To get a peek inside Ted's apartment, I first had to write out a check to cover the back-rent he owed his landlord. Half an hour later, I found it. A back issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED dedicated to the Athenian Summer Olympics of last year.
On one page, there was a photo of Courtney Carlson. The petite carrot-top who had swept most of the gold medals, in women's gymnastics, at those Olympics. In this case, it showed her in the middle of a floor exercise leap. Even more intriguing, however, was the fact that it had been circled in red magic marker. Similar to the snapshot paper-clipped to the back of that page!
That second photograph was in black-and-white. And, it showed a much-younger Ted wearing a Cheshire cat grin, while hugging a very pretty (and much shorter) girl to his right. I couldn't see too much of the girl's face, as it was partially obscured by a Mexican sombrero. But, I could tell from her own toothy smile that she had been having a good time, at the time, too.
Turning the snapshot over, I found something written in Russian above a four-digit number that was much easier to distinguish: "1968."
Luckily for me, I knew someone who could translate the Russian portion; Lazlo Petulengro.
When most people use the phrase, "gypsy cabbie," they usually mean a driver of taxi cabs unaffiliated with any large company. But, Lazlo was a genuine gypsy! More specifically; a Rom of the Lowara tribe who had been born in Hungary, raised in the U.S., and served in the Vietnam War.
I had become his best customer since the suspension of my license. And, more importantly, in this case? He was as fluent in Russian-as-a-second language as he was in colloquial American!
When I asked him to translate the Cyrillic lettering on the back of the snapshot, it didn't take him long.
"All it says is, 'Svetty and I.' "
" 'Svetty?' " I echoed. He nodded, as he handed the picture back to me.
"It's short for 'Svetlana.' A very common given name for Russian girls."
"And, this was taken in 1968," I mused, half-aloud: "I wonder if she could have been a fellow athlete at the Mexico City Olympics?"
Lazlo shrugged: "You're the news-hound. Not me! Pick you up at six?"
I nodded, paid him for the ride, then continued on inside to my desk at the PICAYUNE.
I may not have become a hot-shot foreign correspondent like my late dad (the legendary "Buck" Fogarty). But, at least I have the Internet. And, after two hours of intermittent googling, I had the answers I was looking for.
Svetlana Blefescu (Russian mother/Romanian father) had been born in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1952. Which means she was sixteen at the time of the Mexico City Olympics. As captain of the girl-gymnasts for the U.S.S.R., she had been expected to bring home at least half the gold medals awarded there.
Unfortunately, for her, she was rendered so upset by the defection of her boyfriend--Fyodor Ivanov--that she didn't even win bronze! As a result, she and her parents went into "voluntary seclusion" when she returned to Mother Russia. English translation: they got sent to Siberia.
As fascinating as all this info was, however, what really blew my mind was the uncanny resemblance between Svetlana Blefescu...and Courtney Carlson.
tbc
Giantess World
