Wednesday, February 14, 2018

1.1 An ambitious endeavor

Viljo Davis was a smart guy. People tended to underestimate him. His last boss certainly had. Just because you work in a kitchen to feed other people's appetites all day doesn't mean you don't have thoughts or feelings of your own. Viljo felt like he got lost between all the shouting and rushing there from time to time. He was a pretty positive guy, always looking on the bright side, always making other people happy. But now it was time he made himself happy. So he quit. He sold the few possessions he had and did what he had dreamed of doing his whole life: He set out to the new community of Newcrest to build an orphanage. The community was pretty poor and there was no similar institution in any of the neighboring cities either. Viljo loved children. He had always dreamed of a big family and a place to call home. Somewhere to give kids the roots they needed to grow into beautiful trees. Viljo himself was an orphan. The nuns had told him that a pale blonde lady barely containing her tears had just dropped him off at their doorstep one day. The only thing she told them was his name, Viljo. As a kid he thought she picked that name so he would never be able to make friends. He imagined her as the evil ice queen who robbed children of any chance at happiness. When he spoke to one of the nuns about it, she just smiled and told him that Viljo actually meant "will and protection". This changed the picture in his mind and his mother became like one of the twelve fairies who each gave Sleeping Beauty a wish for a good quality when she was born. And it turned out true, as well. He became a strong willed man, ready to pass on the protection and shelter he had received to a new generation of children.   


The money he had didn't get him very far. It was enough to get started with the foundation of the project. Being the art lover that he was, he had devised the layout of the place himself. So far he could only afford a small room for himself, a tiny bathroom and a very poor excuse for a kitchen. It looked like a very confused building shell but in his mind it was the start of something grand. With his credit application denied and no investors in sight, Viljo ground his teeth and took another kitchen job in a restaurant to pay the bills and put aside every penny for further extension of the premises. It felt good to get started and get his hands dirty though. Every minute of his free time he was laying tiles or installing pipes or some other thing he learned from YouTube tutorials and library books. He was soaking up knowledge like a sponge. While he was putting his bed together from wood he found on the lot, he dreamed about the kids that would one day roam the nearby playground, help each other with their homework and learn about nature in the garden he was going to plant. He saw himself in a white chef hat in the professionally equipped kitchen, cooking for the kids and the staff he would have to hire to take care of them all. And it made him happy.  

No comments:

Post a Comment