“We have a ghost.”

Everyone looked up from their breakfast plates. The clinking of utensils on plates ceased. Lisa, of course, was first to comment. “Cool!” I knew she would like it.

“Can’t be. The leasing agent would have said something!”

“Really, Daddy, about a ghost? I don’t think so.”

“There are a lot of disclosures required in a lease, especially a lease with an option to buy. For example, you have to disclose whether anyone died in the house from ‘other than natural causes’.”

“What does that mean?” Lisa asked.

“They’re asking if someone was murdered in the house.”

“That’s gotta be it! Someone was murdered in this house!”

“Well, the owners said ‘no’ to the question.”

“Well, we didn’t bring a ghost with us … I don’t think ….” Lisa’s voice trailed off.

Aunt Katy was also interested. “Tell us more. Is this ghost male or female … big or small?”

“I couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but it was about my size. It appeared near the foot of my bed, then moved across the room to where it was really dark. Then it disappeared.”

“Why didn’t you wake me up!?” Lisa was obviously disappointed.

“I tried. You were very sound asleep.”

Lisa’s mom spoke up. “You slept in her room?”

“Yes. That’s allowed, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but I feel like that’s going to be the norm, and we should make some changes. We should put all y’all’s stuff in one room.”

I liked the idea. “I’m for it!”

My mom was also for the idea. “That will help with crowding. We’re so limited on space.”

Lisa had to comment. “Yes … limited. This house is so tiny it’s all in one time zone!”

“Yes, you’re right. It’s so small that I think Sarah can find the kitchen. Sarah, you’re elected for dishwashing duty.”

“Y’all like to do things together so much, you get to help her, Lisa,” Aunt Katy added.

“Can’t we afford a maid?”

“Katy and I talked about this, and we decided that y’all needed to have at least some chores. We don’t want y’all to be brought up as spoiled brats who’ve had everything handed to them.”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, it’s for your own good. It won’t hurt to put your hand in hot, nasty, just plain gross dishwater. Kim and I did. Oh, wait, you’ll just be putting the dishes into the dishwasher. We’ll come up with some more chores for y’all. Seems like I remember a boy named ‘Tracy’ who was assigned lawn duty. Maybe ….”

“Mom, I apologize for interrupting, but Dad gave Tracy an exemption from lawn duty, and why would you make me do his work?”

“I’m kidding, of course, your dad hired some people for the yard work. He doesn’t have time to take care of this massive yard but y’all do need chores. I’m sure there are plenty of things y’all can do. Seriously, we’re doing this out of love. We’ve seen some kids grow up spoiled, and they have all kinds of problems as adults. We don’t want y’all to go through that kind of thing.”

There was no use arguing so we started bringing our dishes to the kitchen. It took us only about 5 minutes to clear the table and put the dishes into the dishwasher, and Mom was right about chores. We had it good, and we should have been ashamed to complain at all. After that, I asked my mom, “The dishes are washing, what’s next?”

“Well, I have something that Kate and I are going to have to finish, but you and Lisa could do some preliminary work. I’m not going to say what it is, but I want one of you or both tell me ‘blindly’ if you will do it.”

“I’ll do it!” Lisa was so impetuous.

“Ok, me too. Not a lot to do, otherwise.”

“OK, girls, start researching private schools in the area. Later, we’ll look at schools out of the area if y’all want to be ‘sent away’.”

“Cool!” Lisa was already headed upstairs to her computer.

“Thanks, mom.” I followed Lisa.

When we got upstairs, Lisa took control. “Now, Sarah, it’s likely that we won’t have any problem finding schools here in River Oaks, since it’s such a wealthy area. Do we want boys at our school?”

“No!” I was very certain of that decision.

Lisa typed into the search bar ‘girls’ private schools River Oaks’, and pressed ‘enter’. Google gave us over ten million results (0.76 seconds). A map also with about a dozen places marked that were in or near the River Oaks area. Lisa looked at me. “Think we’ll find a school?”

“Probably, but pretty quickly you’ll find we don’t have ten million choices.”

“Right, this is where the work begins. I wonder if anyone ranks these schools as far as educational quality. Public schools are ranked, but the rankings don’t mean much. They don’t say things like ‘excellent learning environment’ or “this school sucks’. If they did, the latter would apply to almost all public schools. They have rankings like, ‘recognized’ and ‘acceptable’. What the hell does ‘recognized’ mean? Does it mean people look at the school and say, ‘Oh, I know that school, it’s’ whatever?”

“I doubt the rankings mean anything when it comes to public schools. A poor rating would make parents mad. Of course, parents wouldn’t be able to do much except get mad. The parents don’t have a say, the ‘experts’ are in charge. Still, I’ll bet the public schools in River Oaks are some of the best schools in the country. If they were lousy, most of the residents of the area would quickly move their kid to private schools.”

I got on my computer and we used it to make lists of schools on Excel. We ranked schools by distance from home and other criteria. We were going to consider cost, but I told Lisa that my dad might be insulted because it would imply that he couldn’t afford some of the schools. I figured if we ate at a restaurant where price was not even on the menu, he certainly wouldn’t want to skimp when it came to educating his little girls. Lisa had to agree.

We worked until midday and broke for lunch. During lunch, my mom asked how it was going. “I hope y’all are working on the project I gave you and not talking to boys or shopping.”

“Mom! Boys? No way! Shopping? Well…. Seriously, Mom, we’re looking at schools only. We’ll give you a printout when we’re finished.”

“Wonderful! Sorry I doubted you!”

After lunch, we went back to work with renewed energy. We got our spreadsheet perfect then printed it out. We brought the nine pages to my mom. She was surprised to say the least.

“Oh my goodness! Now, I really must apologize for doubting y’all!” She thumbed through the pages. “This is wonderful!”

“I like working on the computer,” Lisa said.

“I like making spreadsheets,” I added.

“Well, y’all make a great team!”

“Thanks mom, can we go out and play now?” I let my lower lip protrude slightly.

“OK, but watch out for cars, and if any boys ask you to stand on your heads, don’t do it!”

“What? Why would boys ….”

“Never mind, it’s an old joke. You know … a girl in a skirt stands on her head and the boys see her panties?”

“Oh, Mom! That’s gotta be a really old joke! Besides, we’ll be wearing shorts!”

“I know … I know. Like I said, it’s a joke. I’m sorry I brought it up!”

“Let’s go for a walk around the neighborhood,” said Lisa. “We’ll see if any boys want us to ….”

“Lisa! Please! I said I’m sorry!”

“OK, Aunt Kim. We’re not likely to see boys, anyway. Probably just old people.”

“Old people? Oh, you mean senior citizens?”

“Yes, ma’am … them too.”

“Right! Don’t get in the car with a stranger!”

“Since we just moved here, everyone we see is going to be a stranger, so which car do we not get in? Oh … I see … none of them. Duh! We’ll be careful,” I added.

Lisa turned to me. “Let’s go upstairs first. We’re gonna change clothes.” She turned to my mom. “No, Aunt Kim, we’re not gonna put on skirts … I’m not, anyway.”

I was puzzled. “And I am?”

“Yes! It’s part of my rules for transition. You wear skirts and dresses until you’re completely comfortable wearing them. Ok, I’ll wear a skirt, too. It’s only fair.”

Actually, I didn’t want to be comfortable in skirts or dresses. It felt special to wear them, and I felt like “being comfortable” meant that special feeling would be gone. I didn’t want that. We went upstairs to pick out what to wear. I found a blue, sleeveless top and a white, pleated skirt that was really short. I put some white short-shorts under it ‘just in case’. (In case the wind was blowing, I had no plans to stand on my head!) Lisa put on a white, spaghetti strap top and a short skirt, but she didn’t feel the need for shorts under it. We brushed our hair and put on just a little makeup.

We went back downstairs and my mom saw us. “So, you’re wearing skirts?”

“Yes, Aunt Kim, since I told Sarah she has to wear a skirt, I decided to be fair and wear one also.”

“Oh, I see. Well, I don’t want to mess up your transition rules. Y’all be careful.”

“See you, Mom.”

“Bye, Aunt Kim.”

When we were ready to head out the door, Lisa said, “Ready to cause some senior citizen heart attacks?”

“Lisa! That’s cruel!”

“Sorry. Let’s strut our stuff.”

“You strut, I’ll walk.”

We started out on our first tour of our new neighborhood. Lisa started singing, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood….”

“Lisa, I think it would be more appropriate to sing, ‘Here we come, walking down the street’….”

“Sarah! You’re right, because the next line is, ‘… get the funniest looks from everyone we meet’.”

“Yeah, we’re a colorful couple, and we stand out in this wealthy, hundred-year-old neighborhood. We’ll probably get some funny looks.”

We didn’t get funny looks. Since we were new to the area, some of the people we met seem slightly surprised to see new faces, but they smiled and seemed friendly. They were probably happy to have two new pretty girls around.

River Oaks is the most expensive area in Houston. The trees are huge, as well as the houses. Each house seemed bigger than the last. If a house looked not so big, a look at the side of it revealed that it was built so the small side of the house showed from the street. Almost every house had what served once as servants’ quarters behind the house. Even the servants’ quarters could house 4 or 5 families easily. I wondered what people kept in them these days … money maybe?

As I looked at the beauty of our surroundings, I realized that we lived in luxury, peace and comfort enjoyed by a very small percentage of people in the world. I said, “Lisa, we are so blessed!”

“You mean ‘lucky’?”, she responded.

“No, the word ‘luck’ is derived from the name ‘Lucifer’. Use the word ‘blessed’.”

“OK, we’re blessed.”

We made a circle around part of River Oaks and were almost home. I smiled at Lisa. “I’m blessed to have you for a friend and cousin.”

“Thanks, Sis. I love you too.”

Next: Career planning