The Home - 39. Chapter 39

The one thing we can count on is time. It moves forward whether we like it or not. Victorio has started the fifth grade. Based on his performance in grades one through four, we expect he will do well in the fifth grade. Angela and Maria have started first grade. It is hard for me to accept that my family is growing. When they came home after the first day of school, the girls told me that Vic told all of the boys in first grade that they were his sister and if they hurt them, he would deal with them. I laughed, but I knew Vic would protect his sisters.

Charlie is getting old and is having problems getting around. He has an apprentice that does all of the mechanical work on the farm. John completed his study and worked at a dealership as a mechanic. If I have a problem with the cars, he is there to deal with the problem. He still discusses issues he is faced with at his work. I think Charlie looks forward to these moments with John.

We see Peter more often. He now does my books as well as Tom and Brad’s. He has an accounting service and is employed by several local small businesses to do their books.

I think the interest Tom and Brad took in the boys has paid off. On one of his trips here to grease the wheels on the carriage, John said he was dating a young lady. It seemed he liked her in school, but he didn’t have the confidence to approach her. She was in a high achiever group, and he felt she wouldn’t want to speak to him. I asked him how did she meet him.

“She was driving her car when she had a problem. I was coming home from work when I saw her and the car. She flagged me down for a ride to the next gas station. There she could arrange a tow truck to take her car to a garage for repair. I stopped, check her car, and fixed it so she could drive it home. She offered to pay me. She didn’t remember me, and when I told her who I was, she laughed. In payment for fixing her car, she agreed to go out with me.”

I was happy for Tom. He was a nice guy, and thanks to Tom and Brad, he got a break.

I tried to talk Amo into going for his Doctorate at my university. He was a little reluctant until he started his Master’s degree. Then I didn’t need to have said anything more. He liked teaching.

Amo came into my office one Saturday morning, “Tony, have you read all of those Journals?”

“No, I read those of my grandfather’s and his father’s, why?”

“I started reading them with the first journal, which was written by your ancestor who first lived here. Did you know that they built the house for his father?”

“No, I was told that his wife was banishing his son. His father built this house for him to have a place to live.”

“That was a part of the story. Here read this.”

I read the page Amo showed me. As I read the page, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. They built this house for two, the son and the father. He was planning on leaving his wife in Italy and moving here. “Amo, bring me the next three accounts written by this man.”

I now had some reading to do. I wonder if my Mom had read this or any other of my Uncles and Aunt.

For the next two weeks, I read these accounts that Amo brought to me. The son’s name was Giovanni Victor, and his father’s name was Victor Emmanuel. Giovanni was his father’s favorite, and he had hoped his wife would let the boy live in Italy. She demanded that he be exiled as soon as he was of age. Victor arranged for the land to be purchased in America and a home built to his specifications.

Reading on, it seemed that a year before Giovanni would move to America, Victor made several trips under the guise of checking the construction. In reality, he was moving his wealth to America. On each of his trips, he would bring a trunk with clothes for Giovanni or furniture for the house. He had two men from his cabinet that he trusted buy a house in Philadelphia where he would keep the trunks and furniture for the new home.

When the home was finished, he moved the furniture and his trunks to the new house. Giovanni accompanied him on what he thought might be his last journey to America. It was the final journey for Giovanni.

Victor had to return two Italy two arrange for hired help to staff the house. One of the men who had bought the house in Philadelphia went with him. He returned with a maid and a manservant for Giovanni. Victor never came back. The other man came with the servants and brought them to the house. The woman stayed, but the young man didn’t and ran away. It seemed that was his intention all along.

Now the question, where are the trunks that Victor had delivered to the house for Giovanni and himself.

I finished reading the first 30 years written by Giovanni.