Veronica, instructor of magic

By Andrey Tarnarutskiy

Synopsis of a modern romantic drama, or truthful fairy tale about a Russian émigré who believed in magic

Victoria Kosova-Khan, a confident young woman about twenty four - twenty six, with Slavic appearance, is trying to unlock the front door of an impressive three-story mansion surrounded with a rather unattended garden. Right behind her two drowsy children stand waiting patiently and yawning. They are Ann and Harry Green - twin brother and sister of the age of nine. Victoria is their nanny and teacher. Suddenly she hears the steps approaching the door from inside and Ben, about thirty-thirty five, father of Ann and Harry, is emerging in the door frame barefoot, in silk bathrobe and ashamedly smiling. There has been a female guest in the house, and she’s got a bit delayed, so he decided to prevent everyone from an embarrassment and locked the door from inside. Victoria and children are not surprised – they seem to sort of expect something like that from Ben. It’s Friday evening and Victoria has brought the children for the weekend from Ben’s ex-wife – Sandra.

Victoria is very much appreciated by both divorced parents. After divorce they agreed to keep at least one thing unchanged – their children’s nanny. Ben is rich or, it would be probably better to say, can afford a lot as he’s the only heir of some very big estate. He is still looking for his true self and vocation, as there is no rush for him to find all these. He is a bit of afraid of Victoria, who graduated from two universities in Russia and in America, speaks fluently four languages and is married to a scary-looking bearded Indian guy, Guru Khan. She met him while she was studying in the US. Guru runs an antique book shop, where there are a lot of old books and not so many customers. But the books are very expensive, so if anyone buys a book, it pays their bills.

Children hug their father and start telling him what they saw and read in Mr. Khan’s book shop. They were looking for and reading some books about magic, wizards, and ancient chants. Both children are in love with Harry Potter’s books and can talk about magic endlessly. Their father plays along. He likes to let his imagination run wild. Victoria listens to them and declares that though Harry Potter and all his magic is not her cup of tea, she also has a family member – her sister Veronica – who is absolutely mad about Harry Potter. All three Greens bombard her with a lot of questions about the sister who Victoria has never mentioned before. As they find out Victoria and Veronica had a row about Veronica coming to America. The elder sister has never wanted to move despite Victoria’s never-ending attempts to convince her until Veronica finally understood that she would never fulfill her dream in Russia. Veronica’s dream has been to open a school just like the one where Harry Potter and his friends learn about magic. Ben asks for a photo of Veronica. He gets so interested in what he sees that he doesn’t even pay attention to his lady-friend, the guest for the sake of whom he locked the door from inside. She is standing at the door and calling him to say good-bye but he just nods to her as he’s absolutely fascinated with the picture of Veronica that Victoria gave to him. It looks like a love from the first sight … at the girl’s photo.

That is how the story about Veronica, thirty years old, Victoria’s elder sister, begins. It is a story about some real, definitely far from ideal, but fun-loving and appealing people who find a bit of magic in their life that they have desired but never expected. The beginning of love story of Ben and Veronica will have some continuation and ending but not a very happy one.

Veronica arrives, starts adjusting to a new life and looking for a job as a teacher (she was an ESL teacher in Russia) with a little success in the middle of the school year. When she finally lands a job, she starts teaching his students some magic chants and telling some weird things that scare parents and school administration. And they ask her to leave. Veronica doesn’t want to depend on her younger sister and she starts baby-sitting and cleaning houses just to feel independent.

Ben is courting her as if his life depends on a success of this courtship. But Veronica doesn’t want to jump into this relationship, especially, after the stories that Victoria told her about Ben’s divorce and his soft heart for women. Then Ben’s children, who like Veronica a lot and want to learn some magic stuff from her, ask him to help Veronica with the school for magicians. Ben takes the bull by the horns and decides to conquer Veronica by fulfilling her dream. He proposes to organize a summer camp for young magicians as the first step to a real full-time school though he doesn’t believe in any sort of magic. He just likes to talk about it and fool around. Veronica is on cloud nine and starts believing in the reality of her dream coming true. And she feels really obliged to Ben who is doing this for her. She takes this appreciation for love and agrees to move to Ben.

Ben, without saying a word to Veronica, invites some circus magicians and the other tricksters to teach at the camp. He wants to do everything to impress children, who come to the camp, and their parents. While Veronica excitedly designs the program of teaching magic, spending hours in the search of old books with chants, mantras and magic formulas, Ben goes wild about an opportunity to prove himself a successful director of a flashy and exciting children’s camp. Maybe, he thinks, it is his calling.

But all impressive stuff that happens at the beginning of the camp doesn’t convince and satisfy Veronica. She knows without any confessions from Ben that his hired ‘magicians’ and their hocus-pocuses are just a bunch of fraud. That causes a serious crack in their relationship. Her younger sister Victoria backs Ben – she tells Veronica that it’s time to grow up for her. But then, not so much by an accident, but thanks to Ben’s children, all the children in the camp find out that those so-called magicians are not for real, and they can’t perform real magic. Ann and Harry believe in Veronica and get angry that everyone makes fun of her behind her back and trusts some crooks. So, they expose their tricks to everyone. They meant good but ...

It becomes a real disaster for everyone! As the saying goes, the days grow longer, the storms are stronger. All the campers get upset. They want to go home. Their parents, who don’t believe in magic themselves but demand it from the camp instructors and Ben, as a director (it is stipulated in their contract – their children are to be shown and taught real magic in the camp!) demand their money back. Sandra, Ann and Harry’s mother, also shows up to take them home. And everything now – saving Ben and camp, and Veronica’s dream, and keeping Ann and Harry’s belief – depends on Veronica. She is getting ready for a demonstration of her magic science but she is very nervous and doesn’t believe in herself. The help comes from Guru. After his wife Victoria told him about the camp troubles he brings Veronica a very old book with magic formulas and secrets. Or maybe Veronica just thinks that this book is helping her.

The day, when everything could come to an end, brings a great new experience for everyone: believers and non-believers alike ...


Contact: Andrey Tarnarutskiy
Тел.: 8-926-670-8877 (Russia), 704-9925720 (USA)
e-mail: andreytarnarutskiy@yandex.ru, tarnarutskiyandrey@yahoo.com

© Copyright: Андрей Тарнаруцкий. Дата опубликования: 20.05.2009.

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