Red coat and violin (part 2)

... Without thinking the young man steps into the pond to help Alice gather her papers. He hadn’t realized that he had gone knee-deep into the cold water. After getting all the pages, he turned to her and extended his hand.

“ Karen Shahgaldyan, at your service!”
She couldn’t help smiling and shakes his hand gracefully.
“Can I offer you a cup of coffee as a thank you for your heroic act?”
“Your smile is enough to express thanks. But looking at the circumstances now, a cup of tea isn’t a bad idea. I’m really cold, you know?”

“I didn’t know that such gentleman still existed in this city. On a daily basis I have to deal with people don’t care about much except their fancy cars and which casino to go to every night.”
“Don’t give up, there are still nice people in this country” he said. “So why is a pretty lady like you sitting here alone at a café?”
“Once in a while I like to come here, sit and just look around. It feels like I’ve lost touch with the real people of Yerevan and their normal day to day activities. It gets tiring to be with high class, pretentious people who all they talk about is material things.” She glanced at her watch and was quiet.
“Anything the matter?”
“Ummm, I need to go now. I don’t like to keep people waiting”, she said getting up and left in a hurry not giving him a chance to say anything.
She crosses the street and disappears.

...“Excuse me, there’s no price tag on this red coat. Would you tell me how much it costs?”
Alice takes a deep breath and walks from behind the counter. “Oh, that’s a great choice, we just got this new winter collection from France” ….


Back at the café, the young man pays the bill and walks to the corner of the street. He sits into the limousine and tells the driver, “take me home Arthur, I need to change before the concert”.

As the black limousine drove away, on the billboard next to it was: “Karen Shahgaldyan, last three concerts in Yerevan”