That was how our saga with the court and Mr. Beatty ended. And then began one of the most peaceful and joyful periods of my brother's and my stay in the USA in the summer of 2010. We had a job, money, and a car. But ten days later, by court order, we had to move out of our old house. It took 3 days to find new housing. My brother, of course, decided to move with me. We found 3 housing options and eventually chose to live with an acquaintance of mine from the previous year – Alex, an immigrant from the USSR. He had escaped from there in '78, Alex was about 55 years old, and he lived with a fake American wife. It was a long commute to work from his place, but since we had a car, we decided to move. Living with him was calmer than in the previous house. But since it was already mid-August, we started thinking seriously about a trip to California. Since we hadn't really traveled anywhere for 2 months, just dealing with our troubles, we really wanted to go somewhere, preferably far away. Somehow, we arranged a trip to the neighboring islands in our car. In general, the Outer Banks archipelago consists of several islands. We decided to go to its extreme point – Ocracoke Island. The route there included ferry crossings (completely free). It was fun.

And there was also one bright party at the end for Ukraine's Independence Day on August 24th. Also a lot of good memories.

Then it somehow became boring, or something. The problems were over. There was nothing left to solve, and we started preparing for what had seemed absolutely unreal to me from the very beginning: a road trip across the entire country, from one ocean to the other and back, to sunny California.