Ross just laughed. "You tell me, Pete, if this is possible. Here is my proposition to you. You may hate me for this. I propose that when Antonovna arrives, that you will put yourself into the background and let someone else stand in the foreground with her."

      Yes, Ross was right. That hit like a shock. "Whom do you have in mind?" I asked quietly. "Let's see what the options are: Yourself, Fred, Tony?"

      Ross just shook his head as if I lost the first round already. "It's Heather!" he said firmly. "There are no other options."

      I didn't answer. Obviously, he was right. If I screwed things up with my poverty in generosity, Heather was the logical choice. She was the richest of us all, in that department. She and Sylvia. Except Sylvia had been trained in the business world where generosity isn't highly rated anymore. "Are you asking me to step aside and give the love of my life to Heather?" I said to Ross after a long silence.

      Ross didn't answer right away. He seemed to be watching another airplane coming in. "Look at the situation Antonovna finds herself in right now," he said a while later. "She is living in the Soviet world where the individual has no autonomy, no sovereignty, no status as a human being, and the sexual identity is kept behind a veil as if it didn't mean anything. The whole Soviet central planning mentality has reduced the individual person to a sexless, nameless, piece of flesh with no greater meaning than that of a registered serial number in state inventory. Anton wants to be a person, Pete, and a woman. She still has that golden belt, you know, and the soft Chinese shoes that she had told you about in her letter; at least in her mind she still has them, and she always will. Heather's generosity will allow her to wear this belt for as long as she needs it, and to take it off with joy when that becomes appropriate. Would you do the same and allow her to be herself?"

      I shook my head. "What are you saying, Ross?" I asked quietly.

      "I am saying that she will regards Heather as your candle," said Ross. "It will shine for you too. If you stay in its light, in the light of generosity, hoping for nothing but to enrich her, she will invite you to be a part of her life. So, I propose that we invite Antonovna to stay with Heather in the beginning. This means that I will move out to give them both the 'space' they need. I'll move in with you for the duration. That may be for a few days, maybe for a week. The rooms are big enough for that. If you can uplift yourself to the level of generosity to make that happen, somewhere down the line your dream will have a chance of coming true. That's guaranteed by the principle involved."

      I answered Ross with a big bear hug. "But what about Heather?" I asked. "Did she sign up on this?"

      "Don't worry, Pete," said Ross, "she will sign up. Remember, Pete, she is the most generous person in the universe. I just don't know yet how to put this to her. I don't want her to get the impression that she is being used, which is not the case. She may see it as the most natural thing to do if it is properly presented. She will feel honored and be enriched by it. My problem is that she might be suspicious, because I have never been strong in the generosity department, as least not for a long time."

      "To be honest Ross," I interrupted him, "I have no idea what she sees in either of us that kept her with us for so long. It certainly isn't our non-existing good looks."

      Ross just laughed. "Maybe she remembers us how we were in the beginning. We had our moments then, when a bit of generosity shone through. She told me about your trip to Key West."

      "Yes, those were the golden days," I agreed.

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Stories about  Sex from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche