Chapter 4: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Brazil
…the strangest thing happened.
While I was in Brazil one day, I got on hotmail and checked my email. There was a letter which started simply: “Hello… my name is Victoria…”
I looked at the email address and saw that it was from Ukraine. How odd, I hadn’t written to anyone from the FSU in a month. She was responding, she said, to my personal ad. To be honest, I had completely forgotten that I had placed a personal ad. I had placed it back in February when I thought I would be in Odessa in May. It was the end of March now, and I had no plans to go to Ukraine at all, any more…
I scrolled down the page. She had attached several pictures.
Gentlemen, I admit it… I have a real weakness for brunettes with green eyes. Brunettes in general, but those with green eyes just melt me… I don’t know why, but they do. Always have. Give me Mary Ann over Ginger, and I’ll take Jaclyn Smith of the original Charlie’s Angels over Farrah Fawcett, any day.
I went back and read the letter. (And yes, that is exactly the order I did it in, I will be honest. I read the greeting… I checked the email address… I looked at the pictures… and then I read her letter. Shallow? Maybe. But if you knew how many good letters ended with bad pictures, you would understand…)
The letter was intelligent and detailed a person that sounded very interesting. (She is the only one who ever quoted Latin to me in a letter. To this day I don’t know what she said! But I was impressed. And… you just gotta love a woman who loves dancing… and chess…)
I wrote her back, and told her that I was in Brazil on business, and that I couldn’t send her pictures right then, but I would write her when I got back to Dallas.
That started the correspondence that would eventually lead me to my fiancé, although I couldn’t know it at the time.
We started corresponding about every other day. She confessed that her English was not really good, and she had to translate my letters, and prepare her replies.
I started to back off on how many letters I sent, so as not to deluge her.
It was about two weeks into our correspondence that I had a rash of business trips that took me to three different cities in four days. Usually, I log in when I am on the road, but this time I was too exhausted. I did not write Victoria for about five days. When I finally did, I apologized to her and explained that I had been away on business. Her letter back was one of mild relief, and we resumed correspondence.
But, something had changed. Now, suddenly, I was getting letters from her every day. And the letters were longer.
I knew that she was getting her emails at her father’s work. I started to want to ask her more personal questions, but I didn’t want to send her something that might be read by someone else, so I asked her if it were possible for her to get an internet café account, where I could write her privately.
It wasn’t possible… but she made arrangements to have a private email set up where we could write more freely.
