopted and two or three were still there—Right. I need you to find them and get me any details you can—Of course I know it’s not my responsibility. I have enough kids—Right. Uh huh. Just trying to put together a history for the girls—Sure. Keep track of your time and expenses. I’ll take care of it—No, I know you’re not worried about the money. You never are—Right. Okay, then. You think you can have something by next week?—Good. Great. I’ll call you then—Sure—Yeah. You can call me, then. Great—Talk to you later.”

I continued to look out at the woods behind the house. Leaves that had been brilliant only a few days before were now falling rapidly. They wouldn’t last much longer. I’m sure Stass didn’t believe I was without greater intentions. I’d only admit it when I could deny it no longer.

I moved forward in my quest to find the other siblings with determined resentment. I loved the idea of uniting my daughters with others of their bloodline. I loathed that it caused me to forego my selfish dream of removing Marina from the orphanage and endowing her with the gift of a loving family.

Sometimes you do things because you want to and sometimes because you should. It doesn’t mean you have to enjoy what you’re doing.

 

 

“I need to go to the Semicon tradeshow in Tokyo,” I told Amy.

“Sure. I thought it was coming up soon.” I know she had hoped I would skip the annual event and let someone else go like I’d been doing with other travel. It wasn’t like Amy to complain about business trips though. “That’s the end of November?”

“Right. First of December. I’ll be leaving a few days before. There’s some other travel I need to do.”

Amy looked down at her hands. “I know.” The gig was up. She didn’t wonder if I was going to Korea, or Taiwan, or Singapore like I had on so many other transpacific trips. Amy knew I was going to Russia. “Have you talked to Stass and Anya yet?”

“Yeah. A little over a week ago. There were five kids removed from the home before Sarah was born. The youngest two, a boy and a girl, were adopted out already.”

“So two of them are gone.”

“Yeah. It was probably sometime in ’97 or ’98. The boy was about a year old and his name was Vitale. The girl was about three and her name was Maria.”

“What else do you know?”

“Not much. With Russian adoptions being sealed there’s just so little information available. It looks like they might have been going by the father’s last name at that time rather than Oksana’s like Sarah and Celeste did.

“Did they all have the same father?”

“Yeah, right. Oksana’s not fessing up, though. The girl’s middle names are all Anatolievna, just like Sarah and Celeste. Vitale’s was Anatolievich. There are three older girls left. Svetlana, Natalia, and Lydia. They range in ages from fourteen down to eleven.”

“John, I know what we said. I know what we decided. I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t—” Sobs burst from my wife filled the room.

 

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