It seems Gus has a "secret" system which utilises the Law of Attraction and he begins to teach Steve how to create the things he desires in his life.
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Chapter 2
Once Steve was back in his car he felt energised, as some of the weight of all the turmoil in his life had been lifted. As he drove back towards the office he thought about how would like his job to be. He let his mind wander enjoying the good feelings that arose as envisioned some big new accounts. He also saw a lot of is little small accounts growing to contribute lots of new revenue. He was feeling good about himself and the business just flowed.
He held these good feeling thoughts until he arrived back at the office. As he passed reception Susie was the cute little receptionist called.
“Hang on minute Steve! There is a message for you.”
He double backed and took the message slip that Susie was holding in her hand and gave a smile.
“Thanks.” And headed off to his desk where he glanced at the note. It was from Dave Preston, the Purchasing Manager at Metcom, a company whose business Steve had been chasing their business for months. He quickly rang.
“Hi Dave. Steve Watkins from Speedeeway Freight.”
“Oh, hi Steve. Thanks for returning my call. I’ve just been through those new rates you dropped off last week and I’m happy to say I think that we can do business.”
“Hey that’s great. Thanks Dave. That’s great news. Can I drop off the agreement tomorrow, say 2-30.”
“2-30 sounds great. See you then.”
“See you then.”
And just like that, Steve had hooked his biggest account ever. Almost skipping with joy he headed down to his boss’s office to give him the good news knowing this would take a lot of the pressure off him.
“Great stuff Steve!” Exclaimed his boss on hearing the good news. “I knew you could do it. This will do your figures no end of good.”
Steve enjoyed the glowing feeling of success. He couldn’t help thinking of the apparent coincidence between the advice Gus had given him to focus on the solution instead of the problem and a monster account landing his lap seemingly out of the blue.
On the drive home he felt happy, with the knowledge that something had finally gone right for him. He was looking forward to getting home to enjoy the kids and share a home cooked meal from his lovely wife Jenny. It had been a bit bumpy between he Jenny recently. She was constantly moaning that “all” her friends had new cars and were going on great holidays, whilst she still had to put up with her 5 year old Toyota, which wasn’t brand new but was still a nice little car. But it wasn’t a BMW or a fancy four wheel drive so it was apparently not good enough. As for the holidays, although they hadn’t been overseas to Bali or Thailand or such, they still had what seemed very nice holidays up the north coast but they just couldn’t quite keep up with the Joneses and this was a real problem for Jenny who valued social status. It seemed things had gotten a bit better recently and Jenny was mostly being nice to him and so Steve was confident they could get things back on an even keel again.
He had a good run through the traffic and soon he pulled into the driveway of his house. It wasn’t the biggest or flashest houses in the street but it was very comfortable and it was home. He came to the driveway and eased the car up towards the garage. But something was wrong. Jenny’s car wasn’t in the garage and the outdoor setting which sat on the paved area at the rear of the house had disappeared and there was only one light on inside the house where normally expect to lights to be on in at least a couple of rooms.
He got out of the car, taking his brief case with him. He made his way to the back door, opening it and stepping inside.
The scene that greeted him was a huge shock. There were his kids sitting in the middle of the family room, which was totally devoid of furniture including the wide screen TV which was Steve’s pride and joy.
“Mum’s left us.” They had wailed.
Apparently whilst the kids were at school and Steve at work, she had brought in the removalist and stripped the house of everything of value. There was a dear Steve letter on the kitchen bench that detailed her anger and frustration at the life of struggle with Steve. She had done her bit, deserved better and so it was Steve’s turn to take care of the kids and so she had take only what was rightfully hers. She went onto say that there was no point in trying to speak to her because as far as she was concerned Steve and the kids were now and in a past life and she was going to do whatever she wanted.
It was like he had been hit with a sledgehammer. Any happiness from his success this afternoon instantly evaporated as the starkness of his kids sitting in the middle of any empty house hit him. Anger welled up inside him as the deviousness and swiftness of his wife’s actions dawned on him. Fury swirled inside him.
“So Mum wasn’t home you got home?”
“No. She just left a note on the door saying the keys were under the mat.”
“So why didn’t you ring me?”
“We did! But you didn’t answer.”
Steve fumbled for his mobile phone in his suit pocket. He pulled it out only to discover that the battery had gone flat.
“Damn! Sorry kids. The battery’s gone flat.”
“Dad. We’re hungry!” Cried the kids, Joel and Stephanie. In spite of the disaster that had just exploded in his life, it was time for the day-to-day necessities. Cleaning up this mess could wait until rumbling stomachs had been silenced. So he bundled the kids in the car and headed of to the local burger place. The kid’s chose their favourite meals and Steve went for the biggest burger they had. The young girl behind the counter totalled up the bill.
“$21-50!” She said with a bright smile.
Steve rummaged around in his wallet and pullout debit card and passed it over.
The girl swiped the card and keyed in the amount. Steve dutifully keyed his pin. A few seconds past as the machine whirred into life.
“Declined.” Announced the burger girl.
Steve was stunned. It couldn’t be. He had just been paid 2 days go and there should have been plenty of money in the account.
“Can we try again?”
“Sure.” Replied the burger girl.
The machine whirred once again.
“I’m sorry sir. It’s been declined again.”
Steve pulled out his credit card.
“Declined.”
He goes for his ‘emergency” credit card.
“Declined.”
Steve was confused. How could this be?
He found $15 in his wallet and asked the girl if it was ok if he went out to his car where he knew he had some coins, which he kept for parking meters.
Soon he was back, having scrounged up the required $6.50. He and the kids settled in one of the booths in the burger place and hungrily attacked their meals.
Steve’s head was spinning. What had happened to all his cards? There was no way he had “maxed” them out and a feeling of dread washed over him. In short time the burgers were demolished, Steve and the kids soon arrived home. Steve found that Jenny had left one other thing behind which was the small 25 year old TV that they used to use in their bedroom. He dug it out of the wardrobe and set up for the kids to watch while he got his head around what had happened.
Since the family computer had been taken, he found the charger for his smart phone and used to check his bank account balance. His heart pumped vigorously as a big fat zero stuck out from the statement where there had been a healthy $6000 a couple of days earlier.
Quickly checked his credit cards. They had both been used to their limit. $15000 on one and $10000 on the other.
“Jenny!” He spat out her name in contempt.
The credit card statements detailed a litany of wild spending. Clothes, shoes, jewellery, spa treatments and some very hefty cash advances. She had wiped him out!
The true magnitude of the situation dawned on him. Stuck in house with 2 kids with no food, no money or furniture except for three single beds and a 25 five year old TV!
Anger welled up inside as he thought of Jenny’s audacity to take everything they had, except for the house, leaving him to look after the kids with nothing. Then he had a gnawing thought.
“The house!”
Steve made a mental note to ring the bank and check that the mortgage was still ok.
By this time he was boiling with fury. What was he to do? He couple of deep breathes. The anger subsided a little and he decided to ring his Mum and see if she could help him out.
It was a difficult phone call as his Mum, Joy, had never liked Jenny and so she had taken the opportunity to drop in a couple of I told you so’s, which had really stung. In the end she offered some money to get him by and breakfast for him and the kids in the morning, but the payback would be the need to provide a blow by blow and suffer a few more I told you so’s.
It was getting late, so he began to herd the kids off to bed. Once they had brushed their teeth, amazingly Jenny had left the electric tooth brushes, he tucked them into bed and made his way to the remaining bed in the guest room and propped himself up on the pillows and let the amazing events of today to swirl around him.
He awoke in the morning, well he got out of bed, which is more accurate, as very little sleeping was done. He made the kids get ready to go over to his Mum’s, about 5km away, for breakfast.
His night in bed had been filled with a mixture of amazement at the goings on at the park and encounter with Gus, the big win at work and the incredible mess that Jenny had left behind.
His mind was filled with expletives as he masticated over how deceitful and selfish she had been. She hadn’t even said anything. Not even a, “I’m unhappy, what can we do?”. She had just left and taken everything she could get her hands on. He could understand her doing it to him. He was a big boy and could look after himself. But the kids! That was a different question. How could you just up and leave your own children? It beggared belief!
They soon arrived at Joy’s house and she was kind and conciliatory, with not even one gloat. In fact she was most worried about the Stephanie and Joel, and the impact of their mother up and leaving might have. Whilst Joy got breakfast organised, Steve rang his boss and explained he had a family disaster and would not be at work until lunchtime so he could get things sorted a bit. It’s amazing what a good sale can do, as he was most understanding and told Steve to take whatever time he needed.
Sitting at the breakfast bar of Joy’s kitchen, they all munched through a breakfast of fruit salad, cereal and some chunky toast smothered in strawberry jam. It’s amazing how this made them all feel a whole lot better after the ordeal of last night. Joy suggested that the children stay with her for a couple of days while Steve got things back on a even keel, which seemed a really good idea.
“You know I’ve still got the furniture from the beach house, when we sold it after your Dad died. It’s in the garage still and you’re more than welcome to have it. And you can take my old fridge too.” Judy offered.
“That would be great Mum. That will help us get out of this jam.”
He gave his Mum a kiss and got the kids organised to head off to school. Judy discreetly handed a bundle of $100 bills and Steve started to feel little better. At least he could survive until the weekend when he could get himself a bit more sorted.
He and the kids jumped in the car and he drove the short distance to the school. Finding a parking spot to drop the kids was always fraught with danger and as a number of parents treated it like some sort of demolition derby. The use of indicators seemed to be optional and radical u-turns across the paths the regular stock in trade.
As Steve approached the parking area in front of the school he strangely had a flash of what Gus has said to him, “you need to change your focus and thoughts to how you want things and not how they are.”
Steve changes his thought from the usual chaos he expected to easily sweeping to a just vacated spot. Beautiful!
This thought made him feel a lot better and was a significant improvement on the apprehension he was previously feeling.
As he approached the first car in the long line of cars outside the school he could see a vacant spot about half way up the line. Steadily they approached the spot. They were 30 metres away. Surely it was theirs. All of sudden there was a screech of tires and all of a sudden a big black BMW SUV performed a radical U-turn right in front of them, roaring into the vacant spot.
Steve held his cool. No swearing or cursing today as was his usual practice.
“It mustn’t be the one. “ He thought calmly holding his thought of sliding into the perfect car park.
He continued to glide up past the line of cars. The end of the line was only 20 metres away.
“Stay calm.” He thought. “I’m gonna get the right spot.”
Then like magic the indicators on the first car in the line turned on its indicator and slid out in front of Steve, allowing him to drive into the first spot! Something that had never happened to him before!
“What was that?” he thought to himself as he sat in the number one spot waiting for his Stephanie and Joel to get out.
“What’s happening there?” He continued to think.
“See ya Dad!” cried the kids as the alighted from the car.
“See ya! Have a great day!”
And with that, the kids ran off towards the school date to begin their day.
He watched Stephanie and Joel disappear amongst the throng of kids in the schoolyard, put his indicator on, looked up in his rear vision mirror checking every was clear, he eased into the traffic. He’d gone a mere twenty metres down the road when Steve heard an almighty crash!
Looking in the rear vision mirror he could a Mercedes SUV had “T-boned” a Toyota sedan as they competed for the prime spot that Steve had just vacated. He shook his head in amazement as he glanced at the mayhem that had occurred as a result of the competition for the car space he had recently vacated. He could see a cloud of steam pouring from the Mercedes as the view disappeared from his rear vision mirror.
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