Chapter 103 – Things change for better

The months kept passing and there were some changes in everyday life.Mark picked up Mandy at home every morning and they rode together to school, as it was always supposed to be. They had their lunches together in some nearby restaurant, not only the ones at the shopping center.Some times they had one or two of the bodyguards sitting for lunch with them and they chatted and told funny stories.But most of the time they kept to themselves, because romance doesn´t need distractions. They were never tired of professing their love and planning their life together.One thing that was already happening were their monthly visits to the farms. They loved to spend time with the grandparents. Mandy and Mark felt in their hearts that someday they would live there as they had dreamed in a not so distant past.At school, Mark accepted Greg´s presence naturally. He knew it was necessary to be protected when you had as much money as Mandy or Arthur.

Chapter 104 – Merry Christmas

There were many preparations for the Christmas celebrations at Arthur and Carol´s house this year. It was only for family and close friends, but even so, everything was prepaired with care and detail. The kitchen staff was very busy stuffing turkeys, making roast or mashing potatoes, gravy, giant hams and lots of roast beef. They also were in charge of preparing a variety of sauces, besides the tradicional cranberry sauce. There were vegetables of every size and color, to be eaten raw, cooked or baked. And the pastry chefs got real busy baking cakes, cookies, candies and puddings. The pumpkim pies and apple pies were huge and had whipped cream toppings. They also found time to prepare the traditional fruitcase and deserts made of different flavors of ice cream. The Christmas decoration was extraordinary. Every room had been transformed in a cozy scene that resembled the sweetest Christmas movie. Green garlands, golden bells and red bows and ribbons were every

Chapter 105 – The love of music

Steph had arranged with Mandy for them to ask the delivery of one piano and many musical instruments to Don Bosco´s shelter to happen during the Christmas season. It provided a very merry Christmas with lots of music all around.Besides the Christmas tree and interior decorations, Mandy and Carol had purchased some amusement park toys for the shelter and they were outside, spread around the garden. There were wooden and plastic horse toys, trackless trains, colorful seesaws, and slides among others. All the children tried all of them many times. There were also swing sets surrounding the garden which provided a dozen or more seats.The children got dressed like angels and they loved their costumes. There were still around forty children living there, because although some of them had been adopted in the previous year, new orphans had arrived too.Besides the usual visitors to the shelter, this time Marie and Makena had decided to join them.As alway

Chapter 106 – In Place

When the holidays had passed Jackson started to get his family on the move. The sadness the boy felt from leaving Arthur´s house was lessened by the news of their new home. It provided a wave of excitement. Eric and Louis loved their new home and were soon exploring the garden and planning to buid a house for the puppies that Mandy had given them. Grandpa Antonio offered to help. The fun was in building one instead of buying it.Weeks earlier, the boys also had decided which room they wanted, because Becca had them freshly painted in their favorite colors. The blue room for Eric and the light green one for Louis. On the green walls he hung posters of jungle scenes and also his favorite animals, the lions. It turned out very nice and nobody could tell it was the same pink room that used to be Mandy´s.Antonio and Isabel were placed at the new guest rooms that replaced Carol´s original gymnastic center, as she had suggested herself. They were very comfo

Chapter 107 – Mandy Foundation Opening

Chapter 108 – And then, there was Gray

Carol was waiting for Arthur in her special room at his office building. She had just sent Gray on some errands when he joined her there, because they were headed to have lunch at a new restaurant in town. It was themed for the eighties and the guide had given it a high score, specially for the seafood dishes.The couple enjoyed exploring new places and trying different foods.Arthur kisses his wife before asking her about her assistants, “I passed Gray on the hall. This room used to be more crowded. What happened to your other assistants, Carol?”“Well, Grass is doing a short course on public relations. When she finishes it, she will move on to work for Jackson, since she is a natural with children.”“That is a great quality. I think Jackson appreciated you sending Grass to the Foundation.”“He sure did. Jackson had already noticed how patient and caring she is, because he saw that she did a great job help

Chapter 109 – Tourism and gastronomy

It was not hard at all for Marie and Makena to choose which courses they wanted to take in college. Marie had already worked in the tourism area, being a guide back in her country. She also loved to travel and she knew much about world history and geography. Her dream for the future was to open her own travel agency, specialized in the main touristic destinies in Africa, the continent where she was born.When Marie started her studies, she met many people with similar dreams and she made good friends, who even talked about being partners in business after the graduation.As for Makena, she decided to take a gastronomy course. She enjoyed to cook so much and she was always trying new recipes. At school, she hoped to master in international cuisine, since she had been more used to the local one, back home.Moreover, Arthur had asked George to get some temporary work permits for them, while they applied for citizenship. As soon as they got the permits, Makena start

Chapter 110 – Like old times

Mandy, Mark, Steph, Charlie and Dorothy had gathered on a Saturday night to eat pizza, candies, popcorn and watch some comedy movies.They were at the movie theater in Mandy´s house and the cook had prepared this delicious food for them and a variety of natural juices.Steph was enjoying her watermelon juice and Dorothy had found a new delicious flavor in the kiwi juice.They got ice cubes from a huge bucket and filled the long glasses with them, before pouring the juices in.The teens had laughed a lot with a comic movie that told the story of a couple in love, that got lost in a mall and couldn´t find each other for hours. It was necessary for them to escape insisting salespeople and deal with the loss of cell phones and credit cards robbery. Everything was exaggerated, so the filmgoer could laugh his heart out.When the movie finished nobody was in a hurry to leave, then they kept chatting and eating the snacks.“I didn&