@78
It’s the final countdown
Angelo dell'Amore
Thank you note
I wish to thank firstly God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Without Your sight and Your wisdom, I would not have been able to live this series. I thank You God, my Father in Heaven for your eyes, help, signs, wisdom and teachings of the fruits of unconditional love and how to be able to love fully and unconditionally. I thank You for Your forgiveness, understanding, guidance and protection, God, without You I am nothing. I love You with all of my heart and soul without any doubt and without condition, Your child faithfully Amen.
I wish to also thank Lusiano, the cousin of Mork for his patience, understanding, jokes, clarity and his time to have made this book possible, to have saved what appeared to have been lost and to have made me see how much I truly love all of the characters in this series. Lusiano, you are my friend and a family to me, please continue to be the beautiful and gentle person that you are.
I also wish to thank a lady with the name of Lia, Signora, you have unknowingly been generous to me and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kindness. Theatro Alla Scala was incredible and I enjoyed every second. It was not necessary, money and possessions or spectacular events do not impress me much, family, kindness and depth does but thank you once again, you are and angel and I also wish to thank you for your extraordinary, vibrant and lively personality.
Now, I wish to thank all of you who are reading this series. Thank you all so much for your support. If this series of truth, faith and unconditional love have not moved you, then I must certainly try again.
Let us continue, shall we?
Preface
JINGLE JEALOUSY
Once I settled into the house after my flight, I laid on the couch in the lounge for a few moments and thought about the new @78 book that I was slowly planning in my head to write. Before I could truly get into my book planning mode I first had to unpack, I had to do some laundry and spreen clean the house.
Two and a half hours later, it had already been late in the afternoon therefore, I decided to say hello to the neighbors and then I decided to take a long and relaxing bubble bath and jump into bed.
I began to feel a little sad again while I was laying in bed thinking to myself. I felt sad because I was beginning to loose my joy. The fact that I was framed for horrible acts and for hurting Mork’s sons made me loose that caring and nurturing part of myself. Whenever I saw a child hurt, even my friend’s children I would keep a far distance from them, I could not give a hug to any child in sadness or pain, I withdrew and I felt that if I even put the tiniest plaster on a child, that I was hurting the child. A lie like that can destroy any innocent soul, perhaps for a lifetime, for me only for some time, yet the liar normally falls the hardest. Any compassion and understanding that I had for Elena was lost forever. One can not purchase respect, health, compassion or any form of unconditional love. I forgave Elena and let her be. May God Almighty have mercy on her soul because I was not born to be made angry, I was not born to judge, I was not born to hurt others, I was born simply to love and be an example of unconditional love through my actions.
I knew while I was lying in bed, that it would take time for me to heal from such lies. What hurt me most was that Mork and the football team believed these lies. “Did and do they not have eyes? Did they not see my pure actions of kindness? Could they not know and see that such lies were not possible to be true?” I would ask myself these questions almost every night before I went to bed, only to cry myself to sleep but at least, the fallen tears were healing me slowly.
The following weeks to come, I planned the next @78 book. I sat still while closing my eyes and remembered the next memories in detail and then I abandoned the project. I felt too hurt to really continue to write. One can see that my joy was less within the second @78 book than in the first one. Does humanity transform the innocent by hurting them just like they have been hurt by those before them? I saw this pattern and refused to bend and to give in and become disbelieving, cruel, shallow and selfish. Do we stay with a partner for the sake of our kids, not knowing how damaging and what horrific things and examples we teach the children?
We have choice, do to those that was done to us or to stand up and be stronger than pain, heal and refuse to let this world and the cruelty within this world, to transform us to be the same. I prefer to stay forgiving even towards my greatest enemy because unconditional love is and forever will be the most powerful energy of all.
While I lived through my daily struggles by forgiving, feeling anger and forgiving again, time flew by so fast that it was almost my birthday. I invited a few friends over, to prepare dinner for them on my special day and I finally had my mind occupied with something different. I had a distraction not to think daily about my deeply rooted disappointment in Mork. I had to plan an elegant dinner and being me, the most indecisive person on the planet, the menu changed daily in my mind and this lasted for an entire week.
Fortunately, after days of planning and about two days before my birthday, I decided to prepare an elegant 3 course meal for my invited friends. My excitement levels rose while all that my mind wanted and was willing to think about was, was to prepare the perfect meals, set the table fit for royalty and to make my birthday beautiful for everyone.
The following day, the day just before my birthday, I received a call from my property agent in Margate. The agent informed me that he had a buyer and asked me to complete some forms that he was going to email to me almost immediately. I went into shock but I felt so incredibly happy because it meant that I would be returning to Milan soon, to my Duomo, to Mork and @78. It was the most incredible news that I could have ever received, therefore I agreed to sign the forms immediately after I read through them.
Shortly after I received the forms to complete, I read through it, filled it in, signed and sent it back to him. I then called my mother to let her know the incredible news. It was a miraculous day, I also sent to Mork a message as well as a WhatsApp for Jack to let them know that my agent has found a buyer for my house, that the sale process in South Africa takes about 3 months before completion and that if all goes well, that I will see them at the end of February, at the latest at the end of March the following year.
Jack almost immediately replied with little clapping hand and celebration emoticons, on that day we were all relieved and very happy. I was soon going to return to my heart and this time hopefully forever, it was the best news I could have ever received especially on the day before my birthday, the 20th of October.
The following morning, I woke up feeling like a princess. It was my birthday once again and that evening I would be dining my friends in elegance. My house was being sold, everything was perfect.
While I was getting the house ready and prepared all of the necessary ingredients to cook with, I realized that I lacked some raw chocolate for desert. I rushed to the groceries store quickly for my desired item and when I saw the Ferrero Rosher chocolates, I could not resist, I had to buy some to decorate the table with it.
Once I returned home, I began to prepare the first dish which was prawn cocktail, I then prepared the rice for the second dish and I then slowly began to make melted blueberry chocolate for desert. (No, do not be concerned, the entire dinner was not prawn cocktail, rice and blueberry chocolate sauce, otherwise my guests would have left humming sadly to themselves, “I can’t get no satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones because they would have surely been dissatisfied and highly disappointed.)
Once I tidied up and placed the pre-cooked ingredients in the fridge, I switched on some 80’s music to first dance and sing and obviously to pretend that I am a famous pop star. For the rest of the afternoon at about 16:00, I finally decided to set the table, to take a bubble bath and to dress myself to look like a fairy princess. I love to dress in very elegant, vintage clothing and to look absolutely gorgeous. When I look good, I feel good and when I look gorgeous and feel angelic.
Once I peacefully set the table while humming and waltzing around with some blue and white table cloths and napkins in my hands, sherry glasses, wine glasses and glasses for water, plates and cutlery and white candles, I also placed an empty vase on the table because I knew I was going to receive flowers. I would stop while my dark blue dress would gently flare around my legs allowing me to feel the soft fabric on my skin and then I would smile and giggle, feeling absolutely beautiful and gratitude for the elegant moment. I then placed some bread sticks, still closed in the box on the table. I also placed small chocolates on each napkin. I was pleased with my creative soul and retreated to a luxurious lavender and rose petal bath. Soaking in the bath, feeling every single sensation while inhaling every scent was what my body desired before super cooking.
While drying myself and laying out my blue and white flowered dress on the bed, I felt a joyful sensation shooting through my spine. I got dressed, dried and curled my hair and applied some make-up. I was still busy applying the final touches while waltzing around when I heard a car that pulled up in the drive way. I ran to the dining room table very quickly, placed the breadsticks into bowls, ran to get the sherry out of the cabinet for a welcome drink and then opened the door when I heard the first knock.
“Happy birthday!” Greg and Sandra yelled when I opened the door, offering me a big bunch of flowers. They were both elegantly dressed because they know my style of hosting dinner parties. I thanked them kindly for the flowers and placed the flowers within the empty vase in the center of the table. Another car then pulled up - Suren and Alida that brought a bottle of Moet Shadon champagne. Everybody was there and I began to serve Sherry while they were nibbling on the bread sticks. As soon as I had a spare moment, I put the champagne in the refrigerator and relaxed a while, with a glass of sherry in my hand, spending time with my friends.
Later on, I invited everyone to the table, I went to the kitchen to dish up the prawn cocktail after I put the wine and water on the table. Everyone was in good spirits and the starters went down well while we chatted away.
Then the main course followed – the salmon steaks with rice and salad. My guests were exasperated by this; the whole dinner was a surprise. They did not know what to expect. Silence is golden when guests are eating; because it means, the dish is exquisite.
After receiving an abundance of compliments shortly after my friends finished the dinner, we poured some more wine and I then took the plates to the kitchen while placing the chocolate blueberry sauce on a low heat to warm gently. An hour quickly passed while we all spoke, laughed, listened to music and then it was finally time for desert.
Once everyone was seated again, I dished some ice-cream into bowls and poured warm blueberry chocolate sauce over. My friends were more than satisfied, very pleased and before the evening was over, we popped the champagne outside in the garden and then they told me to make a wish. I stood outside, feeling miraculous because the moment was so perfect and I looked up into the sky. I made a wish while looking at a star and the song of Jimmy, the cricket then began to play in my head again: “When you wish upon a star.” A tear fell down my cheek and we all toasted once again. My birthday was perfect.
XXXXX
During the next few weeks the house agent was in contact with me again and also with my family lawyer. This was even more excellent news because we were beginning to sign house transfer documents, all that we were waiting for was the money from the buyer. I began to slowly plan my trip back to Milan and even though I would not have been there over Christmas time, I knew that I would at least be there at the end of February, latest March.
I sent Mork a message almost every day and eventually I sent only Jack messages daily on WhatsApp because I knew that he would give the message to Mork.
One Monday evening, I missed Mork very much and I then sent to Mork an sms, asking him to please send me a photo of himself because I missed him and I was beginning to forget what he looked like. The following evening, Jack sent me a WhatsApp message and when I clicked to open it, it was a picture of Mork, Jack and Jack’s brother. Mork sat in the middle between Jack and the brother of Jack, smiling gorgeously at the camera for me, Jack looked like he was shining out beams of hope with an excited smile fixed on his face while his brother looked like he was at the right place at the right time. I was so grateful for the photo, I love Mork so much, it hurts. He is my Archangel but at times, he flaps around to places unknown and then when I really miss him and he makes some effort, we eventually see each other again.
When the beginning of December grew closer I stayed in contact with Jack via WhatsApp almost daily until Jack suddenly stopped talking to me. I kept on asking Jack if they were going to decorate @78 for me again and he remained silent. During the first week of December, on a Wednesday evening, I noticed that @78 still had not been decorated, therefore, I sent Mork a message, letting him know that I would be calling @78 the following evening to speak with them. I wanted to know what the problem was, and I was determined to find out.
The following evening at 12:00 pm, I called @78. Mork then answered the phone swiftly. “Hello Amore.” He said. “Hello!” I said recognizing his voice. “This is Massimo.” He told me, “No, it is not true, it is Mork.” I told him. “No it is Massimo, Jack is here next to me with two bags next to him. One with money in the inside and another with clothes, he is on his way to you to take you to Madagascar for a romantic holiday.” He moaned while also sounding annoyed. “What? NO! What are you talking about?” I said shocked, with him still on the other end. “I must go now bye.” Mork said, he waited for me to greet him and we ended the call.
First of all, Massimo does not call me by my first name. He calls me Vuvu, short for Vuvuzela and Massimo never has a conversation with me over the phone, all that he does is to make funny sounds over the phone, so that I roar with laughter, just to keep me entertained before Jack, Mork or “Acting Mork.” takes my call. I could also clearly and perfectly hear that it was Mork, I know his broken English and the sound of his voice over the phone very well.
All in all, I knew what his problem was. He was jealous, he did not like that I speak to any other man, not even Jack, therefore I had to comfort him and assure him that his fears and doubts were not true and that he could relax.
“Handsome man, I love only you and I am in love with only you. I send to Jack messages via WhatsApp because I know that he will give you the message because it is faster and more convenient. Please do not be a stupid head and please decorate @78, it will make my heart very happy. I miss you and I will see you soon. Baci *M*” I typed and sent him the message.
The following morning, I received a WhatsApp message from Jack very early, he sent to me emoticons of little Christmas trees. “[1]Siete decorare @78 oggi?” I sent back. Jack then replied with a few thumbs up emoticons. I jumped out of bed with pure joy when I then typed a message for Mork: “[2]Grazie, sei un tesoro.” With a kiss on the end. Mork really decorated @78 magically that Christmas, with little Santa Clause dolls crawling up the walls, large wreaths next to the front door, fairy Christmas lights everywhere and after the decorations were completed, the outside light of @78 glowed and formed a heart, lit by heaven as a sign of pure love.
After I saw this heart in the photo, I wrote to Jack a message to let him also see “[3]Vero” he then replied and my heart was in peace again.
The Christmas season was more than spectacular, love was in the air for my return to my heart, not just the Duomo but Mork. The two of them could not exist without one another. In my heart, if it was only the Duomo, I would have never fallen in love so much with Milan and if it was only Mork, my disappointed heart would not have yearned to return to pray in the Duomo. They were both connected, this man and my faith. How? I did not know.
During the beginning of January, I was waiting expectantly for any news about the sale of the house. In the evenings, I would wonder what to pack for my return to Milan and yet, Mork received most of my excited yet stressful thoughts on the subject.
Finally, the secretary of my family lawyer called to inform me that both my brother and I had to go to the offices to sign the trust documentation for the sale to proceed and she arranged a date for some time in the middle of January.
Normally, with an excited heart, time seem to pass slowly. Waiting for two weeks, felt like a lifetime. The morning of our appointment, my brother drove us to the offices. We sat waiting in the waiting room for a while when I then decided to take a selfie. I sat smiling with my hand formed into a pointing gun against my head. I sent it to Jack, sending another sms letting Mork know where I was and that I sent Jack a photo. The duration for the sale would be completed no later than the end of February and I became very excited and also nervous. I was returning to my heart soon and it was all that mattered.
After we signed the documentation, I was seriously beginning to plan my trip back to Milan. I first thought about my luggage. I knew that I had a great amount of books that always travel with me; I love my books and, I can not live without it. Therefore, my books were most important to me. Clothes and shoes came second but I also had to pack my lettera 32 typewriter that I received as a gift after publishing “Running with angels”. I also wanted to pack baking equipment because I wished not to buy biscotti and chocolates any longer, I wished to bake and make it myself for Mork and the boys (his sons), for Jack and his family, for @78, for everybody in MPcasa Spa, for the staff in @78 and for everybody. It is kind to buy biscotti for people, it is even better when giving biscotti that was prepared by one’s own hands, the effort and time that I choose to give to them freely, to bake and create with the best intention and truly wanting to give to these chosen people some biscotti from my heart.
Therefore, I was confused as what to leave and what to pack. Should I take it all or what should I do?
I typed and texted Mork my confusion and I knew when he read it because shortly after I sent him a text message, a slight joy and giggle arose in my heart and I knew that he was finding me highly amusing and that he was laughing in Italy, where he sat at the time.
Fortunately, after some time, I decided that my books were most important and obviously my clothes. The story underneath the ground floor of La Rinascente sold baking equipment and therefore, I would purchase it there to bake my heart out. Once this confusion was settled in my mind, I was content. All that I had to do was to wait for the definite sale to be completely finalized and I could be on my jolly good way.
It was already 2 weeks into February, I heard nothing from my family lawyer and I was becoming concerned. According to the secretary of my lawyer, after the documentation had been signed, it would have been approximately 2 weeks and the sale would be completed.
I tried to call the offices daily, only for another lady to answer and she told me that nobody was available. Close to the end of February, my lawyer called, letting me know that there was a big problem.
“[4]Wat is fout, Mnr. Lombaard?” I asked fearfully. “[5]Ons kry nie die koper in die hande nie; sy het net verdwyn. Ek het haar prokureurs gebel, ons het die agent gebel. Al wat ons nog voor gewag het, was die betaling en sy het net verdwyn.” He said, not knowing what to do anymore. “[6]Ag nee. Wat nou?” I asked while my heart was breaking into more than a million pieces and I felt the sensation of thick chains being wrapped around my wrists, my waist and my neck as well as my ankles, while the main chain sunk into the ground of Margate, South Africa.
After the call from my lawyer, I walked to the bedroom and collapsed in front of of my bed, crying my heart out. I was wondering how I was going to tell Mork, Jack and everyone that I would not be able to come to Milan. How I was going to explain to them that the buyer just vanished into thin air and that it was still my responsibility and also liability to get this property sold, I had no idea how to break this news to them. I also had to wait because this buyer had to be found and held responsible for the cancellation fees of the contract of the sale. I was not going to be held responsible for the negligence of others.
I waited a few days before I decided to contact Mork to let him know the news. It was an unbelievable and impossible situation, I was dumbstruck as well and in shock. So much expectation and joy and then for it all to come crashing down in a second. I only hoped that Mork would believe me and understand because it was not my fault and simply leaving the property was not an option, it was too high a risk.
I took out my cellular and began to type him a detailed message. After I sent it, my heart broke all over again, all that I wanted to do, was to go into a very deep sleep and never to wake up again.
Glossary
Preface: Jingle Jealousy
1. Siete decorare @78 oggi? - Are you
decorating @78
today?
2. Grazie, sei un tesoro. - Thank you, you
are a darling.
3. Vero - true
4. Wat is fout Mnr. Lombaard? - What is wrong
Mr. Lombaard?
5. Ons kry nie die koper in die - We can’t get hold
Hande nie; sy het verdwyn. of the buyer, she
Ek het haar prokureers gebel, vanished. I tried
Ons het die agente gebel. Al to phone her
Wat ons nog voor gewag het, lawyers, we
Was die betaling en sy het net phoned the agent.
Verdwyn. All that we were
still waiting for
was the payment
and she just
vanished.
6. Ag nee, wat nou? - Oh no, what now?
[1] Siete decorare @78 oggi? – Are you decorating @78 today?
[2] Grazie, sei un tesoro. – Thank you, you are a darling.
[3] Vero – true
[4] Wat is fout Mnr. Lombaard? – What is wrong Mr. Lombaard?
[5] Ons kry nie die koper in die hande nie; sy het net verdwyn. Ek het haar prokureers gebel, ons het die agent gebel. Al wat ons nog voor gewag het, was die betaling en sy het net verdwyn. – We can’t get hold of the buyer; she vanished. I tried to phone her lawyers, we phoned the agent. All that we were still waiting for was the payment and she just vanished.
[6] Ag nee, wat nou? – Oh no, what now?
@78 It's a kind of magic
In English:
In Italiano:
@78 When you wish upon a star
In English:
In Italian:
@78 It's the final countdown
