The house of Eden

Like a caterpillar that turns into a butterfly, it was only natural that Farkas Schwarzkopf would become a rocker - averse to conformity, insubordinate, arrogant and unruly; a rebellious nature that was first evident when he was just seven years old, and finally revealed itself over the next ten years.

The time rewind to 1954, a different Christmas, when the Schwarzkopf family spent it in their new home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. Accustomed to the warmth and comfort of the humid subtropical climate, the northern winter was a disaster for southerners. Farkas, however, was not frightened by the cold temperatures and was so excited to see snow for the first time that he could not help but lean over the window sill and look out, like a husky pawing at the wall. If it wasn't for the seventh floor of his house, he would have jumped out of the window and gone for a walk in the snow.

"Rex, get a load of this, it's snow! It's snowing in the sky!" Farkas yelled, turning his head to look at his brother, who was a year younger, as he did so. "How about we go out and play together?"

"No way, Mummy and Daddy said we should stay at home."

Before Regis Schwarzkopf could reply, their eldest sister, Cecilia Schwarzkopf, had already spoken out to stop he. She didn't even look at Farkas and concentrated play on the dollhouse in front of her. The model had been specially ordered by the Schwarzkopf's from a famous German toymaker; a small replica of their waterfront home in Palm Beach, Florida, from the iron fence to the smallest piece of furniture, inside and out.

"It's annoying, all you do is talk about mum and dad." Farkas grimaced and stared at his younger brother in displeasure, trying to force him to come over and play with him with. To his dismay, Regis remained docilely seated next to Cecilia, playing with the uninteresting puzzle. The two siblings were snuggled up to each other, making him an outsider.

The scene was an eyesore, an accusation of being out of place. In a flash of insight, Farkas deliberately opened the window and let the cold wind blow in. To pretend he didn't care, he hummed "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in a lighter tune, occasionally reaching out to catch the snowflakes.

This made Farkas happy, but Regis suffered as a result. His cheeks were soon red from the wind as he was positioned close to the window. Cecilia heard a sneeze from behind her and turned to see her youngest brother shivering in the cold, looking miserable.

"Oh dear!" She let out a startled cry, a rare panic appearing on her face, which had never been very expressive. "Farkas, you close the window, quick!"

With a pent-up anger in his heart, Farkas not only turned a deaf ear to his elder sister's anxious cries, but sang with more vigour. The more Cecilia instructed, the more he had to fight her!

Not wanting his elder sister and  older brother to fight over him, Regis pulled Cecilia's arm, "Lila, I'm all right."

"No, we have to go to the fire in the living room."

Seeing that her younger brother was simply not listening, Cecilia simply gave up communicating. Retracting her gaze of glared at Farkas, she hurriedly led Regis out of the playroom. With the soft click of the door opening and closing, Farkas was left alone in the large room.

Suddenly Farkas lost his energy and his humming spirit. An unspeakable feeling festered and, without realising it, he did something quite abominable. Just because he was upset, he took revenge by smashing his elder sister's toys. It was enough for Cecilia to hold a grudge for the rest of her life, but he didn't care and no guilt that, felt she was asking for it - after all, he had never been have chivalry, tespecially to a young girl his own age, even if she was his elder sister - she only 11 months older (not to mention born in 1947 like him), so how dare she put up a fight!

Farkas' destruction of the dollhouse was like Cassandra's prophecy, announcing that he would destroy family harmony in the future and break the hearts of not only his parents, but also his brothers and sisters. But the Schwarzkopf couple lightly dismissed this misdeed as childish wilfulness and mischief, and did not take it seriously.  In contrast to the quiet eldest daughter and the introverted youngest son,  the eldest son despite mischievousness, but makes they have a love-hate relationship with he.

The Schwarzkopf couple then is in the young adults, and had not yet reached the top of the power hierarchy, so they did not have the arbitrary and bad-temper that they would have years later. The couple therefore had great hopes for Farkas, optimistically (or arrogantly) assuming that he would grow up to be well-behaved and a worthy successor. If they could have foreseen that their eldest son would bring shame to the family in the future, they would have had an abortion at the beginning of the pregnancy to kill the damned bastard!