Maia had arranged with her high school to take time off in March to allow her to participate in the two tennis tournaments in America. Since she was an excellent student, not to mention the daughter of the Prime Minister of Estonia, the school acquiesced without any protest to Maia's request. They went so far as to get her teachers to assign some essential school work and assignments, which she could complete in her spare time so that she would not be behind in her classes once she returned to the school.
Since her return was uncertain, depending on how she would fare in these tournaments, especially the Miami tournament, the school allowed her absence to extend to the Monday after the completion of the last full week in March. Consequently, when Maia did lose that first qualifying match in Miami, she had two full weeks still left on her leave of absence from her school.
Since her actual results in both tournaments were distinct possibilities, Maia had before she left Estonia, contacted both her uncle Paul in Wisconsin and her aunt Erica in Chicago. She had advised them of her intention to play in the two tournaments in America. She further indicated that pending how she would fare in the tournament in Miami that she would likely be able to visit them while in America, before she would have to return to Tallinn.
Consequently, on that Sunday, after she her had lost her qualifying match in Miami, and before she went out for dinner with Toomas Tamala, she booked her flight to Madison, WI for the following day. She contacted her uncle and advised him of her arrival time to visit him and his family for four days. She then intended to visit her aunt in Chicago for about five days before returning to her home in Estonia.
Her cousin, Paul Laaning Jr was there to pick Maia up at the Madison airport to take her back to the family farm. Paul Jr was thirteen years older than Maia and was married with two children of his own. Like his father he had an older son, at eight years old, and a younger daughter of six years old. The son was named Paul Laaning III.
Since the three males in the family: grandfather, son and grandson all had the same first name, and they all resided in the same household, the family got into the habit of distinguishing them in a unique mundane way. Maia's uncle, the grandfather, was known as, or was designated as "Big Paul". Maia's cousin, the son, was called, or designated as "Little Paul". He preferred to be called 'Junior" but only his wife called him that. The grandson then was referred to by the diminutive as "Paulie". That family reference stuck with him, so that he was known as, "Paulie" by others even though his birth certificate and other official identification documents listed his name as Paul Laaning III.
Vivian had taken Maia with her on the semi annual trips in May and November to visit their American relatives commencing when Maia was still nursing and had not reached one years of age. To avoid conflict with school attendance, once Maia started high school, she no longer accompanied her mother during the November visits. Once Maia started her primary education the May visits were changed to the beginning of July, allowing Vivian and Maia to take in the American Independence Day celebrations.
Maia's maternal grandparents had retired to Arizona before Maia was born, but they came in November to the family farm to participate in the Thanksgiving holiday celebrations. Once Maia started to come only on the July visits, her grandparents did come to the family farm, in July in addition to the November visit, so as not to miss seeing their Estonian grandchild.
For Maia, at first the visits were rather troublesome and boring since her Uncle Paul, Aunt Erica and grandpa Toomas were the only American relatives who could speak Estonian. Once Maia started attending school, she was exposed to learning English. Realizing that these visits to America would be more enjoyable and for that matter more bearable if she became conversant in English, Maia on her own initiative took online courses to learn to speak English. Plus, she also bought DVDs of various movies and television shows in English. She religiously utilized the close caption feature of these DVDs when watching them which in turn helped her to becoming fully literate in the language as well.
By the time, Maia was ten, she was able to converse in English with her cousins quite satisfactorily. Maia had become more fluent in Russian since it was the primary foreign language she learned at school and two of her friends were Russian. Besides there were lots of television channels in Russian available for Maia to watch at her leisure. As a result, Maia spoke English with a heavily pronounced Slavic/Estonian accent. This proved to be delightful to the ears of her American listeners especially to her male peers who would be attracted to her physical beauty.
Given their age differences her cousin Paul Jr. was not particularly intrigued by Maia, but still having a close relative from a foreign land whose primary language only his father understood was enough to at least make him curious. He was especially interested in hearing about her tennis exploits. And so, they had an interesting informative discussion during the hour and a half drive from the airport to the farm.
Paul Jr. like his father before him, was understood to be the heir apparent of the family farm. And like his father, he had attended Iowa State University and enrolled in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The relationship between his father and himself was as amicably and harmoniously as it could possibly be. He and his father were equal partners in managing the dairy farm with its 208 cows. Thus, it was anticipated that when the senior Paul did retire the transition would be seamless. And the grandson Paulie was already having significant chores to do, paving the way for his becoming the ultimate heir to the farm. Maia could relate to Paulie's situation as she had chores to do at the dairy farm in Estonia where she lived until she was seven years old. Thus, her cousin's description of his family life and the labor involved in working the dairy farm held a lot of interest for her.
In past visits, she had little interaction with Uncle Paul and his family as opposed to her interaction with Aunt Erica and her family. The reason that was so, Maia supposed it had to do with the fact that her uncle spoke to her in English once she was able to do so. His refusal to speak Estonian with her, was his way of making Maia feel part of his family. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect on Maia as it left herself feeling more of a stranger and that she was not really part of their family notwithstanding the actual blood ties.
During the trip from the airport to the farm, Maia naturally was aware that her cousin could only speak English. Thus, in her mind the feeling of estrangement was not present as it was when speaking with her uncle who would not speak Estonian with her despite the fact he was able to do so. As a result, for the first time in all her visits to the Laaning farm in Wisconsin, Maia was genuinely more interested in learning of the dynamics of her uncle's family. And his cousin did just that in providing the pertinent details.
In addition to his son Paulie who was eight years old, his cousin had a daughter named Anita who was six years old and was in grade one. He had no more children since unfortunately his wife, Marlene, nÊe Webster, had to undergo a hysterectomy as a result of dangerous health complications emanating from unduly heavy menstrual bleeding, which started shortly after Anita's birth.
There were two points of interest for Maia in learning of the current status of Uncle Paul's family. One of them was a recent situation, the other was an ongoing situation that was resolved fairly recently as well. The latter situation involved his sister, Judy Laaning, who was eleven years older than Maia. Judy was not happy with her lot in life. Of all the females in the Laaning family, she was the only plain one. Not only was Judy homely, but she had an abrasive temperament that compounded her aggravating personality. Judy's paramount grievance with her family was her resentment that her brother would arbitrarily inherit the farm.
She argued with her father constantly that she contributed as much labor to the farm as her brother. She was quite capable of running the farm herself and that is what she really wanted to do. Her father, at first tried to mollify Judy by establishing a trust fund in lieu of her share to the family farm.
The precedence had been set by Maia's maternal grandfather, Toomas Laaning, who had established trust funds for Maia's aunt Erica and for Maia's mother. Each such trust fund being deemed equal in value to one third of the value of the farm. Aunt Erica used the proceeds of her trust fund to help finance the start-up costs for her restaurant/night club in Chicago, which became the trendy place for the sophisticated party crowd to frequent. Vivian used her trust fund to pay for her education expenses, so that when she became a lawyer and started working for the law firm of Kirkland, Mayer & McDermott she had no debts. She even had some monies left over to pay into a partnership position. Consequently, both Maia's aunt and mother were satisfied with the division and had no issue with their brother becoming the sole owner of the farm.
However, Judy had no such similar magnanimous attitude. She believed she should have an equal share in owning and operating the farm. With such posture, she continuously engaged in fierce battles with her father and brother over control of the farm. To bolster her case, Judy had not touched the trust fund established for her, even when she turned twenty-five and had the absolute ownership of the monies in the fund. She didn't use the funds like her aunts did with their trust funds to pursue an independent life.
Finally, to resolve Judy's obstinacy, Judy's father extracted a promise from Judy not to contest the contents of his last will and testament. He pointed out that he is not legally compelled by law to bequeath her anything. However, while he was operating and working the farm she would receive one quarter of the farm's net income, so long as she contributed her share of the labor of the farm and her share of the expenses. Then upon retirement or his death whichever event occurred first, the farm would be deeded to Paul Jr., but Judy would be allowed to live and work on the farm until her death. If she had children, they would not have legal interest in the farm.
Judy agreed to this arrangement which then was put into writing by their respective lawyers. Paul Jr was OK with the ensuing arrangement. Just as in the case with his father, he was amicably able to work together with his sister. Judy used her trust funds to hire contractors to construct additions to the farm house, thereby increasing its size to over six thousand square feet. As a result, the home now had ample bedrooms and bathrooms to accommodate the three separate households.
Judy Laaning remained single as she could not establish a long romantic relationship given her character. She was not too disappointed as she was not interested in becoming a mother in any case. For proper decorum and not wishing to possibly upset or disturb the impressionable minds of Paulie and Anita, Judy occasionally entertained a male date utilizing the spare barn on the farm. It contained human living space, consisting of a bedroom, a kitchen and bathroom facilities. Maia realized that this must have been the site for her mother's loss of her virginity.
