Valeri in our lives

After the first night that Valeri visited and sat for hours intent on speaking to me whether I was asleep or not, he started to come to our home almost on a daily basis and even at ridiculous times in the early hours of the morning he would ring the bell claiming he was just passing and saw a light on!

 Needless to say on many occasions we did not answer the door (and trurned out the lights which previously we left on) but he would come back anyway within a few hours and as much as ten times a day some days, claiming to be just passing!

He would bring fruit and nuts that he had just picked and even honey. These gifts would be left outside the gate when we did not answer.

We felt a little sorry for him and then would feel guilty about not answering the door as he seemed to have no other friends except Georgi and no place to go. With Steven and I constantly arguing and our relationship in turmoil due to the cheating ,we did accommodate him more than we should have as he was a distraction from the hell we were going through and gave us a break from arguing.

He was quite an intelligent guy so he was a breath of fresh air to us both and would educate us in a number of subjects including nature, philosophy and Bulgarian history and life these days!

 We were pleased that he felt comfortable in our home and thought it very sweet of him to bring fruit and nuts when he clearly had very little himself.

It was also pretty obvious that the guy had issues with paranoia and low self esteem and we had no intention of making him feel worse than he already did so we were happy to let him into our lives.

He seemed harmless enough and just a gentle lost soul. He was relaxed in our home so we told him he was welcome when he constantly asked if it was ok for him to come round and was worried he was in the way!

He would act a little strange at times and would suffer from paranoid delusions at times. I suspected he could be schizophrenic as he displayed many traits that I had seen before due to having a schizophrenic brother.

As an example, on one occasion he came running in and looked frightened to death and then very relieved to see that I was home and safe!

The story was that he had heard my voice over the microphone as he had passed a house where some 'young bad boys'  lived were having a party. He was worried that I had been tricked into going there and I was in danger as they were not nice people and wanted to hurt me.

On another occasion he thought I was talking to him through the towns Tanoy system warning him that he needed to be careful. It took a lot of  convincing by both Steven and I that I had not left the home that evening and had no reason to warn him and no idea that the town had a tanoy system let alone know where or who I would approach to use this facility.

Our internet was still being hacked but Valeri was somewhat reassuring to us by saying that it was probably just the police wanting to get to know who we were and that it was fairly common practice in Bulgaria.

In fact although he advised us not to call the police about the hacking, when we subsequently did, he translated for us but the police did not take it seriously. The police were of the opinion that if nothing had been taken then there was no crime and it was probably in our head as this did not happen in Byala and told us to get a good nights sleep as they left laughing!

Valeri also told us that he had always admired our home and for many years had often walked past and wondered what it would be like to go inside.
It said it was his dream home and on some days before we lived there, he had walked past 10 times a day sometimes, just daydreaming about how it would be to be so rich and have a home like that!
We were flattered and also glad we had made him welcome!

Most of the time Steven would be downstairs and I was upstairs so Valeri would flit between the two of us. Spending a few hours with Steve and a few hours talking to me!

He was aware just how upset and hurt I was so it was good to be able to talk to someone who seemed to understand and was compassionate about how I felt.  I would cry and he would say reassuring things such as Steven and I were not compatible. He thought Steven was sorry and he was surprised that Steven had done those things as he had the perfect girl and how although it hurts it was better that I knew the truth! Etc etc