Chapter 10

The place they chose to eat was a standard small town high-end restaurant. Wooden tables covered with white table clothes and surrounded by heavy chairs were distributed across a red carpeted dinning room. Wood paneling, decorated with the paintings by a local artist, was intended to give it a high-class old world feel. The attempt failed just enough to be noticeable.

The party of five followed the waitress to the large round table that was predictably placed in the corner of the room. When they reached the table, William said, "Please allow Ken to sit in the corner."

Surprised by the request, Mr. Wilkins asked, "Why?"

"I'm not only his driver, but I also am his bodyguard. I need to watch the room," answered Ken.

At the serious expression on Ken's face, William teasingly said, "Actually, the reason he is so diligent is that he's terrified that Momma Ling will come in and find that he isn't doing his job."

"You can say that again," Ken muttered as he took his seat.

William sat down next to Ken with Lucy on his other side. Mr. Wilkins sat across from William. Mrs. Wilkins sat between her husband and daughter with a smile on her face. She liked William. Looking at Lucy, she said, "You two make a cute couple."

"Thank you, Mrs. Wilkins," William said nodding in her direction. He wanted to say that he thought the same thing, but Lucy's father hadn't yet come to accept him.

"Call me Ann."

Surprising Lucy, William, in a teasing manner, said, "I think I'd rather call you Mrs. Wilkins until I can call you mom."

Frowning at the joke, Mr. Wilkins asked, "So you drove all the way down here to tell us that you are dating my little girl?"

"As much as I would like to say yes, the truth is that I came here for a very different reason," answered William. His voice was suddenly very serious and demanded their attention.

"What is that?"

"Your daughter is in caught up in a very unpleasant situation at the university. I would like to help correct that situation. I came here to get your permission to allow me to help her."

Leaning forward, Mr. Wilkins had stopped listening as soon as he heard William mention something about an unpleasant situation. He asked, "What kind of situation?"

Looking at William for a second, Lucy answered, "My roommate is a horrible person."

"Missy? What's wrong with her?" asked Mrs. Wilkins in surprise. Every time they had been on the campus, Missy had been very nice and well mannered.

"She's nice around you guys, but when I'm there alone," her voice trailed off as she searched for the right way to say what needed to be said. She blurted out, "She's a bitch. I didn't lose the sweater you gave me for Christmas, she destroyed it. She's destroyed half of my clothes. She borrows them without asking and then returns them damaged."

"What?" asked Ann, her voice rising.

Once she had started, she couldn't stop. Lucy said, "Today I came home and she was having sex with a man on my bed! She laughed at me when I yelled at her. She's been doing stuff like that ever since I started school."

Lucy broke down and started crying. William put his arm around her and hugged her. He whispered in her ear, "Don't cry. Everything is going to be okay."

Her father's face was purple with rage. The idea that someone would have sex in his little girl's bed infuriated him. He hadn't wanted her to go off to college because he knew something like that was going to happen. It was only after constant badgering by his wife and daughter that he had given into the whole idea. Barely able to keep his voice below a bellow, he asked, "Why didn't you tell us this earlier?"

In a calm voice, William asked, "What would you have done if she had told you?"

"I'd have brought her home where she'd be safe!" There was a not so subtle challenge in the way he said it.

"You know what, I agree that she would have been much safer at home," said William disarming Mr. Wilkins. He earned a very dirty look from Lucy and her mother. They couldn't believe that William would take the position that he was taking.

"So you agree with me?" asked Mr. Wilkins equally surprised.

"Yes, I do agree with you. She'd have been much safer here than sharing a room with Missy. I really hate to think of the kinds of things that could have happened to her," William said. It was clear to him that the roommate wanted to destroy Lucy's innocence. For all he knew, rape would have been the next step.

William picked up the fork and started to polish it with his napkin. In an off-hand voice, he said, "I know she was pretty unhappy about what was going on in her room, too."

"You bet she was," said Mr. Wilkins. He wondered if William had brought her here to convince her to return home. His respect for the young man rose a notch.

"You know, it makes me wonder. She must have been pretty happy about something to be able to put up with such a horrible situation for so long," William said. He put down the fork and picked up a spoon. After wiping it for a few seconds, he paused and looked up at the ceiling with thoughtful expression. He asked, "What do you think made her that happy?"

"Going to school, of course." A sudden silence fell upon the group when Mr. Wilkins understood what he had just said. He looked across the table at Lucy with an apologetic expression on his face. In a much softer tone of voice, he said, "I'm sorry, pumpkin. I guess I have a hard time understanding how important education is for you. I mean, going to school for me was a way to make a good living. For you, it's a passion."

"That's okay," Lucy said.

Ann was staring at William unable to believe what he had done. After years of talking to her husband, she had never gotten him to understand their daughter's need to learn. In less than two minutes, William had led her husband to the desired conclusion.

Nodding his head, William said, "A passion -- I like the sound of that. She has a passion for learning. Of course, that leaves us with a horrible problem."

"Yeah. How do we keep her safe?"

William put the spoon and napkin down on the table. Sitting back, he said, "I went to the Director of Student Housing and asked her essentially the same thing. We considered a couple of possibilities. One, was that she move in with a woman who is having emotional problems."

"No way," said Mr. Wilkins. The last thing he wanted was some crazy woman killing his daughter.

"That goes without saying, but it did make me think about her situation in a different light. I actually think Lucy shouldn't share a room with a woman who is four or five years older than she is. It puts her at a significant disadvantage socially," William said while looking at Mr. Wilkins.

Frowning, Ann said, "I hadn't thought about it, but you're right. I guess I hoped that her roommate would watch over her like a little sister."

Lucy watched as her father went into his problem-solving mode. Frowning, he said, "So what options do you think are left?"

"Well, you could have her move back home," said William opening a door that Lucy wanted closed. It earned him another worried look from her.

"True," said her father. One look at Lucy and he knew that solution was not going to be accepted. He had already fought that battle and lost. He said, "I don't think she would be very happy about that."

"I know they have a private room available. What do you think about her not having a room mate?" William asked.

Mr. Wilkins narrowed his eyes as he examined William. He was convinced that William was going to find some reason for her not to live alone and that the only solution was for her to live with him. That solution was not going to be an option. He thought about his daughter living on campus in a single room. It wasn't that bad of a solution. He said, "That's a possibility."

Lucy and Ann stared at him unable to believe what he had just said. Ann was about to say that they couldn't afford it, when Lucy said, "It's too expensive."

"What is too expensive is often a matter of perspective," said William.

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Wilkins, let me ask you a question. Assume for the moment that I make a hundred dollars a week. What would you think if I were to spend twenty dollars taking Lucy on a date?" William reached over to the sugar container and pulled out a handful of sugar packets. He set ten of them on the table and then pulled two of them off to the side.

"I guess I would have to say that is a reasonable amount of money to spend on a date considering today's economy," answered Mr. Wilkins watching William arranging the sugar packets.

"Yeah, but that would be about twenty percent of my income for a week," William said pointing to the two sugar packets he had pulled away. Shrugging, he pointed to the other eight and said, "However, it still leaves me eighty percent of my income to spend on food, clothing, and other essentials. I could probably even save ten or twenty dollars if I'm careful."

"Yes."

William tore open one of the sugar packets and poured the contents onto the table. Pointing to the pile in an offhand manner, he said, "Assume for the moment that I make thirty thousand dollars a week. What would you think if I were to spend a thousand dollars to make sure that Lucy was safe?"

Mr. Wilkins stared at William and then at the pile of sugar. He watched as William cut out a very small amount of sugar from the pile. Finally, he said, "That's a lot of money."

"Yeah, but that would be about three percent of my income for a week," William said pointing to the sprinkling of sugar he had removed from the pile. Looking up at Lucy's father, William said, "It is all relative. I know that twenty dollars doesn't seem like much while a thousand seems like a lot. Yet for the guy who makes a hundred a week, twenty dollars is a lot of money. For someone with a lot of money, a thousand dollars is very little."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm willing to spend every dime I have to make sure that Lucy is happy and that she is safe," William answered. He could see that Mr. Wilkins was feeling insulted. He held up his hands palms outward and said, "May I say one more thing before you judge me?"

"Sure."

"My family measures a man's worth by his actions, not by the size of his wallet. None of my fathers started rich. John Carter was a college student who had just graduated with his doctorate when he invented the Fusion Well. Ed Biggers was a cowboy. Leroy was a college student from a poor neighborhood. Dan Biggerstaff was a design engineer. All of them work hard. They worked hard when they were young and they continue to work hard to this day.

"All of them give away the majority of money they earn. John Carter gave away ninety-five percent of the money he made off his inventions. Ed Biggers gives away about the same percentage of what he earns. Leroy has never made a lot of money, but he essentially funded the majority of research into Chronic Wasting Disease. Almost a tenth of the computers produced by Random Computers are given to schools and nonprofit organizations.

"I have worked since I was six. When I was at the Native American College, I worked in the library for minimum wage. I have been running an investment company ever since I turned nine. I respect people who work hard, strive to make a nice life for their family, and help others in whatever manner they can. My best friend earns a little more than eighteen thousand a year, but donates the majority of his time to helping his community.

"I'll admit that I started with a good amount of money, but I've given away more money than I ever inherited. I give to alcohol rehabilitation clinics, job training centers, and hospitals. This year alone I've given away more than twenty million dollars," William said.