Oksana by Quinn M. Kelley - HTML preview

Chapter X.

I flew into Odessa Central Airport on March 16, 2004. What I vividly recall about the approach is the overview of the Black Sea, old shelled-out buildings, and dark gray skies.

My plane actually landed early in Vienna this time; Oksana's 26th birthday was on March 17th, ergo it was advantageous that I be there in a timely manner. We landed in Odessa at 2 p.m. Oksana was there with Ludmila (the interpreter).

I found a warning ticket in one of my pieces of luggage in Odessa that stated that it had been inspected. However, I did not have anything to declare at customs. I knew the routine.

One customs official asked me, with a thick Russian accent, if I was carrying any cash. I was carrying $600 U.S.D. All that was required was one evening with the interpreter, over a dinner Kroleek (rabbit, in Russian), and she was no longer my paid servant.

The interpreter (Ludmila) claimed that only an $800 birthday gift would suffice, when $600 was all I had. I had nowhere to go to get cash converted to AUH. We went to a bank that evening, and all the Bank-O-Mat did was run $100 cash off my credit card.

The following is what I was able to buy Oksana for her birthday the next day, at the Mafia Market: a $500, brown, full-length, Italian leather coat; a $50 bottle of American perfume; and a $50 pair of black pumps.

I felt hard-pressed to give up all of my Green-Backs. Consequently, Oksana told me that she loved me, in clear English, multiple times. She thanked me several times for her over-priced mafia market apparel.