The Lion’s Mail Order Menage

Chapter 4

“Meena!  Meena, it’s so nice to see you.  It seems like you aren’t ever around these days.  Where have you been hiding all of my life?”

“Elaina, you’re right, it’s been far too long.  How has school been going for you?  Are you liking your studies?  I hope so, you were always so good in school, ever since we were young.”

“Oh, that’s just so sweet!  You are just the sweetest thing, aren’t you?  I did go to university, but I never finished.  I feel like such a cliché saying this, but I got married instead.  To an American, no less.  He’s taking me there, to go and live with him.  To Texas, can you imagine?  I’ll be out living on the wild frontier.”

“Goodness, well that is exciting.  Aren’t you sad though?  About your school?”

“No, it wasn’t meant to be.  Matthew, that’s my husband’s name, Matthew Dickinson, he doesn’t care for Russia, it seems.  And honestly, can you blame him?  It’s not some place that I feel like I can’t leave.  And I’ll get citizenship, Meena.  Just think of it!  Do you remember how we used to play at that when we were young?

“I don’t know why we thought being an American would be so wonderful.  The reality is that it can’t be all that different than what we’ve got now, right?  But once I’m a citizen, maybe I’ll go to school over there.  Anyway, I’ve got to run.  I’ve just got so many things to do before I go!  But we have to have lunch before I leave for good, OK?  Promise me we’ll get together one more time before I go.”

“Sure,” Meena said with a smile so fragile it felt plastered onto her face, “I mean yes, of course.  Just call me and we can set something up.”

“That sounds perfect,” her old, sometimes friend, Elaina crooned, “I’ll speak to you soon.  So long!” 

Then she was off, prancing down the street in her perfectly put together outfit.  Even the way she walked was happy, almost like she was skipping the way they might have when they were little girls.  How was it possible for the two of them to have come from the same place, to have grown up in practically the same neighborhood and to have wound up in such drastically different places in their lives? 

That girl, that Elaina, truly had been unusually smart but still, Meena wasn’t exactly an idiot.  She had always done quite well in school, never had trouble in any of her courses.  And it wasn’t only smarts she had, either.  She was clever in ways that had nothing to do with her education, she had a charmingly witty sense of humor and an ever so slightly devious glint in her eye. 

Those eyes were nothing to scoff at, either.  They looked like the winter had been all bundled up and secreted away in little orbs of light and she had been the lucky one to receive the treasures.  They were an ice blue that shone in a way that was impossible to ignore and had stopped many a person, both men and women, in their tracks so that they could do a double take.  She had skin the color of fine cream with only the smallest hint of pink beneath the surface and thick ebony hair that hung in waves around her face.  She was a petite woman, not even five foot five, but she had a fire inside of her that made up for her small stature. 

There was a kind of obstinacy in her, a refusal to be diminished by circumstances that had seemed only to get worse and worse as she grew, that a person had to admire.  At the same time there was something in her that seemed impossibly frail.  In some ways, she gave off a delicacy that was heartbreaking and in sharp contrast to her pervasive ferocity.  In short, she was both beautiful and a walking contradiction, the perfect package for any man looking for a challenge. 

And yet, despite the many things she had to offer, things had not gone quite the same for Meena as they had for Elaina.  Hell, that was putting it politely.  If Elaina had found for herself a world of excitement and endless possibility for the amazing future she was to lead, Meena had found the very bleak opposite.

Some of it had been due to her headstrong refusal to heed warnings or sound advice, but most of the way her life had gone had been far beyond her control.  She had never been to Elaina’s home, never seen her family in more than a passing glance, but she was willing to bet the way they operated was nothing like the family she was bound to call her own. 

That family, her family, was a horrid thing, a collection of ghastly people who had always managed to put on an excellent show for outsiders.  They were in no way fit for taking care of children, which they proved time and time again with both Meena and her younger brother, Alexei. 

Alexei had been such a small boy.  Yes, he was her younger brother, but he was small even for that.  Such a delicate little thing, he had looked like a cherub with sweet, white-blonde ringlets falling just below his ears and wide, trusting eyes.  He had never been quite well, not from the moment he was born, and Meena’s parents had been the wrong ones to be given the task of caring for a sickly boy.

They had switched back and forth between simply ignoring him and actually abusing him and nothing Meena did could stop it.  She was too young, too small to stand up to her parents.  She couldn’t help Alexei and when he died, she had been forced to go along with her parents’ story of how their poor, sickly baby had finally gone to be with God. 

She had been the only one, besides her folks, who knew the truth; her parents had been tired of taking care of someone who had so much need and so they had killed him, that or let him die, it was all pretty much the same in the end.  Things had only gotten worse for her then.  It was like all of the ineptitude and cruelty of her parents had nowhere to go but her and so at the ripe old age of sixteen, she had fled, determined that she could make her own way better than her parents would ever accomplish.