Chapter 6

No More Allowance

In the morning, the first thing on his mind was that he was taking Laura on a date that night. He picked up his clothes from the night before and remembered his Uncle Rick had him sign a receipt for some money. There it was in his pocket two hundred dollars in twenties. He had been so tired last night he had been lucky to find his pockets to put the money in.

Today, he got his billfold out and put the money away. He felt good, so he got out a pair of dressy casual slacks and a matching polo shirt. After adding a light windbreaker he was ready. His homework was in the printer output tray. He picked it up, folded it carefully, and placed it in his backpack.

In the breakfast nook off the kitchen, he sat down as his mother set a plate of food in front of him.

"You're looking nice today Carl."

"Thanks Mom."

"What's up for day?"

"The furniture delivery is coming today, a lot of it. You're getting a new bed set, a computer workstation for your PC, printer and scanner. I want to put a table and a couple of easy chairs in there, too. Some book cases, and also a large screen TV."

"But Mom, can we afford it?"

"Yes dear, we have made out like bandits these last couple of weeks. Turns out that our insurance company had received certified copies of all the state and federal inspection of our home. That was before they denied us our money."

"When the attorney your dad was talking to in Tulsa heard that. he filed a law suit for fraudulent practice. They have agreed to a full payment plus 25% as penalty. The lawyer said he settled for the penalty. So we got the full amount, paying off the mortgage took less than a third of the payment, so we got two-thirds of the insurance money as ours."

"Then there's the fact that our new house payment is forty percent of what we had been to paying! We are actually making money off the old house. Oh, we are carrying enough insurance to actually rebuild this house if anything happens to it; plus renter insurance on our personal property."

"Well I guess that's good. Ehg Mom."

His mother turned to look at him then she grinned. "Tonight is you date night right?"

"Yeah, it is." He answered distracted for a minute."

"Well, then I know we forgot to give you your allowance this last month. I will have it for you when you get home tonight."

"Mom, that not what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh, what then?"

"Uncle Rick had me signed for some money last night. He gave me two hundred dollars."

His mother stood there for a moment then she turned the stove off and set her cooking utensils down. Then she pulled out her cell phone and pushed a speed dial button.

"Clara, I need to speak with Rick is he there?-- Hi Rick, Carl was just telling me that you gave him two hundred dollars last night.-- Okay we'll wait." She hung up the cell phone slipping it back into her pants pocket.

"Your Uncle Rick said he'd be right over. I don't like that. It seems as if he doesn't want Clara to hear what he has to say."

"Well Mom gets your food over here and eats. That is one thing out of the way when he arrives."

"Where is dad?"

"He left early wants to get to work early so he can make sure everything in his office is done, and leave early. Then we'll be free to help you out tonight."

They sat quietly finishing up their breakfast and then clearing the table and stove. Then she made a pot of coffee. The front doorbell rang and Carl went to answer it. He let his Uncle in the house. Uncle Rick looked like he always did.

"Grace you are looking good." He pecked her on the cheek. Then he looked back at Carl. "You too kid, very good."

Mom directed them to the den where she had a table and three chairs waiting. She sat down and waited for us to sit. "Okay, Rick what is up?"

"Grace, nothing really it's just that Clara does not understand business. Every since we've been married, she acts like we are going to end up in the poor house any day. I have tried to explain what I do, and how much I make, but every time she hears I spent a thousand here or there she has a fit!"

"Well why do you spend a thousand here and there anyway?"

"To make more thousands, there and more here."

"Listen Grace, last night I picked up a Caterpillar Excavator, I spent like $20,000 dollars for it; that's salvage value for metal price. By that, I mean if I take it apart I can get that much out of it for parts and just the metal. But that's not what I do. I will spend even more money to get it up and running. My plan was to sell it for around $60,000; I would double the money I spent."

"But that not what I'm going to do now. I placed a picture of the machine on eBay last night, with a quick buy price of $150,000. It was taken as of 8:00 this morning.

"Okay, but my question has to do with you giving Carl here two hundred dollars last night."

"I did not give him two hundred dollars. I let him draw on his earnings, two hundred dollars. You see he's the reason I got $150,000 this morning for the machine. He moved the Cat to the warehouse last night that was a $2,500 dollar job by itself. And I would have been lucky to get it done for that amount!"

"Then he saved me another $10,000 I had earmarked for fixing up the Cat. Instead of getting $60,000 I made $90,000 more than I planned. So I take out the expense of $25,000, I made a $125,000 dollars; the papers you signed the other day made him a minor partner in a LLC; he gets 49% I get 51%, so let's just say he has $61,000 dollars he has earned and last night he drew out $200."

"Are you joking Rick?"

"No; I could never explain this over the phone with Clara behind me screaming about going to the poor house. Carl, every time I do a deal like this I have set 10% aside in a trust for Peggy when she turns 18. So last night you made like $6,250 for Peggy and she doesn't even know it."

"Now, anything else Grace?"

"No I guess not Rick."

"Well I've got to run; the haulers will be at the warehouse by 10:30 to pick up the Cat."

Carl was sitting there with a slight case of shock. He had made $61,000 last night. He had thought two hundred was a lot of money.

"Well, Carl, it looks like your days of getting an allowance are over." his mother said.

"Mom! What am I going to do with that kind of money?"

"Now? Save it. Your Uncle spent $20,000 up front to get the chance to make more money. I understand why Clara is scared. She has never understood anything about business."

"Now, some of your money will be used for the next purchase of things to sale. If it costs $20,000, then $10,000 will come from your $61,000 so you will only have $40,000 left to draw on. I remember now what the bylaws said. He took the first risk for the company but now you will share equally in the risk and rewards."

"Also, there will be money there to buy your car when you get a license."

"Oh Wow my own car!"

"Carl have you ever heard the expression that 'Money talks but doesn't sang or dance'?"

"No Mom, what does that means?" Absently as he visualized the car he would buy.

"Well, you can imagine the attention if money jumped up and started singing and dancing down the streets. Soon everybody would be out there trying to grab it. So money doesn't sing or dance, it does not attract attention to itself. So when you buy a car, you do not buy one that everybody will look at and point at. A nice strong and safe car is what you will buy."

"Oh Mom!"

She sat there looking at Carl.

He slowly began to nod his head. "Let's get you to school", She said.

It was a nice day in school. No dumb jocks, easy lessons that he sailed through, and Laura everywhere he went; a very nice day. Today the Physics teacher's lecture was over speculation in Physics. Carl noted the fields he mentioned, warp fields, anti-gravity, lasers, Quantum entanglement, and Casimir effects almost all of which he had used with his 'magic'.

One of the things he had found out about Laura was she was just as enthused with science as he was. She was more into chemistry than Physics, but saw that in some ways they were connected. Chemicals were held together by physics principles. And the field she was interested in was Nanotechnology.

That was almost the ultimate merging of Chemistry and Physics.

As they were waiting for his mother to pick them up, one of the juniors that played football came over to the bench they were sitting on.

"Are you Carl Black?"

Carl looked the guy over; he had seen him around mainly at Pep rally before a game. He was not as obnoxious as other members of the team.

"Yes, that me."

"Guy, listen I'm not here; some of the other guys are blaming you for losing our first string offensive line. There's talk that they are going to get even. So be careful."

With that he turned and walked away.

"Carl? What was that about?"

"Remember those guys who fell down and got suspended from school. That was our first string offensive line. They jumped me earlier in the year before we really met."

"They were going to try it again in the hall there when they lost their pants. They are blaming me for their suspension."

"That's crazy!" Laura said.

"Yes it is, but then, so are they. It must be from hitting their heads so much playing football."

His mother drove up then so they quit talking about primitive primates.

That evening his mother drove him to pick up Laura at her house. He got out of the car; and walked up to the door, and rang the bell.

The door opened and a very large man stood there looking him over.

"Are you Carl? Come in." he stepped out of the way.

Carl stepped past him as he closed the door behind them. Laura came tripping into the room/

"Carl, you're looking good!"

"Laura, that's what I'm supposed to say to you. Now it will look like I'm imitating you. But Laura, you are looking great."

She was looking great; the dress wasn't as fancy as a party dress, but it was very nice. She was wearing a light coat of makeup. In her hand, she carried a clutch purse and a light sweater in case the night got too chilly, which it would soon. It was mid fall, and the weather fluctuated from warm to chill day to day.

As he escorted her to the door, her mother called from behind them. "Let me see you one more time."

They turned and her mother took their picture.

"Have fun but be careful." Her father said as he close the door behind them.

His Mom drove them to Tucks, where Carl had made reservations. Tucks was a very nice restaurant that specialized in American food. Nowhere as upscale as La Chevez, or Gutenfuze, two restaurants that specialized in European style cooking.

He knew from their conversation that Laura loved seafood, so he was sure she would like the food they served here.

Carl didn't really notice his food, he simply ate it while talking with Laura. He knew he had ordered a seafood platter that was almost like a plate of appetizers.

Then his phone beeped; he had forgotten about his new cell phone. Pulling it out Carl answered it.

"Carl, your dad here, I'm heading your way."

"Thanks Dad!"

He looked around; the plates had been removed and all that remain on the table were their drink glasses.

A folder was sitting right next to him. He opened it and looked at the ticket. Egh! The meal came to $33.95. He pulled his wallet out and put two twenties inside the folder.

"My Dad is on the way to take us to the movies. So I guess we should go out front and wait for him."

With that, he stood, and pulled her chair out so that she could stand up. As he shoved the chair back under the table, he noticed the smiles on people's faces all around the dining room. One elderly lady was almost grinning she winked at him and nodded.

The waitress appeared and opened the folder seeing the two twenties, she smiled also.

"Hope you had a great time, please come again."

They stepped outside the restaurant and he helped her slip her sweater on. The temperature had dropped, and a light breeze was blowing. His Dad drove his car up in front of them.

Newton theatre was the main one in their part of the metropolex. People, and on Friday, a lot of teenagers came from all the small towns around Tulsa to this complex. It had twenty screens so there were a lot of choices. Few people even worried about what they were going to see until they arrived. That meant lots of lines not moving as people examine the marquee to see what was showing.

It hit Carl at that moment; they had never discussed the movies they liked. He did not think she would like the action type that he did. He reached over and grasped her hand where it rested on his arm.

"Well Laura, what are we going to see?"

"That is going to be a hard choice they are showing four older movies, plus eight new ones. I didn't get to see that 'Easy A' when it first came out. Nor the 'Let Me In!'"

"Well the 'Easy A' is humorous but 'Let Me In' is a vampire movie, and not one of the romantic ones."

"Ehg, no not that then, well we could see one of the new ones."

Carl started to smile. "Did you see the 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' when it came out?"

"No I didn't."

"So then let see it. Then later, we can rent the DVD of the 'Easy A' and sometime see it at my house." Carl said.

"Okay let do that."

Carl led her to the empty space in front of the ticket window. He was putting a twenty in the slot as he said "Two for Diary of a Wimpy Kid." At that moment, he got shoved completely into Laura and almost knocked her down.

Helping her to stand upright, he turned and spotted the three football players smirking at him. He stepped in front of Laura. Leaning toward the box office slot he said.

"Get the manager and call the police; I'm charging these three with assault and attempting to rob me. Your cameras should show it all."

"What!" The one in front screamed. "You attacked us."

"Oh, I just stepped up here, ordered two tickets, handed my money to the person behind the window, and then assaulted you by falling on my girl friend here. Yeah. That's very believable. They'll want to run drug tests on you three. It's obvious that you're doped out of your minds."

The door behind the booth open and a man wearing a suit stepped in. He looked at Carl and the girl gripping his arm. Then he looked at the three hulks glaring at him. Nobody outside the booth could hear what he and the clerk was saying. Then he turned and exited the booth; then he came out the theater door.

He did not even look at Carl, but stepped right up to the three football players.

"The whole business of attacking this customer from his rear is recorded. The police are on the way. When you did that he had his wallet in his hand and had just placed money in the slot. Let me tell you what it looked like on the play back; it looked like you were attacking him to rob him. Now, if you look behind you, that's Sgt. Wilson; he is our night security, he is also an off duty police officer, so I would not make anymore moves if I were you."

"You three! Hands on your head then slowly kneel. You will maintain that position until those police cars you hear in the distance get here."