Storiesonline.net ------- LostGirl by JimWar Copyright© 2007 by JimWar ------- Description: They met on line; he was in his late forties, she was seventeen; they lived an ocean apart and both were just going through the motions of living. With all that against them a relationship between them could never work...could it? Except for the IM name, the first few paragraphs of this story are true. My imagination supplied the remainder. (Definitely not a stroke story.) Codes: Mf rom cons ------- ------- Author's Notes This is a story that was inspired a screen name close to the one above on ICQ. I was goofing around looking for someone to converse with and found this girl in Estonia. Parts of the first few paragraphs are close to the truth. The picture was real. The story came to me shortly afterwards and seemed to write itself. It helped me get passed a time when I was having trouble with my writing and for that I am grateful. Thanks to JoeJ for editing this story for content. I admire his work and thank him for taking the time out to give me help when I needed it. Thanks also to JTTbear for his assistance editing the final copy. Any mistakes that remain are my own. By the way all normal restrictions apply. This story is my story and is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without my expressed written permission. It is intended for posting on SOL only for the members of that site to read and enjoy. If you read this on any other site, it was posted without my permission. If you are not 18 or of legal age to read such material then obey the law and don't. I do repeat that this story is fictitious. ------- Chapter 1 Bill looked at the monitor again. The image he was staring at was one of a young girl, 15 to 18 years old, lounging across a pool table. She was dressed in a loose-fitting traffic-light-yellow blouse and dark, colorless slacks. The blouse hid any hint as to the size or shape of her breasts. You could see she was thin and was suggestively posed lying on her side with her head supported by one hand with her elbow on the table. The darkened room and the shadows created by the photographer made it seem as if the pool table, with her as the main course, was the center of the universe. The theme was not unique, and yet, the photograph was unsettling and overpowering. Many early native cultures were afraid of the camera, believing that the photographer could trap their souls within the box. Certainly this photographer had captured the soul of this girl within this one picture. The picture projected an illusion of her hypnotic beauty that seemed to radiate outward from her eyes. She was inarguably beautiful. Describing her was limited by even Bill's larger than average vocabulary. It was easy to list her features. She had an expressive face with a pert slightly upturned nose and moist luscious lips, lips without any trace or need of lip-gloss. Her complexion was both sun-toned and clear of any blemishes, the perfect 'after' image to advertise any of a hundred teen skin products. All of this was topped with long honey-blonde hair that again could have graced any hair care product commercial. Yet, all of that description did not say anything of her special quality. Bill stared at that image for what seemed to be only moments, and yet was over two hours. All that time trying to quantify and qualify that special something. The best he could do was grasp the feeling of peaceful serenity emanating from her eyes. It was as if creation itself shown forth from her brown 'doe-eyes' with enough intensity to pierce the very marrow within his soul. To say Bill was hypnotized would have been a simplification of something he couldn't quite understand. Although everyone says 'a picture is worth a thousand words', this picture begged one question and one question only, "Why aren't you here with me?" Bill had been searching for something or someone and wasn't exactly sure what. Now that he had found something he wasn't at all sure what it was he had found. He had more or less been playing with the 'Contacts' section of ICQ, the place where you can specify age, sex, country and get a list of people on line at the moment. He had toyed with that all morning, using all possible combinations of age, female, and different locations and yet had spoken to no one. Suddenly he found the name "LostGirl" and it stood out and caught his attention. Thinking about it later, he supposed it was the connection he felt to that name, the understanding of what it meant and the relevance of that meaning to his present life that caught his attention. When he found the name he tried to dig deeper, to find a more solid connection. There had been other, more ordinary pictures of her on her detail page but none were as evocative as that picture. In fact most pictures were ordinary and seemed to show a young girl with family and friends. Bill could not even be sure they were friends because there were no titles to the pictures. Most of the people in those pictures, at least those that appeared to be her age, were nondescript, a mixture of both the Goth and geek that was so present in counterculture Old Europe. 'The Picture' had so piqued Bill's interest that he had immediately messaged her. It was obvious from the start that her first language was not English. Bill translated some comments from her info page that he thought were Estonian, because that was her first language listed. The remarks had ended up being Russian, instead. He had asked her about her preferred language and she had replied in English, "I usually talk Russian." Bill's short conversation with her had been puzzling and lasted only about 15 minutes and then she was gone for the day which was actually early evening for her. ------- By choice Bill led a lonely existence. In fact, the people he occasionally met online were his main contacts with the world outside of his home. His life was compartmentalized into a workday of about four hours where he sorted through various financial information related to his investments, and the remainder of the day, which he pretty much spent on the computer, reading or chatting. His business time, as he thought of it, could be anytime during the day but he actually preferred a more structured workday. He had found that without that structure the work sometimes got pushed aside. His workday invariably started at 9 AM after his breakfast and ended when he finished, hardly ever after 1 PM. He always knew when to quit, doing exactly what was required to maximize the return on his time. Life tends to balance itself out. Bill thought back to Wendy, his late wife. He remembered that it was almost a year ago that he had heard her frantic scream from the living room. Thinking the worst, he ran out of the bedroom to find her literally dancing a jig around the room clutching a lotto ticket tightly in her hand. After calming her down, Bill finally got her to tell him that the ticket was a winner. At first he thought she had hit four or five of the six numbers. Wendy could always be counted on to maximize any excitement, as she was not a half-empty kind of person. However, this time the glass was indeed completely full and the six numbers on the ticket were the same as those showing on the TV. The prize was an absurd $35 million, not the largest lotto jackpot he had seen, but considerably larger than the $3 million first-week prize. On top of that, the ticket was the only ticket with those six numbers, meaning the $35 million would not have to be shared. Wendy had quit her job and turned the lump-sum lotto payout over to Bill for investment. Bill had put his MBA to good use and had devoted a small part of each day to managing their investments. One of those investments had been ownership of a local spa and fitness center. With that ownership, Wendy and Bill had both begun to use the facilities. After a few weeks Bill thought that Wendy might have overdone the workouts. She seemed to be constantly tired and her smile and zest for living waned. When Wendy told Bill that she didn't feel like exercising for a whole week, Bill had insisted that she visit their family doctor. Dr. Summers had been encouraging at first, agreeing with Bill's first thought that Wendy had gone overboard on the physical training. Later the news that Wendy had a rare and virulent form of ovarian cancer hit Bill as if he had been run over by an 18-wheeler. Bill felt that the world had played a cruel joke at his expense. Wendy was his lifemate; his first and only love. She had been the rock-steady center of his universe. Her optimism and love of life itself had been the motivation for each accomplishment in his life. After college he had gotten his first job with her love and support. He had prospered and been promoted steadily because of his overriding need to provide for her. Later in life when the promotions slowed, he had gone back to school because of her faith in him. She had provided him with children and together they had both raised them into adulthood. All of his children were well adjusted, loving adults due to her influence. Life had moved on. It had not been joyful. Each day became a struggle just to get out of bed. He blamed himself and his infatuation for the money for not being close enough to her to have spotted the cancer earlier. His doctor seeing that Bill was beyond any normal grieving process had intervened and with the aid of Bill's three children, had insisted Bill get professional grief counseling. It had taken six months but he had come to an uneasy acceptance of his loss. Life had little joy but little by little he found things that he counted as small victories. He had mastered the stock market and managed to lose himself in research and market decisions for those few hours every morning. During that time his mind completely shut out the world around him and he dealt only in abstract trends and numbers. His other solaces were his children and the few friends that he had discovered on line. The friends online were not like his real world friends. Those friends had for the most part become greedy vultures when he and Wendy had first collected their lottery winnings. At first it had seemed that those friends were just happy for Bill and Wendy, but slowly both of them were saddened to realize that most of their friends were searching for ways to profit from Bill and Wendy's good fortune. That had almost taken the optimism out of Wendy. Those friends had almost stopped coming around at all when Wendy was found to have cancer. The pain in Wendy's eyes from that knowledge was almost as bad as the cancer. After her funeral Bill had refused to talk with any of those so called friends. As soon as he had some small control of his own grief he moved out of the area, away from them all. That move had just served to further isolate him from the world. Bill was wrapped up in his morning business dealings and the world on the Internet to the exclusion of most other things. He still read, but even most of those stories were online stories, such as those at SOL. He still worked with his coin collection, but most of those coins were acquired though eBay and not through contact with any coin dealer or other collector. ------- Back in the present Bill tried to put the picture of LostGirl out of his mind, however over and over his mind kept coming back to various images of the circumstances of the picture. He kept ICQ up but she didn't return during the remainder of the day. It really surprised him when he was drawn again and again to the picture on her detail page. He knew from research on Google that Estonia was eight hours ahead of his local time, meaning that at 11 PM, when he finally cut off the computer and went to bed, it was 7 AM the next morning there. During the night Bill struggled with dreams of zombies, phantoms and other esoteric creatures. One dream that he vividly recalled involved a game of Eight-Ball shot on a pool table around LostGirl, who was lying on the table and moved sinuously to allow the shots to proceed undisturbed to the pockets. It wasn't stated, but he sensed in the dream that LostGirl was the wager for whom he and an ethereal opponent competed. He awoke in a sweat at 4 AM before the game concluded. Troubled by the dream and yet finding no meaning in it, he decided to get up, shower and start his day early. He could always take a nap later. After his shower Bill returned to the computer. It was a Saturday morning. He had planned to cut the grass and then clean the pool but thought that, for once, those chores could wait. Grabbing a bowl of Cheerios topped with a chopped up banana he went the computer and settled down at the keyboard to eat and check his email. Almost immediately ICQ booted up and he noted that LostGirl was online. He had figured it was noon for her and he hadn't really expected to find her at her computer. What to say? How to express his feelings without scaring her? "Good Morning," he typed, "I guess it is almost afternoon for you?" There was no immediate response, so Bill ate his cereal as he waited. He noticed that the picture next to LostGirl's name in the ICQ message box was a cartoon representation of the heads of two anime characters, one a boy and the other a girl. The picture had the character's facing each other with tongues extended and the tips touching. Everything considered, it was a very erotic picture. After a few minutes with no response, Bill highlighted the message that he had just typed and went to the English-Russian translation program he had bookmarked the previous day. He pasted the message into the appropriate box of the program and added "In case you prefer Russian to English" in front of the message. Then he pasted the translation back into ICQ and hit send. Still there was no response. Bill waited another five minutes and took his spoon and empty cereal bowl to the kitchen. He thought that maybe he should just leave her alone. She was obviously much younger than him, had probably looked at his detail page and decided that she didn't want to talk with him. Mentally giving up, he returned to the computer and was about to delete the message box when he received a message. "Sorry, I was eating." Then before Bill could type his own response, she added "English is fine." Bill decided to be direct. "We messaged for a few minutes yesterday, then you left and didn't return, I wondered why you left so abruptly." Only a moment elapsed before she typed, "Our Internet is... I'm not sure how to say it in English." Bill responded, "Type it in Russian and I will translate it." The Russian message looked like garbage but after running it through the translation program Bill saw, "Internet is often not working suddenly." He smiled and typed, "That sometimes happens here as well." Bill didn't tell her that with his investments he paid for both cable and DSL connections to insure that he wasn't interrupted. Thinking of the future Bill typed, "Do you have times that you are usually online?" Almost immediately, she responded, "After work and on my days off from work. This week my days off are Saturday and Wednesday." Bill believed in the nosy approach to messaging, asking things he wanted to know even if they are things he would never ask someone in a direct conversation. Most people using nicknames on messaging programs believe those nicknames give them anonymity and thus a sense of security. Because of that they are usually willing to discuss much more intimate details of their lives than they would ever discuss face to face. Bill's next question was, "Where do you work?" He found over the next hour, in broken English and by translating Russian, that she worked as a housekeeper at a large hotel called The Three Sisters in Tallinn, a large seaport city and the capital of Estonia. After she said that his mind pictured someone older than the girl he had viewed in "the picture", but she told him that she was 18 and had just graduating from high school during the past month. Imagining someone who was working part time until the start of college, Bill was surprised to find that she had no plans to attend college. As they slowly communicated, Bill's mind would time and again form a mental picture of her situation... only to have that picture erased by the next question that he asked. Pressing more closely on why an obviously intelligent young woman had decided to forego higher education, he finally heard the story of her family. ------- Chapter 2 The gist of LostGirl's story began with her father, Sergei, an ethnic Russian engineer transferred to Estonia during the Soviet era. Sergei, like most Russians who transferred or otherwise immigrated to Estonia was not welcomed by the Estonians, who resisted what they considered the 'Russification' of their society. Sergei understood this and worked hard to fit in, finally wedding a beautiful young Estonian woman named Kaisa. Rather than help Sergei, this marriage alienated Kaisa from most of her family and friends. The other ethnic Russians eventually accepted Kaisa, but Sergei lost out on opportunities for advancement when he decided to remain with his wife in Estonia. The couple was blessed with two children, Toomas and his younger sister Kristel. The large number of Russians in Estonia required a separate school system as most Russians spoke little Estonian, and many Estonians spoke no Russian. Sergei's friends were surprised Sergei sent Toomas to the Estonian schools. Sergei hoped that this would help Kaisa regain some favor with her family and was disappointed when this didn't happen. In the beginning, Toomas was not accepted by his classmates. Slowly, he found grudging acceptance at school, but became defiant and argumentative with his parents. Because of Toomas' open rebellion and the lack of acceptance that the young couple found from the Estonian side of the family, Kristel was sent to a Russian school to begin her education. Kristel and her brother became quite close in spite of their growing cultural and educational differences. Kristel's initial discomfort in the Russian school was soon replaced with a love of learning. Even though the school had political courses, such as scientific communism, it also offered a wide range and freedom of course material that allowed students to specialize as early as high school. Kristel loved the study of the past; history fascinated her. She researched the history of Estonia and the Baltic region and decided that she wanted to become a historian. Her grades were top drawer, and if her school had ranked students she would have been in the top ten in her class. In 1991 with the break-up of the old Soviet Union, Estonia became a free and democratic country. Even though that break-up was peaceful, it provided no solution for the Russian's living in Estonia. The conditions of the break-up provided only for the soldiers and sailors stationed at bases in Estonia, allowing them to eventually return home. No provisions were made for the engineers, doctors and other professionals who were mainly concentrated in the cities located in the northern part of the country. These Russians who made up nearly 30% of the population had no where to go, so they stayed. Kristel and her brother stayed in their separate schools as things changed around them. By the time her brother graduated the dual systems gave preference to Estonian students for positions at college and at technical schools. Toomas, who had been only an average student, was given a position at a vocational school to become an automobile mechanic. Kristel, with her fascination of Estonian history, was in a tougher situation. The council that ranked Russian students for the few scholarships available gave more weight to science and math, as those technical areas were more in line with the needs of modern Estonia. The council also did not see much future for an ethnic Russian becoming an Estonian historian and so did not offer Kristel even a partial scholarship at any of the state supported universities. Her parents offered to help, but Kristel knew that a four-year university degree was beyond their reduced means. Kristel decided to work instead, and after almost a month searching, her mother was able to secure her present position at The Three Sisters. ------- At that point in her story, LostGirl / Kristel realized that we had been talking for almost five hours. Bill apologized for monopolizing her day off and asked if they could talk later. She told him that she wanted to hear more about his life but had a family obligation for that evening. Bill asked if they could talk after her work some evening and she told him she would be off about 7 PM the next day (which was about 11 AM his time). She told him she would probably eat first and talk to him afterwards. Then she was gone. Bill spent the rest of the day searching the Internet for information about Estonia. He found The Three Sisters Hotel, which was one of only two five-star hotels in Tallinn. The hotel didn't look like a five-star hotel, but the prices 300 - 600 Euros per night sure did. Bill wondered how much of that was paid to housekeepers. He studied everything that Wikipedia and other online sources had on Estonia and found that most of what she had told him was typical of the current situation although most online sources didn't have any information on the current bias against emigrated Russians. They IM'd almost every day for the next several weeks and LostGirl, now Kristel, was adamant that Bill tell her everything about himself as she told him of herself and her world. Bill's world, as it existed, was confined to the computer and to his home. Kristel was as good a listener as she was storyteller. Cautiously, Bill didn't tell her of his Lotto winnings but did relate the loss of his wife. She was sympathetic and gradually drew him out about it and helped as he dealt with his unresolved feelings. Through this Bill found that she was a warm and caring person, very unlike her LostGirl nickname. Their talks became the focal point of each of their days. Kristel passed up opportunities to go out with friends to stay home and talk with Bill who left the management of his investments early to spend additional time with Kristel. Surprisingly they spent almost no time talking on the telephone. Kristel told him that her written English, broken but improving, was much better than her spoken English. Bill knew almost no Russian, and so they communicated with their fingers. The first time they spoke on the phone her voice was very hesitant, almost shaky and yet very feminine. At times, he had to strain to hear what she said. Kristel was unsure of her English and Bill knew even less Russian. There were many awkward pauses, the most awkward was toward the end of one call, when Bill quietly said, "I love you." The pause after that voiced hope was almost painful to Bill. There was no way to move back from having said it and yet as the pause lengthened he was sure that he had spoiled their relationship, sending him into a near panic. Then in almost a whisper, he heard something, something obviously not English. It sounded like "ya lublue tibya" and was followed by the click of her hanging up the phone. Bill struggled to write down what he thought he heard and then nervously Googled it. Google returned, "Did you mean: 'ya lublu tebya.'" He then clicked on the new phrase which returned many entries, the first of which was "'Ya lublu tebya' say the Russians... 'I love you', say the English." His emotions finally broke and he wept with joy. Bill had a million thoughts. He knew she was at work on her break and also knew it would be several hours before he could talk with her online. What would it be like? Would she regret having said it or did she even mean it? Maybe she was just translating what he had told her? Bill just hoped that she would be online today so he could talk to her about it. He was so excited that he just could not sit still, he had to be doing something. On a whim Bill started looking at airline bookings. Bill's passport was several years old, so he dug it out to make sure that it was still valid. Estonia was a part of Europe, but he wasn't sure if entry or exit visas were needed. He found out that they were not for up to three months travel. The round trip flight was expensive at over $6,900 for business class, but money was not really a problem. Bill decided that he would look for a residence when he entered the country, but would book a week or so at The Three Sisters. The only question in his mind was 'Would she want him to come?' The time passed slowly. It was amazing how slowly time passed as Bill watched the clock. Bill decided that he had to do something or go crazy so he put on his suit to go swimming in the pool. That led to the discovery that the pool badly needed a cleaning, which pointed out a need to back flush the system and adding new chemicals. That required a trip to the store to buy pool chemicals, which Bill was in line to buy when he looked at his watch and panicked realizing that Kristel had been off work and home for 20 minutes, probably wondering where he was. Bill ignored the strange looks he received as he walked off, leaving his buggy full of pool chemicals in the line. He was home in ten minutes, luckily not hitting any speed traps, and had his computer up in another two minutes. He smiled when he saw that Kristel was online waiting for him. Although Bill had waited and tried to stay busy, the one thing he had not thought about was what to say to her when he saw her again. Bill wanted to affirm his feelings but at the same time didn't want to scare her off. He felt he had moved pretty fast, maybe too fast for her. He didn't want her to feel smothered and yet on the other hand, didn't want to act as if he had cold feet. Bill decided to play it cool and work the conversation around to their feelings. There were the normal greetings, and then she typed, "Did you say that you loved me or was I dreaming that?" Forgetting caution, without any hesitation, Bill typed, "Yes, I said that. It was a spontaneous thought; from my heart, not something I had planned to say." "So you did not mean it?" she typed. This was going badly; she could not grasp what he meant. Bill decided to explain himself more clearly and to keep things simple. "Yes, of course I meant it and I still mean it. It was just that I was afraid after I said it that it was too soon to say it. I was afraid that you would push me away because you would think it was too early for me to feel that way." Time passed slowly as he waited for her reply. The problem that they were having and would have to eventually come to terms with was that everything they thought and communicated had to be translated, which took time. A lot of times this translation caused misunderstanding or incompletely understanding of what they were trying to say. Hell, if she couldn't even tell him about her bad Internet connection without resorting to Russian, how were they going to discuss their love and relationship? Bill was at a further disadvantage in that Kristel did most of the translating, other than what he could put into the translation program. Thinking about that prompted Bill to make a note to see if the universal translator had been invented yet and smiled at the idea. She typed, "I think I know what you are saying. We have a proverb that the best and worst things both come into our lives quickly. I felt the same feelings but I was afraid to voice them." Bill needed reassurance that she actually did say she loved him and so asked, "So you did say that you loved me, or did I not understand what you said?" After a rather lengthy pause her answer appeared, "I did say it, and it was truly the way I felt. Yet we live so far apart there is little chance that we will ever meet. This 'love' can only bring us frustration and heartbreak. Do you understand?" Bill was feeling almost giddy after seeing those words. He realized that she thought the problem was one of distance, a problem he could solve. He also knew the bigger problem was one of cultural differences and understanding. Online they could think before they typed their answers, what would happen when they were together, trying to communicate? Would it be so frustrating that they would grow angry with one another? Those were the really hard questions that Bill knew were still to come. Yet he could answer her concern about them being far apart. He could simply get her to help him pick a time and then he could just go. Hell, he could leave next week for that matter. "Kristel I love you and you love me. The rest of your concerns we can work out. I can fly to Tallinn next week and meet you. I can stay there for a while until we can get to know one another better. Then we can decide what we want to do. Would you like that?" Again it took a long wait for a reply. The long wait made Bill think that she was having a hard time reaching a decision. He was thinking that it would be no better on the phone except that he would probably have to repeat his words to help her translate. Bill mentally calmed himself. Kristel's reply was startling in its brevity. "Yes, Yes, Yes, Will it be your holiday when you come? How soon can you come? How long can you stay?" Relieved, Bill smiled and quickly typed, "I work for myself and so I can take a holiday any time I like. I can come next week. There is a flight leaving next Tuesday but with the eight hour time change it takes almost a day of travel to get there. I would get there next Wednesday. Does your hotel have rooms available? I can stay as long as we need to get to know each other. There will be plenty of time." Quicker than before, she typed back, "You will not stay in hotel, you will stay with me. My family has extra room now that my brother has moved out. Hotels are expensive, for rich tourist and businessmen. You are my love, you will stay with me." On the one hand this made Bill feel warm and cared-for, but the downside was that they would be under the watchful eye of her parents. Although she had pledged her love, Bill wasn't certain that her parents would be so welcome of his attentions. He thought about how he would have felt if she had been his daughter and was strangely sympathetic to their point of view. Bill typed in his response, "Do you think that is wise? I am afraid that your family will think that I am much too old for you. I am also thinking that in your parent's house we will have very little time to be alone together." This time the wait was longer as she pondered what he was saying and also hopefully what he was implying. Even though Bill realized that he would have to be very lucky for her to catch his meaning, she finally typed, "It will be better if you stay with me, at least for a short while. That will give my parents chance to know you and to become friendly with you. Older man and younger girl is more common here I think. It takes a long time for man to be able to provide for woman. You understand? Also, we will find time and place to make love, so don't be troubled." Bill saw that they certainly didn't seem to have the same perspective about what was to happen. He realized that he had to trust that her understanding of her society and parents would prove correct. The thing that blew him away was her last sentence, 'we will find time and place to make love.' Did make love mean the same thing there, or did it mean something entirely more innocent? Her answers sometimes raised more questions than they answered. Bill thought about it and typed, "Perhaps your parents would rent me the room for part of my stay. I am afraid that for me to stay too long would be unfair and costly for your parents. I hope that when our love grows stronger, you will come and visit with me here as well. When we have both lived in each other's country for a while, we can decide where we want to live together?" They talked a while longer about the trip, what he should bring, types of clothes he needed for the late summer in Estonia and what could be more easily bought there. Bill promised to make the reservations and give her his arrival time and flight number tomorrow. He could sense she was as excited about he was. In the end they had talked for over six hours and by then it was past time for her to be asleep. Bill was so keyed up that he was surprised when his stomach started rumbling. He looked at his watch and it was only 4:30 in the afternoon, but then he remembered that he had not eaten since breakfast. Hey, maybe there was a book in that, The Online Romance Diet. Bill had almost 18 hours before he could talk to her again and had a lot to do. After a sandwich Bill searched, found and purchased tickets for the following Tuesday, five days away. He made a note to call his broker and leave sell orders for all his positions in his stocks, in case something drastic happened to the market while he was away. Really, there was very little to occupy the five days, but he didn't want to leave anything until later. He started making a list and added a lawn service, a pool service and maid service to keep his house in shape while he was gone. Bill had the list of clothing that they had discussed and that meant a shopping trip as all of his clothes were well worn and looked to be relics from the past decade's fashions. He also needed to visit his bank and discuss the best way to handle cash during the trip. He knew from his coin collecting that Estonia didn't use the Euro and wasn't sure about the availability of ATMs there. Bill decided that he would call his children tomorrow and let them know what he was going to do. That would certainly be a shock and he could hear their voices now trying to talk him out of it. For that reason he decided against telling them the real reason for the trip. No use opening that can of worms until he was sure things were going to work out. Maybe (most likely) it would end up being infatuation instead of love. All Bill knew at the moment was that he felt more alive than even the moment he realized that they had won the lottery. The next few days were really hectic. Bill found things to do and rather than sitting around bored, was kept busy planning and getting ready for the trip. He found some excellent translation devices for Russian but not for Estonian. The one he bought fit into his shirt pocket and had an ear bud that he could plug in his ear and would translate spoken Russian into English. Bill tried it out on the phone with Kristel and it was slow but it did work. It would also work in reverse so she could use it here when she came to this country. The cost was over $1,500 but Bill considered it money well spent. In his excitement, Bill almost forgot to get a three-month supply of his daily medications for high cholesterol. Luckily he remembered at the last minute. On the day before he left he took time to go through everything and try to think of anything that he might have forgotten. Finally Bill boarded the flight after the security check and was on his way. ------- Chapter 3 The flight to Estonia was long and mercifully uneventful. Normally Bill slept like a baby on even short flights but this time he was too keyed up thinking about what awaited him in Estonia. He was almost exhausted by the time of the final leg of the flight, the one from Amsterdam to Tallinn. He had to make a connection at Amsterdam and was not amused that his arriving flight deplaned at the very last station on one long concourse and that his departing flight was departing from another end station at the end of a different but equally long concourse. The clincher was that he only had 35 minutes to travel the distance and make the connection. Bill thought there must be a law, call it Bill's Law of Travel, stating that the time available to make a connecting flight is inversely proportional to the distance between connections. He got to the boarding station just in time to hear last call for boarding. It was about 9 A.M. local time when his flight jetted off from Amsterdam. Tallinn's Ulemiste Airport was small by international standards but seemed fairly modern. Even though the airport was diminutive, the lines were short and the wait for customs was minimal. As Bill stepped out of the customs room, he turned around to get his bearings and had just figured out where to find those usually waiting for arrivals when he felt a tentative tap on his shoulder. He turned around expecting to see one of his fellow passengers and saw instead Kristel standing there shyly smiling at him. Bill had seen her pictures, he had even seen her on web cam and he knew she was beautiful... but the reality of her presence rendered him speechless. Bill had never been comfortable around beautiful women. It was like he wasn't supposed to be there. It was as if he reverted back into the shy high school nerd of 25 years past and again became a fumbling tongue-tied blob of Jell-O. On some subconscious level he knew that his staring at Kristel must make her uncomfortable, but he was also powerless to take action even to say hello. Then he noticed her obvious discomfort. Could it be she was regretting his coming? She reddened, as his stares grew longer. Finally, she broke the ice by stating the obvious, "You came, I very happy." That was all it took. Bill threw down his coat and small bag and swept her up into his arms hugging her tightly to his body. He whispered into her ear, "Your beauty just overwhelmed me, I am so very happy to see you too." Her hair smelled of flowers and her neck had the teasing aroma of a delicate jasmine scented perfume. She was wearing tight black jeans and a pink and white wide-striped sweater blouse that perfectly matched the ski cap perched jauntily on the back of her head. As Bill hugged her he could feel her hardened nipples pressing into his chest and immediately knew she was not wearing a bra. Somehow her doing that for him swept away the last of his uncomfortable feelings and he knew that this was his Kristel, the woman he deeply loved and who from the kisses, from her warm greeting and even from the way she dressed and smelled also loved him. He knew that he was one hell of a lucky man. More sure of himself, he simply stated, "I need to claim my bags and then we can go. I packed light, as you suggested, so there are only two small bags." She led him to the baggage carousel where his bags were already sitting and Bill unlatched the handles and wheeled them behind him as they walked towards the front of the terminal. "How did you get here?" he asked. "I drove papa's wagon. It is old, but has room for your bags." "You are smart and practical as well as beautiful." Kristel again reddened at the complement. The drive from the airport into the city was short only about 4 kilometers and the traffic seemed to flow nicely. Kristel was an excellent driver, something Bill would never have expected from one so young. They skirted Old Town and drove until Bill was sure they must be in the country again. Finally the car slowed and then pulled into the driveway next to an older looking two-story residence. Kristel looked at Bill and smiled. The small yard was bright and cheerful with miniature flower beds brimming with tall plants and bushes, none of which appeared to be in bloom. Inside, the house appeared small by American standards, but Bill noticed an upright piano with what looked to be a guitar case leaning against it in the living room. No one else was home. Kristel explained that both her parents were at work and that although they had wanted to be here for his arrival, they had not been able to arrange time off. Bill stopped inside the house to look around but could tell Kristel seemed impatient. She grabbed one of his bags and with a quick motion for him to follow her, began to haul the bag up the short stairway to the second level of the small house. The second floor was primarily bedrooms and a small catchall room. Kristel opened the door to a small bedroom at the end of the hall and explained that this was the guest bedroom where he would be staying. She sat his bag down next to an old looking highboy at the foot of the bed and opened the drawers to show him they were empty. She sat on the bed with her hands flat on the bed on either side of her and looked up at Bill, seemingly unsure of what he would do next. Bill sat his bag down next to the other and nervously sat on the bed next to her. His hand soon found hers and as he lifted it off of the bed she surprised him by moving quickly to sit on his lap. Bill might have been more aggressive at that point but his jet lag seemed to have finally caught up with him so instead he sat quietly and lovingly held her on his lap, content to let her move things forward at her own pace. Sitting on his lap put Kristel's brown doe-eyes almost perfectly in line with his own and although Bill was afraid that he might put her off with his staring, he was powerless to do otherwise. He was almost hypnotized as he gazed deeply into what great writers had called 'the windows of the soul'. Those same great writers had spent countless words on this subject, words that until that moment Bill had never fully understood. This one look and Bill was lost in those warm liquid, limpid pools of brown. So entranced was he that World War III could have broken out and he would neither have cared nor moved. He was sublimely content. He was at home; in his own very special Garden of Eden. The surprising thing about this was that his staring didn't seem to bother Kristel. She seemed to be content to sit there, on his lap, letting him feast upon the richness of her soul. Bill wasn't sure how long they sat there. For the first time in a very long while he was truly happy, centered in the one place, the one exact spot in his world where nothing else seemed to matter. Bill didn't want to move or cause this to end but he knew that eventually it must. Looking into Kristel's eyes was similar to the anticipation he had known as a young boy, lying in bed on Christmas Eve, thinking about the morrow and the treasures that would be under the tree. Such anticipation always heightened his joy, and sometimes when it was unfulfilled created its own sadness, but it was always a special pleasure all by itself. One of the things Bill had learned as he grew older was to not rush blindly past those times of anticipation but to stop and wait for the treasure that each of those moments had to offer. Eventually the looking had to end. When it ended, it ended with a kiss. No not a kiss, but 'The Kiss'. Normally a kiss has a kisser and one kissed and we all know where we are during that process. 'The Kiss' was somehow different. Bill and Kristel's lips seemed to touch as if of their own volition. They had kissed in the airport but that seemed not to have been of consequence. 'The Kiss' started out for Bill with the feeling of Kristel's lips, her full wet warm erotic lips, gently pressed against his. Each pair of lips was conforming to the others and yet undemanding. 'The Kiss' was leisurely, exploratory and unhurried. Not exploratory as in Bill's tongue trying to find the bottom of her throat, but exploratory in that their lips were tentatively divining the limits of their mutual pleasure. 'The Kiss' was a tactile delight such as one rarely encounters above the neck. That was not to say that the pleasures generated by 'The Kiss' were limited, because Bill felt them throughout his body, stimulating him to even greater levels of feeling. 'The Kiss' lingered and each could feel the others lips almost pulsing with fire. 'The Kiss' was so hot that both were feverishly branded by their passionate desires. The flavor of Kristel's lipstick was indescribable but Bill knew that forevermore it would be his favorite flavor. That was all external and suddenly there was something new as Kristel's tongue was gently caressing the inner surfaces of Bill's lips. Bill's heart was pounding almost as if she was knocking at the very door to his soul. It was a teasing touch in that as he parted his lips to admit her further she withdrew almost as if she was the child who would ring your doorbell and then run away. The sense of loss as her tongue moved away was so great that Bill pressed his tongue lightly at the juncture of her closed lips to gain another taste. When Kristel opened her lips she opened them only slightly and when his tongue entered she closed her lips softly trapping his tongue in a warm, wet embrace. Bill was so delighted that he felt cold beads of sweat break-out across his brow. He felt like he had as a boy with his first woman as he had realized that he was involved in something that was way beyond his experience. Bill wondered how Kristel, how any woman at such a young age, could captivate a grown man so completely? Usually when a man and woman sat on a bed and kissed with such passion things would soon move beyond kissing to other more intimate caresses. 'The Kiss' could have been such a springboard but Bill felt inadequate at the moment to fully explore these other areas. If this was just a kiss, what did he know that he could ever hope to teach her? Part of the confidence that Bill had felt, rested in him being the more accomplished lover and yet he had never had a kiss leave him so weak in the knees that he knew that he could not even stand up. Towards the end of 'The Kiss' Bill's feelings of inadequacy began to surface and he felt almost suffocated by the dread feeling that Kristel was far too special to really care for someone as commonplace as he. Desperation twisted his gut as he realized that she may soon tire of him and then move on to find a lover who was more her equal. 'The Kiss' ended for Bill with that note of dread and also with it a feeling of exhaustion. Bill was surprised when he saw that Kristel seemed to suffer from the same concerns. In the aftermath Kristel immediately wrapped her arms around Bill, as if she needed reassurance from the physical contact. She then pulled Bill into an almost desperate hug and began to repeat something in either Russian or Estonian. At first he didn't understand and then Bill smiled as he recognized the words again, "ya lublu tebya, ya lublu tebya, ya lublu tebya." Bill began to softly cry in happiness as the words were repeated over and over in his ear as if she needed to get that message across to him. Bill's lips at her ear, began to mimic the phrase alternating the words with the English, 'I love you, Kristel.' This was the true and proper ending to 'The Kiss.' It was a place where both Bill and Kristel took joy from simply being together and also in finding pleasure in the promise that there was more to come. 'The Kiss' was not an end but a beginning. It was sufficient for the moment and they could take comfort that in that moment. It was as if they had pledged their lives, wrote their vows, and were now one. The remainder of the afternoon was spent talking and learning of one another. Kristel was fascinated by Bill's translator and enjoyed teasing him about it. She would repeat a Russian word or phrase that for some reason the translator couldn't translate and would then laugh and say that it was just a silly toy and knew nothing of her language. Bill was really frustrated, after all he had paid big bucks for the translator and it had worked very well on the phone earlier. After five or six such incidents, Bill was about to chalk the translator up as a bad investment, when he saw a twinkle in her eye that let him know something just wasn't right. Bill finally pretended disgust with the device and made a big production of tossing it into the wastebasket, telling Kristel that maybe the garbage man could get it to work. He then acted upset and finally let slip what he had paid for the 'silly toy'. As she mentally translated the $1,500 into the 20,000 Kroons of her own country her eyes grew as big as saucers and then started to tear up. She then got down on her knees by the wastebasket and almost reverently retrieved the 'silly toy' and handed it back to Bill. She then began to profusely apologize, while crying for his forgiveness. She had been using slang and vulgar local expressions that she knew would not be in any official lexicon to fool the device. Bill had guessed something of the sort and had reacted to get her back with some teasing of his own, but had not anticipated her tearful reaction. Bill felt miserable for causing her tears and instead of teasing her pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly. He told her that her teasing was very funny and surely nothing to cry about. She seemed to be thinking of something else as she looked up at Bill, pointed to the translator and said, "You do that for me?" Then she hugged him even tighter as if she would never let him go. That was but one example of how appreciative Kristel was toward any demonstration of love or kindness. Later, they argued about the value of the 'silly toy.' Bill finally was able to convince her that it was a tool that could be worth many times what he paid for it if it helped him to better fit into her life. Like most Europeans, Kristel couldn't understand why Bill, like most American's, spoke only one language. He explained that he had never had a need in the past to learn another language and although he was going to learn her language, he had bought the translator because he didn't want to wait to fit in to her life. Her eyes widened like a child's first glimpse of Christmas morning when Bill told her of his hope that she would be able to use the device one day when she went back to visit his home and his family in America. As the afternoon wore on she told Bill that her family was preparing a special welcome meal. Her brother, Toomas was coming home from his dormitory at the technical school and her mother, Kaisa, was going to fix a traditional Estonian meal in Bill's honor. Kristel explained that her father, Sergei, spoke good English as he used it in his job and, Toomas, like most young Estonians, spoke fairly good English as well, but her mother knew almost no English. This had evidently been the topic of recent discussions around the dinner table and as a result both Sergei and Kristel had been helping her mother learn some basic English words and phrases. Bill felt honored that her mother would go to such trouble for someone she had never met and only knew of through her daughter. Kristel also explained that since both her father and mother worked and the dinner took quite a bit of preparation, the dinner itself would be quite late, about 8 in the evening. Toomas was the first to arrive home and greeted Kristel with a warm embrace. He was a bear of a young man, over six feet tall, with almost overly broad shoulders, dark hair and rugged good looks. He looked Bill up and down as if inspecting a defective motorcar and finally extended his hand in a rather lukewarm greeting. Bill, Kristel and Toomas sat in the living room trading small talk while waiting for the parents to arrive. Kaisa arrived next carrying bundles of packages from the grocers. She almost seemed to be an older version of Kristel with the same doe eyes with almost the same twinkle. She was warm in her greetings and very formally said "Velcome to our home." Bill tried to grasp her hand when it was extended but Kaisa would have none of that and hugged him as if he was her long-lost son returning at last from the war. Determined that she wasn't going to use up all of her hard-learned English phrases at one meeting she almost bolted towards the kitchen pulling Kristel behind her. Her lack of English was more than made up for by the rapid fire Russian or Estonian that she gave Kristel as they disappeared. Bill later learned that the talk was of him and the happenings of the afternoon. Toomas and Bill continued their small talk as Bill tried to find some common interest to win over Krisel's brother. Bill found that Toomas was well-versed on world affairs, had almost no interest in sports outside of futbol, and shared a common interest in classical music and American Jazz. Toomas also loved traditional Estonian and Russian folk music and played the piano. Bill thought they had found common ground when Toomas promised to take him to several jazz clubs in Tallinn on the weekends. About the time Bill and Toomas were deep in a discussion about great and not-so-great Jazz pianists, Sergei arrived home. Sergei was also a large man, although not nearly the size of his son. Age had not diminished his size nor his remarkable energy. He had dark hair that had begun to grey somewhat around the temples, small piercing brown eyes, and a bushy mustache that was almost matched in appearance by his eyebrows. The combination of the small eyes and the bushy eyebrows gave him an almost caricature-like appearance. He was warm and empathetic, and had the same certain twinkle in his eyes as Kristel. They had almost no chance to talk before Kristel came out and announced that it was time for dinner. Seating at the dinner table was a bit odd. They had set Bill's place at the end of the table opposite Sergei with Kristel to Bill's right across from Toomas. Kaisa was not even seated at the table, at least in the beginning, as she was ferrying in large serving dishes from the kitchen. The meal was different than Bill expected, but then he had no real idea what to expect. The first item served was Leib or black bread which Bill later found was a staple at almost every meal. Sergei made a big thing of breaking the bread, almost as if it was a religious sacrament. After breaking the bread, but before passing it Sergei intoned, "Jatku leiba" which Kristel translated as 'May your bread last.' Bill recognized some of the rest of the meal. One item consisted of what looked to be a Salisbury steak, but they called Kotlet. Another item, which appeared to be new potatoes was full of strange spices and tasted like no potatoes Bill had ever eaten. Added to this were small side dishes that Bill sampled and for the most part enjoyed although he thought pickled pumpkin would take a bit to get used to. One item he did not fancy was Verivorst, a blood sausage with a very bitter taste. He noticed that neither Kristel nor Toomas ate any of the sausage. At the end of the meal, Kaisa went back into the kitchen and brought out a tray of small cakes and pastries. Kristel took a small piece of bread that looked to be sprinkled with nuts and raisins while Bill took a small pastry that looked like a cupcake. Both were very good as Kristel insisted that Bill share her desert as well. During the meal conversation passed from one of us men to the other. Bill noticed that both Kaisa and Kristel were very quiet during the meal. When the conversation lagged he noticed that Kaisa would give Sergei or Toomas a look as if she expected them to move the conversation along. The meal was not as an American meet-the-family meal would have been in that Bill was not the main subject of the conversation. Bill was politely asked about his flight and about what he thought of the weather and other innocuous things but happily nothing about why an old man such as he would want to molest their innocent daughter. He learned during that evening that Kristel's family respected her decisions and with the exception of Toomas' wary greeting, her family was cordial and treated him as if he was already family. Bill suspected that this was brought on by the close knit and unusual makeup of the family and was not normal for either Estonian or Russian society. After the meal they retired to the living room or lounge as they called it. Bill was offered a glass of brandy, which he declined in deference to his extended travel day. He then was delighted to learn that the guitar case was Kristel's and that Kaisa could be very persuasive as she encouraged both Toomas and Kristel to play something. The group settled back as Kristel and Toomas took a few minutes preparation. Kristel then came over and sat on Bill's knee before beginning to play. The song's melody was beautiful and Bill later found out that it was Toomas' jazz arrangement of a popular Estonian folk piece. After that song ended, Kristel sat the guitar down, turned to Bill, staring deeply into his eyes and began softly singing to him in Estonian. At first Bill heard Toomas' accompaniment but then was again lost in Kristel's eyes and immediately felt as if they were the only two people in the room. As the song ended he gradually woke to reality and became aware of the others in the room. Kristel, sensing his feelings, chose that moment to throw her arms around him and give him 'The Kiss - Version 2'. Bill again lost conscious knowledge of his whereabouts and after it ended looked up to see Sergei and Kaisa beaming at one another. Toomas also winked at Bill as he rose from the piano. It was the end of a very long day for Bill, but he was at the point that he hated to see it end so soon. Toomas had to get back to the dormitory and everyone was aware that Bill had been up for over 24 hours and so the festivities ended. Bill received warm embraces from all three family members before Kristel took his hand and led him up the stairs to his room. Kristel seemed to sense his weariness and so left him to change for bed after a quick hug and kiss. Normally, Bill slept nude but had bought pajamas for the trip and decided to wear the bottoms to bed. He quickly changed and climbed in bed and as soon as his head hit the pillow was asleep. The bed felt very good and after a moment Bill was asleep. Almost immediately he felt a warm body snuggled up beside him. Bill was used to sleeping alone so the arm across his chest and the soft breasts pressed into his back were enough to wake him. Bill had no idea what time it was other than the fact that there seemed to be no light coming through the window. He was still tired and so he smiled and tried to go back to sleep. Sleep was slow coming this time with Kristel so close. His cock began to stir but his jet lag soon overcame even that impediment and he drifted back off to sleep. ------- Chapter 4 Bill awoke refreshed and smiling as if from some forgotten erotic dream. He used to think it strange that he could vaguely remember dreams but could not recall them once he awoke, but after research found that it was not an unusual phenomenon. Bill then remembered Kristel snuggling next to him in the night, but couldn't find her next to him. He then rolled over and discovered that he was alone in his bed. At that moment he heard the toilet flush down the hall and voices in the hallway. As it was now light out, Bill moved to the edge of the bed and looked for his pajama top. He vaguely remembered laying it out on the chest at the foot of the bed the night before. Fumbling around in the strange room he found the top, now lying on the floor beside the chest. Dressing he made his way into the hallway to find a fully dressed Sergei talking with Kristel who was wearing both a robe and slippers. The conversation stopped when he entered the hallway and he had a feeling that he might have been the subject of their discussion. Both Sergei and Kristel smiled warmly as Bill approached and Sergei quietly said, "I hope you slept well Bill. I was just telling Kristel that she should not disturb you this morning as you must still be tired from your flight." Bill wasn't sure whether Sergei knew Kristel had slept with him the night before and wanted to talk with Kristel before he said anything so he smiled back and replied, "I slept fine and feel well rested this morning." Sergei then said, "Well I have to go into the office. Kaisa also has to go to work later today. She is still resting. Kristel has taken the rest of the week off so she will be able to show you around. I think she has planned to cook you breakfast. I will get out of the way now and let you two enjoy each other." With that Sergei gave Kristel a kiss on the cheek and made his way down the stairs and out of the house. Kristel turned to Bill and frowned as he said, "You don't have to make me breakfast. I usually don't eat much in the morning anyway. Something hot to drink would be nice though but before that I must get to the bathroom." Saying that he kissed her and went down the hallway to the bathroom where he quickly finished his business and took a few moments to shave and wash his face. Bill had intended to shower but decided to put it off hoping he could lure Kristel back to bed, however when he finished Kristel wasn't upstairs so he decided to take his shower and dress for the day. The tub was an antique claw-foot design and there was no shower curtain. The only shower was a flexible hand-held tube with a spray-head that fed off of the main tub faucet and so taking a shower took longer than normal. At least the water was plentiful and hot. He dressed quickly and made his way down the stairs to the kitchen. Kristel was cooking away at what almost looked to be a commercial stove. She looked very serious about what she was doing, so Bill sat down at the small wooden table in a corner of the kitchen. He was hoping that all the food he saw cooked wasn't for him. He exercised regularly but had found the best way to fight the middle-age spread was to limit his foods intake. Seeing her frown when he mentioned not eating he figured the best course of action would be to eat whatever she put before him and complement her highly on her culinary skills. Bill found out later that Kristel had not only cooked breakfast but had spent time in the kitchen of the restaurant attached to the hotel where she worked to find out what Americans might like. She had cooked him at least five or six large eggs, a half-slab of thick cut bacon, something that looked like oatmeal but he later learned was made from barley, and toast made from the same delicious black bread that he had had with the evening meal. To go with all that there was margarine and some type of dark-brown apple butter. If her entire family had been here, it would have been plenty, but it was way too much for just Bill and Kristel. He ate all that he could and then looked up at her standing over him like his mom used to do. He told her how wonderful it all was and she practically beamed. Bill had been thinking while she cooked about the tremendous effort she had undertaken for such a simple task. Not only had she done an excellent job of cooking the food, but she had gone to considerable effort to find out what he would most likely enjoy. She then bought the items like bacon and cream of barley (who told her Americans eat that?) and then she learned to prepare them correctly. All this done for him, to make sure he felt at home in her country and in her home. Bill felt overwhelmed by her love and consideration. Afterwards Bill insisted that he at least help her clean up the kitchen. He had also noted that she had not eaten and tried to get her to eat some of the food. She told him no, that the food was too greasy and heavy for her. When he asked her what she had eaten, she opened the cupboard and showed him a box of cereal, what looked to be Cheerios, his normal breakfast at home. That was more than he could take and he started laughing and he couldn't stop until he was practically rolling on the floor. She seemed hurt at first, as she thought he was laughing at her until he finally managed to explained that Cheerios were his normal breakfast at home. At first she didn't want to believe him and then when he convinced her it was true, she started laughing herself which started him up again. About the time they finished laughing Kaisa came wandering into the kitchen, probably awakened by their loud laughter, and had to find out what was so funny. Kristel took a full five minutes explaining everything in detail, all in rapid fire Russian or Estonian. When she finished listening Kaisa looked at him, then looked at all of the greasy pots and pans, then looked back at Kristel and burst out in a high pitched laughter of her own, which needless to say, started everyone off again. After Kristel fed Kaisa they cleaned the kitchen as Kaisa prepared to go to work. Kaisa had worked for over 15 years at the same Three Sisters Hotel where Kristel worked as a housekeeper. In fact, Kaisa was the housekeeping supervisor there and was instrumental in securing Kristel's employment at a time when jobs of any kind were very scarce. Before Kaisa left, she teased Kristel about breakfast again and let her know that she would tell everyone at the hotel that story. Then she left and they were once more alone together. They had grown very close in those marathon Internet gab sessions and now that Bill was with her he wanted to do more than talk, while at the same time he knew that it wasn't too early to spend time planning their future. Bill knew after less than a day living in the same house with her that more than anything he wanted her with him for the rest of his life. He also wanted to make whatever dreams she had came true and was fervently hoping these two wishes wouldn't be mutually exclusive. So they spent the morning talking and planning. She told him of her dreams to travel and see the world beyond Estonia. They found that their hearts were in sync about everything important. She told him that she had gone back downstairs the night before after he had went to bed and talked to each of her family members about their future. Each of her family had told her that they could see the love that Bill had for her shining in his eyes when he looked at her. She told Bill tearfully that her father had told her that their love for each other was something very special that would make the difference in their ages and cultures into something manageable. Sergei said he knew that to be true because it had also been true for him and Kaisa those many years ago. Sergei told her that his love for Kaisa and then for his children was the most important thing in his life and that he was thankful that she had found that same happiness. Toomas had also blessed their union and given him a thumbs-up. Finally Kaisa had taken Kristel aside and told her that although she knew he was exhausted from his trip and would probably not even know it, Kristel should sleep with him tonight and every night that they could be together. Bill and Kristel were both near tears as she finished telling him this. Bill vowed to himself to somehow, someday repay the love and trust that this family had shown him. Later that afternoon they consummated their love in their bed in what was their room for the rest of the stay with her parents. Their lovemaking was slow and unhurried and yet somehow insistent. She was a virgin, which didn't surprise him and yet Kristel wasn't totally innocent. She told him she had limited her previous sex to non-vaginal intercourse. Okay, when she said it to Bill in just that way he wondered exactly what she meant by that and when he asked, she acted as if it could only mean one thing. When Bill explained that non-vaginal intercourse could be at least two or maybe three things she blushed deeply and asked for more information. Then she really acted shocked before she told him that no she had never ever had anal intercourse either. Kristel did have a wild side and wouldn't let him use a condom during their lovemaking. She gave him a choice of either waiting for her to go on the pill and for it to take effect or to take a chance and see what happened. What ended up happening was Alexi, born almost ten months later, after their marriage and relocation back to Florida. ------- Now over four years later Bill and Kristel are living comfortably in the Panhandle of Florida. Alexi, their new daughter, is almost three and is loved by the entire family, including her much older half-sisters. Kristel's brother Toomas owns a house down the street that Bill financed for him and his new wife Gail, who is a local Florida girl that Kristel befriended in her first year of college. Bill offered to pay for the house as a wedding present but all Toomas could say was "Too much, too much." That is another story in itself. Sergei and Kaisa still live in Estonia, although they visit back and forth. They have promised to consider moving to the area every time they visit but they have so many memories and friends in Tallinn that they are really torn between the two places. Bill is approaching 50 and feeling stronger and fitter than ever. He is sure Kristel is responsible for most of that. Kristel is a junior at the nearby University of West Florida, majoring in world history. Bill and Kristel travel extensively but only when her classes permit. Kristel has a new outlook on her life and will be the first to proudly tell you that she is no longer LostGirl. ------- The End ------- Posted: 2007-08-14 Last Modified: 2007-08-25 / 08:44:00 am ------- http://storiesonline.net/ -------