THE Anatoliy

After the lapse of six months, Sasha told me that one of his friends in Kharkiv would like to visit the Auto-parts exhibition in Guangzhou, and asked me if I could help him translate.

Of course, I could. But the next day Sasha told me that his friend would not need my help.

Okay, fine.

Shaolin called me too, asking if I was available the next week in working as an interpreter for a customer from Russia, in the very exhibition. Of course, I could. I would enjoy the moonlight.

I flew to Guangzhou at the midnight and met up with the Russian customer, named Ruslan. Together with him was his sister, whom I thought was his wife. Ruslan was a stout man, and eh...disabled, with thumb and forefinger missing in his right hand. But he also impressed me with his Ukrainian accent, which I was familiar with.

So in the next day, we visited the boring exhibition as planned, it was boring because he didn’t find anything he was interested in.

In the afternoon, he wanted to exchange some money, so went to a bank. There we got a queue number and sat in the chairs chatting.

“Dear Ruslan, my friend previously told me that you are from Russia, but your language smells a little Ukrainian flavor, where are you from?”

“I’m from Kharkiv, Ukraine, have you ever heard from that city?”

“Yes, actually I even have a friend there, who is doing a motor-parts business.”

“Wow, you know, the cycle of auto-parts and motor-parts business in Kharkiv is small, if you don’t mind, could you tell me your friend’s name?”

“It’s Alexandr(Sasha) Pestov.”

“Ah-- then you are THE ‘Anatoliy’? ”

“No, I’m Leonid.”

“Never mind, it means that you are Anatoliy. (Until now I haven’t figured out why Leonid means Anatoliy, but he continued calling me Anatoliy.) Let’s call Sasha!”

We dialed Sasha’s number, and it was a surprise when Sasha heard us both. Small world!

“Hey Anatoliy, I apologize to you that I declined your service at first. Pestov recommended you, saying that you are a good helper. I refused to hire you because I wanted to do it my own way, so I called a tour agent. I didn’t expect that the tour agent referred you.”

“Never mind, it means that we should meet.”

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