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An Unexpected Surprise, Or Sari G. Comes To Visit...(By Louisiana Sandusky) ~Part One~ by Karen Lynn Vidra, The Texas Tornado
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Rated "G" by the Author.
Louisiana is shocked when her friend from Finland, Sari Gustaffssenn, shows up unexpectedly at the hospital where she works. She doesn't recognize her at first because she has her hair cut, and she looks completely different than the last time they saw each other.
I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. I just had a surprise, and I am still bumfuzzled about it.
My friend in Finland, Sari Annike Gustaffssenn, flew to America unannounced, and I did not expect to see her when she came strolling into the hospital and asked for me. When I first saw her, I thought it was somebody completely different, because this woman had short hair, and Sari had long, flowing blonde locks that fell past her midback. Unbeknownst to me, she had gotten her hair cut while she was at the Olympics because the Grecian heat proved to be too much for her, and she passed out the day after she got there. It also didn't help that she was wearing a sweater and sweat pants, made for cooler weather, at the time she had passed out; it turned out that she had suffered a case of heat exhaustion, and she had to spend some time in the sick bay until she got over her faint and her body cooled down to more acceptable levels.
When she saw the look of surprise on my face, she threw her head back and laughed that tinkly, musical laugh that told me that it WAS, indeed Sari, and I went up to her and I hugged her as tightly as I could. She said that she flew from Greece before the closing ceremonies, so she could see if she could find her friend, Nikolas Constantinos, who had left without a trace, and she was thinking that he had flown to America when he'd heard the news about his sister, so she decided to try to find him. I told her that he was at the hospital, much to her relief; and I told her that he was with his sister in the ICU ward. You could see the worry and fear leave her tall, slender body when I told her about her friend; and I was glad that she knew that he was safe and sound.
She had met Nikolas Constantinos during her stint at the Olympics; she had been a volunteer for both the Kenyan and Finnish athletes, and Nikolas worked with the Greek delegation; and they had met at one of the nightly parties the city had for the Olympians and the volunteers; and they soon became fast friends. She was struck by the tall, muscular man with the wild, bushy hair and Grecian tan, expressive dark eyes, and craggy face, and he was bemused by the tall, thin, fair woman with the very long pale hair, ice-blue eyes, and tinkling laugh. During the duration of the Olympics, they had gotten to become quite familiar with each other, and it was soon apparent that they seemed to hold an interest in each other.
After recovering from my initial shock at seeing her, she then handed me a big shopping bag, and she said that she had gotten some stuff from the Olympics for me, my husband, and some of my kids. What the bag contained made my eyes open wide in surprise. There were several autographed pictures of some of the American athletes, including ones from Carly Patterson, Micheal Phelps, Paul and Morgan Hamm, Mia Hamm (no relation to the gymnastic twin brothers), Marion Jones, Courtney Kupits, and Justin Gatling, and autographs from Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina, and others. There were also several Olympic pins, official programmes from the Olympics, "fake" medals for the kids (gold, silver, and bronze!), pens, pencils, and paper, and even small flags from some of the countries that were participating in the Olympics. There were even some small stuffed animals and dolls, and some Olympic-themed jewelry.
I told her she didn't have to go through all that trouble to get all of this for me or the kids; but she said that it was no problem, and she was more than happy to get us something. She knew that Johnny, Ronee', and Gemini all collected autographs, and she knew that they would have wanted something from the Olympics; so she went out of her way to get the promised stuff. She knew that my husband and I had enjoyed watching the Olympics in years past and that we had wanted to go (but never had the time or money to save for such an ambitious trip), so she wanted to make sure that she got us something that we would always remember. She also knew that we had wanted to go to the Olympics ever since 2000 and 2002, when our friends Roberto and his wife, M'Buti, went to both the Sydney, Australia, Summer Olympics and the 2002 Winter Olympics, which were held in Salt Lake City, Utah.
After looking at all of the stuff, I hugged my friend, and I thanked her over and over; and I then told her that I was going to go on my lunch break, and I insisted that she join me. At first, she relented, but then I told her that I would buy lunch, and that seemed to satisfy her; and soon, she and I were at the cafeteria. We had a lot of catching up to do, and I told her that if she wasn't too busy later, she was more than welcome to come to our house after I got off, so she could meet my family. I knew that they would have loved to have seen the souvenirs that she had picked up at the Olympics, and that they would enjoy meeting my friend from Finland.
Karen:
Excellent as always...
P.S Keep Me in your prayers another semester has started and the classes are certainly going to be a challenge...
God Bless
Michelle
surprises can be good or bad--good, in this case, bad in the case of nikolaus' sister getting shot. i prefer the good ones. :) this is an excellent story, and can't wait to read more, more, more! BRAVA!
Exploring the impact of literary icon Flannery O'Connor's noted legacy on the cultural realities of modern-day America, the world, and a certain author.
Exploring the impact of literary icon Flannery O'Connor's noted legacy on the cultural realities of modern-day America, the world, and a certain author.
I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. I just had a surprise, and I am still bumfuzzled about it.
