The history books tell it, they tell it so well

Once upon a time there was Mr. Knowles. He was a deeply warm-hearted person who had acquired a vast amount of knowledge during the course of his life. Mr. Knowles was a man of age and wisdom but he had a hard time making new friends.

Once he was queuing to a ticket booth. He wanted to get a ticket for a ballet he'd always wanted to see. There in front of him stood a tall man with broad shoulders and an angular face. The man started to speak to Mr. Knowles, telling him about his daughter that was going to be performing at that ballet and how proud he was of her. The angular faced man had a strong accent that Mr. Knowles recognized to be a Russian accent. Mr. Knowles had learned to hate the Russians all through his whole life. He thought of the words his father had told him: If another war comes, it's them we must fight to hate them and fear them, to run and to hide. And accept it all bravely with god on our side. Mr. Knowles nodded silently to the words the Russian man said and avoided any eye contact.

After this occasion he walked home and thought of the Russian man. Surely, there wasn't anything particularly threatening about him, he was just a friendly man being proud of his dear daughter. Mr. Knowles couldn't recall any time where a Russian person had ever harmed him in any way. But growing up in the 1950's in the United States he had learned to fear Russians and now as an old man he hadn't been able to get rid of this very dread. In his youth he didn't dare to hold sunflowers in his hands and join the peace movement, there was too much fear of being named a commie.

Then again, times they had changed and Mr. Knowles was not a young, fearsome boy anymore. And he did want to find a friend.

The day of the ballet he came early to the city hall and waited at the entrance until he saw the familiar face of the Russian man. He walked up to him and introduced himself. The Russian man said his name was Igor and both of them smiled. They spoke before and after the ballet performance. Mr. Knowles invited Igor to play chess with him. Mr. Knowles had found a friend and conquered his fear of the Russian.