Chapter 6: April Showers

I pulled open the door of the machine shed and stepped back from the bright sunlight and climbed into the Beast. It was time for an unofficial test drive.

No one would mistake the car for a Roadrunner any longer. Instead of the muscular angles of the original body, it now had sleek curves over the wheels with a reversed teardrop body. The car hood tapered inward and had a slight reverse chamfer with a chromed grill radiator. I had kept it a two door with a pretty roomy back seat.

All of the motor and steering controls were in place. I had a seat in place and was ready to take it around the yard at least. I had done multiple static tests of the drive-by-wire system and the drive train. It did not have any window glass in place yet. The headlights and taillights were not attached yet, and the doors weren’t on, but I felt it was ready for the test.

I climbed into the temporary bucket seat I had installed and fastened the five-point harness I had decided to use until I had doors and proper seats installed. I adjusted the seat some and then hit the ignition button to start the engine.

A small set of LEDs came to life showing some critical parameters such as engine rpm, power generation, oil pressure, and fuel level. I had decided to keep all of the controls and meters digital to allow me to have a set of displays in the dash that could be changed with a push of a button. The multi-function display for a car had not been patented yet.

I thumbed a button on the steering wheel and saw the power draw on all four wheels. After taking a deep breath, I slowly depressed the gas pedal and was rewarded with a surge of power to all the wheels as I moved out of the shed.

I kept my speed down and tested the steering, circling the shed to the left first and then reversing and circling to the right. It felt like a normal car. I then added a little more power and repeated my simple steering tests.

Next, after coming to a stop, I flipped a switch on the dash and spun the wheel to the right. All four wheels turned on their gimbals and the car spun like a top. I stopped and reversed the rotation. I laughed out loud. I had a car that could really turn on a dime.

I flipped the switch again to return control to normal steering and looked at the road. I needed a long straightaway, just like the half mile down to the corner. I checked my readings and eased the car out to the road. I stopped and looked down the blacktop toward the corner. With one foot on the brake, I twisted the throttle on the engine up until I was at eighty-five percent of the generator capacity. My foot came off the brake and I stepped down on the accelerator.

All four motors instantly applied torque to their tires and propelled me down the road with surprising power. The motor’s sound did not change, but I continued to accelerate. I was at thirty miles per hour in a couple of seconds. I eased off at fifty and then began applying my brakes. Deceleration was just a smooth as I expected. I came to a stop right at the corner. A flip of the switch, a spin of the wheel, and I was pointed back toward home.

I flipped the switch again and stepped down on the accelerator. The stock Roadrunner was supposed to do zero to sixty in five seconds. My digital timer said I made it in four point eight. I pressed a button on the steering wheel and lifted my foot from the accelerator. My speed held steady, but I saw the engine RPM’s drop to lower the power generation. The computer controlled cruise control worked just fine for its first test.

I tapped the brake and slowed in time to pull back into my drive. I pulled around the machine shed and then carefully backed into my workspace. I sat with the engine idling as I checked all the readings and carefully wrote them in my log book. Everything looked good when I finally shut the car off and got out.

I had a car.

“Paul! Telephone,” my Mom called.

I hurried from my room expecting to hear Jeryl’s voice. We had gotten in the habit of chatting on the phone a couple times a week since we mostly saw each other on Fridays or Saturdays.

“Hello?”

“Is this Paul Taylor?” I was surprised to hear a man’s voice.

“Yes, it is. May I help you?”

The man chuckled. “Maybe, but I’d like to think that I can help you. My name is Steve Abraham, from the law firm of Powell, Anderson, and Schmidt. I’d like to arrange a time to meet you and discuss your patent application titled ‘Methods for electro-hydraulic control of a vehicle via embedded microprocessors’. You are the author of that patent, correct?”

“Yes sir, I am.” I was surprised a lawyer had already found me. He must have someone in the patent office since I had only gotten a form letter back that my application had been received and a patent number assigned so that I could legally claim “patent pending” status on my invention.

“I’m sorry for calling so late in the day, but I could not reach you earlier. My firm would like to discuss purchase terms with you in regards to your patent application. How soon could we arrange a meeting with you or your attorney?”

“Um, how about I get your contact information and have my attorney call you back?”

“That would be excellent.” He gave me his phone number and mailing address and asked that any correspondence be marked for his attention. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Taylor,” he finished. “I look forward to meeting you.”

I hung up the phone and started laughing softly.

“Mom?” I called. I had no idea how she would react to this. “I need to find a lawyer.”

“Call me Jim, please.” Jim Daniels said as he held open his office door for my mother and me. Jim struck me as a southern gentleman even though he had no drawl in his voice. With his suit jacket, tie and full head of silver hair, he just seemed to embody ‘genteel’. He smiled at us both as we stepped into his office and took seats at a medium conference table near the windows.

“Can I offer you anything to drink?” he asked. “Coffee, tea, water?”

“Tea would be nice,” my mother said.

“Just water, please.”

He stuck his head out the door and said, “Kelly, can you bring in some tea and water, please.” He closed the door and then joined us at the table.

“So, you need an attorney because of some patents you’ve filed?”

“Just one so far, but I’ve actually submitted seven patent applications.”

His eyes got wider and he looked at my mother. “And you’re how old?”

“I’ll be sixteen next month.”

“He’s always been a very bright boy,” my mother added. “I thought this was some sort of wild dream of his, but when that other lawyer called and said they wanted to buy his application, I realized we needed an expert to make sure he was protected.”

Jim nodded and sat back. “Well, you’ve come to the right place. I’ve been an attorney for twenty years and have handled patent and copyright cases almost every year.”

I knew he was qualified and considered one of the best attorneys in the area. His practice appeared humble and small, but Mom had done some research. He was on retainer with State Farm Insurance and Caterpillar, two of the largest companies in down state Illinois, for patent and copyright cases.

“So, who contacted you?”

I gave him the Mr. Abraham’s information. He wrote it down carefully on a yellow legal pad and then tapped his pen against his lips. “Powell, Anderson, and Schmidt are a firm in Detroit. They handle quite a bit of business for General Motors. They don’t look at small patents. What exactly did you file?”

I pulled out a copy of the application as well as the registration letter and receipt from the U.S. Patent Office and handed them to him. He separated them into three stacks in front of him and glanced at each before turning his attention to the patent application. It was almost two inches thick with all of its drawings folded behind it.

“‘Methods for electro-hydraulic control of a vehicle via embedded microprocessors’, what does that mean in lawyer terms?” He asked.

“It means you can have very fine control of the steering mechanism for a vehicle to improve safety and performance by having small computers assist in translating your driving commands to the wheels. Think of it as power steering, powered up.”

“And how did you come up with this idea?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I’ve always liked cars and tinkering. When I read about the new microprocessors being made by Intel and Motorola, I wondered what they could do. I started playing with ideas like this one and using them to monitor and improve fuel efficiency and braking. There are a ton of applications for cars and trucks. The military has talked about “fly-by-wire” in jets for a couple of years. This is similar to that, but applied to cars and trucks.”

He started to ask another question when the door opened and his receptionist, Kelly brought in a tray with three cups on it. She set it on the table and passed the tea to my Mom, handed me a large glass of ice water, and gave Jim a large, chipped, cup of coffee.

“Thank you, Kelly.”

“Yes, thank you, ma’am.” Mom smiled as Kelly did a double take and shot me a look. Jim gave a large belly laugh at her expression. I felt my cheeks flush. I had not meant to embarrass her.

“Paul, this is my daughter, Kelly. She has probably never been called ma’am by a client before. She works here after school and in the summer. She wants to follow in her old man’s footsteps. Kelly, say hi to Paul Taylor. You’ll probably see a bit of him over the next few months.”

Kelly blushed herself and then gave me a tight smile and brief head-nod. She had long blonde hair, pulled back into a ponytail, blue eyes and a nice figure hidden behind pants and a blazer that were just a little too old for her. She was probably twenty something and I bet she was popular with her male classmates. I could easily imagine her turning a law professors’ head with a batting of her lashes.

“Kelly, I imagine Paul is going to be a very interesting client. Why don’t you join us so you can listen and learn a bit?” Kelly blushed again and then sat down at the end of the table where she could easily watch all of us. She pulled out a small bound notebook and fished a pen from behind her ear. She had an air of disinterest; maybe a little stuck up.

“So, you’ll take me on as a client?” I asked after taking a sip of my water.

Jim glanced at the patent application again. “Paul, if you did all this work in the past year and have six more of similar breadth and capability, I would be happy to take you and your mother on as clients.”

“Me? Why me?” Mom asked.

“Paul is still a minor. He can’t legally enter into a binding contract. You can as his parent. One of the first things we’ll do is create a corporate identity to protect you and him and all of his hard work. That will also help with taxes.”

Mom shook her head. “That sounds like a lot of work to make one sale.”

Jim’s laugh filled the room again. “Mrs. Taylor, even if it were only selling this one idea, based on who is interested it is at least a million-dollar deal. Once I have a chance to fully read this and think about it, you could be looking at a lot more than that.”

It was Mom’s turn to sit dumbstruck.

“In fact, I would recommend against selling outright. We’ll need to look at what terms we would license this for. You would make less up-front, but if the idea catches on and is cost effective, you could easily get five to fifty dollars for every car they put this into.”

Kelly took a sharp breath and looked at me with renewed interest.

I smiled.

“So, it is very important that we do everything just right.” Jim Picked up his pen and began writing as he spoke. “I would recommend a corporation rather than a trust, that way you can more easily draw on funds for expenses. We’ll need to do a thorough review of prior art on this patent and review all your other work as well. Only then will we contact Mr. Abraham.”

He looked up. “Kelly, it’s going to be a long couple of weeks, and you are going to learn a lot. I’ll want you to draft the articles of incorporation today so we can file them Monday. Paul, you can’t be president, but you can be the chairman of the board of directors. You’ll obviously contribute your patent applications to the corporation in exchange for shares in the company. Mrs. Taylor, you can be president since you can execute contracts legally. We’ll need to find at least one more board member to act as secretary.”

“Can’t you do that?” My mother asked.

“No, but I’ll be listed as general counsel.”

“What about Kelly? Is she over twenty-one?” I asked.

Kelly blushed again. It was a cute blush.

“She is and she can, if you want her to.”

I nodded.

“How do we pay you for all this?”

Jim’s laugh was growing on me. He had a joy for life. “Stock for my retainer and once we have cash-flow, you’ll pay me. Let’s say we form the company with one thousand shares. You take them for your contribution and give your mother and I and Kelly as much as you see fit, but always keep at least five hundred and one in your name. You have voting control that way.”

I nodded, understanding. “Let’s write it up giving you and Kelly fifty each and my Mom one hundred.”

I saw Kelly scowl. Her dad noticed it as well.

“That sounds about right. If we value this first patent at one million and you are starting with a thousand shares, each share is worth a thousand dollars. That makes my retainer worth fifty thousand dollars. Not bad for a day’s work,” he said with a sharp look at his daughter.

Kelly’s eyes got wide and she at least had the grace to blush.

“We’ll see you then, Jim,” Mom said into the phone as I came back into the house from doing my chores.

“What’s up?” I asked as I noted the smile on her face.

“Jim and Kelly are coming up to discuss business on Saturday. He wants to see your car as well. Something about having a working implementation of your patents.”

I nodded. “Well, I better finish getting the doors on tonight then.” It was Thursday. I had a date on Friday with Jeryl after a track meet for school. I had been spending longer evenings in the machine shed working on the beast. It was getting closer to being street legal with lights working. I had even painted it a glossy metallic black. Rigging a painting booth in the shed had been a challenge, but the results were worth it. The sleek black curves made me think of a modern bat-mobile. Glass was in the windows now and I had charcoal gray leather seats installed. The back bench could hold three easily and the driver and passenger seats were comfortable buckets.

I grabbed a sandwich and a jug of water and headed back out to the machine shed as twilight crept across the yard. Putting the doors on was simple in theory, but some of my changes made it a little more challenging.

I had decided to put airbags in the doors and dash. I didn’t really have a good way to test them, of course, so I was a little nervous about installing them and wiring them up. I had also made structural changes to the door frames that should improve protection for passengers from side impacts. Naturally, I had draft patents on both innovations. Jim would probably want to see those as well.

I flipped on the radio and got to work.

“You really did all this in the past year?” Kelly asked as she sat in the passenger seat next to me. I had just taken Jim and Mom for a test ride. Kelly was in a skirt and had demurred from climbing into the back seat. I had promised to give her a ride after showing off to Mom and Jim.

Jim had been a little amazed as well. The spinning on a dime maneuver had elicited a shriek of surprise from my mother in the back seat and a belly laugh from Jim.

“I did. I take it you like it, despite the short-comings,” I said as I waved at the holes in the dash that I had not finished with yet.

Kelly nodded. “I do. I’m surprised how quiet it is.”

“No reason to make it noisy in here. With the engine not being mechanically coupled to the wheels, it can be mounted better to reduce vibration and noise. I spent quite a bit of effort making sure it ran quietly.” I tapped on the accelerator and slowly pulled out of the driveway and began heading down the road.

“It’s a smooth ride,” she said.

“But pretty powerful, too.” I said as I stepped down hard enough to make us surge forward. We were above sixty in a couple of seconds.

“Once I have some working capital, I can see if I can make some better batteries and I can probably improve the fuel range and other performance characteristics even more.”

“What kind of range would you get now?”

“My calculations say about forty-five miles to the gallon, but I haven’t done a full road test yet. I need to get it street legal, first.”

I slowed at the corner and quickly spun the car around.

Kelly laughed. It was the first time I had heard that sound from her. “That is cool, but is it really practical?”

“Definitely. Think how easy parallel parking will be if you can steer all four wheels independently. I’ll be working on that programming once I’ve got the car finished up. Once I can get it on a test track, I’ll start looking at high-speed cornering. I’d love to outfit a road racer with this steering system to really shake it out. For large trucks or tractors, this system should dramatically reduce driver stress and improve the handling of machinery, which will make the roads safer.”

“Wow, you really have thought a lot about this.”

I laughed. “I used to plan and think about the concepts while running all last summer to get ready for football. I figure I’ve put in a couple of hundred miles of thinking.”

“Boy genius and football star. You must be popular with the girls.”

I could not tell if she was teasing, jealous, or mad.

“I don’t know about that. My girlfriend likes me well enough so I don’t pay much attention to the other high-school drama.”

“You seem much more mature for your age than a freshman. Why is that?”

“Hard work and clean living,” I joked.

We pulled back into the yard and I carefully logged my stats before shutting the car off. I quickly exited and rounded the car to open the door for Kelly. It was the way Mom had raised me.

Kelly stepped out and smoothed her skirt down her shapely legs. She was very cute even though she was obviously trying to dress professionally today. She paused and looked me in the eye. “Paul, I wanted a separate ride so I could apologize for my attitude the day you first came into the office. I’m sorry if I treated you poorly. I guess I still have some maturing to do for my age.”

I smiled. Who would want a pretty girl mad at them? “Apology accepted. I understand.”

I closed the car door and we headed inside and out of the chill spring air. Jim and Mom were sitting at the kitchen table. Jim had a box of my files on the floor beside him.

“Okay, now that the board is all here, we can commence with our first board meeting,” he said. Kelly and I grabbed seats and Kelly pulled out her notebook to keep the minutes. “Paul, if you would like to call the board of PT Innovations to order...”

I did. In my best tone, I asked the secretary to review any old business.

“We are officially registered as a limited partnership with the state of Illinois, effective April 14th, 1980. We have also completed an initial review of the initial seven patent applications filed by Chairman Taylor and transferred to the company. Our general counsel’s initial report indicates that all of the applications are in good standing and have a high probability of being granted given the state of recognized prior art, or lack thereof.”

I smiled. I had chosen my concepts carefully. Most of them would advance the auto industry by twenty years or so if they were adopted quickly.

“Finally, we have provided notice to the firm of Powell, Anderson, and Schmidt that we were willing to meet to discuss terms for the license or sale of our applications.”

“Any new business to discuss?” I asked.

“Powell, Anderson, and Schmidt has proposed meeting in Detroit on April 30th to begin discussions. They are willing to cover travel costs for our principals to attend in person. They have provided an initial term sheet for purchase of the application in its entirety for $750,000. It is general counsel’s recommendation that we reject this initial offer.”

“All those in favor of rejecting the offer?” I asked. We all raised our hand. “Please note the board has rejected the offer unanimously.”

Kelly made a note and Jim jumped into the conversation.

“I think we should reply with a significant counter proposal for them to review before we meet with them.”

“What sort of counter?”

“Five million up-front for usage rights and a five dollar per vehicle licensing fee.”

Mother gasped. I was a little stunned as well.

“Can we get that?”

Jim chuckled. “Probably not, but I can at least back up that valuation if the patent is granted. They would spend twice that up-front on R&D to devise an alternative that did not infringe on your work.”

I sat back and thought for a few minutes. Finally, “I propose to the board that we authorize our General Counsel to open negotiations with Powell, Anderson and Schmidt for the licensing of the patent application they are interested in. Any agreement is contingent on approval by this board. All in favor?”

We all raised our hands.

“Madame Secretary, please record another unanimous vote on the resolution.” Kelly made another note.

“Any other new business for the board?” I waited a moment. “Then we are adjourned.” I rapped my knuckles on the table like a gavel and everyone chuckled.

“Okay,” Jim said. “That was the formal business. Now let’s talk informal business. Paul, your patents are very broad. I want you to start breaking them into smaller ideas instead of these systems that work together.”

“Why?” I thought I knew, but wanted confirmation.

“Narrower patents are easier to defend and license. This first one is very broad. If it is granted, and I believe it will be, it covers the gamut from super-power steering to improved cruise control and gas mileage. Broad patents like this leave them open to people taking your idea and applying a part of it in a slightly different fashion and thus undermining the defensibility of your licensing it.”

I nodded. “Okay. I can do that. I’ve got two more in draft stages that you might want to take and see if I’ve made the same mistake with them.”

“Applications, or working designs?”

“Both. I’ll get them for you before you go.”

Jim looked at me, shook his head, and then laughed. “Paul, I’m sorry but I’ve underestimated you again. If you’ve drafted two more patents since we met, we need to get you more help. I think Kelly should meet with you at least once a week. She and I can handle the patent drafting for you and get more submitted faster while you keep coming up with new ideas and building them.”

“I won’t have much time during the week to meet with her until school is over.”

“She could drive up on Saturday or Sunday. She has classes and homework during the week as well. If she gets too busy, I can drive up.”

I caught Mom’s smile out of the corner of my eye. “Or Mom could drive me down.” I was pretty sure Mom had taken a fancy in Jim Daniels.

“Okay, we’ll work out the details this week and give you a call. Next, we need someplace to showcase or publish your work to get it out in the public. That will give us more leverage in negotiations and also help protect your applications.”

“What do you suggest?” I had trouble believing we could generate much press by ourselves.

“Well, you know I’m on retainer for State Farm, right?” I nodded. “What if I worked some contacts to see if they would be willing to endorse some of your safety features and innovations? There are some friendly reporters in Bloomington and Chicago and Peoria that I know as well.”

“Okay. Speaking of your connections, would Caterpillar be interested in any of my work?”

For the first time since meeting him, Jim looked uncomfortable. “I think they would, but I can’t approach them. Since I am on retainer for them, it would be a conflict of interest for me to be involved in any negotiations. If they made an offer to the company, I’d be obligated to abstain from voting or commenting.”

“Okay. I’m glad to see you’re an honest lawyer. If they approach us, we’ll have to get outside counsel to handle the matter. Let’s deal with GM first and then worry about it.”

“Okay, last but not least, we need you to get your car finished and licensed for driving on the road. It is a great showcase for your inventions and it will be a great test bed for you going forward, but it has to be legal to drive on the road if we are going to show it off to get some press. What’s it going to take you to finish it up?”

I thought for a few minutes. “I’ll need three weeks and about another thousand dollars in parts to get it ready for an inspection. Two would make it worthy of a car show.”

“A thousand dollars?” Mom asked.

I nodded. “Time or money. I can buy parts I had planned on making from salvage. Most of the remaining work is in the interior and some finishing work. With an extra thousand, I can outfit it with a few additional features and some extra polish to make it really stand out.”

Jim nodded. “Okay, I’ll make the company a loan of two grand for repayment on winning a licensing deal.” He pulled out a checkbook and began writing a check. “You use this for what you need and keep receipts for taxes. We want to have a finished car before Memorial Day. I don’t want our negotiations going too far past that with GM.”

I took his check and handed it to Mom. She had opened the account in the local bank for the company accounts. She would write checks from that for anything I had to buy. I was already making a list in my head.

“Paul!” I turned at a woman’s voice as Jeryl and I walked through the mall the next Saturday. It seemed to be a little unusual that we were totally alone and I had been enjoying just walking, holding her hand, and window shopping.

As we stopped and looked around I spotted Kelly with three other college-aged women coming out of a women’s apparel store. Kelly came up with a smile and I felt Jeryl stiffen.

“What brings you down here?” she asked before I could introduce her. “Visiting my father?”

“No, just on a date. Jeryl, this is Kelly. Kelly, my girlfriend Jeryl.” Kelly smiled and extended her hand. Jeryl shook it after a moment.

“Nice to meet you.” I could hear the cold firmness in Jeryl’s voice. Kelly seemed oblivious to it.

“I thought you were meeting with dad today. I saw Taylor on his appointment book this afternoon.”

“Really? I did not make any plans. My Mom dropped us off here a little bit ago and said she had some errands to run around town and that she’d pick us up after we had time for dinner and a movie.”

“That is interesting,” Kelly said with a giggle. “Dad said he had an early dinner with a client and gave me the afternoon off. I think those two are hiding something from us. I’ll have to see what your mother’s intentions are toward my father,” she said with a grin.

I laughed and thought back to all the little smiles I had seen my Mom make when she was around Jim over the past few weeks. “Maybe I should report your father to the bar association. There has to be some ethical thing about dating a client.” I was actually glad she was going out.

Kelly laughed and gave me a quick hug. Jeryl stiffened again. “Well, it was nice running into you and nice to meet you Jeryl. I hope you guys have fun.”

She walked back to her friends and immediately whispered with them while giving us a parting smile.

“Who is Kelly?” Jeryl asked as we turned away and continued toward the food court of the mall.

“She’s the daughter of Mom’s lawyer.” For some reason I did not want to call Jim my lawyer. I had not told anyone about PT Innovations, and I didn’t want to get into it on a date. “Kelly works in his office. I met her there. She’s wants to be a lawyer, too.”

“So you even have cute college girls hitting on you in lawyer’s offices?”

All my women warning bells went off at her tone. I stopped and turned to face her. “What do you mean? She was just being friendly. She wasn’t hitting on me.”

Jeryl looked at me seriously for a minute. Finally, she started laughing. “I’m sorry, that was just too good an opportunity to pass up.” She stepped closer and gave me a quick kiss. “I will admit that I was a little jealous when I first saw her, but then I remembered that you were here with me, not her.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and gave her a hug. She had scared me for a minute. “Well, why would I want to chase her when I’ve got you?” I asked sweetly.

“It’s not so much you chasing as her tripping you up and landing beneath you, you big goof. You seem to be able to charm women without even trying with your sexy green eyes.”

“Luckily, I only have eyes for you, kitten.” I kissed her again and then we continued our stroll, with her hugging my waist and my arm across her shoulders.

To read this story you need a Registration + Premier Membership
If you have an account, then please Log In or Register (Why register?)

Support the author's future writing by purchasing this book from Bookapy

A New Past (The Complete Trilogy)

Charlie Foxtrot

$26.99