Читать книгу Collection of Stories - Igor Yevtishenkov - Страница 10

* WHO DARES WINS

When I first appeared in Cherry GmbH’s office I thought I might be promoted to the position of Senior Regional Sales Manager but I was a long way out thinking that. Sales Director Mr. Suesmilch, in all innocence, sincerely told me there were enough taxi drivers in Germany and they didn’t need one more. The best offer was to come back to Russia and try to succeed in climbing the ladder over there. I spent ten years in vain. So when I was offered another position in a successful multinational corporation, I jumped at the chance. One of the main reasons for my immediate acceptance was the opportunity for a large amount of foreign travel. One day I was sitting relaxing in a cafe by the Seine after a hard day’s business, before jetting off to an important meeting the next morning in Rome. How romantic it all was. It took me five years to start recognizing that my emotions changed. I can’t say I understood that a life spent on planes and in hotels is lonely, dull and exhausting – not at all. I didn’t long to be back at home and didn’t dream of the simple pleasures of having someone to watch television with, of being asked how my day was. I had a nice family and three kids.

However, one day, my mindset changed. As I lay on the bed in my luxurious hotel room, I could see no benefit other than a high salary. “What’s the point being a hunting dog in an expensive suit with an indulging, patronizing smile, doing the same job day after day, year after year?” I asked myself. “I talk to the same people, I tell them the same things and every company in every city in the world is the same.”

It was at a Chinese exhibition when I first thought the unthinkable. I warmed to my computer-related topic with a Chinese colleague and we found a lot in common. He offered me the chance to set up a common business and I thought to myself, “Why the hell do I have to go on like this?” To tell the truth, I was scared, but for the first time in my life I was truly content. It took us two years and a number of false starts with the wrong products, but finally we succeeded in getting it right. Who dares wins!

DON’T LET THEM EAT AWAY AT YOUR NERVES

My Grandma loves looking at her old photographs. She says memories come flooding back and relives them. She says they are “good’ and “bad’. The former ones make her happy taking her back to the times when she was young and beautiful. The latter stir up sad memories and remind her of the things she would like to change but can’t. My mum often sympathises with our Grandma and tells me we shouldn’t let bad memories eat away at us, we should put bad experiences behind us. We have to always try to live in the present and live for the future. But I think it’s easier said than done.

* FRAGILE MEMORIES

Our grandparents and parents store up so many memories over the years, good ones and bad ones, that it’s worth trying to write them down or record them. My mother keeps an old photo of me and associates it with my early childhood before she divorced my father. Looking at the photos she always smiles and sighs. It suddenly came back to me how fragile and unstable the happiness might be. So when I saw my Grandma looking through the album, I took my notebook and asked her to tell me something about those photos. Of course, they stirred up lots of happy memories and some sad ones too. For example, when she and her husband lost their jobs, my mum was very little and they tried to get along on just their Social Security checks. She added that happy ones stuck with her forever, though. People try to block out their sad memories, but there is no use in doing that because you might forget the good ones. It’s true that you can get an unexpected flashback to your unpleasant experience, but it can help you learn a lesson or teach others how to avoid it.

* DOES IT RING A BELL?

For me this picture conjured up a series of crazy events. I was the only girl in the group and when I got my diploma I was on cloud nine and wanted everyone to see how happy I was. So when going out in the corridor after the graduation I couldn’t hold-back my feelings any longer and started jumping like a child. Little wonder I didn’t notice the steps on my way and fell down. As I fell, I grabbed another boy’s gown and he came down on top of me. Then we both were taken to hospital with a broken wrist and foot. Guess what happened next! We got to know one another and eventually married. It’s amazing how one picture can call up an event in such detail. When I look at it, my thoughts always flash back immediately to that moment. Sometimes I ask him “Does it ring a bell?”

“Not just one – a thousand bells!” he usually replies, smiling.