“Sure child, now go out there and make me proud-all dem kids is counting on you!”
“You speak as if they are already here Marjorie” Mary asked surprised. She was not sure that she was up to the task. She would rather go home and cry her eyes out. The name Vitaliy Kolarov had sent shivers through her body but when she had realized it was a child been expected she realized it was just a coincidence, “I don’t think it’s me you want ma’am” she insisted as she was literally dragged through out of the office.
“Shush now,”Ms. Landry said, “they should be here any minute”
****
Vitaliy Kolarov stepped out of the black limousine, which had parked quite close to the youth center building. Leander did not care too much for the scorching sun.
Vitaliy was already out of the limousine, headed for a pair of African-American ladies standing in front of a door at the end of a veranda. Leander was about to follow the young blood when he froze. He was sure one of those women was Mary.
Leander, normally supremely confident, felt queasy in his stomach. He was excited but also afraid. After all he had disappeared for a month and a half.
The moment Mary got over the initial surprise at the uncanny resemblance of the boy Vitaliy to the one she knew, she stepped out in his direction.
Leander was not sure what was going to happen, but like that night, he was past caring and he was ready for anything. This was just as well, because he sensed hostility in her steps towards them.
Vitaliy on his part was amused by the large, beautiful, dark and angry woman who was striding towards him. Very confident that he could not be the object of her scorn, he stepped aside, and she passed him like a gale, without so much as a glance.
Ms. Landry, who had been nodding in approval all this while, started shaking her head as she tried to call out to Mary to point out the real Vitaliy Kolarov as she blew past him without a word.
Leander knew he had something coming, but he stood his ground. He thought his memories did her no justice; she looked even sexier than he remembered. Mary could not recognize the clean cut man who she was fast approaching, his suit looked more than her monthly salary could afford; a far cry from the drunken wreck who had fallen through her doorway. She was not sure what she was going to do, but she wanted it to hurt. God your handsome she thought as she punched him square on the nose.
Vitaliy flinched as he watched his uncle go down. Ms. Landry flew into a hissy, and she sped as fast as she could towards the drama unfolding at the other end of the veranda.
Young Vitaliy could not help himself, and laughed loudly as he went to his uncle’s aid ahead of Ms. Landry. He was loving every second spent in this country.
“And that is for taking advantage of me!” Mary hissed, kicking a poor, hapless Leander in the stomach with her sneakers.
Mary could see the chauffeur was out now and approaching, so she sped off at a ninety degree angle, in the direction of her beat down car. Ms. Landry was confused about whom to go after: Something was going on; should she go after her long-time friend and co-worker or should she go for the potential donor? She decided to follow the money and sped to join the group helping the young billionaire on the floor.
Before she could reach however, Leander was up and running in the direction Mary had gone. As if on cue, Mary burst forth from round a corner in her beat down car in a flurry of dust and screeching wheels, and nearly ran him over. It was all he could do to dive out of the way.
Young Vitaliy literally had to hold his mouth to stifle the laughter gurgling forth. He decided that he was going to keep a diary of his time over in the United States. Ms. Landry was beside herself with distress: this was definitely going south, and she had no clue how to salvage the situation despite her experience in the field.
Leander quickly took the keys from the chauffeur. It had been ages since he had last driven himself and he was not sure of his skills, but every Russian man knows that a good woman is worth chasing; he instructed young Vitaliy to stay with Ms. Landry, to whom he offered his sincerest apologies and he was off in a flurry of dust and screeching tires as well; after the woman he had pined for, for the last month or so.
The chauffeur, who was a bit elderly, was calm, he had learned to expect anything from the rich and famous down the years; Ms. Landry was shaking her head, still not sure of what had happened. The whole debacle could not have taken more than three minutes but a sniggering Vitaliy felt he could have written volumes. He could already see how it would go in his diary.