International Service Assignment

By Vintaay Jash

A tale of a clueless man, Stan, who is an auto engineer and is promoted after a long frustrating wait for a promotion and is relocated to Sao Paulo, Brazil for this assignment and his vulnerability, his innocent wife, Helen who just cannot give up her trust in her husband and cannot understand all her torment whenever she is in Brazil. And a greedy, unscrupulous woman, Luzia, who wants a leisurely retired life with an intelligent, good looking and well-to-do man and her willingness to do whatever it takes including sex filled schemes to get him. With a surprising end to it all that changes everything for Stan, Helen and her children and even Luiza.

The plot is set in the auto company environment and takes advantage of typical experiences an auto engineer goes through during his career especially during a new vehicle development program.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Vintaay Jash
• Release date: Aug 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301596225

Vintaay Jash

I am Vintaay Jash. I have worked as an automotive engineer for many years.As I was nearing my retirement from a large Auto Manufacturing Company, having moved through many Engineering functions, I started thinking about many tales I had heard from a large number of colleagues I associated with. We talked while waiting at the airport on way to a meeting at the plant or when were waiting on the plant floor for a vehicle prototype to begin building on the assembly line or when we were just having lunch together during a break in a long all day meeting. Some of these stories were personal experiences and some were from experiences of our friends and family. Some were sad and some funny. Some provided life lessons and some were just good for a laugh. During this career, I learned to write extensive technical reports.I did love being an engineer but I also loved to read. My love for reading began more than forty years ago when I started reading works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ian Fleming and Earl Stanley Gardner. From there I progressed to other Bestselling authors in their prime. To name just a few, John le Carre, Arthur Haley, Michael Crichton, Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Robin Cook and many others. Currently, I am enjoying works by James Patterson, Jonathan Kellerman, Patricia Cornwell and other successful authors. In addition to reading enjoyment, I also learned a lot about plot development and storytelling from this hobby. I was inspired to use writing experience from my professional life and experience gained from reading all those novels to turn various stories I had heard into writing my own novels. I hope you enjoy reading them.

Book preview

International Service Assignment

By Vintaay Jash

SMASHWORDS EDITION

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International Service Assignment

Book copyright 2013 Vintaay Jash

All rights reserved

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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People, places and opinions, professional or otherwise, in the book are fictional and any resemblance to persons living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. Even the places and organizations appearing very real have been given fictional attributes, all for the sake of creating an interesting read.

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To my wife who allowed me to freely pursue writing of this book and supported my efforts. Thanks to friends and family members who provided helpful guidance during initial phases of this effort.

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Dictionary

Portuguese to English for words/phrases used frequently in the book

Adorer = Love

amor meu = my love

Brasil = Brazil

Brasileiro concubina = Brazilian concubine

Cadela = Bitch

Estúpido = Stupid

Excelente = Excellent

meu amante = my lover

meu amor = my love

Meu Gatinho = my pussycat

Meu mel = My honey

meu tigre = my tiger

minha querida = My darling

Ola = Hello

Perdoar = forgive

Perfaito. = Perfect

Querido = dear

Senhor = Mr. or Sir

Senhora = Madam

seu gatinho = your pussycat

substituir = substitute

violacao, desfloramento = rape

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TABLE OF CONTENT

Dictionary

One

Epilogue

About Vintaay Jash

Connect with Vintaay Jash

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One

Hello, how are you?

Helen asked as she closed the door of the apartment 614, which she had just stepped out of, to the woman and her six-year-old daughter. They were also just coming out of their apartment, across the hall and couple of doors down from her.

It was just before six o’clock in the evening on a Sunday in October. The apartment was in a high rise complex located in Brooklin in the outskirts of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

I…. OK, thank you. How you? The woman answered with a Portuguese accent as they all started to walk towards the elevator.

I’m OK, thank you. Just felt like a little walk and it looks nice out. And how are you, honey? Helen replied to the woman and asked the little girl, who had been walking close to her mother on the other side, away from Helen.

The girl looked at her but shied away and hugging her mother’s right side tried to hide behind her while saying something to her mother in Portuguese. They had reached the elevator and were waiting for the doors to open. The girl’s mother said something back to the girl and smiled an uncomfortable smile at Helen and said; Sorry, she shy.

But she said something to you. What was she saying? asked Helen.

Oh, nothing, just… she shy. Nothing. The woman said, fussing with the girl’s clothes, avoiding looking at Helen.

The elevator had arrived and they got on, but Helen continued to pursue; But she did say something, please tell me. You see, I only know a couple of words in Portuguese, but I know she said something about me but I did not understand. Please tell me.

Senhora, you know how children are. She don’t mean it, but she say why was senhora in that apartment where she don’t live. I say maybe she does live there.

She is probably confused because I have not been here before.

Yes, yes. That what I mean. The mom said.

No, mamá! I said this is wrong senhora, the girl suddenly said adamantly.

Oh, so you do speak English. That’s good, honey. Tell me what you told your mom earlier. Please?

Please, no. I am sure she mistaken. You don’t please mind her. She just don’t know what to say sometime. The woman tried to interrupt the conversation but the girl had an intense expression on her face and eyes wide, staring at Helen.

She spoke loudly over her mother, No, I said you don’t live there or talk Portuguese. Why were you there?

They had come out of the elevator and were walking towards the rear exit leading to the walking path to the playground behind the apartment complex. The little girl wanted to continue this little confrontation with Helen, it seemed, but her mother pulled her ahead and moved away from Helen saying; Don’t mind her, senhora. She is sure mistaken. We have to go, and then she continued to admonish her daughter in Portuguese as she dragged her towards the playground, taking quick steps, agitatedly talking to her daughter, putting greater distance between them and Helen.

Helen sensed the mother’s discomfort with what her daughter had said. She followed them at a slower pace, wondering about the mother’s agitation and discomfort. She had a ton of questions for the little girl and the lady but she wanted them to be more at ease before talking to them again. She thought that if the girl gets busy with playing in the playground, away from her mother, she will be able to get the mother to open up but she also knew that if she went to the mother too soon, the mother may not calm down enough to talk to her. Helen decided to take a fifteen minute walk before going to and talking to the mother.

As she walked, she reflected on the recent past. Stan Monroe, her husband, had moved to the apartment about a month and half ago. Stan’s home office was in the Universal Motor’s Technical Center in Southfield, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan in USA. He was transferred to Brazil on International Service Assignment a few months ago. He had decided on this apartment and moved in recently.

Helen was visiting for the first time. Originally, they had planned for Helen to come when they took possession of the apartment. Some confusion about a meeting in Southfield at about the same time that Stan was to take possession of the apartment had forced changes to that plan. The meeting that was supposed to conflict with the moving date had kept getting rescheduled and eventually had been cancelled. Stan had to take possession of the apartment anyway and had moved in. Finally, when it was certain that he would not be required to go to Detroit, they had decided that Helen should take advantage of the company travel benefit to visit Brazil. Actually, she had insisted on it. Stan had said that he will be very busy but had given in. Helen had made the travel arrangements and had arrived on Friday. He told her that the whole next week beginning on Monday was going to be extremely busy for him, so she planned to leave on Sunday – today – to return to Detroit.

She liked the apartment and they had spent a lot of time discussing if they should ship anything from their home in Farmington and what they will need to buy locally. Stan had already bought the furniture for which his company was to reimburse him. Helen did not like some of it, but he said that someone at the local bank, where he opened an international account, helped with selecting the furniture. It was the current trend locally and will be easy to sell when he returned home after the assignment was over.

Stan was preoccupied with thoughts about work he had coming up in the next week, and Helen had found him a bit abrupt and distant. He told her a couple of times that their decision to not sell their house and for her to not move to Brazil was probably the best decision they made. Helen tried to have him make some kind of future planning for her visits, but he said that they will have to go one trip at a time. His schedule would continuously change, so her trips could not be planned so far in advance.

She was supposed to fly back today. They had planned to leave for the Sao Paulo’s Cumbica International Airport at 4:00 pm for her 7:30 pm American Airlines flight to Detroit via Miami. He asked if she was packed and ready right after lunch at 1:00 pm. He appeared anxious and kept telling her that it was a long flight and she should make sure her things were packed properly. He had reminded her that he will be very busy so she should make sure that she does not forget anything important because he will not have time to ship anything she forgets.

At 2:30 pm, the phone rang. Hello, may I speak to Mrs. Helen Monroe?

This is Helen. Who is this?

Mrs. Monroe, my name is Kate from American Airlines reservations. You were confirmed to fly from Sao Paulo to Miami today. Are you still planning to take that flight?

Yes, I am.

Well, Mrs. Monroe, I am sorry to tell you that your flight has been cancelled. The incoming flight from Miami was cancelled due to bad weather and so we do not have a returning flight today. All the carriers are affected. You are confirmed for tomorrow’s flight at 7:30 pm and you can check your itinerary on the website if you like, or you can just come to the airport tomorrow. Sorry for the inconvenience. Do you have any questions?

Stan had been listening and asked who it was, so Helen asked Kate to hold on and explained the situation to Stan. As he listened, Stan’s face had turned red and he was visibly angry. Stan had taken the phone from Helen and said; What do you mean she will go tomorrow? She has to get home. You can’t just say you have cancelled the flight and leave her here for a whole day.

Sir, we could have moved her to another carrier if they were flying but this is not only our issue. All the operators have cancelled their flights because of the bad storms in southern U.S. All airlines are affected. Sir! Even if we can get people to west coast in the U.S., they will not be able to go east because of flight cancellations. Please understand that we have looked at all other options. The best solution for your wife is to take the flight tomorrow. We will award her ten thousand additional miles for her trouble but there is nothing else we can do. Sorry.

Stan became angrier and insisted to talk to Kate’s supervisor. He waited almost fifteen minutes on phone for a supervisor, but she also apologized and said that there was simply no way for them to get Helen out of Brazil until Monday.

Shit, shit, SHIT! Why have they not figured out how to handle storms after so many years of flying planes? DAMN! Stan shouted after dropping the receiver. He was pacing and throwing up his hands while ranting.

Oh, Stan, it’s no big deal. I can go tomorrow. I’m OK. They did say that all the flights were affected. Why are you so angry? Helen felt his anger was totally out of proportion.

Helen, you have no idea. I simply cannot come to drop you off tomorrow. Matter of fact, I don’t know when I will be able to leave the plant tomorrow. We are running our first trial starting tomorrow. And I had planned to spend a few hours tonight at the plant after dropping you off at the airport to prepare for tomorrow. Now, all of that is screwed up. I just don’t know why you insisted on coming this weekend in the first place. Damn!

Stan, it’s OK. I can take a cab to the airport. I did not bring much luggage so it will be fine. You don’t have to drop me off.

But, I still had planned to go to work today. What about that?

You can go spend a couple of hours at the plant. Aren’t you happy we will be able to spend an extra night together?

Well, it’s not that. Yes, I am, but I was not going to be gone for a couple of hours. It was going to be five or six. I just have to - so much to do!

OK, so I can throw something together to eat early and you can go after we have early supper. Then you can come back whenever you’re done. How about that?

No, I can’t! I mean, that will be too late. Just wrap me a couple of sandwiches and I’ll take them with me. You can make whatever you feel like. I will try to be back by 10:00 pm but don’t wait up for me.

Stan had left at 5:30 pm with his sandwiches and Helen had found a lot of time on her hands. The apartment did not need her attention so she had decided to go for a walk. That’s when she had met the mother and her six-year-old in the hallway.

As she reflected on this, she could not understand Stan’s anger at the flight’s cancellation. She knew that in past Stan had gotten angry when things did not go according to his plan, but today’s anger appeared misguided. He had not been so dedicated to his work in past, she thought.

As she returned from her walk she saw that the woman she had met earlier was sitting with a couple other women on the bench as their children played in the playground. They all seemed to be in a lighter mood and were smiling as they talked.

She went and sat down on an available seat and introduced herself to the ladies. They all spoke English, but not much. After some casual exchanges with Helen, they went back to talking to each other in Portuguese. Helen could identify some words and names. She assumed that they were talking about their children. She hoped that she can get the woman from her floor alone to herself soon

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Two

Stan had joined The Universal Motors (UM) about twenty-three years ago in the Mechanical engineering department. He was a graduate of Texas A&M University. Universal Motors had hired him during their annual recruitment drive at the campus and he had stayed at UM all these years.

The UM had a small presence in American Auto scene until the late 1960’s, but then they had climbed to fourth place, surpassing American Motors when they had concentrated on Subcompact through Midsize sedan market. During the late 1970’s, they profited from their successful small sedan products while other U.S. auto companies experienced hard times due to the oil embargo crisis. They had subsequently developed a line of small SUVs to offer to their customers in collaboration with their new Asian partners in the late 1980s. Thus the company stayed in the core market and continued to hold their market share. They had developed a presence in South America through their plant in Brazil because their products were a good fit for the market demand in South America. The UM had stayed away from competing in the Luxury market.

In the mid 2000’s more and more attention was being given to development of alternative fuel technologies. It had become important for all auto companies to come up with more efficient vehicles that can work with alternate fuels. Brazil was far ahead of every other country in use of Ethanol fuel. All auto companies had vehicles that were capable of using regular and Ethanol mixed fuels, but these vehicles were basically designed for regular fuel and ability to run on an E85 mix of gasoline had been added to their power trains. This made them less fuel efficient when Ethanol mixed fuel was used. An Ethanol based vehicle design was required.

Universal Motors had decided to come up with such a vehicle and design it from the ground up. They had decided to use their engineering unit in Brazil for designing this vehicle and then building the vehicle in South America as well as North America. The vehicle will need to be designed so that it will meet all the US requirements and can be manufactured in US plants. This required that key engineering experts from their Southfield engineering center be made a part of the team in Brazil during the development process. These experts will be responsible to make sure that all the engineering disciplines required for building and certifying the vehicle in US were included and executed during the vehicle development process.

The UM had created three positions on the team for this purpose. These engineers were to be placed on international assignments and relocated to Sao Paulo to work with the team there for about three years.

Basically, in any company, some people simply do not want to relocate. Some people would consider domestic relocation with reasonable pay raise and a promotion. International relocations are even more of a challenge because people want more pay, a promotion to take the assignment and a second promotion, or at least a high probability of a second promotion, when they return. So this limits the company’s choices for who they can assign to such jobs. They want their best, most experienced and most reliable people for these assignments but such people may not agree to go. The managers have a tough task to get the right people to agree to go. They sometimes make special deals with employees they are interested in assigning to such jobs.

Mark Romaniski, Stan’s boss, was a typical career engineering manager we find in large corporations, with 26 years with UM. Heavy set, used to working long hours with irregular eating and sleeping patterns, usually reactive to near term ‘must do’ assignments and very loyal to the company. He tried to do as well as he could for his people but was also well versed in company politics. He needed to fill a position on the Brazilian team.

Mark Romaniski had decided that his best pick would not be interested in taking the assignment since his wife had a successful business in Detroit area but he had tried and confirmed that that was the case. So, he had decided to go to his second pick-Stan Monroe.

Stan had good track record throughout his career of twenty-three years at UM. He was also interested in cars beyond his job and was very quality conscious. He had shown interest in getting promoted to a management position but his weakness was being able to supervise people and since most management positions required supervising other people, he was not promoted to a management position yet. Mark knew that assigning him to this team will require promoting him to a management position but he will not be directly supervising employees so his weakness will not be a factor. He also thought that maybe Stan can receive some supervisory training during his stint in Brazil to be ready to continue in a supervisory assignment upon return. In Mark’s view, this promotional opportunity will definitely make Stan receptive to the offer. He invited Stan to a meeting.

Hi, Stan. How goes the battle?

Good, good, Mark. I have completed the report on the part availability timing and I am currently pretty good on the numbers of changes out of the design section. I have the report here if you want to review it. We present this…… Stan, believing that Mark had called him for an update, started his engineering reporting but Mark raised his hand to stop him Stan I did not ask you here for your engineering report. You can do that tomorrow morning in the change control meeting. I have a special reason for this meeting.

Oh, I thought you were worried about the change control. So what is the special reason, Mark?

You know, you have shown interest in getting to the management level in past and we had a few opportunities to consider you but, somehow, they did not work out.

Yes, I have been disappointed about my career growth.

Well, that’s why we are talking today. I have been asked to handpick someone for an opportunity. I think you are the right person for that opportunity. I just want you to say you want it and it will be done. What do you think?

Well, I am thankful but what is the opportunity? I mean, can you tell me more?

You don’t sound excited, Stan. I just told you that you have been picked, handpicked, for a promotion and you did not jump up or anything.

Sorry, I am excited but you are very mysterious, Mark, and I just…..

Mark held up his hand laughing and said; I am pulling your chain, Stan. Of course, you would like to know more. I was just ribbing you. Seriously though, I have handpicked you for an opportunity and it is a promotion. You see, I know how good an engineer you are. I know how good you are at knowing all our manufacturing processes, that you work with very little supervision and that you keep good records and drive for completion of work on time. I know all that. So when we decided that we need a person with these attributes from my department on a special team, I immediately said that person has to be Stan. Now you believe me?

Yes, yes. That was very complementary but what is the special team?

Get ready, Stan. We are developing a special vehicle. This is very confidential, understand? Not a word to anyone, right? Now, this vehicle will be developed in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The vehicle will then be manufactured both in Sao Paulo plant and Huntsville, Alabama plant. We need to have a very few of our special people from US on the team to make sure we can build and certify the vehicle here. You will be part of that team. You will be getting a promotional assignment to go to Brazil for a period of two to three years. Sound exciting?

Oh man! It does sound exciting except the part about going to Brazil for three years. I have never thought of relocating.

Brazil is an exciting place. You will love it there, take my word for it. Hell, if they ask me to go, I wouldn’t think for a minute before saying, ‘Where do I sign?’ And, of course, if they sent me, they may not even give me a promotion, and I would still go. No, I don’t think you should let that stand in your way. Think about how long you have wanted a promotion. You do know that you compete with others every time a position opens up. This time it’s just you.

But this is so sudden. Just….. I am not sure what my wife will….

Of course, of course, Stan! We wouldn’t want you to do anything that causes personal problems for you. I don’t need you to decide this minute. I just want you to know that I am offering you this chance. You are the only person that has been asked to consider this and you should discuss this with your wife before accepting or rejecting this offer. Now, I cannot give you anything in writing but you should get with Meena Gupta in HR and get details of the offer- what you will get if you accept. Then discuss this with your wife, family, and decide. Of course, we do not have a lot of time on this so we have to know by Monday next week, by noon. Can you do that?

Ok, I will get with Meena and get the details. Can we have a follow up meeting this Friday before I have to say yes or no on Monday?

Sure, Stan, just set it up on my schedule and remember-this is highly confidential.

Stan got the basic information from Meena which was a standard international relocation process explanation. The process was that Stan will be promoted to management level one and be provided relocation assistance in selling of his house and buying a house in Brazil. He had options of staying in a hotel for two months at company expense and company will pay for a spousal trip for house hunting.

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Three

The mother of the six year old that lived on 6th floor was never alone for Helen to get a chance to talk. She waited till about 7:00 pm, hoping for other women to leave but the women got up together and all of them said Nice to meet you to Helen and walked towards where the children were playing and then with their children, walked towards the rear entrance of the building collectively.

Helen also got up and followed them but had to wait for the next elevator because they all got into it first and by then it was full. She took the next elevator up and saw that the mother and daughter she had met earlier were just entering their own apartment as she was coming out of the elevator and she saw their door close and heard the deadbolt being engaged. She entertained the thought of going to their door and knocking but felt awkward in doing that, so she just went to her apartment and closed the door.

She could not shake the girl’s vehement accusation that she was an intruder and did not belong in this apartment. She decided that she will talk to the mother next time she came back to Brazil. This helped to calm her and she started thinking about dinner.

She cooked, ate, did the dishes and later sat down to watch TV. In her mind this was a