The last day of school was a Friday, and school was released at noon. We could have waited until Saturday morning, but we had everything ready and we left Friday afternoon in a caravan of two cars … mom in one, and Aunt Katy, Lisa and me in the other. Lisa and I just had to ride together, and my mom said she couldn’t listen to us for two-hundred miles. The three of us chatted as the miles zoomed by, and we arrived in Houston in time for the evening traffic.

Luckily, we were going into town when the traffic was coming out. We were amazed at the uninterrupted miles of cars creeping along on the other side of the freeway. Now that we were in town, Aunt Katy followed my mom more closely through the exits, turns, and stop lights. (Running a red light or two). We came into a neighborhood with some of the biggest houses I had ever seen, and my mom turned into the driveway of one of the bigger homes. The house sat a long way off the road. It was a huge, 3 story place with another house even farther back.
“This can’t be it!” Aunt Katy followed my mom up the driveway until we got next to the house.

My mom got out of her car and waved for us to come. We got out of the car too, stunned by the size of the house and the property. “James got this on a lease with an option to purchase. He said it was big, but I never imagined this. The house in back was once the servants’ quarters. It’s bigger than what most people live in.” The yard was shaded by three oak trees, each with about a fifty foot circumference, and lower limbs stretching out several feet and seemingly struggling to hold themselves off the ground. Mom unlocked the huge door and it swung effortlessly and silently to reveal a room that could serve as a small gymnasium. The ceilings must have been 30 ft. high. Every step we took echoed back. “I wouldn’t cover these wood floors with carpet, but I think some area rugs would help mute the echoes.” My mom was already redecorating.

“Was it furnished, Mom”?

“It was partially furnished, but your dad bought some more furniture we needed. There are two bedrooms on the second floor for y’all. They have a big closet between them.”

We ran up the twelve foot wide stairs and found our rooms. They were ridiculously spacious and both had windows overlooking a large pool.

Needless to say, we were overwhelmed. In the closet were all the clothes that had been sent ahead via the movers. My clothes and Lisa’s were mixed and left for us to sort out when we decided who would have each room.

“Girls!” We heard my mom calling. We went back to the top of the stairs. “Put on something really nice. James is taking us to a really ritzy restaurant when he gets home.” Then she added, “dresses!”

I looked through a closet. The term ‘kid in a candy store’ came to mind. “Lisa!” I called to her. “I need help … no, I need you to tell me what to wear.”

Lisa was also awed by the selection. She picked me out a blue, rayon mini-dress. I picked out some tan espadrilles with a 2’ wedge heel. I sat down at the dressing table and Lisa did my hair and makeup. She replaced one pair of my stud earrings with some hoops. She then went to get herself ready. I went down to model for my mom.

“Put on some pantyhose and change shoes. There are some black pumps with a 3” heel. Wear those.”

I did as she said. The 3” heels were not near as hard to handle as some people make them out to be. After I walked in them a couple of minutes, they felt perfectly natural and they effected a perfectly feminine walk. The heels also made my dress look even shorter. I went back to model for my mom again.

“Oh, short!”

“I think she looks great,” Aunt Katy interjected.

“OK. Tracy. As long as you’re comfortable.”

I really wasn’t comfortable, but I liked the dress and didn’t want to change. My time in the spotlight was short-lived. Lisa was coming down the stairs. Her dress was red, and equally short, and her shoes were exactly like mine. Until that point, I didn’t think a girl could be too beautiful.
Aunt Katy found one flaw. “Oh, now that’s short!”

“I think she looks great,” my mom commented with a smile. Aunt Katy had no choice but to either let Lisa wear the dress, or display a tiny bit of hypocrisy.

I had to comment. “She’s just so … awesome! Lisa, you’re stunning!”

“Thanks, sis!”

“Y’all get ready to get a lot of attention tonight!” Attention was the last thing I wanted, but I figured Lisa would easily steal the limelight.

Just then, my dad came in the room. “Let’s go eat!”

“The girls are ready, but we’re not.”

So, my dad got dressed, then waited another 45 minutes for Aunt Katy and my mom. Then we piled into the car and headed out.

We pulled up at the restaurant and a valet took our car. Once inside we were seated immediately. There were a lot of choices on the menu, but one thing was missing. “Dad, there are no prices on the menu.”

My dad smiled. “If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.”

“…and we can?”

“We’re doing OK.” He smiled and winked at my mom. “I think I can manage this without taking out a loan.”

Lisa spoke up. “Wow. Y’all are rich! Can I be rich, Uncle James?”

“Lisa!” Aunt Katy corrected her daughter. Then, she turned to my dad and smiled. “Can we be rich, James?”

He smiled at them. “Lisa, Katy y’all are family. If we’re doing OK…y’all are doing OK.”

That’s my dad! He had always been kind and generous. Apparently, he now had the means to be very generous.

“I’ve said this before,” Aunt Katy added, “but I can’t say it enough. Thank you, James, for everything you’ve done for us. We’d be lost without you.”

“More blessed to give, you know.”

“Daddy, I know you must have gotten a gigantic raise to move us into River Oaks. Can you give me a hint how you pulled it off?”

“Well, it’s something I invented … discovered is a better word.”

“Can you tell us about it?”

“Sure!” He took out a pencil and notepad and drew a circle. “I call it a ‘wheel’. It’s circular in shape…”

“Aw, Daddy … seriously!”

He put away the pencil and pad. “OK, it’s a procedure I came up with that will greatly speed up the process of mapping the human genome.”

Lisa’s eyes widened, “Wow! You’re working with genes?”

I was amazed myself, “So, you patented this…procedure?”

“Yes, well the company patented it in the company’s name.”

“WHAT?” Lisa and I said in unison.

“Oh, yes. It’s a requirement of employment. Things like this stay with the company. You see, I developed it on company time with company equipment. I could hardly do it at home. I don’t have a few necessary tools, you know ,,, an electron microscope…stuff like that.”

“Wow, that’s too bad. You could’ve been a bgzillionaire!” I could almost see dollar signs in Lisa’s eyes.

“No. There’s no way I could have gotten the patent on my own. The company would have sued me, and they would have won. I would be looking for a job and a way to pay a ‘bgzillion’ dollar settlement plus my lawyers’ fees and probably the company’s legal fees. I did sign a contract, after all, and I want my word to be worth something. Let me correct that, I want my word to be worth gold. Let me tell you, though, the company was not shy about financially rewarding me. Hence, the new job at company headquarters, the huge raise, and the resulting move to River Oaks in our beautiful new old house. I’m now working in one of the most advanced, well-equipped labs anywhere in the world. This is actually better than hiring a large team of lawyers to get my own patent, hiring someone to market the procedure, hiring more lawyers to sue when someone ignores the patent. All these headaches belong to the company. You might say I belong to the company, but I didn’t come cheap.”

Words could not express how proud I was of my dad! I felt a lump in my throat. My dad noticed. “Tracy, what’s the matter?
”
“I just ….” My voice broke.

“Tell me later, when you’ve recovered.”

I made a motion with my hands like I was writing on a notepad. My dad handed me his pen and pad. In the circle he had made previously, I wrote, “Dad, I’m so proud of you. I love you. Sarah Rochelle Brooks.” I handed the note to him.

He read at the note and smiled. Then, he turned to me and said, “I love you, too. You’re the best daughter a dad ever raised as a son. I’ll bet I’m just about the only dad in the world who can say that!” Then held the note up for the family to see. “She has a new name. Her name is now ‘Sarah Rochelle Brooks’”.

Lisa, of course, was the first to give her opinion. “I love it!”

I had regained my composure, so I explained, “It rolls off the tongue easily. I considered ‘Sarah Michelle’, but the name ‘Michelle’ belongs to Lisa, so I took ‘Rochelle’ from mom’s mom. I didn’t want a boys’ name that had been ‘feminized’ by adding an ‘a’ at the end like ’Erica’. Also, in the unlikely circumstance that I get married, I’m keeping my last name to honor my father.”

My dad smiled. “Sarah, you know that’s not necessary, but I won’t tell you what to do. I’m saying this partly because I wanted to be the first to call you by your new name. I’m gonna keep this note forever. Bury me with it, and if archaeologists ever dig me up, they’ll say, ‘this is the guy who invented the wheel’! If everything goes ok, we’ll be able to live well and leave something to our daughters.” Lisa was smiling when he said ‘daughters’, Dad continued, “BUT, I’m not going to leave anything to two spoiled little princesses. You both are going to be well educated and you will learn to work.

“There’s a saying in the business world, ‘Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations’. It’s referring to a similar situation. A person starts off with nothing, builds a business and does well. His children grow up and run the company, but, by the time his grandchildren are old enough to run things, they haven’t had to work for anything. They see hard work as something beneath them and the company their grandfather built either goes out of business or gets bought out. So, I figure, if I spoil my daughters, they will think that spoiling your children is the way to be a parent, and the grandchildren will be spoiled by very good ‘spoilers’.”

Our food arrived just in time to end this uncomfortable conversation, and we turned our attention to the purpose for which we came. I stuffed myself on a small portion of my steak. “Daddy, can we ask for a doggy bag at this fancy place?”

“Don’t have to. It will be in the car before us.”

When dad received the check, he signed it and gave it back to the waiter. He tore off a perforated part of our parking tag, which he also gave to the waiter. “They will box it up and put it in the car before they bring the car around to the front. We will have our leftovers without having to carry them out.”

“They think of everything.”

Dad smiled. “They should for the price … whatever it is. To change the subject, I can sense the envy of that every man in this restaurant feels for me. They probably can’t believe how beautiful the women are that dined with me.”

Lisa took a quick look around the restaurant. “You’re right! We are the most beautiful women here … the youngest, too.”

“Not a lot of younger people make enough money to come to a place like this. Y’all ready to go back to ‘Brooks Mansion’”?

Everyone thanked Dad for the wonderful dinner, and we headed to our new, huge home. It had been a long day.

Before heading to bed, I told my dad, “Thank you for the wonderful dinner. I hope I never get too spoiled to eat at Floyd’s.”

He hugged me and said, “I’ll try to make sure you don’t.”

Lisa and I headed for bed too tired to chat … unusual for us.

Next: Daddy is Famous