A couple of weeks later, Anton stopped by Andrea's house carrying a package. "My mother sent this for you," he told her.

Andrea unwrapped the package to find a beautiful red shawl with an intricate pattern of pink and yellow flowers.

"Why, it's beautiful!" Andrea exclaimed. "I'll have to send her a thank you card right away. Do you know of any store that sells thank you cards in Russian?"

Anton laughed. "It is all right. Just get a regular card. I will translate."

"Do you think you could teach me Russian, Anton? I'd like to learn so that I can talk to your family members when they call."

"Of course! I would be happy to." Anton smiled.

Andrea put the shawl on and wore it for the rest of that day.

'You look like a Polish peasant, Mom," Denny told her when he saw her.

"Anton's mother sent this to me," Andea said.

"All the way from Russia? Wow!" Denny sounded impressed.

True to his word, Anton began tutoring Andrea in Russian on the weekends. She found that it was easier to learn than she'd expected it to be, and, as it turned out, she'd need it sooner than she expected.

"My mother and my sister Katya are coming for the wedding," he told Andrea one day.

"Oh, wow! I'd love to meet them," said Andrea. "What's Katya like?"

"She is just about the same age as you. She works as a pharmacist, and she is married with two daughters. They are both in college. She has a son, too. He is in...what do you call it here?...high school."

"Does she speak any English at all?"

"Only a little bit. About like Dasha."

Mrs. Kolchina and Katya arrived the weekend before the wedding, and Andrea, Anton, Denny, and Darya all went to the airport to meet them.

"Babushka!" Darya cried, running to hug Anton's mother, who embraced her joyfully, then went to meet the rest of the family. She was about as tall as Andrea, with white hair and bright blue eyes. Katya was tall and slender, like Anton, and had dark blonde hair and blue eyes like Anton as well.

Andrea said hello to both of them in Russian, and they seemed pleased to be greeted in their native tongue. Mrs. Kolchina embraced Andrea warmly and talked excitedly in Russian. Andrea didn't understand all of what she said but picked up an occasional word here and there. In her halting Russian she attempted to respond in kind, and Mrs. Kolchina laughed indulgently and patted her cheek. Andrea felt all the apprehension she'd experienced over meeting Anton's mother vanish as she realized that she and the older woman were going to get along just fine.

Katya also seemed pleasant enough. On the ride back to Anton's house, she told Andrea about her husband, Evgeny, her daughters, Alla and Anastasia, and her son, Pavel. Andrea told Katya about Dennis and Denny.

"That must have been very hard, to raise your son alone," Katya told her. "I admire you. I do not think I could have done that."

"You could have if you'd had to," Andrea told her.

"You should have seen Anton after his first wife died," said Katya. "He fell completely apart. We worried about him very much. It was Dasha who brought him out of it. There was a show on TV she always watched with her mother before her mother got sick. One night she asked Anton to watch it with her. Something funny happened on the show and Anton laughed. Dasha said, Papa, that is the first time I heard you laugh since Mama died. Anton told me it was then he realized that he still had something to live for, that Dasha still needed him very much. From that moment on, he was a devoted father. Then Dasha grew up and he come to the United States, wrote and told us he has found love again. We are so happy for him."

"Did Anton ever tell you how he and I first met?"

"He told me about the submarine accident, about meeting you and the little girl, then he had to go back. We thought it was a very sweet story. Very romantic. Sounded like something from an American movie."

"Aren't there romantic Russian movies as well?"

"Of course there are. Not nearly as many as there are American ones, but we do have some nice ones."

Andrea and Denny both went back to Andrea's house to spend the night. As she cuddled her pillow, wishing that she were cuddling Anton instead, Andrea comforted herself by reminding herself that in less than a week, she'd be able to cuddle with him every night.