This is quite a long story, but worth the reading. Rog
The Story Of A Young Russian
Ye was born to a Russian couple. His parents had two older children, a boy 8 and a girl 6 when Ye was born. Ye never knew what his father did for a living; all he remembers is his father going to work in the morning. His mother worked in the afternoons. When Ye started school his mother would walk him to school in the morning, his brother and sister would walk him home in the afternoons. They lived on the fifth floor of a large building in Moscow. Many people lived there, most were not nice people. They were always in a hurry, and grumpy. They complained the stairs were too steep, it was too cold, it was too hot, the lights did not work, the landlord did not do anything, the building was falling apart. Ye said they always complained they were never happy.
Ye liked school, he learned about other places and other peoples. He learned about the Great War. About the sacrifices his people had made to win that war. He also learned about airplanes, boats, and automobiles. Ye’s Father told him about rocket ships, going to the moon and back. His Big Brother told him about people living in space above the earth.
Ye knew his family was not rich, but they had been comfortable. There had always been food, and warm clothes. Ye had seen children on the streets as he and his Mother went shopping or to school. These children did not have warm clothes, or good boots to keep out the snow. Most looked hungry, and some looked bad, his brother called them bully boys. They seemed bold and dangerous to Ye. Ye did not like seeing them, they scared him. One day he had asked his mother who they were. She told Ye they were poor children who did not have Mothers and Fathers to take care of them.
Then one day when he was 8, Ye came home and something was wrong. His Mother was crying, and his sister were scared. Ye’s Father and big Brother had disappeared. Ye felt his Mother knew where his Father and Brother were but all she would say was that they were not coming home ever. Ye was scared, his life had just taken a turn and he knew it.
Over the next few weeks things got worse. Ye’s Mother was gone all the time during the day, and late into the evening. Then his fourteen year old sister started staying out late at night. One night his Mother and Sister got into a big fight and his sister left. Ye never seen or heard from her after that.
Ye’s Mother started getting sick. She always looked tired. Then men started coming home with her. At first she would make Ye go to his room and read, and if he came out she got upset. Then she seemed to not care anymore. Ye would come out of his room and his Mother would be drinking with these strange men.
As his clothes got too small or shabby, there were no replacements as before. Food started getting less and less. One day the landlord hit ye as he was coming into the building, yelling he wanted his money. Ye had no idea what the man was talking about. The landlord smacked him around for a bit giving him a bloody nose and lip. Then he told Ye to tell his mother she needed to see him when she came in. Ye stumbled to his apartment and locked the door. When his Mother came home, she was very angry. Ye told her about the incident with the landlord and his mother’s anger increased. She yelled at him for going outside. From her pocket she pulled a half eaten potato and a crust of bread, put them on the table and told him to eat. Ye was not hungry, but when he tried to tell his mother she slapped him and screamed for him to eat. Ye got up and ran outside into the snow. Ye had no friends or relatives in this town, so he had no where to go. Ye wandered around for a while then went back home. His mother was gone.
The following morning the landlord knocked on the door and told him to get out. The landlord said Ye could not live there anymore, he had to find somewhere else to live. The landlord would not let him take any thing but his coat and the clothes he was wearing. Ye hit the streets crying and scared.
Out On His Own
Ye had no where to go, and no friends. Ye wandered the familiar streets, which now seemed so remote and unfriendly. Ye walked on as he cried and not caring where he went. The day was cold and dreary. Snow was blowing and cutting into him but he did not care, he was too scared and shocked to care. Suddenly something hit Ye in the head. As Ye stumbled forward, he was hit in the face, and knocked to the ground. Ye looked up and there were three Bully Boys, smiling and laughing. Then they started kicking him. They kicked him in the ribs, and stomach. Then a blow to the head, and he quite moving. Ye was still conscious, but he could not move. The boys removed his boots and his warm coat. As the bigger two boys left, the smaller one removed Ye’s socks, then was trying to remove his shirt when Ye started fighting him. The boy got up laughing and ran off. Ye knew he had to get up and find a warm place or freeze to death.
Not knowing anywhere else to go Ye found himself returning to the apartment building he had been thrown out of that morning. Ye slipped into the building and went down into the basement. The coal fired boiler was in the basement, as was the landlords apartment. Ye hide in a small space behind the boiler. It was dark, smelly, and when the boiler kicked on it got real hot, but it beat being outside in the freezing cold. Ye hide there that night, not sleeping till he could stay awake no longer. Ye feared if he fell asleep the landlord would find him and beat him more then throw him out into the cold. Ye was scared, he wanted his Mother, but knew she had gone away and possibly never return like his Father and Brother.
Ye awoke late in the day. The landlord was sitting in the entry way to the building at the top of the stairs talking to the people as they left and entered the building. Ye overheard the Landloard telling the people he had evicted Ye’s family for failure to pay their rent. He had also confiscated their possessions for money due. Now he was trying to sell off the items. Ye looked around the basement for a way out. No doors and all the windows were little and placed up close to the ceiling too high to reach. While inspecting the coal chute, Ye found the door to the chute barred from the inside. Ye slipped the bar out of it’s socket and was able to open the door enough to slip out. Ye went out looking for something to eat. But first he needed something to keep him warm. Ye ran into some kids his age hiding along the path to a park. These kids were dressed in rags, and were dirty. They smelled foul, and cursed constantly. Several of the kids had arms or legs that had been broken and not set properly. The limbs were twisted or misshapen and almost useless. One of the kids walked right up and hit him wanting his clothes. Ye hit him back saying no, and ran off looking for somewhere safe from these mean kids. Ye had never experienced anything like this before. He was scared, confused, hungry, and cold. Ye so much wanted his old life back, but realized that was gone forever.
Ye was getting colder and needed shelter. He went into a shop he and his mother had frequented, the woman there took one look at him then threw a wooden block at him. Cursing him and telling him to not ever come back to her shop. Calling him names he had never heard before. Ye ran away no longer crying, he knew crying would not help. With his feet numb Ye found an old man sitting beside a can of burning sticks beside the river bank. The old man was sort of hidden back under an overhang below the high water mark. The old man let Ye sit and warm his feet by the fire. The old amn got up and went walking down the river. Soon the old man returned with a pair of womens shoes. They were too big for Ye, but they would keep his feet out of the snow. The old man took rags and wrapped them around Ye’s feet, then slipped the shoes on him. That night Ye huddled back to back with the old man, under his great coat for warmth.
Checking trash bins every day became Ye’s main goasl. Looking for anything he and the old man could use to eat and keep warm. Ye soon learned when restaurants dumped the daily left overs from the customers, and was there to fight for the food with the other boys. Sometimes he was able to grab items and run, getting away with something to eat. Other times he was set upon by older boys and beaten, losing what ever he had gotten hold of. Sometimes losing even the clothes he had scavenged from trash bins.
Ye dreamed of the life he had before his Father and Mother had disappeared. But he knew that life was not to be again, and that life now depended on what Ye could do for himself. Ye was constantly on the lookout for the police. He had seen the police arresting young boys before, and taking them away. Rumor had it, to work camps far away. Or they were forced into the Army or Navy, if they were old enough.
One evening Ye was walking through one of the many parks in Moscow along the river. Ye liked walking there; it reminded him of the walks his Mother used to take him on in happier times. Ye came across a couple walking next to the river. A middle aged man, walking with a younger woman. The couple was speaking a foreign language, yet the woman was having trouble understanding what he was saying at times. Ye followed this couple for a while, listening to their strange conversation. Ye soon understood that the man was from the United States, and he was talking very gently and kind to the woman. Eventhou Ye could not understand the language, he understood the mood and manners of the conversation, he had seen and heard his Father and Mother talking in such manners a long time ago. Ye followed them when they left the park and went to an apartment building. The Man saw the woman to the door, then left walking. The man walked a few blocks to a hotel frequented by foreigners. Ye was yelled at by a security patrol, and Ye realized he was in an area of the city where homeless people were not allowed. Ye ran fast before they should catch him and take him away somewhere.
On his way back to the river hideout he and the old man called sanctuary Ye did a lot of thinking. Ye had heard that many Russian women were trying to find American men to marry, so they could be taken back to America. Ye got to thinking if Russian women could do that why no a Russian Boy. Ye determined he would talk to the man the next time he saw him in the park.
For the next few days Ye did not see the man and woman in the park. In fact Ye spent so much time in the park that the old man threatened to throw him out for not bringing home any food, or warm rags.
Then one morning after being soundly beaten by a bunch of bigger street boys, Ye saw the couple getting out of a Taxi and coming his way. Ye was lying on the street crying due to the pain in his stomach from being kicked by the older boys. The woman turned the man away to walk a long way around the boy. Ye knew this was the only chance he would get. Ye sat up and called out to the man. Ye told him he would be a good son, a good servant, what ever the man wanted him to be he would be. The man asked the woman what the boy was saying. The woman told him the child was a street urchin and not to pay any attention to him. Ye did not understand what she had said, but he understood the tone. Ye got up, trying to stand up straight, but not doing a very good job of it. He walked up to the man and asked if he could go to America. That if the man was looking for a wife, why not a son as well. This time when the man asked the woman told him what Ye had said. So the man asked the woman to ask Ye why he wanted to go to America. Ye said in America he would not have to fight the big boys just to eat every day. The man was touched by Ye’s spirit and words.
This man took Ye with him and the woman that evening on their walk. When the evening turned to night they walked the woman to her apartment, then the man took Ye to his hotel for the night. The next day the man took Ye to breakfast with him. Then they went and met the woman at her apartment. The woman sat and talked to Ye for many hours, and telling the man what Ye had to say. The man told the woman he had decided to marry her and bring her back to the United States, but that the paperwork would take a few weeks. He also decided to adopt Ye, and bring him to the United States as well. He made arraignments for Ye to stay with the woman till the paper work could be completed and approved. Five weeks later the man met the Woman and Ye at the International Airport in Anchorage.
A month later I met Ye, when his new Father brought him to take 4-H Gun Safety training. Ye could not understand a word of English. But with patience and a lot of sign and pictures we were able to get the course completed. Ye was 10 years old then.
I ran into Ye at the Gym last week. Ye was with a couple of high school students, laughing and joking, just like any other 16 year old. Speaking English without any hint of an accent, just like any American teenager. Looks like Ye has fully assimilated, and became an American. Brings tears to this old man’s eyes.
Yes guys this is a true story, and I am so proud to tell Ye’s story. Ye’s American Dream.
