Kid seems lost, but he's on the right path

I was sitting at a table at Tiddaly Diddaly’s with a coffee and a chocolate chip cookie, chatting with owner Ken Broda and a couple of his regulars at another table.

The door opened, and in walked this tall, lanky, young fellow who appeared to be lost. Gently and kindly, from across the room, he asked Ken what he served for breakfast.

The young man was clean-shaven, looked like he’d just exited the shower, but his hair was either uncombed or naturally scraggly. Maybe a throwback to the mop head days.

Ken pointed to the menu on his counter and told the newcomer to come take a look. He did. Reminded me of an old western as he walked. The rest of us sized him up, like he was some sort of gunslinger.

After he ordered, he wheeled to his right and firmly asked if anybody there knew of any jobs or anyone who was hiring. There was a newspaper on the table nearest to him so I suggested he look at the want ads. He did.

The young man kept chatting while waiting for his breakfast. Turned out he had a job picking apples.

Apples? I asked. I keep hearing on TV that white people won’t pick apples.

The young man admitted he wasn’t real good at it. His best day so far was $90. There were pickers in his orchard making $150-200 in the same time frame. And the season would soon end.

I was happy I’d suggested the want ads but, somehow, that didn’t seem like enough. So I practically ordered him to my table.

I’m going to interview you, take your picture, and write about you in my newspaper so everyone will know who you are and that you are looking for work. He sat down.

The young man is Miloslav Shishkin, 20 of Soap Lake, and he’s bilingual. Yup, he speaks Russian as well as English. I don’t know when or how, but someday his bilingual skills will come in handy.

Young Mr. Shishkin was born in Dneprodzerzhinski, Ukraine. He was three months old when his parents brought him to America. They had the good sense to teach him Russian, including the alphabet, during summers. He learned English at school the rest of the year.

“My parents like most things in America, but miss some things in Russia,” Shishkin said. “But they won’t go back. This is their home.”

Milo (with a long I) hasn’t visited Russia and doesn’t plan to. He he has no feel for it. He’s an American.

So far, Milo has been a wanderer. He’s had six different jobs since graduating from the alternative school at Soap Lake in 2013. But he’s starting to find his way.

Using a phone app, he put his profile on a dating site about the same time a young woman from Mattawa was doing the same. They read about each other, viewed each other’s pictures and decided to meet.

Milo went to Hund Memorial Park in Mattawa, as was agreed, and waited. Sure enough, Yunico Nuñez showed – with her parents! He met the entire family.

Milo and Yunico had a day date to the Seattle Aquarium. She was home before dark.

“It was the craziest thing ever,” Milo said. “I didn’t have high hopes for (the dating site), but it worked. She’s the one. She was kind and gentle and sincere and very beautiful.”

After five months, Milo and Yunico decided to marry. They have their license and probably will tie the knot in a couple of months.

All Milo has to do now is put the rest of his life in order. He’s been living in a pickup camper on the same ground where Yunico and her family live, inside the orchard where they all work.

Milo takes his showers in the Nuñez home but sleeps in the camper. And, apparently, he’s on his own for breakfast.

You’re probably thinking Milo and Yunico will get off to a rough start, marrying so soon. So do I, but I would not tell them not to marry. I’ve met many people who’ve done the same and have forged lifetime love affairs.

Besides something good will happen for a 20-year-old who will address a room of strangers and say: “Does anybody know where I can find a job?”