Maia Laaning

Note to reader: Estonian children start grade one in September at the age of seven years, as long as they've reached their seventh birthday by October. Thus, in their final year (i.e. grade 12) of secondary school education they are eighteen years old, and most are nineteen by the time they graduate. The last three years of the general secondary school education is acquired at what is designated as the "gymnasium" which in Estonian is "gümnaasium", To avoid confusion to readers, throughout this novel, I use the term "high school" instead of "gymnasium" which would be the equivalent designation of the last three years of secondary school education in other countries.

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Maia Laaning was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were born in the United State as well and were citizen residents at the time of her birth. Thus, Maia was an orthodox American citizen from birth, and not an "anchor baby" as that term is generally understood. Nevertheless, she did not grow up in the United States and English was not her mother tongue. Her father, while awaiting trial for a white collar crime, was murdered in prison by another inmate before she was born. Two days after the murder of her father, her mother, Vivian Laaning, had lost her position as an attorney employed by a prestigious law firm in Chicago.

In the aftermath of such chaos and misfortunes, her mother, Vivian, took her on a vacation trip to Germany and Estonia when Maia was only five months old. The stated premise of the visit was to discover and meet any blood relatives the two of them might still have in those countries. Maia's maternal grandmother was born and grew up in Germany and did not arrive in the United States until she was eighteen years old. Her maternal grandfather, although born in the United States, had spoken exclusively Estonian with his Estonian parents. Her mother's paternal grandparents lived in the household of their family dairy farm in Wisconsin until their respective deaths. Vivian was fifteen and sixteen years of age at the time of those occurrences.

As a result of that background, Vivian spoke German exclusively with her mother and Estonian exclusively with her father. When she was speaking with her parents together, they would speak German as her father could speak German. Her mother could not speak Estonian and she tended to avoid speaking in English unless it was absolutely necessary for her to do so. Vivian therefore in growing up became idiomatically fluent in those two languages in addition to English..

After Maia was born about five months after the death of her father, Vivian decided on doing this European vacation as stated to ostensibly visit possible relatives. Only when Maia was nearly an adult did Vivian reveal to her daughter that the main reason for the trip was to recover stolen funds that her father had hidden in Swiss and Monaco banks and were not discovered by the legal authorities. To visit possible relatives was in reality a whimsical afterthought on the part of Vivian; something to do as she was determining what course of future action should she pursue in her life, in light of the unfortunate developments transpiring immediately after her wedding ceremony.

Maia's father had been arrested within two hours after the wedding ceremony which along with the wedding reception were held on the premises of the Laaning dairy farm. Since he was obviously a criminal, having embezzled from his employer, Maia had never developed an interest in inquiring from her mother any knowledge of him. Once Vivian had revealed to her, his full scope of his crime, she had even less of an interest in knowing anything about him.

At least she now knew the reason why her mother was never hurting for money. Although to be fair to Vivian, Maia understood that her mother started a very successful craft beer enterprise, which provided a substantial income. In addition, she had invested her monies wisely, to such an extent that her net worth when Maia became an adult was triple the amount her mother had originally acquired from recovering her father's ill begotten gains.

The vacation trip to Estonia turned out to have a life changing consequence for Maia and her mother. Vivian Laaning was able to discover a blood relative in Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. He was a third cousin by the name of Jaan Läänemets whose wife was Marika. Jaan and Marika invited Vivian and Maia to stay at their home for the remainder of Vivian's planned visit to Estonia. Vivian happily accepted as the Läänemets' hospitality was most convivial.

During that week the Läänemets had another visitor, by the name of Eino Tarvas, the brother-in-law to Marika Läänemets. Eino Tarvas was a dairy farmer whose farm was located in southern Estonia in the county of Valgamaa (which translated means 'white land'). He had come to Tallinn to negotiate a bank loan in order to purchase his neighbor's farm plus some milking machines and some cows intending thereby to increase his farm production substantially. Since Vivian had grown up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, she and Eino had a common topic to discuss during his visit to the Läänemets residence. It then transpired that he asked her out for a dinner date that evening.

As it so happened, Eino had booked beforehand a three nights stay at the Swissôtel, a five star luxury hotel in Tallinn. Eino was a widower and had established a sporadic relationship with Kaisa Noor, a married woman whose marital sex life was lacking. Eino had been at a quandary as to where their relationship was heading, if anywhere. He could sense she was not all that invested in leaving her husband, and by the same token he was not sufficiently enamored of her, to cajole her into leaving her husband to live with him.

He had booked this hotel room for the three nights with the intention to determine whether Kaisa Noor was the woman he ought to consider, and seriously pursue as the woman to replace his deceased wife, Dagi. Accordingly, Kaisa had agreed to a dinner date and went so far as to indicate that she had no problem to accompany him afterwards, to his engaged hotel room.

However, that afternoon having met Vivian Laaning at Jaan Läänemets home, Eino Tarvas had a change of heart and canceled his dates with Kaisa Noor. Instead, he invited Vivian out for the dinner date. The dinner date was so enjoyable for both Vivian and Eino, that at the end Eino asked Vivian to accompany him to his hotel room. The activity at the hotel room was so enjoyable that Eino and Vivian had two more dates on the successive nights. Those dates were so enjoyable that Eino felt compelled to propose marriage on the third night. After due deliberation of a couple of hours, Vivian accepted his proposal to become Mrs Tarvas.

Eino Tarvas proved to be a prominent farmer well known in Estonia. As a result, the wedding of Vivian and Eino was a lavish affair attended by some very distinguished Estonians and held in a large banquet hall in Tallinn. Included in the guest list were: Kaja Kallas, who was later to become Estonia's first female Prime Minister; Anett Kontaveit, Estonia's most successful female professional tennis player, destined later to achieve a career highest ranking of No. 2 in the world; and Carmen Kass, an international super model and a close friend of Gisele Bündchen, the one time wife of Tom Brady, the all-time NFL super star.

Vivian's co-matrons of honor were her sister Erica Koeninger née Laaning, thereby Maia's aunt; and Angela Peterson née Black. They were the only guests who were of her circle of family and acquaintances at the wedding. That was understandable of course considering the vast distance between their original residences not to mention the brevity of their courtship. The highlight of their honeymoon in Italy was a ride in a gondola in Venice where they engaged in a surreptitiously public sexual act.

Those are the circumstances of how Maia Laaning came to grow up in Estonia, one of the three Baltic states in Europe, instead of growing up in the United States, her birthplace. As her first stepfather was a dairy farmer, Maia's first few years in her life replicated her mother's upbringing. Vivian grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin until she left for college to attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison, WI.

The difference with her mother's upbringing to her own, aside from growing up in different countries, occurred after Maia's seventh birthday. Vivian had become a cabinet minister in the national government of Estonia, and her marriage with Eino Tarvas became unsustainable. As a result, her mother separated from her husband and bought a spacious home in Tallinn, which became Maia's second home while growing up.

Vivian acquired a new significant other, who was also a cabinet minister in the national government of Estonia to replace her husband. His name was Raimond Kruuse and he moved in with Vivian and Maia within a few months after Vivian and he had become a couple in a serious relationship.

Raimond was married to Varvaara Raudsepp and had remained married even though they had separated and had lived apart for fifteen years by the time he first met Vivian. They had two daughters from their marriage, but since the separation, Varvaara had been leery of having a male lover move in with her and her daughters, because of her own past childhood.

Varvaara had a stepfather who molested her while she was a child between the ages of seven and ten years of ages. Her mother did not believe her despite her constant complaints of his criminal actions. In fact her mother spanked her as punishment for lying. When Varvaara was ten years old, upon questioning by her schoolteacher who had noticed her sullen temperament, she revealed to her teacher of her horrible home life. The teacher along with the principal of the school notified the proper authorities. As a result, Varvaara then lived the remainder of her childhood years with her father and his new wife. Varvaara deliberately had no further contact with her mother ever again.

Varvaara had no apprehension of sexual impropriety by her husband during the first six years of marriage when he and she had lived together. She instinctively knew that Raimond Kruuse was no pedophile, and besides she had the innate belief that a man had to be truly evil to harm his own flesh and blood. Her stepfather had been actually a very charming and engaging man who was able to hide his predatory pedophile predilection. Varvaara could understand why her mother didn't believe her accusations, but nevertheless, she could never forgive her mother for being oblivious to her plight.

In her intellectual contemplation with herself, Varvaara had to concede that obviously the vast majority of men are not pedophiles, and in fact would harbor an anathema towards such an evil tendency. Nevertheless, that is small comfort to a woman who as a child was subjected to awful sexual abuse from a family member when she was so vulnerable without anyone to defend and support her. As a result, Varvaara could not ever trust any of her subsequent lovers to leave her daughters alone.

The practical solution obviously was not to seek a divorce from her husband, Raimond Kruuse. Instead, Varvaara Raudsepp went so far as to refuse to have sex in the matrimonial home which she had retained as her residence since the separation of her marriage. As for Raimond, he had never found a woman, until he had met Vivian, whom he would have wanted to change his marital status.

Since Vivian Laaning had been a two time loser in the matrimonial department, she was leery of trying marriage a third time. She did think Raimond was her most significant lover and would unquestionably make a superb husband for her. Then again, she felt exactly the same in regards to Sam Crawford and Eino Tarvas but things sure went south, and in case of Crawford almost immediately as soon as they had officially tied the knot.

As the saying goes, in life the only certain things to occur are death and taxes. Accordingly, Vivian was cognizant that she couldn't be 100% certain that a marriage with Raimond would last the full length as enunciated by the traditional marriage vows. Besides since Varvaara was reluctant to pursue a divorce for reasons already stated, both Raimond and Vivian were inclined to follow the advice of a familiar adage: "let sleeping dogs lie."

Although, not an official marriage, the relationship between Raimond and Vivian qualified as a common law marriage; i.e. a marriage without a ceremony or public license. After a subsequent period of time both of them considered themselves as married in word if not in deed. Certainly, their friends and acquaintances plus the general public viewed them in a husband and wife relationship. In fact their relationship lasted almost twice as long as Vivian's two actual legal marriages combined.

The household of Vivian, Raimond and Maia held together like the normal day to day living of a typical family unit. Although Raimond did not legally adopt Maia because he was not legally married to Vivian, he did act as a devoted stepfather to Maia. He demonstrably loved Maia in equal measure as he loved his two flesh and blood daughters, Maria and Amanda Kruuse.

The latter two loved their father unconditionally. They could discern that their father was happily and deeply in love with Vivian, so much more than his regard for their mother. Thus, they were happy for him and accepted Vivian as their bona fide stepmother in good spirits. They also adored Maia and treated her as their sister unconditionally never mind the lack of a blood relation connection.

As for Maia, she enthusiastically accepted Raimond as her stepfather almost immediately upon first acquaintanceship. Her first stepfather, Eino Tarvas, was aloof with her. Maia could sense that he did not love her, but simply tolerated her as a consequence of his love for Vivian. However, Raimond Kruuse had a different attitude. His loving delightful reaction towards Maia was patently obvious not just to her, but to others who witnessed their interaction. As a result, Maia returned her loving affection towards him. When he subsequently died when Maia was twenty-one years of age, she was desolate in grief by the same measure as if he had been her natural father.

Hele Mölder was the mother of Riina, a daughter who was two months younger than Maia. Hele was a close life-long friend of Marika Läänemets and had actually breastfed Maia, when Vivian and Eino were out all night on the occasion of Eino's proposal of marriage. Hele Mölder lived relatively close by to Vivian and so she was a convenient and appropriate babysitter. As a result, Maia and Riina became close friends and had occasional sleepovers in each other's home. Such events allowed for a respite to the non supervisory couple from their child and freedom to engage in more vociferous sexual activity.

As a follow-up to her wedding reception, Vivian struck up a permanent friendship with Carmen Kass, Estonia's superstar fashion model. A benefit from the relationship was the knowledge Carmen was able to pass on to Vivian regarding establishing a superior wardrobe. Unlike celebrity women, who favored provocative dresses that would garner attention for its audacious display of skin, Vivian's apparel enhanced her feminine form sensibly without resorting to jarringly unseemly boldness. She felt comfortable and pleased in her clothing as it complimented her self assurance.

In turn, Vivian dressed Maia in remarkably stylish but age appropriate clothes during her school years, which in turn allowed Maia to develop her own fashion style as she grew older. In addition, Vivian was so grateful for Hele's availability for babysitting Maia, that she invariably brought Riina Mölder along when shopping for clothes for Maia. Although Hele naturally protested that she was not a pauper requiring assistance in clothing her child, Vivian answered that her largess was simply due to her appreciation to the generosity exhibited by Hele in agreeing to babysit Maia at a moment's notice.

The net result of Vivian providing the spectacular wardrobe for Maia and Riina was that the two girls were demonstratively the best dressed children in their schools. That in turn was a factor why the two of them were the most popular girls during their school years. In addition, the fact that both Vivian and Raimond were prominent politicians and public figures in Estonia made it natural for everyone of Maia's acquaintances to desire to be special friends with her.

Maia was always more mature for her age and more mature in acting and thinking than her schoolmates during her formative years. As a result, she developed subconsciously a disdain for the childish frivolousness inherent in most of her friends and acquaintances. As a result, Maia was invariably aloof from her peers, but was so adroit at keeping her distance, that none of her acquaintances felt snubbed. In fact most of her female friends considered Maia to be a personal friend. Mind you it was clearly evident to everyone that Riina Mölder remained as Maia's sole closest intimate friend. They failed to perceive that Maia could sense that Riina was more compatible with her outlook on life. Thus, their intimate close friendship was a natural outcome from the first moment they met when they were each seven years old, and subsequently started Grade one together.

At the time Vivian had separated from her second husband and moved into her Tallinn home, she and Raimond were both members of the Estonian Parliament, (Riigikogu). However, they belonged to different political parties, being the two major parties in Estonia. Raimond was a member of the Estonian Centre Party (Eesti Keskerakond) being in ideology a center left party. Whereas Vivian was a member of the Estonian Reform Party (Eesti Reformierakond) which despite its name was a center right party in ideology.

Their attraction to each other blossomed, despite their political differences, into a truly harmonious and loving relationship. Vivian could not help feeling that her relationship with Raimond Kruuse had an American counterpart example in the marriage of James Carville to Mary Matalin. Those two political consultants came to date each other during the 1992 Presidential election campaign. Carville was the chief strategist for the Clinton campaign, while Ms Matalin was the deputy campaign manager for political operations on George H W Bush's (41st President) reelection campaign. They married the following year and remained married ever since. With their prominence in politics, they could always get access to visit the White House no matter who the president was and which party he represented. And they remained married despite their diverse political allegiance.

The political differences between Raimond and Vivian was not as acute as the aforementioned American couple, since they each had a mutual aim in advocating what was in the best interests for Estonia. Their differences in reality stemmed from their ideology in determining what was best for Estonia, but they had a deep respect for each other's position in achieving their mutual common goal.

At the time of Vivian's physical separation from Eino there was a political upheaval in Estonia. In the preceding national election, the Reform Party under Kaja Kallas' leadership had won the most seats in the Riigikogu. However, the Centre Party under the leadership of Jüri Ratas was able to form a coalition government in partnership with two other left wing Parties. After about two years in power Ratas resigned as Prime Minister as result of a bribery scandal involving two of his most prominent cabinet ministers.

Thereafter, Kaja Kallas was able to persuade the balance of the Centre Party to join with the Reform Party to form the new coalition government. This maneuver then made Ms Kallas the first female Estonian PM. Raimond Kruuse had been the Minister of Finance in the Ratas administration and he was one of the Centre Party ministers retained in the new Kallas administration. Vivian was appointed as the new Minister of Culture.