I Am Amelie

...well, at least I want to be her. If you haven't seen the movie, you won't understand. So go watch it, and then read this post.

One of my many favorite parts of the movie is when she leads the blind man about and helps him 'see' everything around him, and then leaves him just as suddenly, in a pool of wonder. I want to do that for you! So here is your little tour of this very moment in a small city in Siberia..

The room is filled with smoke, it hangs heavy like shawl over all the patrons. I'm one of them. A man about 50 years old is being seated next to us, his belly swollen from years of drinking, no doubt. He carries a folder newspaper under his arm, His eyebrows are black, but his hair is gray. he wears a gold chain about his neck. He has kind eyes. He  glances at his watch and leans into the menu.

Behind me two waitresses talk and laugh. They wear the required green polo shirts and black aprons. One is our waitress. She is sweet and soft-spoken. She has dark bangs and heart-shaped lips. She is sweating in the heat of the room. Outside a woman walks by with a baby carriage. The woman is tall and thin and blond. The baby is wrapped in pink things and has a smile on her face.

The trees outside are clinging to their last golden leaves, the sun casting a glow to them that seems otherworldly. The other trees beyond them are laden with dark berries that Nastia says are sharp and bitter in taste.

The techno music blasting on the sound system is loud enough that I can watch the ice in my glass move in a sympathetic pulse. The table, too, hums with the beat of the music.

Widening our vision, you can see the cafe is full to capacity. Dozens of conversations overlapping, waitresses delivering tea and blini, a young girl laughing, the dessert wheel spinning under a tower of glass, the sun streaming in....

Well, hope I took you somewhere for a moment! I'm off to pray the rosary at the Catholic Church that I FINALLY found --thank you Margie! Wonder if it will be in English or Russian....