(Russian Ladies Story continued from previous page.)
Ludmila said that all those people knowing that she was with a foreigner tried to charge them double or triple the normal rate - and that it drove her crazy. When Russian ladies truly like you, they will do everything they can to protect you. Ludmila started calling Mike "Misha" - a Russian pet name for Michael. She told me, "Oh, I'm getting crazy about him! No, No it's not for translation".
That day Mike offered to buy her some presents but she refused point-blank. She explained to me later that she already had made up her mind to stay with Mike for the night, but she didn't want to give him any smallest reason to think that it might be because he bought her some present. She told me she would not introduce Mike to any of her girlfriends. She was just too scared to lose him, "There are too many Russian ladies who would do all they could to steal such a man from me - even if they are my friends." She called me several months later and said she was departing the next day to visit Mike in the USA. I have not heard from her since, so I presume she never returned to Russia.
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(Russian Ladies Story Epilogue)
The main point of this story is that it is a very bad idea to travel so far just to meet one Russian lady, to put all of your eggs in one basket. And it just doesn't make sense to fantasize and let your emotions run away from you when you have yet to meet the lady in person. Don't fall in love with a photo! It almost never works out the way you fantasized. Mike made this most common mistake but Ludmila rescued him in the end. (Maya, Interpreter Moscow, June 2001)
(End of Russian Ladies Story.)
