
"Language Lessons" 
by Adhara Law

(c) 1998 Adhara Law. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced
without express written permission by the author.


He must have noticed me standing on the corner, a stranger in a strange land, looking 
over the map in my chilly hands with panicked confusion. For fifteen minutes I'd tried 
locating the street in front of me, but it simply wasn't there. The map I had was a 
sort of haphazard creation done in the limbo between communism and democracy, where 
all Russian street names were being changed from communist to more palatable 
appellations. Tough break for a traveler like me.

"Vyi zabludsha?"

I blinked up into deep, dark brown eyes framed by a handsome and young Russian face. 
He looked to be in his mid-twenties, not much younger than me. I smiled, not at all 
understanding what he'd said to me. "Do you speak English?" I implored while trying 
to sound as polite as possible.

He shook his head and creased his brow, but then gestured with a smile to the map in 
my hands as if to say, may I? 

I handed it over to him. Light snow was falling into the streets of St. Petersburg, 
and even at four o'clock in the afternoon it was beginning to get dark, the city being 
so far north. I pulled my long coat tighter around me.

He pointed at the map and then down at our feet. Here is where we are, I gathered. He 
gestured around us, apparently indicating that he wanted to know where I was going.

"Karelia Hotel," I said. I scrunched my face up trying to remember the word for hotel, 
but he opened his mouth in a smile of understanding, and pointed to another street on 
the map, quite a ways away from where we were standing.

I hadn't realized I'd walked so far. I'd been out and around the expanse of the old 
city since morning, exploring while I had the time. I'd come to Russia on business, 
a last minute trip for my boss, even though I didn't know the language. I'd crammed a 
few useful phrases into my head on the plane, but had soon discovered that they 
wouldn't get me everywhere.

I nodded and smiled at him as I took back the map, adding a tentative "spasiba" as 
thanks. He grinned and nodded back, and I began walking.

"Isvenitye," I heard behind me. I turned to see him take a few steps in my direction 
and gesture. From what I could tell, he wanted to go with me.

I'd been warned that crime was rampant in St. Petersburg, and that it wasn't safe for 
anyone, especially women, to travel the streets alone. But there was something about 
him that was so innocent and clean. Maybe it was the language barrier. Maybe it was 
the clean white snow sitting on his shoulders like a mantle of purity. Either way, I 
found myself smiling and nodding. So we walked.

"Andrei," he said to me, pointing at himself. Then he pointed to me.

"Katherine," I offered. 

"Ah, Katarina."

I laughed. The business associates we'd come here to meet had converted my name into 
its Russian form, and it sounded exotic to my American ears.

The snow swirled and tangled in my short hair as we walked, Andrei on my left, close. 
Russians had such a different sense of personal space, I'd learned. I breathed in the 
smells of St. Petersburg, Window to the West, and reveled in their exotic flavor, 
picking up the trace of a musky and soapy scent that was Andrei. Even the snow felt 
different from the stuff that fell back home. 

"Katarina, vyi gavaritye parooski?" He asked. 

I recognized the question. "No, sorry, I don't speak Russian," I replied. "Nyet."

We continued down streets lined with onion-domed remnants of tsarist Russia 
side-by-side with the hard concrete of fallen communism. I watched as old women with 
winter-worn faces shuffled past me on the sidewalk, bags of groceries hanging at 
their sides. Young mothers nestled children into their hips to keep them warm as they 
made their way to the heat of the metro. I stole a quick glance at Andrei. His soft 
Russian features faded into the blur of snowflakes, beautiful Slavic cheekbones 
framing a face that was neither worn nor angelic.

As we turned a corner, I sucked in a breath. In front of us was a grand structure, a 
walled fortress with all the decadence of eighteenth century Russian architecture. I 
stopped for a second.

Andrei pointed, snapping his fingers as if trying to recall something. "Pyotr i 
Pavel," he said. "Peter and Paul." He announced the English names with delight, 
seeming to be happy to have recalled what they were.

The Peter and Paul fortress. I'd read about it in a travel guide; it had been 
designed to protect the city from the invading Swedes. I watched as Andrei stepped in 
front of me and faced me, moving back to give himself some room. I looked on in 
confusion. He began moving around, mimicking something. I realized he was acting. He 
thrusted, parried -- he was telling me the story of the fortress. I threw my head 
back in a laugh, letting the snow melt into my eyelashes. When I regained my 
composure, he bowed before me with a flourish. "Vyi lyubitye, da?"

I clapped joyously as he laughed and walked close to me to lead me on to the hotel.

We pushed on through the crowded streets, crossing an ornate bridge spanning the 
frozen Bolshaya Neva river, as Andrei pointed out to me. For some things, a common 
language is unnecessary. The darkening sky transformed the city, making it appear more 
like the eighteenth century jewel it was before the communists stripped it of its 
tsarist beauty. Onion domes peeked out above the towers of concrete, reminders of its 
past. I was beginning to recognize the terrain; we were getting close to the Karelia 
hotel. But instead of continuing on where I thought we should be going, Andrei 
gestured toward another direction with a smile. I followed.

Down another street we went. We turned into a huge square, a pillar at its center. At 
the other end was a sight that took my breath away.

It was the Hermitage, the famous museum that served as the tsars' Winter Palace. 
Three stories high and decorated profusely with statues and pillars, the building 
dominated the otherwise plain square. I put a hand to my chest, my mouth open, as I 
stared at Andrei. He smiled back. "Ehrmitazh," he said simply, staring up at the 
building. "Krasivyi, da?"

I didn't need a dictionary. It was beautiful. I walked slowly through the square 
toward the museum, taking in the incredible structure. The falling snow hushed, just 
for a moment, the sound of cars and trucks hurrying through the city. 

I felt a warmth behind me and turned to see Andrei standing close, very close. He 
looked straight into my eyes. "Krasivaya." His hand went to my cheek, feeling soft as 
it slid down the chilled skin toward my chin.

So much was different around me that I no longer felt like myself. I closed my eyes 
and felt Andrei's soft lips against mine and his insistence as he pushed them open to 
feel my tongue. I threw aside my reservations about such intimacy with a stranger and 
gave myself over to it. The wind echoed through the square as it howled its way around 
the ancient building we stood near, and in a moment the kiss was over.

Andrei's deep brown eyes held me in an intense stare. Without words, he took my hand 
and began leading me out of the square in a direction away from the Karelia Hotel. I 
knew where he was taking me, and I wasn't protesting. 

After streets and corners disappeared behind us, we stood in front of an ordinary 
apartment building, indistinguishable from all the other apartment buildings that 
dotted St. Petersburg. I noticed the disrepair of the stairs as we entered, and I 
breathed in the heady odor of onions and mushrooms that filled the cramped hallway. 
Andrei led me up two flights of stairs and opened a door at the end of a short hall.

His apartment was typically Russian -- small, crowded, only three rooms to live in. 
But there was a warmth that emanated from it, making it cozy and inviting. I glanced 
around. Bookshelves crammed to overflowing lined the walls of the tiny living room, 
and where they left the walls uncovered were prints of famous paintings. Clearly 
Andrei was a lover of the arts.

I stepped further into the room and heard Andrei close the door behind me. Thin 
shadows played against the carpet and the walls as the lights of the busy street 
outside crept in through the one window in the dark room. The slight tremors of my 
nervousness that had started on the walk up the stairs were beginning to subside as 
I relaxed into the room. And then Andrei put his arms around me.

I felt his body slide up against my back, his hands moving around my waist. The warm 
wetness of teeth and tongue tingled against my earlobe. I sighed and closed my eyes 
as I leaned back against him. "Syooda," I heard him whisper as he took my hand to lead 
me to the bedroom.

I followed blindly, letting him lead me to the bed, where he gently pushed me down and 
began unbuttoning the shirt I wore. My breathing was heavy. When he had completely 
unbuttoned my shirt, I watched as he took my hand and brought my fingers to his lips.

"Palits," he breathed, slipping my index finger into his mouth with closed eyes. I 
couldn't help letting a constricted moan slip out of me as I felt his warm tongue 
slide over my skin.

Sliding my finger out of his mouth slowly and putting my hand on his chest, he leaned 
closer to me. I lay on my back looking up at him, his beautiful Russian cheeks and 
deep eyes filling my vision, so beautiful I closed my eyes in agony. I felt his cheek 
against my fluttering eyelashes as his mouth barely grazed my eyelid. "Glaz," he 
whispered. He moved down to my lips, lightly pressing his own against them. "Goobyi." 

The pace of my breathing picked up, filling the room like a whispering metronome. I 
could feel a thin sheen of sweat begin to cover me as the warmth of the room and 
Andrei's body closed in. With a deep swallow, I opened my eyes to watch Andrei move 
even further down. "Shyeah," he breathed against the skin of my neck. I let my 
fingernails dig into his back as he crept even further. The clasp of my bra popped 
open under his fingers; I watched him smile up at me as I moaned in exquisite agony, 
feeling the inside of my jeans get wetter the further he went.

I felt the softness of his lips tickling my nipple, making me arch my back upward to 
meet him. "Sosok." I drew in a sharp breath as he began sucking and nibbling. I wasn't 
sure how much more I could stand. He lay slow, drawn out, tiny kisses along my stomach 
as he nipped his way to my navel. Dipping his tongue into the small depression, he 
whispered, "Pupok." 

My ability to keep from whimpering was quickly declining. His words were doing more to 
me than any actions had ever done, and he wasn't finished yet. He peeled the thin 
cotton of my panties down, pulling the jeans with them, and paused. "Vskoosnyi," he 
whispered like a chef inhaling the tantalizing odor of a rich dish as he covered my 
clit with his tongue.

I could take no more. Sliding my fingers into his short, dark hair, I arched my hips 
to meet him. The smells of Russia surrounded us -- rich cooking, the leaded gasoline 
from the cars outside, the dust of the tsars and the communists -- and mixed with the 
odor of sex that we were creating. I threw my head back as he licked, gripping the 
strands of his hair between my fingers for dear life. Within moments, my cries 
resounded against the thin apartment walls as I came.

I pulled Andrei up to me, sliding him into me as I held the back of his neck. His 
eyes closed with a moan, his lips slipping open slightly as he began moving against 
my hips. I traced his gorgeous cheekbones with my hand, whispering to him. I knew he 
couldn't understand the words, but he got the intent. We moved against each other in 
rhythm, our breathing almost synchronized, until we both came together, Russian and 
American cries united.

That night, I stood under the falling Russian snow and breathed in the smells of St. 
Petersburg, the chimes of a distant cathedral calling me home.
	    


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