If I am to finish the story, it should be a simple narrative.

In 1995 I, Esther and children came to Addis Ababa, after our two years in St. Petersburg (FGather-Russia). Esther didn't want to go after she was resqued from Ethiopia in 1978. I spent over there that summer, she and children came to Alaska two months later -- and unlikely we will go again to Africa.

Yes, I began to write about 1995, 2000 and even 2050, the times of Haile Sellassie life after he died. But the story meant go back in time, in the past, as if I could find my answers in this reversed chronology. I thought it is logical to get to the time of his death in 1975 and his arrest in 1974. I was writing hoping that I can understand the end of the Past.

So, went further -- in the year of 1960 (Lost Sons), the year of the coup, which changed him and the country. At least, the way I see it. And so on, 1935 (War & Exile), Coronation... More pages, more notes.

Somewhere I lost it. I was moving into mystical times, not even history, but pre-history. Away from politics into myths and images. Chapter 1917 Regent looks like a strange play, not prose...

Finally, 1892 Birth (somehow I even wrote something about Solomon and Sheba), perhaps because I sensed that I am losing the book.

What could I do now. Write about the end of my story in Y2K?

Write more notes, black&white, diaspora? I don't think so.

Anatoly, Dec. 2003

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