Chapter 22

Friday seemed a little strange, going back to school for one day after having a day off. Some kids even asked why the parents didn’t have the funerals on Friday, so it could’ve been a three day weekend.

Some people are self-centered if you ask me.

There was a note waiting for me in homeroom. It was from Mr. Donaldson asking me to come to his office after lunch. The morning flew by as every teacher felt they had to give a quiz to make up for the day off.

Mr. Donaldson had a surprise for me in the form of a set of drawings and half a dozen hand sketches.

“My brother Jim and I got to talking about your shower head idea. Do you realize that your design is all about an adaptor? The ball joint can be directly incorporated into the showerhead and bypass your patent.”

“Here are sketches of the shower heads you provided with the adaptor built-in. Here is a primary India ink drawing on white paper. Included on the drawing are the details of either machining the parts, or more likely casting them from aluminum.

It staggered me about the major error which I had almost made. I asked him what he and his brother would like for their efforts. He looked a little nervous.

“I understand from our conversations you are going to offer this for license rather than manufacture it yourself?”

“That’s correct Mr. Donaldson.”

I had been kidded many times in the past for always calling adults Mister or Misses, but this time I really did it out of respect.

“Jim and I feel like this is a pretty big deal and would like to share between us ten percent of the license income,” he said hesitantly.

I had never had an adult act so nervous about something in my life.

“That seems reasonable to me.”

You could see the relief sweep over him.

We wrote it down in my ever-present notebook, and both signed and dated it.

“I will get our lawyer to formalize this with a contract between you and your brother and Jackson Engineering.”

We shook hands on the deal. This was another first for me.

When I got home I explained the situation to Mum and Dad. The information stopped them cold.

Finally, Dad said, “We better get this to the patent attorney in Columbus as fast as we can. I think you are doing the right thing by Tom and Jim Donaldson. They could have even filed for a patent themselves.”

Dad then stated, “Rick this is your business and your money, but I have a question for you. Did you have to make a decision right then and there?”

That stopped me cold. “I’m not sure, Mr. Donaldson appeared nervous, do you think there was a problem?”

“Rick, Tom, and Jim Donaldson are as honest as the day is long. Tom was nervous because he was asking a teenager for money. You are a minor and any deal made has to be approved by us. Now as I said, it is your business and your money, and we will automatically go along with your decisions, but that is not the point.”

“What is the point?”

“You didn’t have to make that decision right then. You could have told him you would check with the lawyer, talk it over with us and get back to him with a written proposal. Right now Tom and his brother are wondering what we have to say about all this. They are afraid that we will think they are trying to rip you off. We know that isn’t close to the truth, but they don’t know that.”