The Island of Good Fortune

Mikhail Samarsky

Trison, a golden Labrador retriever trained as a guide dog, begins a new chapter of his adventures in the household of Vasily Mikhailovich, an elderly blind academician. The scientist is intelligent, gentle and humorous, while his wife, Tamara Isaevna, a retired teacher who secretly writes poetry, is more outspoken but equally affectionate. For the first time in a long while, Trison enjoys a secure life. His work is meaningful and his future apparently settled. Then the couple’s adult children give their parents an ocean cruise visiting twelve countries. The academician will experience the journey through his wife’s descriptions, and Trison will accompany them.

Aboard the Happy Traveller, the Labrador is fascinated by the ocean, the colors of the sky and the variety of people. The holiday ends suddenly when the liner stops near a tropical island. Vasily Mikhailovich remains aboard while Tamara Isaevna takes Trison ashore and lets him off his leash. A group of monkeys begins throwing fruit at him. Fleeing into the vegetation, he is caught in a hunter’s snare and suspended upside down by his hind legs. He manages to grasp a branch but cannot break the metal cable. From his trap he watches the cruise ship disappear beyond the horizon. The guide dog who has always kept others safe is now alone in an unfamiliar land, unable to explain who he is or where he belongs.

A local girl named Igis discovers him, returns with a young man and a ladder, and frees him. She takes him to her village, naming him Uacha — “king” in her language. Her family is kind but poor, and another mouth to feed is a serious burden. On an island that looks like paradise, Trison begins to learn the practical realities of survival: food, shelter, money, documents and the generosity of strangers.

A chimpanzee named Changa, belonging to a Russian businessman called Yuri, astonishes Trison by speaking Russian. Intelligent, mischievous and resourceful, she becomes his translator, companion and confidante. Their friendship is full of teasing quarrels about food: Changa considers bananas and coconuts perfectly adequate, while Trison longs for meat. Beneath their jokes grows a bond that will prove stronger than danger.

Unable to keep the dog indefinitely, Igis takes him into town to find someone who can. They meet Grigory, a Russian musician performing in the street near a shop advertised — with a spelling mistake — as a Russian store. Grigory recognizes a fellow countryman in the Labrador and gladly takes him in. Yet his home is a makeshift shelter among the branches of a giant tree. Educated and talented, he has withdrawn from conventional society, surviving on music, fishing and occasional help. Trison silently challenges the man’s philosophy. When the world disappoints a person, should he abandon other people — or keep trying to help them?

The man and dog become an improbable performing duo. Grigory sings and plays his guitar, while Trison contributes canine improvisations. Their concerts earn modest meals, but island life proves anything but idyllic. Trison painfully steps on a sea urchin during a fishing expedition. Later a large bird invades the tree house in search of food; trying to defend their supplies, he is injured again. Grigory spends his meager earnings on medicine and milk for the dog, often going without comforts himself. The apparent outsider has not lost the capacity for kindness.

Their fragile arrangement collapses when Grigory is arrested for lacking proper documents. Trison, also without registered status, is taken to a shelter for stray dogs. There he meets Pulka, a Chihuahua who believes unwanted animals will be put to sleep. The thought of an anonymous end behind kennel bars terrifies the Labrador. Although he later discovers that the shelter transfers unadopted animals to another island instead of killing them, the experience of powerlessness stays with him. Igis and her father find him, rescue him and obtain his documents, even though the family can barely afford to look after itself. Trison is moved by people who give what little they have without expectation of repayment.

Living with Igis, he befriends Shuito, a cat blinded when an unknown person struck him on the head. Trison starts guiding him on walks: a trained guide dog now becomes a guide for a blind cat. Their friendship reveals how much independence can be restored through patience and trust. But the injuries caused by human cruelty ultimately prove fatal. Trison and Igis mourn Shuito. The girl also releases rabbits her family had planned to slaughter, putting her compassion above obedience. The island continually asks its inhabitants to choose between selfishness and mercy.

Changa eventually devises a way for Trison to get home. When her owner Yuri returns, she appears behind the Labrador holding a small Russian flag. Yuri understands the hint and remembers an airline-magazine announcement about a missing Russian guide dog. The name and description match. He contacts Vasily Mikhailovich’s family and confirms that Trison is alive. What once seemed an impossible homecoming suddenly becomes a matter of organization and time.

Yuri also understands that Trison’s training should not go unused. While arrangements are made for his return, he places the dog with Soma, a young university student blinded after a devastating storm. Soma struggles not only with the loss of sight but with her dependence on people who must escort her everywhere. With Igis initially helping across the language barrier, Trison learns her routes and accompanies her to university. He wears his harness proudly again: he is restoring freedom to someone who needs him. Knowing that Trison will eventually leave, Yuri introduces Kito, a young black Labrador, and Trison begins teaching him to become Soma’s future guide, with Changa helping them communicate.

There are new dangers. When a tropical storm forces an evacuation, another passenger accidentally knocks Trison overboard with his luggage. The dog nearly drowns before he is hauled back into the boat. He meets Soma’s parents, whose conservation work protects endangered sea turtles and their hatchlings. A Russian visitor, Vyacheslav, grows close to Soma; their affectionate bond offers a hopeful counterpoint to the story’s losses. Trison also encounters Pulka again, now happily adopted. It is proof that a life threatened by abandonment can turn toward warmth and safety.

Yuri arranges a video call with Tamara Isaevna and Vasily Mikhailovich. Seeing and hearing those he loves overwhelms Trison with joy. The academician praises his continued work in a foreign country. Their reunion has become certain in principle, but another ordeal nearly prevents it. Walking near a park with Soma and Vyacheslav, Trison sees the young woman fall beside a venomous snake. When the reptile prepares to strike, he attacks and saves Soma — only to be bitten himself. The venom overcomes him. He awakens in a veterinary hospital three days later and learns that even a small delay in treatment could have cost his life. Service, for Trison, has again meant risking everything.

During his recovery Trison discovers what became of Grigory, the musician who once claimed to have abandoned society. The man undertook a dangerous mission to rescue Eternal Estrella — “Eternal Star” — a young woman from an isolated forest tribe whose customs condemned certain women to death if they were not chosen for marriage. Guided by a mysterious elderly man, Grigory crossed wild country and entered a guarded temple on the Mountain of Love. He was told to choose between a green door and a yellow one, but found that both looked green. By noticing fresh paint he identified the correct room, awakened Estrella and led her outside. Captured by guards, they survived through a remarkable series of circumstances, including the strange smell of a mushroom Grigory had stepped on along the way. Tribal rules kept Estrella from marrying the foreigner who freed her. Yet Grigory accepted this without bitterness: he had rediscovered his humanity through the simple fact that he was willing to risk his life for someone else.

Then Changa disappears. Animal traffickers have kidnapped her and intend to carry her away by boat. Yuri and Grigory ask Trison to follow her scent. Although still recovering from the snakebite, he tracks the abductors toward the coast. A local fisherman helps the rescuers pursue them toward a neighboring island. As capture becomes inevitable, the criminals throw Changa’s cage into the sea. Trison dives immediately after his friend, locates the submerged cage and signals for help. Yuri and Grigory join the rescue, and a police helicopter helps lift the cage from the water. But Changa is motionless. On shore a veterinarian struggles to revive her, while Trison watches helplessly, unable to imagine losing the lively friend who has done so much for him.

At last Changa begins breathing again. The joy of the rescue confirms the deepest meaning of their unlikely friendship: each has been willing to risk everything for the other. Yuri now accelerates Trison’s homecoming and invites Tamara Isaevna to the island, offering to pay for her journey. Vasily Mikhailovich remains at home rather than undertake another exhausting trip. When Tamara Isaevna finally arrives, Trison’s reunion with her is overwhelming. Her familiar voice, touch and scent mean he truly is going home.

A farewell celebration brings together those whose lives have intersected with his: Yuri, Grigory, Igis and her family, Changa, Soma, Vyacheslav and Kito. The island that once seemed a place of exile has become a second home. Before leaving, Trison revisits the streets of Grigory’s performances, the shelter where he met Pulka, the hospital, the routes he walked with Soma and the places where he nearly died. He remembers generosity shown by people with little money, and understands that the greatest gifts do not necessarily come from the wealthy.

As the plane rises, Trison looks down to see the island spread beneath him like a great multicolored heart. Tamara Isaevna asks a fellow passenger what Kau-Vong, the island’s name, means. Its modern meaning suggests many colors, but in the language of an ancient local people it meant something else: “rainbow.” Trison — the dog who once gave a blind boy a rainbow in A Rainbow for a Friend — has unknowingly spent his long exile on an island whose name carries the same image. What seemed a cruel accident became a journey through different forms of love: a poor girl’s kindness, a chimpanzee’s devotion, a stranger’s generosity, a lost man’s courage and a guide dog’s refusal to abandon anyone who needs him. Good fortune is not protection from suffering. It is the discovery that friendship, compassion and responsibility can survive danger, loss, poverty and distance.