INSPIRATION

‘OK. If you’re excited about your summer holidays, so be it. Let me tell you a true story though of a friend of mine – I hope it’ll help make some things a little clearer. Not just in English, but other areas too. Should I continue?’, teacher asked with a smile.
‘Of course!’, half of the class shouted. The rest stopped chatting. Andrey Ivanovich sighed and finally said farewell to his prepared lesson schedule.
‘So, listen! It happened with a friend of mine when he was about your age. Ninth form has finished and all the exams have been passed. Summer was going to come and the mood of this guy was good – all except when talking about the poor mark he got for English. This got him down, but of course, he didn’t deserve any better than this. At that particular time, he had no wish to learn English – he was playing sport and that was all he needed. School wasn’t priority number one, so to speak. I can see you smiling and that’s fine – there are some of you on his side today, good. All his friends were going on the long trip to Pushkinskiy forest reserve. In his memory are the villages of Mikhailovskoye and Trogorskoye, as well as a small river that he tells me about when we meet. At the time, they were all fourteen or fifteen. He was crazy about a girl called Diana Dunayeva, but she didn’t feel the same…or at least pretended she didn’t. All she did was smile at him, but nothing else. He didn’t realize that she thought more of her friends’ opinions than her own feelings.
Life had been good – romantic and cloudless until she appeared. Her nickname was Chapa – no-one knew her real name and even those who did, called her by this nickname too. She’s always remembered as Chapa even now. She was always independent. She studied at a ‘special’ school, had lots of tutors and was far too good to be a friend of the other teenagers going on the trip. She didn’t pretend to be good or bad and was just cool, self confident and clever – something rare both then and now. She took books and a small dictionary to continue learning during the summer. She read English text without a dictionary – can you imagine doing that? Was she beautiful? Of course, I shouldn’t comment, but this guy told me she was unbelievably gorgeous and irresistible. Curious? So was I when listening to his story…
OK. During the trip, all the guys were in love with Chapa – but I think you guessed that already. Naturally, they tried to attract her attention in any way they could. A few days later, the guy found his love towards Diana desperately fading, so he joined the club of Chapa’s admirers, but tried to hide his feelings. How do you think he did that? He only talked to her when absolutely necessary and thought that if she didn’t exist, he didn’t care about her at all. He was so naïve!
You know, when on the trip, you’re obliged to share everyday chores like cooking, making the fire, washing dishes etc and usually, you draw lots to find out what you’re doing and with whom. Inevitably, one day it was this guy and Chapa. He was happy, but couldn’t understand why she appeared annoyed – even though she later admitted that she had no idea why she was annoyed either. Anyway, he collected water, made the fire and opened some cans of food, working really hard. Chapa completely ignored him and her responsibilities. She had an uncaring look on her face and sat at a wooden table to read her books – Akhmatova’s verses, her correspondence and some English text too.
This guy was really bad at English – if you recall, absolutely no good at all. Therefore, he couldn’t even ask a question. They had nothing in common – he knew a few words, but he’d be better off not attempting to pronounce them. They were: [f/\cé], [t/\blé] and [smilé] . Now you can understand why he didn’t pass his English exam. Anyway, let’s go on. When cooking, he was forced to ask Chapa what went in the pots and how. Chapa grudgingly replied without turning around. When she began to read another passage, say, about London, he decided to tease her. So, he began to repeat what she was reading word by word. Of course, it sounded awful. To be honest, I don’t know how he lived through it. Chapa was patient and tolerant as long as she could, but eventually, she blew her top – her patience snapped and she shut the book with a snap and turned around.
‘STOP IT! Leave me alone, I need to learn. Do you understand?’, she said angrily.
‘I’m learning as well’, he tried to kid her. ‘You’re reading, I’m following – isn’t that useful?’
’No, it’s not. It’s wrong!’, she said in a harsh voice. ‘No-one learns anything like that. You don’t understand what you’re repeating, you’re just doing it in parrot-fashion. So, stop acting the fool – you’ll never learn this.’
‘Why not?’, he was deeply hurt. He wanted to argue the point, but couldn’t think of a good come-back.
’OK, we’ll see,’ she suddenly said. ‘I’ll bet you won’t translate a single English word that I’ll say.’
The guy told me later that she was beautiful, with twinkling eyes and flushed cheeks. He was immediately stunned by her and wanted to make a rude comment, but didn’t and instead said, ‘It’s easy – a job like that’s just too simple for me!’
‘What?!’, the girl was now angry, ‘Okay, fair enough. What’s the bet?’, she found it difficult to remain calm.
‘Whatever you like – up to you’, he said in a dismissive tone, sounding as if he was sure to win. Inside, his brain melted and couldn’t imagine how he’d feel if he lost – truth be told, it should be when he lost, not if.
‘Well…’, she raised her eyes thoughtfully and paused. He expected she’d think of something tricky – and she did. ’What about a kiss?’, she asked in a mocking voice. ‘If you can translate the word, I’ll kiss you. If not, you’ll…’, she paused again, looking for the worst possible punishment and finally said, ‘you won’t talk to me or tease me for the remainder of the trip. Agreed?’, she thought she’d covered everything.
‘No,’ he said simply. She was taken back by his reaction.
‘Why not?’, she was confused.
‘A kiss just isn’t enough’, he said with some indifference. Of course, he was just bluffing, but he felt uneasy and on-edge. Common sense told him to stop, but he didn’t – or, rather, couldn’t. What came out of his mouth and what thoughts were in his head were simply light years apart.
‘You’re mad! Isn’t a kiss enough for you?’, she shouted. ‘It’s….it’s….I don’t believe it!’, she was overcome with anger and emotions burst as she sat on the wooden bench.
‘So?’, he said, rudely. He didn’t want to come across as a ‘bad boy’, so to speak – he would have preferred a ‘good, polite and well-educated’ one, but he couldn’t change. So, he went on, ’You’re sitting, reading books and doing just as you please. I have to wash the pots, cook this stuff and work hard!’
‘Ah’, she said furiously with her hands on her hips. ‘Let’s bet on that then. Agreed?’
‘What?’
‘On what you’re doing. If I give you a word and you translate it to Russian, I’ll do your job for you. If not, you….you’ll carry on with it and keep quiet for the rest of the night. Agreed?’, she looked angry, but excited at the same time.
Her eyes were large, with big, black irises that shone and burnt like fire; her cheeks were red and her hair was messy. However, she was charming with her lips apart and ready for a fight.
‘And what about the kiss?’, he asked quietly.
’What??!’, her body jerked backwards. ’The kiss?’, she smiled, mocking him, ‘why not two, or even three?’
‘What a great idea’, he smiled too, ‘why are you getting angry though? You’d said that you were sure I’d never translate a word, didn’t you?’
‘Was I sure?’, she asked as if she wasn’t really sure. However, after she said it, she burst into laughter. ‘Oh gosh! Doesn’t matter – you don’t know anything anyway,’ she repeated what she said and raised her voice a little. ‘My God! How silly of me. Okay then, I agree – three kisses, okay?’, she looked at him with contempt, as if she was the Queen of Sheba.
Did he actually agree? Was this all okay with him? Of course not – a million times ‘NO’. However, he understood that it would be mad to disagree. He had already thought of himself washing the dishes and spoons left over from breakfast, dinner and supper and they’d be a ‘heavy load’ to him. He was also sure she’d relay the story to everyone else and they’d be teasing him until the end of the trip. Yes, she’d definitely tell them – and Diana too. He just couldn’t imagine what would happen.
‘Yes, that’s okay’, he said, instead of actually saying what he thought. He nodded, ‘I agree’.
Chapa opened a book, turned a few pages and laid it aside. Then, she took another one, opened it and flipped through, also leaving it. The water in the pot began to run over and he turned to put potatoes in to boil. Another five or ten minutes passed, but Chapa was still searching for the right word in her books. He smiled and sighed, which she noticed and straightened her back in anger. She pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows – all that she currently felt was written across her face.
‘Okay’, she said finally. ‘Here you go – translate the word ‘inspiration’!’
‘Inspiration. Inspiration…’, he said the word several times, desperately trying to search his memory for anything he may know. He didn’t know the original Latin ‘incpiracia’ that’s used in psychology, but he wished he could just translate it and show her he could do it. If he’d been told to sell his soul to the devil for it, so to speak, he would have immediately agreed and he wanted to see that over-confident smile wiped from her face.
He continued muttering the word and eventually he blanked out all sounds around him and even thoughts of Chapa didn’t exist. Only this word occupied his brain like a bright light in total darkness. It seemed that he felt his own hair disappear and a fresh, slightly cold wind touched his skin – even though it was hot summer and the sun beat down mercilessly from a cloudless sky. Then, something big and heavy pushed against him and for just a fraction of a second, he was unconscious. He could see the hawthorn leaves, boiling pot of water and Chapa, waiting for his answer with some annoyance. But he couldn’t hear any sound. It only lasted for a second and then something weird happened…
‘Vdoknoveniye!’, he exclaimed.
’What?’, asked Chapa, as if she didn’t hear it.
‘Vdoknoveniye!’, his mouth said again. His mind was clear and he was certain that the lips that answered were his, but the word appeared from nowhere like a thunderbolt.
Chapa was sitting with eyes wide open and couldn’t move. Her confident smile was fading while she was staring blankly at him as if he was both a God and an idiot simultaneously.
‘You peeked, I’m sure! You lied, you couldn’t know this!’, she screamed and grabbed the exercise book. She had a silly smile on her face. She was about to open a dictionary, but realized it was stupid and stopped. She turned to him and said, ‘It’s impossible. How did you translate it? Did you already know the word? Had you heard it before? Yes, you must have heard it somewhere before, undoubtedly. There’s no other rational explanation,’ her voice was calm, but she looked devastated.
‘I knew nothing’, he answered sincerely. ‘I simply managed to guess correctly’.
‘Oh, really?’ Chapa came up to him and looked sharply into his eyes. She was glowing with admiration. She shook her head in disbelieve, kissed him and stepped back to look at him again from head to toe.
‘Two more’, he said timidly and looked down. She giggled and gave him the second kiss. Of course, the memory of these kisses didn’t stay with him – you know, the taste and firmness of her lips and the smell of her hair – even though at the time, he thought he’d never forget them.
‘I can’t believe it. It’s just impossible’, she said again and shook her head. ’It’s a mystery,’ Chapa took a pause and bit her lips. ‘You need to learn to kiss’, she giggled, ‘You’re like a little boy. BUT…!’, her voice changed to the one with tones of arrogance, ‘ I have to ask you for a favour in turn too,’ He was surprised – she hadn’t done any favours for him before, but had the cheek to ask for one from him now. ‘As we agreed, I’ll do the dishes, don’t worry. But, promise you’ll tell no one about this, okay?’ - Women! It’s difficult to understand the sense of embarrassment she must have felt in being beaten by him and she didn’t want her pride hurt any longer. Naturally, she wanted to regain the ‘status quo’ she had before, but he never saw her beg or ask for anything and his ego was flattered.
Of course, he agreed. Chapa washed the dishes and pots as well as cooking the dinner. Later, she also cooked supper. He tried to help, but not much. The other guys and girls looked at them suspiciously and whispered jokes to each other, though none dared to ask anything about Chapa’s ‘volunteering self sacrifice’. The only person who showed any surprise was their teacher, Mrs. Filatova. She wondered what had happened to make her work so hard. Chapa laughed it off and said sometimes the weak need some help. He had to ignore the mocking and simply stopped doing anything at all instead.
Neither he nor Chapa told anyone about this. More importantly, they hadn’t talked at all until the end of the trip. After that summer, the guy hadn’t seen her for over eight years. He’d served in the Navy and had graduated from an institute, but had a short holiday in his home town for a week. Could you believe it? The first day he was there walking along the street, who do you think he ran into? Correct – Chapa. Stunned, they both stopped.
‘Chapa?’, he said, unsure of himself
‘Inspiration!’, she shouted loudly. His smile beamed and he wanted to ask her something, but a car drew up to the kerb and beeped. Chapa looked back and waved. He understood the ‘status quo’ immediately, even though it concerned another man then. She turned and looked at him with admiration. ‘Inspiration, I can’t believe it’, she said again and put her arms around his neck and gave him a fabulous kiss. Why fabulous? It may be because the word held everything he’d ever dreamt about in his life. Today, you’d probably say ‘a crazy kiss’ wouldn’t you? Ok, I see you’re smiling, so I must be right. Anyway, the guy recovered and opened his eyes – you can imagine how happy he was. Before he could say anything, Chapa jumped in the car and waved goodbye and he waved back. The car moved off when he heard her derisive tones out of the side window, ‘You haven’t learned to kiss yet, Inspiration!’
He had no hard feelings about her saying that – of course not. Nowadays, it just evokes a smile and feelings of freedom from his youth.
‘Well, that’s it, the story’s over – Any questions? Don’t you wonder if this guy actually learnt English, or you may wonder how he managed to find the right word for translation?’ the teacher asked. There was a stunned silence in his class. He expected to be asked these questions or something like that. However, a girl in the second row raised her eyebrows and said, ‘Andrey Ivanovich, did he learn to kiss? And did he meet this girl again to prove it?’
‘Well, I wish he had, but I’m not sure’, the teacher muttered with a little confusion. ‘But I’m sure, he would, if she appeared suddenly right now,’ he said to himself and sighed.