Chapter 48: Twilight Zone

Wheels’ Resort Cafeteria, Chatham, Ontario

4:49pm, Saturday, March 10, 1979

“Are you alright, Viktoriya?” I asked the thirty-seven-old Ukrainian beauty as she sat in a dazed state in the cafeteria at Wheels’ Resort. We were still inside an Energist energy bubble because everyone around us was still distant, immobile and exactly in the same positions as before.

“I fine, Michael, but...” she confusingly replied as she tried to make sense of what just happened, as well as why everyone here looked like living, frozen figurines. When she turned and saw her precious, Water-Baby, Kalena in a similar condition, Viktoriya slowly tried to piece together our current situation with our previously shared interlude outside her family’s cabin in the Dnister River’s peaceful flowing tributary.

When Viktoriya comprehended the gravity of this miraculous state of affairs, her face immediately registered an unusual combination of disbelief, panic, and surprising to me ... pure joy. She took another quick glance around the room before she succinctly said, “‘Twilight Zone‘, you know ‘dis TV show? I think I just had Божевільний досвід показу ... crazy show experience. Can you explain to me?”

I let out a long sigh after I heard her spot-on comparison and question because I knew there wasn’t going to be a simple answer to her simple inquiry. I leaned slightly forward in my seat towards the thirty-seven-old beauty, who slowly mimicked my current posture. “Viktoriya, I know this has to be mind-boggling for you because I’m partially baffled myself ... and I’m definitely more familiar with these types of things happening than you are.”

“So, you have some Обізнаність ... familiarity, with ‘dis event?” she replied as she waved her hand around in front of her.

I nodded my head at her question and then let out another long sigh. “This may or may not seem strange to you, Viktoriya based on what we just shared outside your family’s cabin ... in the river, but...”

“That was real? That was really you ... with me?... О Бог!” Viktoriya exclaimed as she made the well-known cross-blessing sign, ‘In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.’

“Yes, Viktoriya ... that was indeed, me,” I replied as she peered down at the cafeteria’s tilled floor. “Viktoriya ... look at me,” I confidently said in a tone I knew she was familiar with.

After hesitating for a moment, the older, confused lady slowly lifted her head up and looked into my softly smiling face. “This is definitely confusing, and I’m still puzzled about how and why we were just transported back to a time when you were twenty-one ... and I, I wasn’t even born yet, let alone be there in my current sixteen-year-old body.”

My words somehow seemed to lower Viktoriya’s apprehension level, and I saw a good bit of the tension in her upper body area fade as her neck muscles loosened and her posture became less rigid. She then turned around to ensure we were still isolated before she meekly but intelligently instructed, “Start with known facts, and then, maybe ... we figure out rest of crazy, Twilight event, yes.”

“Sounds good, Dr. K,” I replied with a smile.

“No, no, right now, I just Viktoriya with you ... no Dr. Kharlamov, yes.”

I smiled and nodded my agreement to her request, and then I saw a weak smile spread over her face for the first time since our return from our Ukrainian adventure. “Viktoriya,” I calmly said, “First off, please let me explain what I know for a fact, regardless of how crazy it may seem to you. When I’m done with that, you can ask me anything you aren’t sure about or still feel...” I made a small stupid looking face and waved my right index finger beside my head.

“Ah, you mean Змішаний або дурний ... confused or stupid, yes.”

“Let’s just say confused. I would NEVER consider you as being anywhere near the stupid category.”

“Again, Michael, you sweet, smart boy. I chose well back in Pokrovka for fath...” Viktoriya’s voice faded when she realized exactly what she was saying.

“It’s okay. Let’s save that discussion ‘till after I explain how I arrived at this place and time.”

For the next thirty minutes, I related everything I went through in my prior-future life, and how the Energists were allowing me this chance to reclaim my place in my prior-future timeline. A few times, Viktoriya interrupted me to gain a better understanding of my amazing story, but for the most part, she appeared to simply take in every aspect of my detailed explanation.

I finished up my description of how I arrived back at Medway as a sixteen-year-old, and became an outstanding six-foot-one-inch athlete and world-class musician by saying, “So that, Viktoriya is how I am here, now, in this wild and crazy adventure.”

“So, these E-nor-gists beings, they give you great powers as gift for help?” I nodded my affirmation and was about to speak, when Viktoriya sternly asked, “You not use gift to return to 1962 ... to be lover to me, or to seduce these beautiful girls, now?”

I immediately shook my head negatively after Viktoriya asked that logical, ‘power leads to corruption‘ type question. When her hazel eyes softened, I thoughtfully replied, “It’s not like that at all, Viktoriya. Lynette, my girlfriend and current lover, was one of my best female friends in my former timeline. She told me the day I came back to high school ... before she knew anything about my incredible return ... that she actually wanted to go out with me. With Cathy, I dated her in my prior life, and uh, I didn’t plan or push her and Lynette into becoming best friends, and then ‘lovers’. Additionally, both of them schemed together ... along with Samantha to trap me in their devious two girls and me, sexual game. However, when I got wind of their plans, I turned the table on them ... with the help of my Energist friends.”

“So you not use power to control beautiful girls’ sex?” Viktoriya sternly asked.

“No! Never!” I forcefully, yet honestly replied. “Doing something like that actually repulses me. In addition, my Energist friends would never allow me to use their gifts in such an evil manner. Both Lynette and Cathy, and even Jennifer, are highly sexual in nature. However, I have never pushed any of those three girls, or any other girl into something they weren’t willing and comfortable doing.”

“I believe you, Michael,” Viktoriya genuinely offered. She then scooted her chair towards mine until she was able to put her hands on my knees. “So, new and former girlfriend,” Viktoriya motioned towards Lynette and Cathy as she softly asked me about my current relational status, “they with you at same time, and do some les-been things, yes. Did they like doing les-been things?”

“They were and they did. I, uh, without getting too detailed, I’d say they both enjoyed their girl-girl experiences.”

“Maybe, if good looking girls, like bandmates ... I might enjoy time with girls. But my only les-been time was not good when big ugly lady and two others force me to do awful girl things.” Viktoriya’s facial expression changed as she briefly related how her forced lesbian experiences in the Ukrainian prison had progressed. “Thankfully, that happen just two times, and when commandant find out, he ship bad ladies to worse prison.”

After we shared some non-verbal communications and gentle caresses on our legs, the thirty-seven-year-old blonde beauty sweetly added, “Maybe, I get with pretty lady sometime to see if I like being with girl ... I know I like being with a man ... like you.”

“Thanks, Viktoriya. Nobody around here will force you into unpleasant things, Viktoriya,” I replied with a smile. The pretty blonde and I shared another moment of silence as we sat amongst the statute-like people in the cafeteria.

After fifteen seconds, I noticed that Viktoriya’s eyes wandered around some towards Lynette, Cathy and Jennifer. As she glanced at them, I thought I could see a hint of fire in her hazel eyes. When she returned her gaze back to me, she softly whispered, “Strange, I now start to feel same spark ... emotions as when I see you sing in park and, uh, when we Зробіть кохання, make love for three days in river and in family cabin.”

I smiled at Viktoriya’s initial words, but was stunned to hear the ending of her statement, and couldn’t prevent my face and body from revealing my bewildered state to my Ukrainian lover. When Viktoriya leaned back from me after my involuntary reaction to her words, I quickly asked, “I was with you, making love to you ... for three days?”

“Yes,” she quickly replied. Viktoriya then peered around at the ‘frozen’ people, and whispered, “You not repeat this, yes? I had best three days of life there with you. We make love soft, slow, then we fuck тяжкий та швидкий! О Бог! We fuck hard and super-fast. Several time, you make me so happy by Живопис обличчя з гарячим sperm.”

“I painted your face with my hot cum? I, uh, I remember you telling you wanted me to cum over your face in the river ... before we made love that first time, but...”

“You no remember being with me for three days ... at cabin?” Viktoriya surprisingly asked.

“God, Viktoriya,” I glumly replied, “the only thing I remember from our time together was from my time in the park and at the youth hostel, to our walk along the river’s edge to the conclusion of our first love making session in that gentle, warm river current. As soon as I knew ... really knew that I had given you your ‘Water-Baby’, we were transported back to here. So, Viktoriya, I honestly don’t recall being with you for those three glorious days.”

“Oh, Michael,” she whispered to me with a lusty smile on her face. “After you put tongue in my Дно, my ass ... as I hung on dock’s steps ... it feel Неймовірний. I, uh, I had to beg you, on last day with me to ... to stick your Неймовірний, your incredible thick cock in my Дно. О Бог, Michael, when you fuck my ass and pinch clitoris, I no feel anything that good before ... or since.”

“Damn, Viktoriya. I hate that I don’t have any recollection of that, or any other of those other experiences with you at your cabin. Did I treat you well, like you really wanted?”

“I love how you take charge of body...” Viktoriya pressed her hands over her breasts and then dropped her right hand between her legs to give her clothed pussy a subtle rub as she spoke. “ ... And you take things to extreme ... but you no push me beyond comfort limit. That was reason I say it was BEST three days of life, Michael. Дякую ... thank you.”

I couldn’t think of anything to say after Viktoriya related how I sexually challenged her during our Ukrainian adventure. I did recall from our brief time in the river that I thought she would respond well to a take-charge person. Both of our eyes once more communicated our mutual trust, care and admiration for each other.

We stared at each other in calming silence for nearly a minute before a small grin spread across my face as I remember one other detail of my adventure with twenty-one-year-old, Viktoriya Tolsik-Kharlamov.

I was about to ask Viktoriya about my Polaroid SX-70 camera when she abruptly slapped her left hand on her tanned slacks and shouted, “I have Доказ! I have proof, Michael, you there with me ... in cabin!”

Viktoriya quickly rummaged through her oversized shoulder bag and searched for whatever proof she claimed to have of my extended time with her in her cabin. “Де йому? Де йому? (Where is it?)” she huffed in her native tongue before she squealed, “Got it!”

I saw her gently lift out a small, beat up looking, grey photo album. Viktoriya gingerly placed the one and one-half inch thick album on her lap and turned it ninety-degrees, so we could both view its contents. “I hid pictures from everyone, but Sergei. I just show him a few photos, hoping he want to ... make love with me, again, after seeing beautiful photos.”

When she flipped open the grey plastic front cover, I immediately saw a slightly faded, ‘old-school‘ instant picture of twenty-one-year-old, Viktoriya. In this picture, she looked exactly like she did when I first saw her outside the Pokrovka youth hostel building. Viktoriya was wearing that one-button, white demi-jacket over a black fishnet top. Viktoriya’s slightly tanned, bare mid-rift showed above her layered white cotton mini-skirt.

Even in the faded instant photograph, I could see that Viktoriya’s makeup was impeccable and replicated the exact same pink and black coloring pattern around her sparkling hazel eyes. Her lower back length, golden blonde hair had a teased and feathery appearance as it cascaded over her chest and the back of her shoulders. Upon closer inspection of this first instant photograph, I noticed that the camera’s flash-bulb had obviously captured Viktoriya’s sparkling diamond encrusted gold earnings.

While I couldn’t see this in the picture, I was positive that Viktoriya’s tiny feet were bare because that was how she greeted me outside the hostel. I cringed at the thought of being shoeless like Viktoriya. I would have been crippled for life if I tried to walk barefooted like Viktoriya on that hot August afternoon. The sidewalks in Pokrovka were crumbling and stony, and the dirty road we walked on to the Dnister River’s tributary had a multitude of stones and scrubby bushes growing up through its surface. The soles of Viktoriya’s feet must have been made of steel because she didn’t flinch one single time during our two hour journey to her family’s cabin.

As I turned the pages of this incredible photo album, Viktoriya softly added a brief comment about the how she felt as I snapped these pictures of her in gradually more risqué poses. In the next few pictures, Viktoriya looked dreamy as each successive instant photo showed more of her soft skin and less of her sexy outfit. The sensual blonde shed her white demi-jacket in the second picture, and she winked at the camera as her fishnet top rested just above her pebble-sized, pink nipples in the third picture.

I couldn’t believe what I saw as Viktoriya flipped the album pages, and her incredible twenty-one-year-old body became wonderfully exposed once more to my teenaged eyes. As we looked at the seventh photo, Viktoriya remained silent because no words were needed to clarify anything in this artistic, fully nude picture.

Viktoriya was squatted down on her tiptoes with her back against the cabin’s full length mirror. Her right hand rested on her right thigh, which was spread wide like she was riding a horse. Viktoriya’s left arm was raised up with her fingers intertwined in her long blonde hair behind her head. Viktoriya was looking off to her right with a dreamy, faraway facial expression. This angled photo, with its mirrored reflection captured her firm, high set right breast in a magical presentation. Several strands of her feathery, golden locks hung loosely over her chest and faintly camouflaged her bubble-gum pink nipple. In the mirror’s reflective image, that same breast was shown to be perfectly formed with a slightly uplifted appearance. The hardness of her pink nipple was easily discerned in the reflection, and a couple other wistful strands of blonde hair caressed the sides of Viktoriya’s champagne-glass shaped breast.

“My God, Viktoriya,” I softly said as I transferred my gaze from this incredible image to the stunning lady captured in that seventeen-year-old Polaroid image. “This is the one of the most captivating pictures I have ever seen. You were, uh, sorry; you STILL ARE one strikingly attractive lady! ... You said I took this with that instamatic camera?”

“Thank you,” Viktoriya replied as she lightly tapped my thigh with the back photo album cover. “You STILL sweet, wonderful boy! ... No, I wrong. You are sweet, wonderful young man! And yes, you take all photos of me with quick film camera.” Viktoriya raised her hands and pretended to take a snapshot of me with an imaginary camera as she reaffirmed her earlier statement.

“May I ask ... what were you thinking about as you were looking to your right in this picture?”

Viktoriya’s face slowly changed to a more somber type expression as her gaze returned to the photo. She let a small sigh escape from her mouth and then whispered, “I just see ... I, uh, just see Sergei looking in window of cabin, and I try to show him with face that I still love him even though I with you for three days.”

“Sergei was there ... he saw you ... posing naked for ME ... at the cabin?”

“He agree, say not come to cabin but he tell me later, he worry ‘bout my safety. Then, when I show him all pictures, he say I very beautiful and he loves me, but he still not able to LOVE me ... get erection with me.”

“I’m still real sorry that he was seriously hurt, and that the two of you couldn’t, you know ... make love, anymore.”

As I’ve come to expect with females of all ages and ethnicities, Viktoriya easily changed the focus of our discussion away from her injured and now deceased husband. She must have picked up on my choice of words in an earlier comment because she asked, “You see another picture like this that is Зачаровуючи? You say other photo is captivating, like THIS! When, where?”

I couldn’t help but smile at Viktoriya’s semi-jealous sounding questions. I took a few moments to come up with a way to explain when and where I witnessed this other seriously entrancing photo of a nude girl. When I didn’t reply right away, Viktoriya hotly said, “You take nude photo of all girls!”

“No, no, no,” I quickly responded in a semi-defensive tone. Just then, I felt the familiar energy signature from the materialization of my personal computer. It was still cloaked which allowed me to read the screen’s brief message, ‘Show her your birthday picture of Kaleigh.’

“Okay,” I replied to both Viktoriya who was glaring at me, and to the Energists for their assistance with this unplanned situation. I then said to Viktoriya, “I’m going to show you one of my gifts from the Energists. It might alarm, surprise you because you haven’t seen anything like it before, but it won’t cause you or anyone here, any harm.”

Viktoriya raised her right eyebrow at me and meekly said, “Show me, please.”

My computer uncloaked and hung just off to the side of the photo album which rested on our touching thighs. Viktoriya was the first person, who didn’t flinch or show any surprise the first time they saw my computer, or that it was ‘suspended’ in the air near us.

“This is a small personal computer; a machine which stores information, pictures, videos and can do some other amazing tasks,” I said to my inquisitive lady friend.

Because she had as much, if not more, university education than me, Viktoriya intelligently asked, “Is similar small cum-pooter device going to help all in future? I know of Масивний ... massive cumpooter machine at Stalingrad, Moscow and Kiev university, but not know of Малий, tiny machine like ‘dis.”

“You’re not just beautiful, Viktoriya. You are very smart and forward-thinking, too!” I said as a compliment to her knowledgeable inquiry. “These smaller, personal computers will become a regular household device in the future, although I don’t think they will be as powerful or as capable of doing all the things this Energist computer can do.”

“Does this com-pu-ter have captivating picture to show?”

I couldn’t help shaking my head in amazement, while chuckling at Viktoriya’s spot-on statement regarding this futuristic device’s capabilities. Viktoriya appeared confused at my conflicting non-verbal responses.

Therefore, I decided to answer her question with a question of my own, “Would you like to see JUST the picture of my future, captivating fiancé, or would you rather watch the video-recording of her mesmerizing striptease routine, which she did as my fortieth birthday present?”

“You have picture and video of ... you FUTURE wife? I not believe!”

“I mentioned Kaleigh, my fiancé to you when I explained how I was claimed by the Energists in 2003, remember?” Viktoriya’s facial expression softened as she put that wild story together with this equally crazy bit of information. When she gave me a subtle wink, I once more asked Viktoriya, “Would you like to see her picture or the video ... from which the picture is taken?”

“Picture of fiancé, Kay-leigh, is good to compare,” she replied as she lightly tapped her right finger on the plastic sleeve, which held her enthralling, nude photo.

Without having to say a word, my most precious picture of Kaleigh appeared on the computer screen. Without even taking a moment to study this wild, but glamorous image of my future fiancé, Viktoriya calmly whispered, “Her eyes they are Рідкі ставки діамантів ... liquid pools of diamonds.”

“They are, aren’t they?” I rhetorically asked, confirming Viktoriya’s perceptive statement.

“Michael, she like I was? Twenty-one-years-old, yes? ... And you say she do this, this strip-dance as forty birthday present?”

I simply nodded affirmatively to both of Viktoriya’s questions, and then quickly clarified my answer to her first question, by saying, “She was twenty-two, almost twenty-three-years-old when she did this for me.”

“You not only sweet, wonderful young man...” Viktoriya softly said as she reached out to touch my cheek with her left hand, “ ... you must been sweet, wonderful OLDER man, too, to have such beautiful young girl do sexy dance and remove clothes as present.”

“Thank you for those kind words, Viktoriya. So, you’re not upset with me, now, for saying this beautiful picture of you was... one of the most captivating pictures I have ever seen?”

“Nyet, Michael,” my former blonde lover replied. She then chuckled her own rhetorical question, “How I be upset when you have gorgeous fiancé’s picture to compare with faded picture of long ago, mysterious lover?”

“You were, you still are a beauty...” I started to reply, when Viktoriya suddenly exclaimed,

“Good Lord!” as she peered, and then pointed at Kayleigh’s frozen image on the computer screen. “I see many, many girls’, ladies’ breasts in shower at prison, but I no see such Довго, Товстий, віяв ... long, thick, puffed nipples on girl as with fiancé. If those nipples as sensitive as my small pebbles, she always be stimulated and ready for loving, no?”

I laughed at Viktoriya’s two-tongued, accented description of Kaleigh’s amazing puffy long nipples. I let out a slight cough at her spot-on statement about my fiancé’s super-sensitive nipples and always being ready for any type of sexual activity we decided to engage in.

“Oh, I know by ‘dis response that your Kaleigh is sex machine, yes, like I was with you at river cabin, and with Sergei ... before submarine accident.”

“When we became a couple, there was never a day where Kaleigh didn’t want to either make love or just have pure, animal sex,” I said with a silly grin on my sixteen-year-old face.

“Бог, я так пропускаю укладення повільного, пристрасного кохання, плюс маючого чистого, гаряча стать!” Viktoriya softly stated in her native language.

I noticed a tear develop in the corner of her eye as we sat in silence for a few moments. Viktoriya reached up to wipe that solitary tear from the corner of her left eye, and when she sensed that I was going to say something, she volunteered this translation to her prior emotional statement, “I cried, ‘God, I so miss making slow, passionate love, plus having pure, hot sex!”

I sat there speechless because I had absolutely no clue how to respond to Viktoriya’s emotive, agonizing testimonial. Even my forty-years of knowledge and life experiences appeared worthless, as all I could think to do was to simply reach and pull her angst-ridden body into mine.

After rocking together for a couple of minutes, Viktoriya simply said, “No more tears over thing I no control.” She then indicated to me that she wanted me to ease off my tight, comforting bear-hug.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked.

“That in past, I have Water-Baby back in life, so all is good.”

Even though her voice sounded like she was good, I somehow recognized that she was still hurting over the loss of human companionship and intimacy, which most adults need to maintain a healthy, vibrant body and spirit. As a guy, and an intelligent one at that, I focused my cognitive energies on how to help Viktoriya overcome this personal issue in a strange and unfamiliar land.

Before I could wrap my grey-matter completely around this problem, Viktoriya once more prudently changed the focus to our isolated reunion. She softly asked, “You wish to see last two pictures from our cabin adventure?”

“I’m good, Viktoriya,” I replied as I reached to close up the computer screen on my hovering device. I guess she misunderstand my reply because she reached down and flipped the page to the next picture, instead of closing the album.

“You must see last two pictures, Michael,” Viktoriya confidently stated as she put her right index finger on the corner of the newly presented photo.

I initially glanced at her smiling face after hearing her assertive plea. When she nodded towards her lap and the photo album, I slowly let my eyes drop down to see what type of picture Viktoriya lead me to believe could top that previous enchantingly beautiful photo.

“Jesus,” I barely voiced out as my eyes gazed upon a brilliantly clear image of ... the happiest, newly pregnant woman I had ever seen. “Viktoriya,” I then cried, “you are absolutely radiant in this picture! This ... Holy smokes, Girl! You are beyond beautiful in this picture!”

I lifted the photo album from our combined laps and thoroughly studied every incredible detail in it; from every feathery blonde hair above Viktoriya’s strikingly ecstatic smile; to the sea-form green, transparent curtain which was draped loosely behind Viktoriya; to the wonderful craftsmanship of the oak nightstand, upon which Viktoriya stood as this picture was taken.

After I traced my right index finger along the gentle curves of her lightly tanned, nude body, I realized something completely different about this one lovely photograph. I looked back at Viktoriya’s thirty-seven-year-old face and asked, “This picture can’t be from that Polaroid camera ... from 1962, can it? It’s simply too lifelike to be an instant picture.”

“‘Dis picture taken same day, with same camera as others,” Viktoriya replied with a grin on her still beautiful face.

“How can that be? Everything about this picture says it was taken by a top of the line camera with professional lighting,” I exclaimed as Viktoriya slowly pulled the instamatic picture from its clear, protective film, and held it gingerly in her right hand.

As she nimbly held that sixteen-year-old photo in her dainty fingers, Viktoriya confidently said, “Michael, it seems crazy ... unbelievable that we were together in August, 1962, but it happened, yes. Same unbelievable thing is here with this lifelike photograph. I remember everything like happen this morning. We both laugh crazy as you try to get me to pose SEXY for last pictures, and I say I not comfortable with picture of exposed poosee. Then, after you not ask me to do that again, you simply say, ‘Feel your ‘Water-Baby‘. That instruction, Michael... Негайно викликаний мені до погляду точно люблять це ... instantly cause me to look exactly like this ... this amazing picture.” Viktoriya gently waved the Polaroid picture towards Kalena as she finished her statement regarding this one special picture.

“That is why you’re so radiant looking in that photo, and, uh, why this picture is crystal clear, not faded like the other ones,” I declared after coming to this as the only reasonable conclusion.

“‘Dis is most treasured possession... , “ Viktoriya softly said as she carefully slipped that picture back into its protective clear plastic slot. She then smiled at me and added, “ ... other than my real Water-Baby, Kalena.”

Both of us turned to look at Viktoriya’s ‘immobilized‘ Water-Baby, Kalena, who was smiling at Jennifer’s laughing and equally immobilized body. Viktoriya lowered the photo album back onto her lap and sighed. I knew enough about ladies to know something was percolating inside Viktoriya’s intelligent mind, and that she would tell me about it when she felt good with sharing.

I didn’t have to wait too long to find out her troublesome thoughts as she meekly said, “What do I ... we do about you being Kalena’s classmate ... and her biology father? You and me, I never think we ever see each other again, but...”

“Please don’t move or take her away from the Hobbs, her school friends or from...”

“I no do that, Michael, but she only know Sergei as true father. Please say you NEVER tell Kalena or anyone, that you are my Water-Baby’s biology father.”

“Viktoriya, I would never do that to her or you,” I replied. I then started to chuckle as the absurdity of me trying to convince anyone that I, being just four months older than Kalena, was her mysterious biological father.

“Why YOU laugh, now? This not funny!” Viktoriya grilled me in a serious mama-bear tone.

After I explained how ridiculous any type of statement or argument I could tell or present would seem, Viktoriya’s motherly temperament quickly dropped, and she actually had trouble stifling a few giggles. When we regained control of ourselves, Viktoriya, for the third time easily refocused our conversation away from a worrisome but settled issue.