American dream (Американская мечта)

about Helen’s first sex, though I really like her. She is a sleeping black panther. And I’m curious about her future, will she become a star?  
   - I’m not yet a star and I don’t know about stars. They are too far for me, like stars in the sky. But you are right that Helen is unusual. So I’m not jealous about her personally. If you want to sleep with her go ahead. She won’t possess you so she won’t compete with me.
   - I don’t think of sleeping with her, but I’m afraid she thinks about sleeping with me. And it’s impolite to refuse.  
   - Oh, you are a gentleman. And I’m not a lady. I’m a practical American girl, wanting to make the most out of her relations with a man. I want a role in your future film and I won’t share my future money with any thief, trying to steel you from me, after I teach you how to make it for both of us.
   Helen knew that Lulu caught Ole, while she hesitated, because they gossiped about everything and exchanged hot news about their adventures too. So after several days of their common life in one flat she decided to take her share. As she promised on the first day, she came to him one night to make love and to pay for her life, which was always at stake and on the verge. Because she was a black girl among black men with guns, who thought they had the right for everything they wanted and would never hesitate to shoot anyone, who annoyed them with pride.
   This way life for Ole became more emotionally complex. He was not a Japanese polygamist samurai or a Muslim sheikh. As a Russian he felt some confusion, but he was in another country and old rules broke down. He told Helen about the idea of a ninja film and she also like an American girl asked him for a role. Then paid him his thousand dollars in advance and the next night came to sleep with him again.


                                        Inspiration

   The Dream Factory was very near and very far, because Ole didn’t work there. So he had to find his own way. The source of his inspiration was his own life, but it needed to be interpreted in a Hollywood style, fresh but acceptable for the existing standards and tastes.  He wrote first ten pages in one day, describing his first adventure in the USA and first impressions.  To continue he needed contact with American reality, interaction with life around him and for further material and inspiration he went for a night walk again, this time in the disguise of a woman.
   After several attempts of night gangs to rob and rape him, stopped with his knife, he decided to make the game more visual and went to Los-Angeles Chinatown, where people could fight better and where he could find a sword. Chinese regarded ninjas as rivals and competitors and the trip promised to be a great fun.
   In the dark street a group of yellow teenagers asked him for a cigarette. He answered with thin unnatural voice.
    - Smoking kills.
    - Mocking too.
    - I am not mocking.
    - We are not deaf, you are.
    - Excuse me, I have a sore throat.
    - We are not fools, you are teasing us. What do you want? Better pass by. Or we’ll teach you a lesson.
    - You are kind boys, letting me go is so generous.
   The teenagers laughed and pushed him on.
    - You are just crazy. Walking here at night alone, do you have much spare money? We are not robbers but some others may not like it.
    - Frankly spearing, you are right, I’m looking for trouble to test my gun. Can you show me bad boys, who can offend a lonely woman? Maybe you have enemies?
    - You are really crazy, but that’s funny. Come on. There is a gang here and they take our money. If you shoot them, we’ll laugh for a week. But if they kill you, that’s your own problem. OK?
    - OK.  I’m really funny and crazy, if anyone irritates me, so you won’t be responsible for my death. Come on. Show me your friends.
         The Chinese gang entertained itself in a bar. The boys pushed him inside and disappeared. Ole silently smiled with fat red lips and stared at them with big colored eyes. They stared too.
   - What are you doing here? Searching for trouble? – A thin ugly man with a scar and a pipe at last rose to his feet.
  Ole answered with a nod and put a one hundred dollars banknote on the bar, pointing to a bottle of wine.
   - Wow! Queer money!  I’ll call police. And we must confiscate it as evidence, - and he stretched the hand.
  Ole took the money back and put it into the pocket. The gangster looked offended. And stretched hid hands to Ole’s throat, but received a lightning kick between the legs.
  The fight was long because Ole didn’t kill them with his knife. He only kicked them and avoided their strikes. He needed a sword and intuition prompted him to wait. Ninjas don’t use guns to avoid noise. Shoalin fighters don’t have strict rules on the subject but don’t like noise too. And all Chinese respected and imitated Shaolin. They wouldn’t shoot a crazy woman, beating them in honest fight; they must solve the problem in a traditional way. Finally, they realized that the enemy was serious and shouted for support. An old man appeared from the back room and to Ole’s relief and delight he bore a sword.
  His eyes were sharp like blades and he moved like a cat, very cautiously and softly. He looked like a real master, but what did he do here with the gang? Possibly, he was their teacher and he had to pay for their sins. When he attacked with the sword to the neck, Ole made a swift low bow, approaching him in one sweeping move and plunged his fist to the solar plexus. He dropped the sword and in an instant it was in Ole’s hand. The next scene was very visual and cruel – heads, flying off the shoulders, and pools of blood. “That’s it, - thought Ole, - The real Hollywood style. It’s a pity there no cameras”.
  That night he cleaned all Chinatown of regular gangs and threw the bloody sword away. Then he burned white gloves and female clothes, put on the dress from the bag and completely satisfied went home. Helen thought he was with Lulu and didn’t ask anything. Lulu was her first hope for success in Hollywood and she didn’t envy her the man, who belonged to nobody. As clever women they felt it deep in their hearts and didn’t quarrel for nothing. And he really belonged to the wind and the Moon, ever free and alien to the world, he lived in before passed to the next. Will he stay in America for a long time? Only God knows, but never tells.


                                           CIA

   One beautiful morning Mike called Ole and invited to his small city studio, used for his private experiments, for another round of casting. This time his opponent was a typical American with a gun. He explained that he was a patriot of Western combat traditions and offered a thousand dollars bet that he would stop him with a rubber bullet, before he reaches him by his fists. Ole nodded and looked into his smiling eyes on the other end of the room. Before he raised the hand, Ole snatched a vase from the table and threw it directly to his head. Then jumped and kicked his hand with the gun. The rest was also quick and rough, according to Lulu’s advice.
  Mike was surprised and a little bit disappointed. Ole understood that he made a stake on his defeat. But the ordinary American, when he came to his senses, looked unusually glad.
 -  Nick, - said he at the handshake.
 - Olaf, - return the smile Ole.
  He invited him for a drink in a cafe, because Mike was busy with next visitors, and explained his satisfaction.  
 - You see, I need a bodyguard for my daughter. And I know that you search for a job. We are friends with Mike and I can help you, if you help me.      
 - What’s your daughter’s occupation?
 - Oh, nothing serious or dangerous. She is only fifteen and she likes night parties. You should look after her there and on her way home.   Though there some delicate aspects of the task.
 - What?
 - She is too young for sex and I need you to scare away her boys. So you must be present at the parties too.      
 - How? Teenagers wouldn’t permit it.
 - That’s my problem. Or better say profession. I’ll put there a camera and you’ll have to watch her from the car.
 - Oh, you are a detective.
 - That’s another delicate question. I’m a CIA officer. I needn’t anyone in my office to know about your job. Like teenagers they wouldn’t like it.
 - OK. But I must warn that I’m a Russian.
 - Don’t worry Oleg; I’ve looked through your file. I wouldn’t ask an American, because they all have relatives and friends and you are completely alone. That suits me best.
 - And how can a CIA man risk his career by any contact with an unchecked person? Your chiefs can suspect me of spying.
 - Oh, you know our psychology, - laughed Nick.
 - No, I lived in a totalitarian state and I know the habits of security services.
 - We are not totalitarian, - smiled Nick.
 - But you are a super-power. And your security system must be equal.
 Nick slapped him on the shoulder and opened his bag, pulling out some device.
 - You are clever and it makes my proposal easier. This is a lie detector. I’ll check you up and add the results to your file. After that you’ll be able to contact CIA men without problem. That’s secret but official. It will open you many doors in this world and you won’t regret it, if you are not really a spy. That’s a joke. No one suspects you, because you don’t have access to any secrets and don’t contact suspicious men.
 The test didn’t take much time. The questions were both simple and shroud and Nick was satisfied again.
 - You learned fighting in a private school, that’s the main question about you, and you don’t like our Russian analog.          
- No comment, - smiled Oleg.
- We don’t like comments too. I do not recruit you, that would require more careful examinations, but for a quiet life in America for you it’s enough. And you can guard my daughter. Criminals don’t frighten you, that’s another result of the test, so I offer you ten thousands a month.
- Do you earn so much in your agency?
- It’s not my money. Her grandfather is a businessman and he loves her even more than me. It was his idea to find a Russian for her. You should teach her your language too. He has Russian investments and plans to send her there for work. Beside you must teach her Russian culture and psychology, she must become an expert on Russia.
- Well, that’s easy, if she is not lazy. Girls at her age prefer entertainment to studies.  
- She respects karate and Hollywood. If she likes you, she will accept your help. Not mine. And I’ll help you with Mick, in my own interests.
  Lucy, Nick’s daughter, was clever and naughty. Her first joke made Oleg really smile.
  - If you were a spy, we would escape to Russia with Daddy’s secrets.
  Nick smiled too and promised her a car, if she masters Russian with Oleg in a year. Besides she flirted, openly and boldly, testing on the newcomer her skill. He joked in return and smiled and finally, besides Russian, she started to study karate. Men like beauty, women like force; she was a small woman and soon they became friends. She entertained Oleg, as they all called him in this family, with funny stories about her schoolmates and teachers and he introduced her into her possible life in Russia. With boys she flirted too, but fortunately for Oleg without attempts of sex. So he needn’t rush into the house and intrude into private life.
  Though once she drank too much and a boy tried to undress her. Oleg entered the room and politely offered his help. The seducer ran away and he took her sleeping to the car and home. Nick evidently saw the cadres but said nothing. It was useless and they could only quarrel. It was not his style and the incident was forgotten.
  Ole spent with Lucy two hours a day besides parties, three times in a week he met with Lulu and at nights slept with Helen. Sex for him was a question of energy, if he had to spend it on a woman, he did it, but if the woman was not ripe as Lucy, and there was no necessity, he just didn’t, though he liked her too. With Helen it was based on sympathy, with Lulu it was a common adventure, based on common interests in life, or more exactly in art, cinema. With Lucy, it was Platonic love. Before him, as her father warned him, she was really sexy and on the edge of abyss, otherwise he would not hire him at all. But with Oleg she became quite different, boys lost for her any significance and her sexual drives were sublimated.
  Ole looked thirty, though was older. He spent many years in yoga meditation and spiritual training and didn’t spend energy and time on girls. Certainly, he fell in love in youth, but after he got control over senses and emotions, his attitude towards the opposite sex changed. He didn’t become a monk, he could appreciate beauty and practice sex, but he didn’t any longer fall in love, i.e. desire a woman and loose his head. That’s why initiative in these new relations was on the other side. He only accepted the sexual offer without becoming attached and tied.
   One day Lucy realized her feelings and became conscious of her new desires, but as a CIA-man’s daughter she didn’t show Oleg anything, hiding her love deep in the heart. On the contrary she stopped flirting with him and became well-organized, polite and cold like ice.


                                             Success

  Nick’s influence on Mike seemed hypothetic, because cinema in America was independent from state security considerations and the only judge was financial success. But one day Mike invited Ole to Hollywood to assess a new film with combat scenes. In the middle he unexpectedly saw himself, fighting with Ito. It was just an episode, but the film was interesting and Ole was grateful for the start of his cinema career and the chance for his future success.  
  After the séance Mike appointed him the time for the next casting, already in Hollywood. Ole met there smiling and polite Ito, two Chinese actors and several Americans. Mike directed his film himself and involved Ole in the game from the start.
  - I heard you are a Russian Mafiosi. Where is your money?
  Ole raised his brows.
  - You are a bad Russian, remember and feel it. Or I’ll become a bad American for you.  
  - You mean the role?
  - Ha-ha!
  - Boys, kill him before he kills us, - he turned to American guys. – Show him, who is the boss here. Quick, quick!
  Sure, several policemen could stop one gangster, that was the plot, but Ole resisted more effectively than expected and the scene was ruined, together with scenery and American faith in the law and themselves.
  - OK, boys. That’s not the end. We’ll save the cadres but you must take revenge. Russians can be very, very bad, but the main hero always wins. Who is the main hero here? Show me your teeth and fists in action. Come on, come on.
  The main hero pulled out a gun and Ole disappeared in the crowd. Then fell on him from behind and kicked him from his legs to the dirt. Plans are plans and life is life. Americans knew it even better than Russians and after the third failure to beat Oleg Mike gave up his attempts and changed his mind.
  - You are a British tourist or a Her Majesty’s agent, imitating a Russian Mafiosi or a spy. So we won again. That’s the happy end and cash. I feel it with my nose so theses three scenes become the main structure and now your job is to fill it with the rest.
  The boys caught the idea and added guns, bullets and blood, in quantities, sufficient for the thrill, they all as Americans liked.
  His girl-friend in the film was Jenny, a black-haired green-eyes kung-fu fighter from CIA. She thought he was a criminal and tried to kill him but failed and fell in love, though refused any sex. In the end when she learned that he was an ally, in the airport she pulled him back from the plane and they went in her car to the ocean. There on a lonely beach with stormy waves they finally kissed and fused in a very vivid scene of love. Sex for Hollywood was a vital necessity and these were the last cadres.
 Ole enjoyed her company because he always enjoyed beauty and tuned his instincts to the wave form a beautiful woman, who desired his love. He didn’t differentiate game and reality and for the time of casting felt himself in love with Jenny, or Kate, as was her real name. So the scenes were as natural as Mike could only hope and the film looked a real hit.
  After the casting Kate left for New-York to her family and they parted in the airport like in the film only with another end, or not quite another, because she gave him a farewell kiss in the lips.
   - It was fine. Hope we meet again.
In the film sex was certainly imitated but kisses were real. And this was just one more but very strong and deep as in the cadre, though there were no cameras to fix it and no spectator to appreciate. Possibly, she played as Ole, not differentiating game and reality and maybe it was the secret of success for all. Ole didn’t know it and didn’t dare to ask. This was just his hypothesis and left it to himself.
  When the film was televised, Mike confessed:
 - I don’t believe in good Russians, though there are Russian dancers, musicians, poets, artists etc. Talents are exclusions, other Russians, especially rich, coming to the USA, are a nuisance.
 - I know it, because I left Russia because of them. And in Russia I was exclusion too.
 - You break the rule. And I want to break it in our show business. My next film will deal with this problem and you can play in it yourself.
   Ole got one million for the first film and wrote seven more pages of the script. Success inspired too, as love fired love. Kate sent him a letter in the Internet, he answered and they both understood that it is not the end. But what was ahead? Only mist. She was invited to another film and left for Japan. If they met now, sex would be inevitable, under the impact of their realistic cinema love game. But will she remember him after the next success?


                                       Russian mafia

    Sooner or later other Russians in America would know about him and Oleg was ready both for interest and for trouble. After an interview about his role and his life, where he mentioned his origin, that was possible in any moment and he decided to accelerate events, not to loose the initiative, by a visit to a Russian club.
    He went there alone like on a war raid. The steward recognized him immediately and soon he had a noisy company of fans around him. The singer-girl devoted him a song and all applauded him standing up. They were all more or less successful, others just didn’t come, and he was accepted to their circle like an old friend.
  In an hour or two they switched to their ordinary topics and left him alone. He walked around and listened to familiar words and themes. As if he never left for the USA. Finally, he decided to check his intuition and went out to the street. Someone should follow him to make closer acquaintance and he wondered who it would be. Yes, he heard some pace behind and a voice:
  - Hey, Mr. Tumanov, just a moment!
 It was the singer-girl. She asked for his phone number and let him go, because her work was not yet over. But there was somebody else, he knew it for sure, though couldn’t see any one. At the next corner he saw. There were four of them and they were waiting for him. The next conversation was in Russian, here is the translation.  
 - Hello, superstar!
 - I’m not super yet.
 - Don’t be shy. We know better. And we think you need our help.
 - Why?
 - In America all stars have some