Tsunami - 9. Tsu Chapter 9

Two years have passed, and I have now been so busy with the business and bring up the boys, that I have not had time for anything else, as the Christmas period comes and goes, our family does not celebrate it like everyone else, because of the pain of memories of what had happened in Malaysia. I had recently purchased the two neighboring duplex units, and had builders put a doorway in the adjoining lounge rooms and dining rooms; to that, it was now one big home for my family.

Mum had finally left Dad and had been living in my old home with older brother Kyle, and Jared, who had transferred to a university in the city, so to be closer to all the family. Now with this new home, all the family could be together, Mum would occupy the duplex unit on the end, along with Jared, while the twins and I remain in the middle unit, which is a lot larger, while Kyle and Isaac occupy the unit at the other end. The dining room in Mum & Jared’s unit would become the Computer & study room, while their lounge became a library, and the dining room in Kyle & Isaac’s unit would become a billiards room, with the lounge room being the second lounge, this left the dining room and lounge room in my unit to be the main family area.

When the day came for everyone to move into the now enlarged home, it was total mayhem, with furniture, boxes and coming and going in all directions. The twins now three years old happily sat and played in our lounge room, watching the family going in and out of the rooms and house. The old house that Mum and the other brothers had been living in for the past six months had been on the market for sale for just over a week. Amongst all the mayhem happening during that day, I took a call from the real estate agent saying that they had received an offer for the house, which was above the set sale price.

I informed the real estate agent to go ahead with the sale, and I totally forgot to inform the family of the phone call and the news, with everything happening around me. I had already purchased a bigger dining room table, that can seat up to 12 comfortably, which had arrived a few days earlier, along with a dining dresser, to hold all the extra cutlery, crockery and glassware, which Mum had in storage, a lot of it was antique, that had been handed down from her side of the family, over a number of generations.

Isaac had just completed his high school education, having very high grades in most subjects, this made my Mum very proud, and he was thinking of going to University, to study Law and Business, and at dinner on the night of his 18th birthday, Isaac announced to the family that he too was gay, and although we were all very shocked, everyone at the table was fully supportive to him.

Jared had just completed his 4th year at university and was getting very good grades, while Kyle was now my business partner, and he has been concentrating on expanding the business, now known as “Smartech Ausmalay” with 4 shops now located in Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Christchurch, New Zealand, all of which are doing very well, we even had to establish a warehouse to receive and forward all the products coming from Malaysia, plus a separate administration office, near to the warehouse in East Perth to run everything from.

A few months later, the whole family went to a restaurant to celebrate Mum’s 50th birthday, this is when Mum announced that she and Dad had finalised their divorce a few weeks earlier, and that part of that divorce agreement was the purchase of her own residence. Although she loved her family very much, she now had the means to have her own home and elected to buy a home in a lifestyle village, were she could be with people her own age.

Mum chose the village that was closest to the family home, so she could visit regularly, and Dad had also purchased her own small car so she could get around without having to rely on one of her son’s all the time, and although we were all very shocked by this news, we were also very happy for her, as she now is able to establish new friends and get a bit more active in the community. A few days later the whole family helped Mum to pack and move all her belongings to her new home in the lifestyle village.