Maia Laaning

Near the end of July, Maia Laaning received a total surprisingly unexpected telephone call, which transpired as follows:

Maia answered, "Tere." This was the only Estonian word spoken during this telephone call.

The caller spoke in Russian, and the ensuing conversation was conducted solely in Russian. The caller said, "Hello. May I speak to Maia Laaning?"

"This is she."

"Yes you must be as you were able to answer me in Russian. My name is Annagret Bacsinszky. I am a lawyer with the law firm of Golubic, Teichmann, Bencic Ltd. located in Zürich, Switzerland."

"I see. And so what is the purpose of this call?"

"You were acquainted with Dmitri Arkhangelsky, the Russian operatic baritone. Is that correct?"

"That is correct. I saw him at a concert performance here in Tallinn this past January."

"Quite so. It seems like that in addition to seeing him perform you also became personally acquainted with him?"

"You could say that."

"Sadly, I must inform you that Mr Arkhangelsky passed away of a brain tumor in London, UK at the Royal Marsden hospital where he was being treated for his brain cancer affliction. His death occurred precisely three weeks ago on July 9th."

"Oh no! I didn't know he was that ill. He seemed to be in perfect health when I knew him in January. Why he wasn't even bald."

"Yes despite his terminal illness he was still able to perform until almost to the very end. I understand between his chemotherapy treatment he was fitted with a realistic wig replicating the appearance of his past natural hair."

"Oh wow! I didn't know that nor did I suspect he was wearing a wig. Why he even appeared having natural hair when partaking of a sauna at our home."

"Well no matter and in any case, I would advise that because of the war with the Ukraine, Mr Arkhangelsky had divided and maintained his material assets into two separate parts and locations. The disposition of his assets consisting of his real and personal property located in Russia are being handled by a law firm in Moscow. The disposition of his other assets not located in Russia are being handled by our law firm here in Zürich."

"I see. And what has that have anything to do with me? I can't believe what I'm beginning to suspect is the purpose of your call."

"Your instinct seems to be in good working order, Ms Laaning. Apparently, your encounter with Mr Arkhangelsky made quite an impression on him. So much so that he has made a substantial bequest in your favor."

"Oh my goodness! I can't believe it."

"Well believe it or not, it is absolutely true. Now in order for you to successfully receive your bequest, you must appear at our office here in Zürich to sign some necessary proper documentation. You must present proper identification, which would include your passport, birth certificate and one other official government identification such as a driver's license or anything equivalent thereof. If any of those papers are not in German you must provide a certified copy of the same in German. Is that all clear to you?"

"Yes, I understand."

"Once you arrive at our office, you will be reimbursed for your airfare costs. You may fly first class if you so desire. Such extra expense will not lessen the value of your bequest. You will not be reimbursed for any other travel extra expenses such as meals and a hotel stay while you're here in Zürich."

"OK then, that sounds fair."

"Once you have executed the necessary paper work, the same will be submitted to the applicable Swiss probate court for approval. Once the Court approves, usually within a week but certainly not more than a month, then we will wire the funds of your bequest to your bank. While you're in Zürich you might wish to open an account in one of our banks for tax purposes but of course that's up to you. We naturally are unable to advise of your tax liability in accordance with Estonian laws."

"I'll certainly check into that before I attend your office and advise you accordingly. By the way can you tell me how much is my bequest?"

"I'm not at liberty to advise you of the exact amount, but I can say it is substantially more than one hundred thousand Swiss Francs."

Maia gasped as she was aware that Swiss Francs were worth slightly more than euros which in turn were worth more than US dollars, the most recognized currency in the world. She coyly responded, "Well that certainly seems to be worth my while to come to Switzerland and visit your office."

"Excellent! Once you've booked your flight let us know and I can set up an appointment to see you accordingly."

"Will do."

Maia first consulted with her mother. Vivian suggested that since she had maintained two Swiss bank accounts, one of them in Zürich, Maia could safely utilize it at least temporarily to avoid Estonian income tax or at least minimize the effect of same. As the call from the Swiss lawyer came on a Thursday, Maia booked a flight to Zürich on the following Monday, Aug 3. The flight left Tallinn in very early morning arriving in Zürich before noon. Accordingly, in calling Annagret Bacsinszky back, an appointment was set up for 02:30 on that Monday afternoon.

For comfort and less stress, Maia decided to stay overnight in Zürich and return to Tallinn the next day. Maia remembered that Linda Kalmet, Harri Kutsaar's love interest and sex mentor some two years previously, now lived in Zürich. So she obtained Linda's contact number from Harri and proceeded to call Harri's enigmatic former mistress. That phone call was answered by Linda with a German "Hallo". Maia responded in Estonian, and thus the remainder of the call was exclusively in Estonian and transpired as follows:

Maia said, "Hello. Are you then Linda Kalmet who formerly resided in Tallinn?"

"Why yes, indeed. I take it you're Estonian as well, but I don't recognize your voice. Should I know you?"

"My name is Maia Laaning, and we're not acquainted but we do share a mutual acquaintance."

"You're Maia Laaning? The Prime Minister's stepdaughter?"

"Yes indeed that is me..."

Linda immediately interrupted, "And you say we share a mutual acquaintance? I can't imagine who. Unless do you mean the Prime Minister? Yes, I did meet your father personally once but that was at a special party at the Stenbock House, celebrating Estonian Independence a few years ago and I met your mother as well. But my husband and I were guests amongst a couple of hundred invitees. So, I hardly think a greeting lasting only a few seconds, which was all the interaction I had with your parents at that time constitutes an acquaintanceship."

"No, I don't mean my parents. I mean that our shared mutual acquaintance would be Harri Kutsaar, who I understand was your next door neighbor when you lived in Tallinn."

"Harri Kutsaar you say? Oh wait a minute, I guess considering your age, you and Harri must be or were schoolmates. I believe Harri would have graduated from high school by now. And so, do I gather that he mentioned me to you?"

"Oh yes indeed, he certainly did mention you to me. And when I say, you and I share a mutual acquaintance, I really do mean we truly shared a mutual acquaintance."

"I see. I guess you're implying that Harri is now your boyfriend?"

"Well yes Harri and I have been together since January, but we're probably going to go our separate ways now. I'll be attending the University of Tartu in September and Harri has a solid position with the Lamborghini dealership here in Tallinn."

"Oh really? I thought you were a tennis player. I watched your match at Wimbledon on television where you beat Gloria Stockmann, who was the defending champion. As an Estonian I was naturally thrilled by your triumph."

Maia responded, "With all things considered, I have decided that I'm going to forgo pursuing a full time tennis career. Anyway, the reason I'm calling you is that I'll be in Zürich on Monday, the 3rd, for a personal business appointment. I will be staying overnight only as I'll be returning to Tallinn on the next day, Tuesday.

"Now since I do not know anyone in Zürich except for you based on our shared acquaintance, I was wondering whether you would like to meet me for drinks and conversation or better yet for dinner. It will be my treat as I expect my personal business meeting should yield a wonderful outcome that would put me in a mood to celebrate. And I'd rather not celebrate alone."

Linda answered, "That sounds wonderful, and I would be delighted to meet you for dinner. And I'm not a pauper, I can and insist paying for my part. It's the least I can do for the opportunity of meeting the prettiest woman in Estonia. Have you booked a hotel room then?"

"Not yet, I'll do that next. Can you recommend one?"

"I can even do better than that. My husband's company has an arrangement with one of the finest hotels in Zürich in which I can get you a deep discount. There's no sense paying more than you need to. This hotel also has an excellent restaurant and bar to make your stay in Zürich very convenient."

They finished their conversation having established satisfactory arrangements for Maia's trip to Zürich and for their evening date. Accordingly, Maia arrived in Zürich on Monday morning and checked into the hotel which Linda had reserved for her. After settling into her room and partaking of an adequate lunch, Maia was ready for her appointment with Annagret Bacsinszky at the law offices of Golubic, Teichmann, Bencic Ltd.

Annagret Bacsinszky turned out to be a middle aged woman with a perpetual stern dour countenance, but not otherwise unattractive. Despite her initial unfriendly demeanor, the meeting turned out to be quite positive. The conversation was conducted in Russian as it was understood that Maia was not conversant in German. Attorney Bacsinszky was fluent in Russian and that was the reason she was the attorney for Dmitri Arkhangelsky.

After the preliminary introduction, and Maia's presentation of her identification documents, attorney Bacsinszky paid particular attention to Maia's pulchritude. In reaction she offered, "Upon seeing you, Ms Laaning, I can better understand Maestro Arkhangelsky's somewhat whimsical bequest to you."

Attorney Bacsinszky then went on to elaborate on the business at hand, "As I told you in our telephone conversation, at his death, Dmitri Arkhangelsky had his assets divided in two locations: those in Russia and those outside Russia. As a result, he executed two separate wills; one dealing with all his assets located in Russia and the other dealing with his assets outside Russia. Our firm represents his estate for the assets located outside of Russia, which in addition to two bank accounts here in Zürich, includes an apparent condominium in London, UK and a country villa in Italy located between Rome and Naples.

"I am the executrix appointed by his last will and testament for those non Russian assets. Now it so happens that in his will he bequeathed a substantial sum of money to you. Before I get to that I want to assure you that our law firm has done its due diligence to ascertain the validity of this bequest to you.

"Dmitri came to our office in March of this year to instruct us to add a codicil to his will to favor you. Since you have no blood relationship to Dmitri, we were satisfied by his information provided to us, that the two of you only met once in January and that you had not been in personal contact with him since."

Maia interrupted, "Yes that's quite true. I wasn't even aware of his death until your telephone conversation. Come to think of it, I was in the United States at that time and was flying back to Estonia. I guess that's why I missed the news report of his death."

Attorney Bacsinszky continued, "In any case with such lack of contact, our firm was satisfied that you were not or had not exercised undue influence on him to change his will in your favor. In addition, we instructed a London solicitor who obtained an affidavit from the physician treating Dmitri for his brain cancer. The physician was able to swear that although Arkhangelsky's illness was terminal, it did not have any effect on the normal function of his brain. If he did change his will, the physician avowed that he would have done so with full knowledge and awareness of the consequence of his action. The physician was also able confirm that he was not suffering from dementia or any other equivalent affliction thereof."

Maia reacted, "Wow! You guys sure did your due diligence all right. I'm impressed. So, what manner was his bequest to me?"

Attorney Bacsinszky answered, "I shall read to you the exact wording in his will as it pertains to you: 'I bestow and bequeath the sum of 750,000 Swiss Francs (CHF) to Maia Laaning of Tallinn, Estonia, the daughter of Vivian Laaning, the former Minister of Culture in the Estonian government and stepdaughter to the current Prime Minister of Estonia at the time and date of the execution of this codicil of this my last Will and Testament. I make this bequest in gratitude for the delightful time I spent in the company of Ms Laaning. Her companionship provided good cheer to the extent that my life became much pleasanter than it would have been otherwise. Her gift to me in my view was priceless.'

"And that was how he officially and legally justified his generosity towards you."

Understandably Maia was shocked, pleasantly so by Dmitri's largesse. It was mind boggling to her, that he would willingly surrender so much money for what in essence was a one night stand, albeit there was no denying that the sex was spectacular. Accordingly, her reaction was in bewilderment as she gasped, "750,000 Swiss Francs! I can't believe it! Why that must be more than 765,000 euros if I understand the exchange rate. And I think it's almost 830,000 US dollars."

Attorney Bacsinszky said, "Quite so. Now as I advised there are a couple of documents that require your signature. The documents are in German with certified exact copies in Russian. Since we are led to believe you are non conversant in German, the copies in Russian are provided for you, so that you are exactly aware of the contents. Basically, the documents affirm that you are Maia Laaning the exact person indicated as the beneficiary stated in the Last Will and Testament of Dmitri Arkhangelsky. The other document indicates you are prepared to accept the bequest and you direct our law firm to make the payment to you upon the Court issuing the Order for distribution.

"Finally, I received correspondence from Dmitri just about two weeks prior to his death which contained a sealed unopened letter addressed to you. My instructions from Dmitri was to give you this letter unopened only after his death. Accordingly, you alone are privy to the contents of this letter. Obviously, should you wish to divulge or share the contents of this letter to anyone else that is solely under your discretion. Needless to say, you're under no obligation to divulge the contents of this letter to our firm nor to anyone of the other beneficiaries of Mr Arkhangelsky's estate. And of course, you do not need to, and I encourage you not to read the letter right here and now. I imagine that it is best you read it privately and at your leisure."

Consequently, the meeting ended with the completion of the necessary paperwork. Maia also informed attorney Bacsinszky of her mother's Zürich bank account wherein the funds of the bequest could be transferred. As it so happened the law firm had its accounts in the same bank, so that the eventual transfer of funds was smooth and seamless. Heeding attorney Bacsinszky's advice, Maia did not open Dmitri's letter while in the law offices of Golubic, Teichmann, Bencic Ltd. She took it with her to her hotel room as there was a couple of hours remaining until her dinner date with Linda Kalmet.

Thus, in the privacy of her hotel room, Maia opened the letter and read the contents which were as follows:

"My dear sweet sexy Maia,

"As you are reading my missive, I have already died, and you will be aware of my monetary gift which I have directed my lawyers to deliver to you via my Will. The purpose of this letter is to explain as best as I can what prompted me to make this gesture and especially instill in you the belief that you are well worth my regard for you and truly deserve my gift.

"You know by now that when I met you apparently on your nineteenth birthday no less, I was under a death sentence as I was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor about a year ago last summer. As a result, I was naturally in a very depressed state of mind. I canceled all my engagements for last year's fall season.

"As the new year approached, I wanted to shake myself out of my melancholy, so I did resolve that I should not cower to my disease but instead carry on as if nothing was amiss. In that regard I honored my commitment to perform in Il Trovatore with Anna Nezhdanova in Moscow and the special concert in Tallinn again with Anna as well. Now I discovered that it was easy to declare a resolution to improve one's situation in life, but it's another thing to actually act upon the said resolution.

"Although I gave an adequate performance in Moscow, and probably a better performance in Tallinn, I was still miserable. I only got through my Moscow engagements by consuming two one liter bottles of vodka after each performance and I was planning to do the same after my Tallinn engagement and all subsequent engagements. I developed a morbid desire that I would cheat my cancer death sentence by instead dying of cirrhosis of the liver.

"But this all changed when I met you, Maia, in my dressing room after the Tallinn concert. Your youth, your joie de vivre, your exuberance was infectious. And to top it all, you were a virgin and you indicated that you would be thrilled to have me as your first lover who claimed your maidenhood. That meant that I might be a special memory whom you'll cherish for the rest of your life. I was buoyed by such notion.

"Since you were unaware of the condition of my health your interaction with me was absolutely genuine filled with unbridled joy. The time in the sauna at your home was an unbelievable highlight in my entire life. And your mother was kind enough to forward a copy of the recording of the impromptu singing by Anna and me. Viewing it has been a source of complete unrestrained pleasure for me.

"The bottom line is that meeting you has resulted in a one-eighty attitude adjustment change for me. I no longer dread that I was soon to die; after all we are all doomed to die. The point is that you made me realize that feeling sorry for myself does not advance my felicity. But living my life to the fullest does.

"Before you, my sex life with my wife was sparse and joyless. Since Florence knew of my health condition, she was very tentative in our lovemaking, possibly afraid if she was too animated that might hasten my death. Since my time with you though, she has responded to my new found vigor and we now enjoy the stars and fireworks type of sex.

"In addition, after each performance I'm no longer content with downing a couple of bottles of vodka. Instead I now fuck either my co star or any luscious willing female who might wander into my dressing room after the concert is over.

"Oh yes Maia Laaning, you have made my life worth living as I am dying. I can't thank you enough. As I declared in my Will your gift to me was priceless. In reality what I gifted to you is a bargain compared to what I received in return as a result of meeting you.

"God bless you Maia. I hope all the best for you and I trust my parting gift will be well received by you.

"With warm loving regard,

Dmitri."

After Maia finished reading Dmitri's letter, she broke down in tears and wept openly for a considerable length of time. What struck Maia the most was not the amount of the bequest, but the realization that her time with Dmitri was apparently to him such a significant occasion that he was compelled to add her as a beneficiary to his will. Up until this time, and not aware of his terminal illness, she had assumed their tryst from his point of view was simply an unexpected lark for him, just an ephemeral moment in his life. Instead, as his letter blatantly implied, it was a game changer in his life.