Tatiana was in an adventurous mood.

She got off Kelly's one evening and went downstairs and looked around. She could see her ex polishing glasses behind the bar.

Tatiana went to the bar and greeted him in Russian. He poured her a vodka without asking her for an order, feeling like some kind of spy meeting was going on.

"I'm going to the airport for Irina tomorrow," Mikhail told her.

"Can I go with you?" Tatiana sipped at the vodka absentmindedly.

"Yes, why not?"

"It is strange, you know," said Tatiana, "How you find being a bartender in America better than being an engineer in Russia."

"I can learn English and the more I learn, the better I can do," Mikhail said.

"Can't you do better in Russia, where you don't have to learn English?"

"Not as much so," Mikhail said.

Sergei Kanishchev came into the bar. Mikhail introduced his ex-wife to Sergei, who had once been his brother-in-law. So much divorce these days. Both Mikhail and his sister Oksana were divorced. His sister Yelena had a child out of wedlock. Only his brother Vadim was in a stable marriage, to Marina. Though Oksana was getting remarried now. Mikhail hoped that was going to succeed.

"So you are Irina's mother," Sergei said.

"Yes," Tatiana said, relishing the ease of conversing in Russian. Her English improved every day, or so she thought, but sometimes it got exhausting to be always trying to speak and understand a foreign language.

"She is a good skater," Sergei told her. "Very talented."

"Sergei is a coach, if you remember, Tatiana," Mikhail said. "His opinion counts for a lot."

"She could win medals," Sergei said. "In real competitions."

"Like her Aunt," Tatiana said. "Wonderful. And unlike Oksana, Irina can get them for Russia."

"Irina can skate for the United States when she becomes a citizen," said Mikhail.

"She will not skate for U.S." said Tatiana, feeling patriotic for the first time in her life. "But for Russia. She is born in Russia. Raised there. Only in US because of you and your damned green card."

Sergei looked like he was trying to hide his amusement.

"So you are working upstairs," Sergei said, conversationally, to Tatiana.

"Shhh," she said. "That is a secret."

"I know," Sergei whispered.

Mikhail just looked superior. He was legal.

"How do you get a work permit in this country?" Tatiana asked Sergei.

"Not easy," Sergei said. "The system does not make much sense. I do not think you can get one unless you are a big shot."

"Mikhail is no big shot," Tatiana said.

"Or have relatives," Sergei said. "That's what Mikhail had."

"Well, I have Irina," Tatiana said. "Surely they'd give me a work visa so I can be near my daughter."

"No," Mikhail said. "They will not. Not if your daughter is still a child. Besides, what about Ivan? Don't you want to go home to your husband?"

"I miss him," Tatiana admitted. "But when I am there, I miss Irina."

"She will go home with you," Mikhail said. "As you wanted."

"She will want to stay here," Tatiana said. "She always talks about it. She is excited, for the skating, thinks her aunt is the greatest thing, her aunt she never knew before, but when she is here, you fill her head with ideas, wanting her to want to stay here rather than go home to her mother."

"Really, Irina wants to stay here?" Mikhail said.

"Yes, which is your fault."

"How many times do I have to tell you it is a good opportunity?" Mikhail said. "For her. For Irina. And when she is grown up, she can get you a green card."

"That will be years from now! She is eleven years old!"

"She could visit you every single Christmas and summer," Mikhail said. "So long as she lives in the US, she can keep her green card and become a citizen."

"All very true," said Sergei.

Tatiana looked at Sergei as if to tell him he would be quiet if he valued his life.

"What's it to you?" Tatiana demanded to know. "Irina is only your ex-wife's niece."

"I tell you, she could make a champion pair skater," Sergei said. "She and my son Peter work well together."

"Are you just saying this to help him?" Tatiana retorted, pointing at Mikhail as if he were the devil himself.

"No, why would I do that?" Sergei said. "I only work with skaters I think will go somewhere big."

Tatiana wanted to argue that he could not prove he was such a hot shot in figure skating, but she wasn't sure. After all, he and Oksana had gotten themselves out of the USSR based on it.

"We'll see," was all she said.