From Russia with Love
The beautiful Yekaterina arrived today. She seems to be a good woman, and I think she will make a wonderful bride. After she arrived this morning, Fisher and I fed her lunch and then took her to meet her future husband. Sylvester was not at home, so assuming he was at work, we took Yekaterina to town to teach her about her husband's job as coroner. However, Sylvester was not at work either. Puzzled, we went back to Sylvester's home to wait for him. Hours passed, the children arrived home from school, but there was still no sign of Sylvester. Yekaterina made a delicious supper for all of us, and still we waited. It was after night fall when Sylvester arrived home. He seemed very tired as if he had had a long day. Fisher and I sat him down and told him that we had a surprise for him. Fisher announced Sylvester's "new wife" as I opened the door to the kitchen and led Yekaterina into the room. Sylvester and the children were speechless.
It was late so I told the children to kiss their mother goodnight and then sent them to bed. Meanwhile, Sylvester and Yekaterina got aquainted. After a time, we showed our Russian doll where she would be spending the night, and then the three of us went out onto the porch to have a smoke.
As we sat in the dark listening to the crickets sing their song to the night, Sylvester thanked us. He admitted that he had been very worried about finding a wife out West, but he also admitted that he found this whole affair to be highly irregular. Fisher reassured him that he just had cold feet. He then went on to tell him how common these types of marriages are. After discussing the success rates of arranged marriage versus traditional marriages based on "love" and "mutual consent", he pulled out a piece of parchment that had been folded in his pocket and began to read a number of testimonials from men who had found happiness through the skills of Sam Sherman and the exploitation of poor living conditions in Northeastern Europe. One in particular, a Sudsy McAdams from Hopkinton, MA, seemed to encourage Sylvester a great deal. Fisher even went on to show Sylvester the standard form he referred to as a "compatability test" which is used to create a "personality map" and match up couples based on 25 dimensions of the "consolidated perspective of self". I did not bring up the fact that Sylvester had not taken any test.
His mind at ease, Sylvester retired to bed looking forward to the coming days when he would get to know the strange non-English speaking woman he would be spending the rest of his life with.
The wedding is in two days, and much work remains to be done.
It was late so I told the children to kiss their mother goodnight and then sent them to bed. Meanwhile, Sylvester and Yekaterina got aquainted. After a time, we showed our Russian doll where she would be spending the night, and then the three of us went out onto the porch to have a smoke.
As we sat in the dark listening to the crickets sing their song to the night, Sylvester thanked us. He admitted that he had been very worried about finding a wife out West, but he also admitted that he found this whole affair to be highly irregular. Fisher reassured him that he just had cold feet. He then went on to tell him how common these types of marriages are. After discussing the success rates of arranged marriage versus traditional marriages based on "love" and "mutual consent", he pulled out a piece of parchment that had been folded in his pocket and began to read a number of testimonials from men who had found happiness through the skills of Sam Sherman and the exploitation of poor living conditions in Northeastern Europe. One in particular, a Sudsy McAdams from Hopkinton, MA, seemed to encourage Sylvester a great deal. Fisher even went on to show Sylvester the standard form he referred to as a "compatability test" which is used to create a "personality map" and match up couples based on 25 dimensions of the "consolidated perspective of self". I did not bring up the fact that Sylvester had not taken any test.
His mind at ease, Sylvester retired to bed looking forward to the coming days when he would get to know the strange non-English speaking woman he would be spending the rest of his life with.
The wedding is in two days, and much work remains to be done.
posted by Nathaniel David at 10:25 PM
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