Chapter 41: Division of Labor

Tuesday, December 18, 1984

The rest of our grades were indeed A’s (and ‘Pass’ for our PE classes). One semester down, seven (most likely) to go! In some ways this had been the easy one. In others, it probably hadn’t. Some of the classes I had down for later years were going to be easier than even CS 204 had been.

We spent a fair bit of time packing for a week or two away from the house. Jas, Paige, Angie, and I would be back January 3rd, or at least that was the plan today. Cammie would be back after Boxing Day, and Mel would be back up here by New Year’s Eve.

Cammie interrupted me in the early afternoon while Jas and I were packing.

“Can I talk to you for a bit, Steve?” she said.

“Sure,” I said.

Jas shot us a look.

“Actually,” she said, “you might as well join us, Jas. Everyone could, actually, but I wanted to just start out with you guys.”

“Okay,” Jas said, giving me another questioning look.

I could only match it. I wasn’t sure what this was about, and it sounded ominous. ‘We need to talk’ tends to do that, and this was close to that, if not the same.

Cammie closed the door, then caught the looks on our faces.

“What?” she said.

Then she hesitated, starting to blush.

“Wait!” she quickly said. “I’m sorry! This isn’t anything bad!”

Jas let out a breath I hadn’t known she was holding.

“That’s a relief!” she said, giggling a bit.

“It’s good!” Cammie said. “At least, Mel and I think it’s good.”

“Then it’s probably good,” I said.

Cammie sat on the bed and motioned for us to both sit, which we did.

“Mel and I have been talking about this for a while,” she said. “It started out with my feeling a little guilty for taking your money this summer.”

“You were watching...” Jas said.

“I know,” Cammie said, cutting in. “Mel actually said that, too. That watching the house really was a job, all by itself, and people really do get paid for that. Then there was watching the remodelers and approving contracts and signing off and all of that. That’s real work. I mean, I’d have happily done it as a friend, ‘cuz I love you guys...”

“Aw!” Jas said. “We love you, too!”

“We do!” I said.

Cammie grinned and said, “I know! Anyway, so. That’s where it started, like I said. Anyway, Mel is pretty set on her career path, but not completely. She wants to design things which get built, and to do ‘mechanical stuff,’ and I think she’ll be good at it. But within that, she’s flexible. It’s the ‘build real stuff you can touch and poke at’ that matters.”

We nodded. I didn’t know where Cammie was going, and I didn’t think Jas did, either.

“For me ... well, I like the idea of doing ‘business-y stuff.’ I’m starting to get an idea for what that entails, and it’s given me an idea.”

“Tell!” Jas said.

“So ... I guess, first, I’m pretty sure you guys are looking at setting up a business empire.”

I may have blushed at that.

I said, “I’m not sure...”

Jas cut in and said, “Yeah. Pretty much that.”

I gave her a look, and she gave me a grin.

“He’s modest,” Jas said.

“I’ve noticed,” Cammie said with a slight grin.

“With all of the pieces we’ve talked about ... yeah, ‘business empire’ is perfectly fair,” Jas said.

“That answers that,” Cammie said. “So ... I know you guys are looking at doing more with real estate. You told me to watch for things, and I’ve kept doing it. The thing is, I like doing that! It’s fun! And I’m starting to get more ... you know... business-y about it. Not just ‘this is a cool house, maybe we could buy it and rent it’ but more ‘it’ll need X amount of work and we can get Y in rent, of which we lose Z in fees and maintenance and taxes and insurance, so our profit is P and maybe that’s good enough and maybe that’s not, except you also have to figure out appreciation and resale value.’ Stuff like that. I haven’t found a house which fits, but trying is pretty cool.”

“Sounds like it!” Jas said.

“It does,” I said.

“So...” Cammie said. “What I want to do — if it works for you — is kinda take on the role I already had. I want to be the real estate girl. Whatever all of y’all do with the ‘big picture’ business, or really I guess it’s ‘businesses,’ I want to see if I can be the mastermind of the real estate piece.”

Jas and I looked at each other.

“I love it!” Jas said, bouncing a bit.

“I do, too!” I said, smiling. “We should talk to Angie and Paige, but I can’t imagine they won’t feel as good about it as we do.”

Cammie looked relieved. Not a lot relieved, but it was clear it had mattered to her.

“Yay!” she said. “I think I’ll be good at it! Especially, you know ... I know you have ideas of where to focus given what you think prices are going to do. Like ... I know you didn’t buy this house blindly. You think it’ll sell for more than you paid for it.”

I shrugged, and said, “Pretty much any residence or apartment within a short distance of A&M or UT is going to go up in value. Student populations are rising, they’re getting more affluent, and there’s only so much close-in real estate to be had. If anything, available space is dropping because more businesses want to be close to the campuses.”

“See!” Cammie said, bouncing a bit herself. “That’s what I mean! You think that’s obvious, but what if I said ‘UH’ instead of ‘A&M?’”

“I’d say you’re wasting your time,” I said, chuckling. “Bad neighborhood, and UH will just be more and more a commuter school, not a residential school.”

“Bingo!” she said. “With things like that, we can make out like bandits. I know we can! But it’s not just that. It’s ... well, look at this house. It’s nice, but I know you worked out the math and think you could rent it for enough to pay off the upgrades.”

“If it was full,” I said.

“Yeah,” she said, grinning. “Which maybe we don’t want. But the point is, we don’t have to be crappy landlords. And the bigger point is that, both now and especially when Mel’s on board, maybe we follow in the footsteps of someone like Karl Kleinfelder. We build our own developments in places where we think houses will be profitable, and we make them good homes. Not luxury, maybe, but if we’re building ‘starter homes,’ we make them good solid ones that are built to last and that people will pay a bit more for, because they know they’ll move after a while and they want the resale value to go up.”

Jas grinned, and said, “You sound very enthusiastic...”

“I am!” Cammie said, giggling a bit.

“I mean,” Jas said, “I was going to say, well ... for me, I love the idea of being in the business and contributing, but I don’t know anything about real estate beyond knowing I want a nice house in a nice place, and ... well, it doesn’t speak to me. It’s clearly speaking to you, and I think that makes a lot of difference.”

Cammie was blushing well before Jas finished that.

“It does!” she said, smiling. “Both Mel and I. There are some Mech E classes that kinda edge into the outskirts of architecture. Like, how do you design a house to be energy efficient? And make it tough but keep it inexpensive? How do the mechanical parts of the house contribute to that? Anyway, she thinks that appeals to her. Not architecture per se — that’s partly making things pretty, and Mel mostly couldn’t care less how pretty it is if it gets the job done better. Someone has to make it pretty, though. Probably not me, but I could find people who are good at it.”

“Of course, you could,” I said.

“I’m thinking of adding some workload for myself,” Cammie said. “I mean, now that you’re into this. It’s really not that hard, or that expensive, to get my Realtor’s license. You take a bunch of classes and spend a bunch of hours and take a test and pay some money. I’m good at the first three and you’re good at the last one.”

She grinned widely at that.

“We are!” Jas said, giggling a bit.

“With that, I can access a lot more listings — though Maxine and I talk a fair bit, and she’s great! — plus I can do deals myself. Age isn’t a factor, and you can do it as a part-time job. Maxine has kinda said she’d let me help out in the summer if I had my license or even was getting it. She’d appreciate the help! Anyway, that’s my plan for this coming summer. I know y’all want to travel, but ... well, I want to, too, but not now. I’m loving just coming home and it being quiet and safe and warm and relaxing and all those things I was missing the last four years.”

That got both Jas and me hugging Cammie, who nearly successfully fought off tears.

“Anyway, that’s a great summer for me: ‘Learn useful stuff!’ Go nerds!”

We both chuckled at that.

“Plus, Mel says she wants to take summer classes. We’ll just hold down the nest, her taking university classes and me doing realty stuff.”

“That sounds really cool,” I said.

“It does,” Jas said.

“You guys...” she said, fighting off another sniffle. “You’re the best! Not just ... you know, rescuing me and all, but ... you’re so generous, it’s almost scary.”

I hugged her again. Jas did, too.

“I feel like that’s what I should be doing,” I said. “Angie and I — Laura, too, though maybe differently, but I think maybe more so, in some ways — have talked about it over and over, and we feel like the last thing we’re here to do is to be selfish rich assholes. Rich? Sure, maybe. But ethical and moral and doing good things. That starts with our friends, who really are our family. I’m as connected by blood to you as I am to Angie, or my parents, or Jas, or ... anyone I’ve ever met. Ever.”

Cammie sniffled a bit more, then said, “And the people who are related to me by blood...”

“Some of them are jerks,” Jas said. “Some of them are really good people. And the jerks ... I mean, what they did was unforgivable, but...”