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&

Chapter 111 – Steph´s memories

After the first two years of great success with her music career and the products linked to her name, Steph decides to rest for a while. The world tour was great, but also exhausting. So, she is at her parents´ house for a month, while her manager plans her future steps.She is happy to be near family and friends again. Some of her cousins drop by to see her, she goes shopping with old school friends, which is fun because she has to use wigs to avoid the fans from recognizing her. And of course there are Mandy´s visits, because she is her best friend. They take turns going to one another´s home as they always did. Then it is possible only to chat or see a movie together to enjoy each other´s company. Sometimes they enjoy the pool and listen to good music while sunbathing.Steph´s family and friends are her main source of inspiration, and since her manager was pushing her to deliver new lyrics for her next CD, she took the opportunity to wr

Chapter 112 – Heartbreaking condition

Brian had a degenerative disease that, in time would cause him to lose his vision. The treatments could postpone it but not avoid that he became blind.Some days he had to use eye drops and rest in his room even if it was day time. His mother would shut the window and put on some soft music to distract him during these long hours of waiting. Brian didn´t complain because he was afraid to become blind and did everything he could to follow the doctor´s recommendations.In these occasions he missed Steph and she made it clear that she missed him too.“Brian, why can´t I sit with you while you rest your eyes? I miss you bad, you know?”“Steph, I miss you too. But the drops make me so sleepy that you would get very bored.”And then they had to endure it. Brian was now ten years old and Steph was nine. The doctor told his mother that he has already lost twenty per cent of his capacity to see and he was wearing gl