Nana Olga & Gramps visit, and the girls meet a real "Black hat", and practice for the models forum.

The excitement and anticipation around the breakfast table on Friday morning was almost palpable, and it wasn't just the youngsters, Ella and Igor were equally pleased that their friends would be showing up later. Over the years the older couple had been of so much help to their family, it was marvellous they were able at last, to find a way to express how they appreciated that support.

Ella when taking the boys to school, was deliberately vague about what time Nana Olga & Gramps would be arriving that evening, claiming she was unsure of the train they would be catching. The fact was she knew which train they would be on, and later settled down in the station café at a table which gave a view of the platform where they would disembark.

Fortunately she only had to sit through one cup of the café's awful coffee before she saw her friends arrive, she used Anna's phone, which she had borrowed for the day, calling the cab company to confirm the booking she had made earlier that day, that her guests had just shown up, and she needed a car from the station to her home.

After hugs and greetings they made their way outside where Ella was hailed by one of the regular drivers she knew, he immediately came over to carry the two small cases that the elderly couple were carrying, placed them in the boot and helped them into the cab. Although they only lived within a few hours journey of the capitol, they had only been there on a couple of rare occasions throughout their lives, so this was a major event for them.

Olga said she had been so surprised when the neighbour of the girls English teacher had come round to explain she needed to go round the next day, to make the arrangements over the phone, but it had enabled them to sort things there and then, rather than send letters back and forth to make their plans. To read of their friends new house in letters was one thing, but to see the splendour of it was quite another, and they were happy for the family's good fortune.

On entering the house they removed their shoes as was customary, and Ella gave them each a pair of brand new slippers which she said they were to keep. She first showed them the study which was currently set up as their bedroom, then took them on a tour of the house, leaving out her sons bedrooms deliberately, saying how the boys would want to show them themselves later, and Ella didn't want to ruin the surprise.

Over a light lunch, Ella had prepared a particular regional variety of borsch that Gramps liked, Olga apologised they had only brought small presents for the children. Ella replied sincerely that the best present they could have, were their two visitors sitting at the table.

After eating they sat out in the garden talking until it was time to collect Greg and Peter.

They all walked past the local park where the boys played football, then turned down the road to the school, where they were greeted by Magda and several other mums waiting for school to end. When the lads saw who it was standing at the gate, mum and school friends were forgotten as they rushed up to the old couple eager to tell them of their new home and of the adventures of living in the city.

When they got back home Ella said how Nana Olga and Gramps had not seen the boys bedrooms, so perhaps they should show them, Greg with admirable restraint allowed his younger brother to show off his room first. The old couple had already been stunned by what they had so far seen, but they were astounded by a mural of dinosaurs playing football, that Peter was so proud of, as he pointed out each of the creatures.

Greg then got his turn, and was no less proud of his own room with the busy airport scene that adorned one wall, as he showed them the funny incidents included in the painting.

When the girls got home from school, there were more hugs and greetings, before they all sat down to an after school snack of medivnyk honey cake with tea, coffee or fruit juice.

All the children spoke of their school work, and Marta explained how she and Anna used the Metro system to get there, and about the various extra curricular clubs and activities that were available to them, and how there was a swimming pool just a short bus ride away, although they hadn't been there yet. The ringing of Marta's phone caused a sudden lull in conversation, as Karl had called to see how she was, and if her guests had arrived safely, and when they could go out.

A red faced Marta held a brief conversation, and promised to call back when she knew what was happening. This caused a change of topic around the table, but with the girl's new found confidence she related some details of Karl, and of their common interests.

Igor when chatting with his boss during the week, had mentioned that the old couple, who used to be their neighbours would be coming for a visit. He was told to knock off early on Friday, and as he had covered the previous weekend, a few of the other managers would be on call this weekend so he could have some free time with his guests. The consideration he was shown, and in fact all aspects of his new employment, meant he now looked forward to going to work in the mornings, and this attitude was reflected right through the company.

He arrived home to find everyone in the kitchen and after greetings all round snagged a piece of cake as Marta made fresh coffee and tea, as the conversation turned to the work that Igor now did, and how much he enjoyed his new position. Gramps was saying how pleased he and Olga were at their friends change of circumstances, and how they had seen what a smart new school the boys attended, and that the girls seemed so happy with their new school as well.

Ella began to prepare the evening meal, which Olga insisted on helping with despite the fact the girls were lending a hand as they wanted to catch up with all the news and gossip, plus they were able to supervise the boys, who were sat at the table working through some basic maths books. Igor having changed out of his work clothes showed Gramps through to the workshop and garage, where the old man was surprised by the smart new people carrier. Igor told him how as a company vehicle was included with the job, he had talked to his boss and persuaded him that this type of transport would be more useful, for both his family and be better for work, when they needed to move staff from one site to another.

It had been decided to eat at home that night as their guests might be tired after their journey, and also they were not used to eating out, and they wanted to ease them into the various surprises one at a time.

After eating when it was time for the boys to go up, Ella and Nana Olga bathed the boys, and read them bedtime stories. When they came down everyone sat in the lounge talking until the subject of Anna's clothes catalogue modelling was raised, a swift look passed between the girls, and Marta stated there was a folder somewhere about with a few of Anna's recent photos being taken for the winter season's range.

The folder was shown to their guests, Anna pointing out the original pictures from the local audition back in their home town, then looking through the shots of various fashion clothing and finally the mock-up page from an English children's clothing company. The discussion ranged from how much Anna enjoyed modelling, to the outrageous cost of the fashionable clothes that they wore, and if Anna or the other models got to keep any of them.

When the adults retired that evening, the old folks had use of the boys bathroom upstairs, but they also had the benefit of the downstairs toilet which was close to their bedroom.

Saturday was spent sight seeing, family and guests together, Olga and Gramps having the most enjoyable outing they could remember for a long time. When they stopped in the late afternoon sunshine at the outdoor tables of a café near some shops, Ella and Igor sprung a surprise on the old couple.

A train journey on Monday to a coastal resort, accommodation sorted, then returning on Friday afternoon, to stay with the family and travel back to their home on the following Monday. They tried to protest that it was too generous a gift, but Igor would have none of it saying how it was booked, and in their names, he also slipped Gramps an envelope with some spending money, while the females took Olga across to a nearby dress shop for a new outfit. Everything had been arranged, for the trip, even two small wheeled suitcases.

Everyone enjoyed the remainder of the weekend, and on Monday morning Igor got them to the station, and loaded onto the correct train for their holiday at a resort on the Black sea.

On Monday evening there were two phone calls, Nana Olga and Gramps called to say they had arrived safely and how they loved the resort and all of the guests there were in their age group and very friendly. The second call was studio business, could the girls come in after school tomorrow, and be sure to bring in the laptop they used for studio related topics, but that was all Dmitri was prepared to say.

On Tuesday they walked home from the station with Eve another of the studio's models as they did on most days, as she lived just a short distance from them, and spoke of the call asking them to show up at the studio later, but they still had no clue what it was about.

Dmitri greeted the girls, and told them it was time they met Boris, he was reclusive and the truth be known paranoid, as he was the only geek who had a walled office, which he was always sure to lock behind him, even just to cross the department or to visit the toilet.

Dmitri explained Boris was a 'black hat' who had moved from the dark side, and was now running the security of the company web sites. At the girls blank looks, he said how it was like a poacher becoming a game keeper, because he knew all the sneaky tricks, and it was him that had hacked into the web sites of other rival studios, to acquire the downloads on the CD's that the girls had been studying. They were told several stories about the man they were about meet, which made Marta think he was part wizard and part mad scientist who spoke to machines in a similar way that Dr Do-little spoke to the animals. Dmitri said with a grin, it was an unusual honour to visit the man in his office, for as far as he knew only himself and Ivan had ever seen inside.

Though both girls had spent a lot of time over the summer in the department, especially since they now had an office there, Boris was at the far end of the same area and they had only seen him on rare occasions. Marta noticed he was thin and prematurely balding, with a pony-tail, and the pallor of someone who spent little time outdoors. His office had three solid walls, with the only windows looking out across the department; looking out being the operative words as they had a reflective film so that people couldn't see in, if they could, it would have revealed the steel security bars over the said windows.

Looking round Marta noted just the one chair, two desks at right angles, with six screens, and an even greater number of computers, plus another work bench where there were various computers that had been disassembled. In the corner stood a filing cabinet like none she had seen before, with a fireproof logo, it looked more like a safe.

Although Boris had welcomed them into his domain, Marta felt he was ill at ease having any visitors, and kept in mind Dmitri's advise not to touch anything for fear of upsetting him. Anna handed over their studio laptop when he asked for it, and he proceeded to start it up without having asked for their passwords, he then connected various cables, and then started to run some sort of test. While that continued he placed what looked to be a brand new laptop next to their old one, along with a very small memory stick.

For the next hour Boris told them about the new machine, if turned on and searched you would find only the files, programmes and notes made by some random schoolgirl who's computer he had hacked and cloned. By inserting the memory stick a secret encrypted area could be accessed, a window appeared with many lines of random characters and symbols, and a log-on dialogue box also popped up. Anna needed to copy and paste one of the lines into the log-on then add another five letters manually, which he set up for her, then the true purpose of the computer became apparent.

The screen showed two options, 'view members chat forum', and, 'open talk to the models forum'. After connecting a cable between the two machines, followed by a flurry of key-strokes, a third option became available, 'view research directory', where he had now transferred all the girls previous work, having now completed a deep virus and safety scan.

Anna would now be able to log onto the studio web server from home or office, and for the time being do the beta testing of the 'talk to the models forum' whenever there were people available to play the part of pretend members. Both girls went through the procedure of logging on from scratch, to ensure they knew the process, and he even connected up the pc so they could view the members forum for a while, with Dmitri using his fake persona to tease the audience with rumours of a model release he knew was due out soon.

As Dmitri and the girls were catching-up with current topics on the forum, Boris had taken out the hard drive from the girls old laptop, then placed it between the rollers of what looked like a small but heavy duty mangle from an old laundry. He turned a crank, causing the drive to pass between three metal rollers, accompanied be crunching sounds, as the once flat slim box came out the other side as curled up as a week old sandwich.

At the girls astonished gasps, Boris said, "No one recovers data from one of MY drives."

They saw the literally mangled ex-drive fall into a bin below holding several other similarly destroyed devices, as Boris the guardian of the studio data security explained, nobody got access to any data without their own personal validated, unshared password, and no other unencrypted studio data left the building without his knowledge.

With their new studio laptop the girls thanked Boris and left to the sound of locks closing behind them, as they headed back to Dmitri's desk so he could pick up his stuff, as he was taking them out to supper before running them home. They were pleasantly surprised to find Alina waiting at Dmitri's desk, and that she would be joining them for the meal.

Dmitri had told Ella the night before he was unsure when they would finish, so suggested he feed the girls, rather than have Ella hold up meal times at home. The restaurant chosen was a favourite of Alina's that specialised mostly in Polish dishes, and for fun, because it was always good to practice, all the conversation around the table was in English.

On the drive home Marta asked why Boris made so much fuss about providing a new lap-top for the chat forum, to be told how their machine was an old spare one from the office, and they needed an up to the minute spec to run the models chat forum with the level of security that was wanted. It was agreed that Anna would log on for half an hour each weekday after school, with help from Marta to do the beta testing, and Dmitri would have the pretend members lined up to trial the system and iron out the bugs.

Wednesday after school the girls had a quick snack with the boys then went to Anna's room to get started, while Anna booted up, Marta briefly called Dmitri to say they would soon be ready to start testing the new forum. They even had a dictionary on the desk in case there was the odd unfamiliar word as the whole chat would be in English.

At last they had the programme booted up to an open chat window, after a brief look between them, Marta suggested that the test audience was waiting for her to start.

So Anna began typing.

Natasha: "Hello this is Natasha are any of my fans online today?"

Pervy Pete: "Hello Natasha, glad you could join us, there are a few others online."

Jack63: "Hi Natasha howya doing girl?"

555Ken: "Yo girl pleased you're on line at last."

After scrabbling through the dictionary, she made her next entry.

Natasha: "I'm pleased to meet you all but my replies may be slow. Jack63 and 555Ken have used words I can't find in my dictionary, could you please help me."

Jack63: "Sorry about that little lady, "howya doing" is a greeting, to ask if you are well, and I suppose that might be slang in some parts."

555Ken: "Like Jack63 I was using a slang greeting as well."

Natasha: "Thank-you for helping me, I am well, and I will make notes so that I can learn more, and will share with the other girls."

Pervy Pete: "You are such a pretty girl do you have a boyfriend?"

Natasha: "Pervy Pete you are being naughty, you should not ask things like that or you could get banned from talking on the models forum."

Jack63: "Way to go you tell him girl."

The banter continued for a little longer than intended for the first session, with the "members" using a few words that were new to them, and occasionally pushing at the rules without going too far, therefore Anna only had to give a few warnings, and reminded them to look at the rules.

Typically the girls reviewed what the test had disclosed, scrolling through the text, and of course in hind sight thinking of better replies Anna could have made. Marta thought that it was possible their testers had based their manner of texting on real members in the existing forum, to make them more realistic, and Anna was inclined to agree, though she said that none of the names seemed familiar, as they had often looked at that forum.

Marta wrote Dmitri a memo about their first use of the system, pointing out what they had learned so far, and noting that all sessions should be kept, in order that each model could learn and review each others practice "online" meetings. She went on to make a few more comments and observations, such as how the date and time stamps would show how the speed of each new girl progressed in both reading and writing skills.

The third trial run on Friday was kept brief as the girls would be preparing supper that night while also watching over Greg and Peter as their mum was going to the station to await the return of Nana Olga and Gramps. Though a simple meal it was one of the old couples favourite dishes, and she had in fact taught the girls that recipe, it was also very popular with their dad, and Marta had to warn him off with a spoon when he got home and wanted to sample the sauce on the stove.

Anna was overjoyed at their friends return, to see the old couple seemingly glowing with health and smiling nearly made her cry, a look from her sister at her side, and she knew Marta understood. Most of the travellers tales were kept till after the meal as it was ready to be served, then Nana Olga revelled in how fine a holiday it was, and about the people, and the entertainments each evening, they had even been paddling in the sea.

Igor said it was his hope to arrange a family visit to the coast next year, as they had never been before, but now they were in a position to afford such things when the children were out of school during the summer. There were gifts for all the family which Nana Olga gave out, with Marta and Anna each getting matching trinket boxes covered in shells.

The weekend followed with more entertaining, and on Saturday night they all dined out at a modest restaurant where the older couple would not feel overwhelmed. With both her mum and Nana Olga cajoling her, Marta had invited her young man, and Karl told Marta how he felt honoured that she wanted him to share a meal with all the people who meant the most to her. Thinking about Karl's reply made her realise how much he thought of her.

Another thing Marta discovered was how much Karl had listened to her, for when he spoke to Gramps he complained the man had taught Marta too well when it came to playing chess, and that he had heard Nana Olga had passed on her kitchen skills to both sisters.

Marta was pleased that Nana Olga approved of her boyfriend saying how he was so polite and modest, with a good work ethic, trying to make something of himself. On Sunday the family went to the local park where the boys were meeting friends to play football, and the various parents gathered to cheer them on.

Monday at breakfast was only a little tearful, for it had already been settled that their old friends would be coming to visit again at Christmas. They left with the same old suitcases as they had arrived with, so as to arouse the minimum of interest at their destination.

Igor took them to the station and helped them onto their train, earlier Gramps had tried to return the remainder of the spending money, saying how the resort had been full board, but Igor said it was worth that sum many times over just for joy their visit had brought.

The strain and sorrow caused by the recent loss of their neighbours and friends had been a bitter blow to the ageing couple, who had felt sure that after a few months the shuttle of correspondence would dry up, as the young family settled into their new busy city lives.

The invite to visit accompanied by train tickets, had shown them they were not forgotten, but then the luxurious coastal holiday had been like a fairytale, that had really made them feel like beloved grandparents, as they sat smiling, holding hands on the train home.

Will Marta have another brilliant idea? - will she also use a dirty word? Yes - 'banking' but not as you know it.

To be continued in chapter 21

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Please feel free to point out any errors, or make comments.

Addendum: Since writing the previous chapters I have discovered Ukrainian rail travel is quite timely and reliable, oops! There are probably many other errors too.