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Chapter 1: What journey do two women embark on in their tiny boat?
Okay, so sophomore year, Grand Valley State University. And on the laundry room bulletin board, I see a poster about jobs available and food services. And I write down the number to call. But when I finish my laundry, I can't read my own writing. So I go back to the bulletin board and the poster's gone. And that doesn't make any sense.
I'm sure that someone just stapled another poster on top of the poster I'm looking for. So I start excavating the bulletin board, pulling stuff off to see what's underneath. Missing dogs, chess club party, tutoring needed. and I see half a sign and it says, apply now, fellowships to Asia. And I don't know why, but I look at that sign and I do need to get out of Dodge.
The likelihood is less than zero, but so what? I pull a tab from the sign and I do apply. Later I'm told to meet at the Dean's office And a man comes out and congratulates me on being chosen for the Asia Fellowship, a year long trip. Whoa, you will represent our school at a brand new program in Japan. This is an extremely selective admissions process. You should be very proud.
Whoa, extremely selective. I was chosen, picked. Well, how many people apply? Well, that's not really important right now. What's important? No, no, no. Really, how many people did apply? Well, in truth, you were the only applicant, but that doesn't change the fact we are proud to have you represent our university overseas. No one else applied. No one.
Probably because they posted a notice buried three posters deep on a random laundry room bulletin board And truly, truly, that trip changed my life. Fate? Destiny? Maybe. But today on Snap Judgment, Kismet. Amazing stories from real people being directed by the fates. My name is Glenn Washington. Always remember, qualifications are for suckers. When you're listening to Snap Judgment.
Now then, on the Kissman episode, when Elena first started looking for someone on the internet, she thought that an online romance would stay just that, online. Snap judgment.
I remember the first time I saw Meg's profile. I think I remember glasses, and I kind of thought she looks geeky. She tried to write her profile in Russian. She just translated the words that she wanted to use and it came out very, very hilarious. But it was stunning. There was so much energy in that letter. We started riding back and forth. It was wonderfully easy.
I have never felt that way ever in my life. We didn't play any games. We didn't feel self-conscious. We were so honest to each other. It was just mutual. We were mutually drawn to each other. I realized that she was on the other side of the world, that she was Canadian, and I was in Ivanovo, in Russia. It was the very end of 2005.
She said once in the letter to me that it would be a great idea if we met in Kiev. Of course, I got scared. I absolutely couldn't imagine how me, how could I go to Kiev to see a woman? At the time, I was an architect working in a small town. I was 25, and I did not know almost anything about the world. I was not out. I told her that simply my society will not allow me to be with her.
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Chapter 2: How does Elena's online romance evolve into a real-life adventure?
Stay tuned. Welcome back to Snap Judgment, the Kismet episode. When last we left, one couple is desperately trying to communicate. Sensitive listeners should know this story contains strong language and involves violence. Sensitive listeners, please be advised.
She says, McDonald's, train station, McDonald's. And then she says, Meg, I love you. And then silence. It was like I had been slugged in the gut. And I couldn't believe that I had left her. So I went back to the train station. I found McDonald's. I went up to the second floor. I see half the upstairs eating area is filled with people, literally crammed up against one side of the restaurant.
And the other half of the restaurant is almost sort of empty, except for Elena. Lena's a mess. She's got makeup running all over her face. She's crying and she's jammed against a wall in the corner. She's trying to stand up and her father shoves the table against her. I didn't know what to do. And all of a sudden, a fist comes out of nowhere and just floors me. Her father, he was wild.
And the guy had just slugged me. I looked around at the people dining and everybody's just sitting there munching on their McHappy meals. I just said, you know, like, militia, we need the police. Nobody did anything. Her father then pulls out this photograph that I had sent. I had sent Lena.
And he's showing it literally almost around the restaurant and saying, criminal, criminal, this is a criminal. You know, help us. This criminal is after us. After the attack, we got taken to the police station nearby. Being a police was a torture. It was so stupid. They held us there for so many hours. I believe it was they couldn't find anything to charge us with.
And of course, I'd also paid the bribe, which is why I'm sure they let us go. A few days later, obviously, I checked the bag. The passport was gone. Of course, I knew that my mother took it. We went to Canadian consulate. Got to the embassy and we spoke to one of the staff members. And when she was basically telling us that, you know, you're cooked in Kiev, you need to get out.
She said the police were corrupt, that they would know where we were and that we should not go back to the apartment, that her parents would be dangerous. Her official position was, let us get you on an airplane and get you out of here. Canada would officially help evacuate me from Ukraine. Without a passport, they couldn't do anything for Elena. You know, why didn't you just leave Lena?
You just met. You don't owe her a single thing. You know, you could have just left and been on your way. Why didn't I do that? Well, I loved Lena. There was no way I was going to feed her to the jackals. The only way she could make it was with me. I knew what we had to do. First of all, get out of Kiev where they could find us. And second of all, then get out of Ukraine and find a way to Canada.
We had to find a way to get me to Canadian soil on our own. And nobody else would help us but ourselves. There was only one other option, and that was to go underground. I had no idea what we were doing. We were like the Marx Brothers. We switched clothes. We colored our hair. We hung around the train station.
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Chapter 3: What challenges do Elena and Meg face when they meet for the first time?
I saw or experienced the boat approaching us so fast. Please identify yourself. This is vessel... You know, whatever. And it was always just silence, silence, silence. There's no way we can outrun this thing. Nothing we can do. I had a fire extinguisher. That was the only thing I could think of as a defensive weapon. So we both go up and we sit in the cockpit and we wait.
And I think we were absolutely still, statues frozen on the bench. I don't think we made a sound, I don't think we moved. The only parts of our bodies that moved was head and eyeballs. and this vessel comes over the horizon and it's making just this ungodly racket. So it's this big steel patrol boat.
It's probably 50 feet long, it's got lots of rust all over the place, and it cuts its engines, it slows down, and it starts circling us. On the front of it, it's got a tripod-mounted machine gun with a guy standing behind it. There's other guys standing on the deck with various weapons, and they're not saying a thing.
And they're sort of looking down, and they bring this boat back to an idle, and they circle us slowly, just at idle. Chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck, chuck. And our little boat was bobbing away in the waves that they made. They didn't say anything. We didn't say anything. Everybody just stared. Circle us two or three times.
Somebody from the flybridge, I assume it was the captain, he also was carrying a gun. He just snapped something. The engines on that boat revved up and it just tore off. It just went back across the horizon and left us alone. We both, we just went below and I think we crawled into bed and held on to each other and just shook. We are in the North Pacific. We're almost there.
We were two weeks away out of ten months of hell at sea. I would say that like water was boiling. It was nothing but black. We're basically 1,000 miles off San Francisco. We're not supposed to be there. Nobody is supposed to be there, certainly not in a little boat. And we're climbing north, climbing north. It's one gale after another, and they're relentless. They go on for days.
We were making 10 miles north and 5 miles back, 10 miles north and 5 miles back. We know something's going to happen. We know the cold fronts are coming down on us like freight trains. And we know there's a Pacific storm just waiting for us. The wind picked up. It got to over 55 knots and it overwhelmed Lena. She lost control of the boat. The boat goes over on its side.
So it's basically being dragged sideways through the water. And all of this stuff is on top of my books, clothes, tools, whatnot. And I wake up and I sort of hear this muffled screaming through the headphones. So I make my way to the cockpit, and Elena is hanging onto the wheel. There's water coming up against the deck. The cockpit is full of water. Everything's crashing and falling.
She's screaming. The water is coming down through the companionway, and we're dragging more of it in, and I know the heavier it gets, the further into the water it's going to sink. Elena was frozen solid on the wheel. She was terrified. She was paralyzed. And she sort of comes to... I realized that I cannot turn the wheel. My strength is not enough.
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