As Mara celebrated the retention of her job, Leo was there at the farm stumbling through his. It was no easy task for him. He had been saddled with the task of digging out stumps of trees from a small area of land. All the trees had been cut down and chopped into bits and all the grasses had been burned too, but the roots of the trees were still in the ground. These were the roots Leo had to take out.The area he had to cover was just less than half the size of a football field and the sun was blazing hot. So, shovel in hand, sweat streaming down his body, grunting and huffing with exertion, the former CEO was hard at work doing something he had never thought he would ever do, at least before he lost everything. Once in a while, he took a glance at the old man who was seated in front of the farm house and staring at him with the ghost of a smile on his face. He didn't need anyone to tell him that the old man was quietly mocking him, and it made him even more determined to prove himsel

"You came back."It was half-question and half-statement. The old man was very much surprised to see Leo back on his farm, ready to do more work. He just stood there staring at him in disbelief. He thought he had been broken and defeated the previous day!"Well, uh... I guess you want more work?", the old man stammered, finally recovering from his initial shock. In response to the question, Leo nodded eagerly. He was all smiles and confidence.The old man looked at him from head to toe again, thinking perhaps it was his twin brother. Was this not the same person who had limped out of here just yesterday??Even though he found all this very amusing, Leo was beginning to feel a little embarrassed from all the staring and shock the old man was displaying."I'm wondering if there's any work to be done?"The sound of Leo's voice seemed to knock him back to reality and he shook his head as if to clear the fog from his brain. "Yes... yes, of course. There's work... there's always work. But a

The next day, Mara woke up with a little headache. She had not slept much through the night. For some reason, little Leo had refused to sleep after waking up. He had peed in his diapers and the discomfort had made him cry out. After Mara had changed the diapers and put him back to bed, she thought he would fall asleep almost immediately, but the young rascal was in a playful mood and wanted his mother to join in or he would make sure that she and the entire neighborhood would have their ears ringing with his cries.Mara had no choice but to oblige him and they played deep into the night. Each time she felt that he would soon get tired and fall asleep from exhaustion, he only proved that he was ready to keep her up all night. At the end, she was the one who became exhausted and involuntarily dozed off to sleep. When she woke up over an hour later, it was daybreak and her son was very much wide awake. Obviously, he had not slept a wink!"You'll never cease to baffle me, Leo," she murmur

When Mara got back home, she had hardly stepped past the front door when she perceived the sweet aroma wafting from the kitchen. Hmmm, seems we're in for a wonderful supper, she thought.Getting rid of her bag and overcoat, she made her way over to the kitchen only to find the two Leos having fun. They were splashing drops of water on each other's faces and laughing happily as they both tried to outdo each other. They had no clue of her presence, so Mara took the opportunity to just stand there and watch them. They looked so perfect together!Not wanting to waste the precious moment, she brought out her phone and took a quick picture of the playing duo. It was the flash and the shutter sound that alerted the boys to her presence. Little Leo squealed in joy, stretching out his arms to demand an embrace. Mara swooped in and picked him up from the table, showering him with kisses."You guys have been having fun without me, eh?", she said in a mock accusing tone."Oh no, no. We were just p

The next day, when Marks arrived at work, the first thing he did, after going through the pending appointments which his secretary had submitted, was to send for Angela, and within minutes, he heard a knock on the door."Come in!" He called, after properly positioning himself to look like he was hard at work.The door opened and Angela entered."You called for me, sir," she said and walked up to his table."Yes, I did. Sit," he ordered without looking at her.She sat down on the sofa in his office and he went on turning pages and scribbling meaningless things, just to prove that he was busy.When he had acted to his complete satisfaction, he sighed and put the papers away. "You can see I'm very busy, but I had to call you and let you know about this as quickly as possible."Angela nodded, more out of the need to please than anything else. She really didn't understand what he meant, but she didn't want to risk losing her job and he knew it."First, I want to start by asking you a few q