4. Alina

Friday passed like a whirlwind. Tina got home from her ski week with Louis. He seemed excited to see me again. Even more so after I gave him a bunch of emblems and medallions from NASA. I had earlier given Elli a pink t-shirt that said Hollywood on it. Okay, so I bought in the airport…. She loved it. Some of the best gifts my father ever gave me probably came from an airport store on one of his business trips. He would always bring me a felt pennant from whatever NFL city he was in.

I gave Tine the “Good news/Bad news” scenario. Good: I had tickets for the circus. Bad: The show was tonight. I offered to take all the kids if she and Alan wanted to get reacquainted but in the end Tina and I took the two older siblings; Elli and Louis, while Theo stayed at home with Alan. We drove down early and ate a very rushed dinner at the Pizza Express located across from the theatre.

At 7:15 I met Alina in our usual spot and walked her over to meet Elli and Louis. They were thrilled beyond words to meet an actual performer in the circus; and a beautiful one at that. Elli asked her if she was ever scared and Alina said only if she fell. We wished her a good show and left to take our seats.

The show was terrific. The Lowry holds about 1500 people so the evening’s fare seemed very intimate. No animals. No ring or big top. There were the traditional two clowns that provide breaks between the acts while equipment is readied. Admittedly, they were quite good, and judging by the laughter they were a crowd pleaser.

Alina performed a hula-hoop routine in the first act. You’ve all probably seen variations on this theme. It was so much more entertaining for the four of us because we knew her. Elli and Louis were literally on the edge of their seats when she appeared on stage. They felt like celebrities themselves I’m sure.

The circus featured the traditional acrobats, jugglers and adagio routines. The kids liked them all with the exception of the strongman. Something about him freaked them out. When he lifted the weighs with his teeth they almost dove under the seats.

At intermission each of us had ice cream and all was right with the world again. In the second act Alina did her aerial cube routine, which was a real crowd pleaser. I kept thinking that she’d come a long way since her adagio number she performed in Japan. Although, considering that she was only 10-years old then, she worked her butt off and rehearsed harder that anyone else I saw backstage. Obviously all that work paid off for her.

The night was over and Tina drove us home. The kids fell asleep from exhaustion and I carried Elli into the house. I passed her over to Alan.

Saturday I went back to the circus to attend the matinee. I had offered to videotape Alina’s routines so that she would have something for her demo reel. She was able to get me permission to not only tape her acts but to stand in the lighting booth to do it. It was a difficult shoot because of the light level and the scale of her act: tossing hoops in the air, being raised 15 feet above the stage, twirling in a death spiral. Still, I managed to capture it all plus take some still shots with my digital camera.

After the show Alina and I met up again for the last time. We made sure that we had all the right phone numbers for each other as well as e-mail addresses. As we worked on our cappuccinos Alina watched the footage I had shot of her. I started to make excuses for why it wasn’t as good as I would have liked it to have been. She “Shhhhed” me and watched quite intently and critically. When it was over she looked up and smile.

“I like it very much.”

Her break was over. It was time for us to say goodbye. She extended another invitation for me to come to Moscow. I said she should come to L.A. She said she would but that it was almost impossible for her to get a travel visa to the US. We agreed that we would some how, somewhere; see each other before another 12 years elapsed. I walked her back to the theatre and we shared a last hug. We both turned to go. As I walked toward the tram stop I turned one more time and caught a glimpse of her walking through the lobby of the theatre. She must have sensed my eyes and thoughts on her because she turned and waved and was gone. Life can go by so fast. It can take you in and cast you out. You can spend half a lifetime away from a person and yet, when you see them again, it’s as if a moment has past. I’ve been so lucky to have met so many varied and wonderful people. Some are in my life daily. Others, I hardly ever see: maybe never. But all of them have helped formed the person I am through their thoughts and actions and words. If I had never met Tina and her family on a cruise ship 15 years ago I wouldn’t be here now, with a comfortable home to stay in and new friends like Alan to hang out with.

If I hadn’t walked up to Cerstin in a jazz club in Berlin I wouldn’t be heading to the Canary Islands in two days.

And who could have ever predicted how much a 10-year Russian circus performer could affect my life?

It is a strange and marvelous world.