Have fun reading my story, based on the Moscow Music Peace Festival in 1989. Many thanks to my Editing Cousin, your input means the world to me.
MY RUSSIAN ADVENTURE - part 4
The show was under way, and I plowed through lots of bodies to deliver stuff and help out where needed. This was my actual work, the translate-act Mels and I pulled to grease things up backstage wasn't needed any more. The show machinery was working full steam.
I thought there was no time for a decent meal, but they put Diederick on dinner duty, he provided me with macaroni with spinach and fried bacon cubes, tepid but very welcome. My dinner break gave me a moment to watch in earnest, I sat with camera #3 with a good outlook on the stage while dusk was falling. The faces in the crowd around me lost their definition and the artists got a spotlight glow. I knew Arisha and Rinkya were somewhere in the crowd, and I imagined myself with them. I jumped up, threw my hands in the air and produced a primal wail.
"The Russian temperament rubs off on you I see," Diederick said/shouted, "fiery, compelling, pools of melancholy?" and he handed me a beer bottle with a bracket cap. I could play endlessly popping it off and on again. I took a swig. Pop. Clack. In sync with the music.
"So good." Another swig. "Arisha and Rinkya are out there somewhere," pop, clack, "Geraldine got them tickets." Pop. Clack.
Anneloes joined us. She put an arm around Didi's shoulder, took his bottle and gulped down half of it.
"Hey Anneloes. I heard you tried the real vodka. Like it?"
"Made me thirsty," she finished the bottle, "it's still working."
Diederick said appreciatively, "drinks like a Templar. She can eat like a Templar too."
"A pity I'm not allowed to eat my horse." she gave Didi a peck on the cheek while she looked me in the eye, "You hungry too?"
"We just ate."
"Okay," she gave me a peck as well and threw herself in the sea of bodies.
"Totally revived, isn't she," I said to Didi.
Before he could answer, Camera #3 Guy shouted, pointing in the direction of our control room, "you're needed! Both of you!"
* * *
The concert ended, but the crowd showed no intention to leave. They formed impromptu parties singing their favorite songs. Some wanted to include us, while we had to secure and pack our stuff. It was great to see so many happy people, but the happier they were, the more they got in our way.
A bare chested and goofy looking Mels found me. "Pimp! Vecherinka tonight? No, vecherinka now, this is world party!" He embraced me. "Gollandets, I come with you. I come to Golland. You can fit me in your trunk?" He held my head in both hands and looked straight in my eyes. "I taught you Russian, you teach me Dutch, yes?"
"After we finished packing, will you come to our hotel?"
"I'll bring my sister!" That put a smile on my face. "You got hots Pimp, and I wish you good luck. You'll need it with her!"
Around three am Harry called it a day. We gathered in our community room in the hotel, and we all got a glass. Harry uncorked champagne and made a round with the bottle. He had a word for everyone. "Well done Pimp, you did great. I guess it's back to Bareld now huh?"
"That would be great."
Harry smiled. "Still, it suits you."
Mels came barging in and shouted, "Pimp! I brought sis! She brought friends!"
"Hello Bareld," Arisha exclaimed, "you know Rinkya of course, and this is Yula. Another good friend of mine.
"What do you think of our pants?" She made an elegant turn with one arm up and the other behind her back. "Didn't Rinkya do an amazing job?"
The three of them were wearing the jeans we provided, but pimped up with a strip of the American flag on one side and the USSR flag on the other. Our CREW t-shirts had gotten the same treatment, but were now tapered as well. Arisha did another turn and now Rinkya and Yula turned with her. They looked fantastic. It was a smart solution to make them fit Rinkya, but it looked great on all of them.
Arisha pushed Yula towards me. A stunning beauty with regular features and luscious hair. Full lips that were slightly parted, and an expression that froze time. I mean, her face was as motionless as a sculpture, and looking in her eyes made me lose sense of time.
"She'd love to get to know you," Arisha said. It certainly didn't show. With a mischievous smile she said, "believe me, she does." Then Yula showed me the smallest of smiles.
"I do."
She could speak without moving her lips.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Yula. Why would you want to know me?" Yula's face went blank again, while Arisha burst into laughter.
"Don't be dense Bareld, why wouldn't she?" She took my hand and pulled me along. "Let's have a private chat."
In the corridor she held me close. "I have another favor to ask."
I groaned. "Does this favor mean we can't be together tonight? Don't you want to be with me?"
"I do, I do. But sometimes other things are more important than what we want for ourselves. Tomorrow you will be going home, and my friend Yula is heading for a disaster, and I think you're the one who can prevent it."
I shook my head. What could I possibly do that Mels, or a friend, couldn't.
"Yula is the daughter of Kirill." Now I wanted to run away. Kirill was the scariest man I ever met. "She is also a person who needs a bossy man. She can't respect a guy who melts for her beauty. She has a submissive streak."
"What does that mean?"
"A dominating man sexually arouses her."
"You know strong women turn me on, don't you? I probably have a submissive streak myself. What could I possibly mean to her?"
"I've seen your authority, Bareld. And Mels has seen it too, it's strong. The thing is, all the bossy men she knows are bastards. She meets them through Kirill, who's a major bastard himself. She thinks it's connected, and it's what she needs. She has to learn there are sweet bossy men, who can dominate her and make her flourish at the same time. The guy she is seeing now will destroy her."
"I can't do bossy. It's not who I am."
"That's where you're wrong, Bareld." She leaned into me. "You have a switch, you know. You just have to flip it. And I'll give you a speed course Yula." Her eyes sparkled and she shone. "You underestimate how amazing you are."
I couldn't see how this could work, but I complied. "What did you have in mind?"
She grabbed my head and pulled me in for a heated kiss. It stirred my loins and made us gasp. She whispered, "I want you, Bareld, I really do. But this has to come first."
Arisha gave me the outlines of her plan. She wanted me to embrace CEO-Bareld. Be like my father in the way I resented so much. It was at odds with my normal approach -- go with the flow -- and it felt artificial and dishonest. Arisha's smile and her confidence in me ate my objections away. The irony that I was forced by her to be dominating, didn't escape me. The deciding factor was that it was so different, I wanted to find out what it would be like. What kind of anthropologist would I be if I didn't want to know?
I felt nervous when we returned to the room. Didi said, "you were gone for quite a while. But Rinkya told us about yesterday's night. Yula translated. Very entertaining."