The Ouk-rra-i-nah Story by Warren Metzler Table of Contents
5. Postive omens
We left the factory, and I decided to purchase samples of the four products I intended to order. I would take these back to the States with me, so my friends there could personally experience what I intended to import; plus I would submit some of them to the Federal government for the required product testing. The vodka company had a retail store near our hotel, and this is where we went next. After leaving the store we realized we were near Korchma, the Ukrainian restaurant I mentioned earlier, and we decided to go there for some refreshments. While there, Igor received a call from Liliya, who said she would meet us in front of our hotel at 7.30 pm.
Around 7.00 pm we got up from our seats at the restaurant, and proceeded to walk toward the hotel. But just before we left the restaurant’s premises I heard my name called. I looked around wondering who could possibly know me in that place. And, low and behold, there was Alla walking toward us from the restaurant’s garden. If you remember, she was the person who had given me the bottle of pepper vodka as a gift during my previous visit, seven months prior. Igor had attempted to call her several times that day, but repeatedly reached a message that said her phone was no longer in service. I asked Alla if she would join us for dinner. She agreed, and stated she would meet us in front of the hotel at 7.45 pm. And Igor and I continued back to our hotel.
I was in a state of amazement. Zhitomir is a city of several hundred thousand residents. To have Alla present at the same restaurant as me, at the same time, having no awareness I was in town, couldn’t possibly be a mere coincidence. This had to be what I call an act of God; (God deliberately forcing a human, or humans, to act in a certain manner; or deliberately causing a situation to unfold in a specific way; so something He wants will happen). I proceeded to interpret this happening as another positive omen (that Presidential Standard was as delicious as Kauffman was my first positive omen).
Actually the first positive omen in the Ouk-rra-i-nah process was the owner of The Wine House answering his extension when I called, plus him telling me about obtaining import rights for Kauffman vodka.)
Liliya showed up at the hotel as she had promised, and Alla appeared as expected, so off we went to a restaurant. Not Korchma this time, but one called Khatynka(which you can also see pictures of in the Zhitomir photo tour. I had eaten at Khatynka twice on my previous trip to Zhitomir, both times with Alla, and I considered it superior to Korchma. We had a lovely dinner.
At some point during that dinner, I suddenly realized that I was sitting at the identical table at which Alla and I had sat during our two visits to that restaurant back in November (seven months prior). There I was, Liliya, the vodka factory director’s secretary, to my right; Alla, who had introduced me to that factory’s products, sitting across the table; Igor, my Ukrainian partner, without whose efforts I would not be there, sitting to my left; all of us at the same table at which I had twice sat during my last visit . And all unplanned. This was a MAJOR affirmative omen; far more significant then the previous two positive omens.