To Sing Frogs Chapter 11b

Outskirts of Nakhodka, Russia

“Mama Olga” was heartsick. She was also a practical woman. The best she could do now was to find the perfect homes for Luba and Sergei. Anya convinced Olga we were the right choice for Luba. At least she had convinced her to the point where the director decided to check us out herself.

Olga thought it was a nice bonus for the sisters to remain together. Really, though, she wasn’t too concerned about it. Mostly she wanted a princess life for the daughter she couldn’t have.

In reality I think we appeared to have the best shot at raising Olga’s little girl rich and spoiled. I wish I could have been as impressed with Olga’s original intents on handling the sisters’ situation, as she appeared to be enamored with our file.

To this day I haven’t figured out why Mama Olga hadn’t insisted on keeping the quazi-twins together. The only logical explanation is she was just so attached she couldn’t bear to lose them both at once.

Stass and Anya’s presentation of the Mama Olga file shed a lot of light on things we didn’t understand before. So it was no surprise when we received the warning.

“You need to continue helping Olga to feel secure in her decision for Luba to be yours,” Stass said.

“You mean we should make Olga believe Luba will grow up rich and spoiled, thinking she is better than anyone else.”

Anya began to clarify but Stass interrupted. “You catch on fast. Of course, you will raise Luba however you see fit. That’s not important. What’s important is what Olga believes.”

Perception is the only reality. The sales people I work with say it all the time. That wasn’t what surprised me. What set me back a step was how different things were in Russian culture. Stass didn’t say what Olga thought wasn’t important. He said it wasn’t important how we raised Luba. I nodded acquiescence. Amy did the same.

That quieted things. It wasn’t extremely uncomfortable. Stass had simply let us know how we needed to play the game if we intended to be successful. There wasn’t much left to say. We could either follow his counsel or not.

I’m not much of a sweets person so Amy helped Stass and Anya decide on desserts while I drifted away. Since disagreement was out of the question there wasn’t much else to talk about. I sat quietly and observed my surroundings while waiting for the others to finish. The lower halves of walls were painted in aqua marine and there was not an interior or exterior corner left unaccented by elaborate and darkly stained six-inch wide hardwood moldings. The entire door passages were covered with the woodwork. Smoked mirrors covered the upper side of the walls and inadvertently showed everything stored beneath the mammoth all-wood bar. It was an old world presentation in every way and nothing like restaurants or bars in the states.

Perception is the only reality. I had heard the phrase; Russia exuded the principle.

 

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