InsaneJournal

Nikolai Volski was born on August 4, 1985 to one living mother, Tatyana Volski, and one deceased father, Aleksei. Nikolai was never told much about his father, and grew up with the knowledge that his family was different, that most other children had a mother and a father, where Nikolai only lived with his mother and grandmother. Their family was not rich, though they did all right by themselves. Tatyana would tell her son stories of her rich brother in the United States, who sent them money a few times a year. He was a very wonderful brother, Tatyana claimed.

Nikolai, called Kolya by his mother and grandmother, never really understood the reason he didn't have a father. It wasn't until he was a teenager living in America with his uncle that he learned the truth, that Aleksei had killed himself, shortly before Kolya was born. Tatyana would never have told him this. She believed that it was bad luck to speak of the dead.

Kolya's life was fairly normal, until he was ten years old. When he was ten, his uncle Matvey came to visit his mother and sister and nephew from America. While he and his mother traveled to the airport, they were in a very unfortunate accident.

The car in which Kolya and his mother had been traveling had hit a patch of ice, flipped, throwing Kolya from the vehicle and trapping Tatyana inside while the vehicle burned. Kolya cannot remember the accident, only waking up in the hospital afterward, in pain, with doctors telling his grandmother and uncle that he would probably never be able to walk again without some kind of aid, a crutch or a wheelchair.

This diagnosis was not good enough for Matvey Volski. Matvey arranged, after much arguing, to have his young nephew transported to the United States, believing that great doctors there would be able to cure him, and he would be able to walk again. Matvey believed this. Matvey needed to believe this, because he saw the pale, dark haired boy lying in the hospital bed as all that was left of his beloved baby sister, Tatyana.

So Kolya moved to the United States, despite the reservations of Matvey's wife. He and his grandmother took up residence at Matvey's home, with his two children, and Kolya began treatment in America.

Kolya's injury, the demolished lower left leg, had become infected at some point during the shuffle, and he spent a great deal of time in pain, drifting in and out of consciousness in a haze of antibiotics. Amputation, the doctors told Matvey, would be the only way to save the boy. Not just his leg, but his whole body, before the infection spread any further.

So when Nikolai Volski was ten years old, he had his left leg amputated, just below the knee. In a way, the Russian doctors had been right. Kolya would never again walk without some sort of aid. However, by the time he was sixteen years old, he was walking normally with the aid of a prosthetic. While it would occasionally cause him pain and put him on crutches for a few days at a time, it was as close to the way he'd been before the accident as he would ever be.

Living in the United States, however, was different fromt he way he'd lived in Russia. Because of the differences in lifestyle, Kolya earned a reputation for being quiet, even occasionally shy, and for keeping to himself. When he had arrived in America and moved into his uncle's home in California, he had not spoken English that well, and had taken a lot of teasing for it. Even years later, at 22, his voice still holds the remnants of his Russian accent, though nowhere near as strongly as his grandmother or uncle.

Kolya spent a lot of his junior high and high school years alone. He had tried his best not to be different from the other students, but he was. So he spent a lot of time reading, and playing piano. It was playing piano that turned out to be the equalizer in Kolya's life.

Because of his disability, Kolya was unable to play sports like football the way the other boys at his school did, and his balance wasn't good enough for surfing, coupled with the fear that he would lose his prosthetic somewhere in the ocean. So music became Kolya's existence. He could play piano, guitar, and he could sing. But it was his voice, and his ability at the keys that set him apart. Playing music was cool, if you were in a band. And Kolya was lucky enough to have a few friends that were willing to play with him in a band.

The band stuck together throughout high school, and they kept playing. They insisted people listen, played whenever they could, hoping to catch a break. But Matvey Volski was unamused by his nephew's foray into the world of rock and/or roll. He had not brought his nephew to the United States for him to throw his opportunities away playing music.

In the end, it turned out that the dream had not been silly at all. Kolya had the ability to make it more than a dream, and the band began to take off, signing to a real record label and touring the world. They made money. The band did well, touring off of two albums, moderate successes. Maybe everyone in the world didn't know who they were, but enough people did that their lives were good.

Unfortunately, problems began to arise between Kolya and one of the other members. There was a point, sometime during touring, when Kolya and his former friend had ceased to get along. The friction between the two of them eventually caused the band to crash, and then burn.

But Kolya was determined. He was still a musician, he could still write songs, and he would keep doing that no matter what it took. People still knew his name, and it didn't take much to start a new band, work on a new album, and put himself out there a second time.

The first album was a smashing success, and Kolya was happy. He was touring with friends, he was making music, he was doing something. Then he went home, and a quick succession of things forced him out of the music business. The first was moving in with best friend and bandmate Anders Finch. The second was the discovery that Andie had a daughter. The third was Andie's decision to move from Long Beach to the Bahamas.

So Kolya backed out of the music industry entirely and followed his best friend.