He started the car. In half-an-hour or so we arrived.
Dan was a very good guide. He knew the city. His grandparents had their house in Santa Monica not far away from the ocean, and in his childhood Dan spent a lot of time with them there. He showed us the dearest to him places and told some stories.
– This is the well-known pier, and that is my favorite carousel with the horses.
We came up to the carousel pavilion and entered.
– Forty-four hand-crafted ponies for little children. Amazing, isn’t it? And now everything is exactly the same as it was in my so remote childhood. It was always a big problem for my mom to lead me off from the carousel’s ponies. My eyes were completely full of tears, despair and disappointment… It was because the short entertainment always ended so soon. I was roaring, screaming and crying. My hysterics could continue for hours. I had no any wish to go back home, since I was afraid of my father.
Dan sighed and in a second several little boys in the carousel were crying. They sobbed so hard, and their moms couldn’t sooth them.
– Hmm, – Dan shook his head. – It’s I in my childhood!
We looked at each other.
I put my warm palms on my ears, and we hurried up to the exit. The beach was absolutely deserted. The abnormal lull, intense quietness of the Pacific… It strokes and alerted. We took some pictures and paid attention at the huge amount of dark standstill clouds above the ocean.
Suddenly the strong wind sprang up. The tallest coastal palms bent down so close to the ground that it seemed they were not the trees, but huge elastic grass what in a minute or so would cover and dam all the roads; so we were in a hurry to go back to the car.
But it was too late to reach it safely: A sand whirlwind started, and we couldn’t move.
– Tornado, – I heard Dan’s voice. – Don’t stop, move, guys, quickly! Go!
Somehow we hung on to each other and with closed eyes and mouths (it was impossible to open them) groped our way through to the car. It seemed to me it took us for ages to reach it that moment.
– O-la-la-la, – I heard myself…
I couldn’t pronounce a word when realized at last that we all were safe, sitting in the comfortable car with the doors and windows closed.
– Well, – Dan said.
– Well, – Slava repeated.
– Hell! – I exclaimed, and three of us burst out laughing.
It was nervous and relaxed healthy laugh of big relief at the same time.
I looked through the windshield.
The sun was brightly shining in the blue sky. There was no thunderstorm cloud above the ocean, it was breezing. The weather was fine.
– Let’s go? – Daniel asked. – Let’s go home, guys. And we raced back home, listening to a popular country music station.
Late in the evening Dan downloaded all the pictures of the wedding day into his computer and almost all of them were cream of the crop.
– Excellent pictures. Such a remarkable day! A very special, extraordinary day, Vika. Thank you, my darling. And where are your sun-glasses?
It turned out that somehow and somewhere I left or lost my sun-glasses, and one of my high-heel wedding shoes was broken.
– I’m not upset with that at all Dan, what a great loss! – I joked. – We brought home some ocean sand instead! I can still feel it not only in my hair but on my teeth too, and you?
Dan shook his jeans and the golden sand from the Pacific Ocean poured from his pockets out to the floor.
– And now it’s time to check my clothes and take a shower, isn’t it? – I smiled.
The phone rang. It was long-awaited call from Dan’s best friends from Texas.
– Hi, guys! – Dan answered joyfully. – You can congratulate us. We got married at last… Yes, today in Beverly Hills. And can you imagine we were caught in the tornado in Santa Monica. It was terrible… … Of course, we were scared. I was afraid so much for the guys. It was their first experience… … No, I haven’t heard or read the weather forecast yesterday. … Oh, thank you so much! We are ok, everything is good. Thank you! I’ll tell Vika for sure now.
Dan interrupted the phone conversation for a second and shouted out.
– Vika, congratulations from Nick and Stacy! They are so happy for us. They opened the bottle of fine Californian wine and raised their glasses for us and for our marriage. Cheers! They sent the best wedding wishes to us and their personal “Hi,” to Slava.
– Thanks. Thank you and your friends, my dear husband. We’ll see them soon in California, won’t we? – I shouted out from the bathroom.
– Okay, my sweetheart.
– And I’ll go to sleep, my dear hubby. I’m tired. Is it ok?
– Okay, night-night, my sweetie pie! I’ll join you pretty soon; – Dan replied and continued the conversation with his friends.
I went to the bedroom and fell asleep in a moment.
In a while I was woken up by Dan’s loud laugh.
– And she said “awful” instead of “lawful!” Ha-ha-ha…
Dan was still on the phone with Nick and Stacy describing our wedding in all the details. He was sitting at the computer desk in the bedroom, sipping the red wine, and turning around in his hi-back executive chair.
– Am I awful Stacy? Does Nick confirm this? Does he agree with the fact that I can be an awful husband? Ha-ha-ha. … Thank you, guys. I’ve never expected to hear that from you. Are you kidding? Seriously? Absolutely… Hmm. – Dan finished the bottle and was answering some Nick’s questions.
– Yes, of course, Vika’s mom, and sisters, and aunties called and congratulated us. Yes, I talked to everyone. … Of course, in Russian. Ha-ha-ha: “Prie-vet” (i.e. “Hello”), “Ha-ro-shiï muu-sh” (“Good husband”), “Pa-ka, pa-ka” (Bye-bye). – Daniel boasted and joked at the same time.
My excited husband was overwhelmed with the emotions and wine. He couldn’t stop describing the wedding in all the details. He did it very eloquently, specially for his best friends. When he noticed that I woke up, he waved me: “Night-night, sweetie pie!”
Oh, that wedding of mine…
3. American Couples
I was watering my favorite fantastic rose bushes in the front yard.
Dan came back home from his mom’s house, and I found it weird, yet wonderful that he was in a very good mood.
– Dear, Nick and Stacy want to meet you and Slava. They are coming to California to visit Diane, Nick’s mom, in a couple of weeks. Their children are going to come to see their granny, too, to do some shopping with her. Diane is so generous. She has been spoiling her grandchildren since childhood, and she always gives them a lot of cash