CHAPTER TEN
THE NEW HOME
“In anger we should refrain both from speech and action”
Pythagoras
November, 2001. Tony and Sharon moved to the new home, the renovations almost finished. Finally Tony had his dream house! He was very happy. Having seen to every detail nothing was done without his approval, and nothing was left behind. His intention was to rebuild the house, move in and then put the house on the market for sale with a profit. Since the real estate market was going up, and as usual he wanted to make the best of both worlds, not only would he be living in a fantastic home, he also was able to sell it, make a profit, and perhaps buy another house, even better. That was Tony’s way!
He used to sit on his deck at sunset and gaze out at the sunset over the canal and think of his “family” and everyone who had helped to make that dream come true. He really wanted to share all this with everyone, but his “family” was the most important of all.
The next step was to bring his family and Sharon family to see his accomplishment. He invited everyone to come for Christmas and New Year’s celebration, and his invitation was to come with no expenses, he would pay everything for everyone! And sharing this with his family was very important; these things had no value to him, unless he would share it with them.
Somehow Sharon did not agree with that; she did not want to bring anyone, not her family or Tony’s. She would make excuses that the home was not ready yet, and she hated the competition between Tony’s mother and sister, who always wanted to have the same things she did. But Tony would do it his way, whether Sharon liked it or not. And if she wanted to bring her family, it would be OK with him.
Tony, by this time, felt on top of the world; he had acquired just about everything that money could buy. Not only did he have a home valued at three and half million, with zero mortgages, he also owned other real estate in values exceeding three million dollars. He had all the fancy watches, the fancy cars, such as the Mercedes S-500, the Ferrari F360 Spider, the motorcycle, BMW RS1200 and anything that he ever wanted. You name he had it!
Everything was set. He got the tickets, set the dates and he was anxious to see his parents, brother and sister. One day before they came, December 23, Richard said that he lost his passport, and couldn’t find it. So his parents canceled the trip at the last minute. Tony was very upset and furious with this brother; how you could lose such an important document, he said over the phone.
Sandra arrived with her daughter Sabrina and on the following day Richard found his passport but decided to delay his trip two days and so his parents flew on Christmas evening. Tony was so disappointed thinking that he had planned everything to celebrate Christmas and his parents and his brother weren’t coming.
Finally everyone arrived, and as usual discussions between Sharon, Sandra and his mother turned into tension and jealousy filled sessions. Tony would get sad seeing this. He talked a lot with Richard and that seemed to be OK; he was happy and constantly complimented Tony for having all his dreams to come true.
Tony had planned to travel to Hong Kong after the holidays, and would bring his father with him; he also wanted to bring his mother, but she recently had a knee chirurgic operation and could not walk well. Tony wanted to show his dad his office in Hong Kong and he hoped to travel to China as well. Tony would love to share all his conquests with his father; he would feel proud, and I guess he always wanted to be approved by his parents. Every child does.
A small event that turned in to a major event: After the holidays Mrs. Lima had to get some documents done, and Sandra woke up early in the morning to take her mother to the offices; she took one of Tony’s cars without telling him.
Tony had some documents in the car that he needed that day, and got furious (as usual) when he found out that Sandra took his car without telling him. He had no problem with her taking the car; he wasn’t crazy about cars, and he would never refuse to lend a car to somebody, but the usual brother sister cat-fight ensued. But in this situation with his sister Tony was also mad at some construction workers who were supposed to have finished their work some time ago, but still had not so that evening when Sandra got back Tony shouted at her at the top of his lungs, “The next time you take my fucking car, tell me!”
What Tony didn’t know, was that it had been his mother who had asked to get the car and Mrs. Lima took the matter personally now, and instead of telling both them to shut up, she took Sandra’s side and things got really hot! Sandra decided to get out of the house and go to a hotel. Richard would try to calm things down, and asked Sandra, “Why are you going to do that? In the end Tony will get the bill anyway, why don’t you stay? At least it does not cost more here.”
Everything in life depends on perspective, and how you look at things, and I guess that’s why we get so confused at times. Can you try to imagine the different feelings for each person after those events?
So, Tony saw his world falling apart! All he wanted was to share his success with his family, and everything was going wrong. And now Mr. Lima, after being pushed by Mrs. Lima decided not to go with Tony to Hong Kong. When Mr. Lima told him, that was it. They managed to get Tony at his highest degree of madness. I mean this guy was angry. So he walked to the front door, opened it, and slammed the door as hard as he could, breaking it, and walked out.
The next day Richard returned to Brazil and Tony drove him to the airport accompanied by everybody except Sandra who was staying at the hotel.
At the airport Richard went to the restroom and Tony followed him. Tony looked at his brother who was coughing constantly, and he thought, I won’t have a brother for very long. (It seems like he was predicting the future)
While they were on their way home from the airport, Mrs. Limas started to scream at Tony and started hitting him. Tony just couldn’t understand what he had done wrong!
Next day his parents, Sandra and her daughter returned to Brazil and Tony flew to Hong Kong alone.
When Tony arrived in Hong Kong, he learned that Richard had a major car accident in Brazil, broke three ribs, but he was OK, and his parents were with him.
Tony was very upset with all the things going wrong with his family; that was a very big disappointment, so he re-thought his whole life and from then on his family now would consist of Sharon and the kids. He also decided to no longer stay with his parents when in Sao Paulo, and would get his own place.
In his business life he was not happy with the finance control of Exbrus, so he decided to make a proposal to Robert Johnson (Sandra’s ex-husband) to come and work with him as Controller.
Robert Johnson – American Born, was previously married to Sandra, and Tony had always had liked him very much; he had worked in several aerospace companies. One thing they had in common was that Robert was a sky-diver and he had introduced Tony to the sport, and now Tony loved it.
After the holiday experience, Tony offered a job to Sandra at the parts division at LineFor, but she rejected it and preferred to stay home doing nothing. She hated Tony now, because she learned that Tony hired her ex-husband she was through; this was revenge, even though Tony’s intention was far from that. He just wanted someone he could trust to deal with the finances.
Of course Blacker hated the idea of hiring Johnson as Controller; he would say to Tony, “You are bringing family members to the company again. When are you going to learn?” He was very upset with it, but Tony, stubborn as hell, did not mind his opinion.
Coming back from Hong Kong Tony had planned to go with Sharon to Europe for vacation but flying with Sharon was a challenge now.
Tony always wanted to learn about telepathy but always was afraid of it somehow; he was afraid of the power it could give you. He always was able to send messages using telepathy, always having experiences of synchronism with people close to him. So, at the airport book-store he looked for a book on this subject, but could not find one. He decided to purchase the book “Sixth Sense” by Stuart Wilde.
Reading it was a revelation. The words made so much sense for him. Suddenly he did not feel like the only crazy guy on this planet, someone else had already shared his own feelings. Glued to the book, he wanted to know everything now.
This trip now was very different to him; he was now very much aware of what was happening around him, and he started to understand the importance of being here and now.
They rented a car in Paris and drove to Milan, Italy. Sharon was taking anti- depression medicines and while driving through the Swiss Alps, Sharon asked him, since they were having such a good time, if he thought that she should stop to take the medicine. Tony said yes.
In Geneva, while having dinner, Sharon got this crisis, and she started to scream aloud in the restaurant, that she wanted to go home. So she took some more medicine. For the next four hours Tony had a very hard time. Try to imagine this: to the people around the restaurant, it must have looked as though Tony had high jacked Sharon!
They managed to finish the trip with visits to Milan, Monaco, Cannes, Saint Tropez and back to Paris.
Tony kept reading books related to spiritual subjects. He started to meditate and went for a walk in the morning, most days.