Chương 59: Book 3 - Chapter 4 C

"Hi, is this Samantha?" I asked as the person on the other end of the phone picked up.

"No, this is her Mother. Can I help you?"

"Ma'am my name is John Cook, I was given this number at the White House to speak to Samantha."

"Oh goodness, I didn't expect you to call so soon. I'll go get her," she said. A few moments later she answered.

"Hello, this is Samantha."

"Hi Samantha. I'm John Cook. I called to ask you about your trip to Russia. I read your book."

"Oh, that's wonderful! It was such a fun trip. I learned that children are children everywhere in the world. There's no real difference between us, other than the language we speak," she explained. I wanted to keep building on her sentiment.

"I was thinking that we could start an organization for kids under seventeen and invite children from around the world to discuss how to fix the problems the adults keep having." Samantha laughed.

"That sounds like so much fun. How old are you?"

"I just turned nine a couple days ago."

"Well, John, that's definitely something I could get behind. A kids United Nations."

"I'd vote for you as Secretary General," I told her seriously.

"You want me to be in charge?" she asked with surprise.

"You certainly have more international experience than I do. And it'll be a few years before you turn eighteen, right?"

"I'm just thirteen, and I would love to get it up and running. I'll need my parents help, is that okay?"

"That's fine. When can you come out to Oklahoma?" I inquired.

"Well, we are in London now, filming a TV show. I won't be back till near the end of August."

"Come out to Oklahoma to visit me when you get back. We can work out the details. Bring your whole family, we have room."

"I'm so excited! I'll find out if I can come straight there from London when we're done shooting," Samantha promised.

"Sounds great. I'm looking forward to it as well," I replied. A week later, just after lunch the phone rang. I was waiting for the call, so I picked it up immediately.

"Cook Mortuary, you stab em, we slab em. Today's two for one Tuesday." She laughed.

"Hi John!"

"Hi Samantha. Thanks for calling again. I've been looking forward to it all morning."

"Well, it's evening here. I just finished work. We are mostly doing outside scenes here. The inside stuff was done in California."

"Anything fun happen today?" I asked her.

"Something hilarious happened. We were shooting a scene with Robert Wagner's dog—a tiny terrier—and the dog was supposed to bark on command. Well, it kept running off set every time they yelled 'Action!'""A runaway dog? That sounds like a funny chase."

"It was! We had to reshoot the scene eight times. They finally had to put peanut butter on his paw to make him stay still. My director was yelling, 'It's the dog's big scene!'""Eight times, just for a dog?" I asked.

"It was funny. We all burst out laughing when the dog tried to lick the peanut butter off his paw right in the middle of a serious line. What have you been doing?"

"I helped my Mom in the garden. It's on the roof, eighteen stories up."

"That high? That's amazing."

"I can't wait to show you where we live. I've even got the most perfect spot for the first World Children's Conference."

"I'm excited by the WCC. What place have you picked out?" she asked.

"It's a resort the family owns on a really big man-made lake. It has a six hundred mile shoreline." Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"That's really big!"

"Sixth largest in the country. The resort has a swimming pool and pedal boats and a big conference hall that just got remodeled. I think you'll agree it's a perfect location when you come."

"I'll check it out, it sounds good. I like the idea of pedal boats. Those sound fun."

"I can even put up a small fire-tornado to run during the conference."

"A fire tornado? That sounds dangerous."

"It's perfectly safe. We have several in glass boxes that run outside the hotel. And little ones on the dining tables at the restaurants. We do have a really, really big one on the roof, but we have only been allowed to run it once. It made a huge swirling flame that went over three hundred feet in the air. It was amazing."

"You are sure it's safe?" she asked sceptically.

"Yeah, it runs on propane, so you can shut it off. It uses a spinning cylinder to get it going, otherwise it's just a big torch light."

"That sounds really cool, John. I'm so excited about this trip."

"I'm looking forward to it too. I know you need to go to bed soon. Will you call again next week?" I asked. I could hear her yawn before she replied.

"Yeah. I'll try the same time next Wednesday."

"Good. I'll talk to you next week Samantha. Have a good night."

"You too, John," she said and hung up. Samantha Smith arrived with her Mom on August twenty-third in Tulsa. Both were jet-lagged, so they stayed at The Mayo for a couple of days before I took them to Arrowhead. My newest book was released during her visit. I gave her a copy.

"I hope you like this one as much as you liked 'Alone on Mars,'" I told her. She took it and read the title aloud: "Magic Eye - Seeing is Believing." She opened up the big book, and looked at the first image.

"This is like the walls in the pool room at the Mayo right?"

"Yeah, the architect who handled the renovation there insisted we do a big-format coffee table book."

"Oh, I see a wolf jumping over a log. Isn't that on the wall by the elevator where our room was?"

"It is. We took all the images from the hotel, plus a few photos of the hotel as well, describing how they match the theme of each floor."

"Is that why there are pictures of wolves on the wall in our room at the Mayo?" her Mom asked.

"Yup," I agreed.

"Oh, how fascinating!" she said.

"There's a tour you can sign up for at the concierge desk. They'll take you to all the murals in the hotel."

"We'll have to do that when we get back," her Mom said.

"Oh good, you explain the history of Auto Stereo Grams in your book," Samantha said.

"I know you told me about them, but I wasn't really paying attention."

"The book even has a form you can use to order a computer program to make your own."

"Oh, that would be so neat! Can you make one of me?" she asked.

"Sure, but I don't know if you'll be able to tell it's you."

"I'll know," she said confidently.

"Thank you, John," she said, and gave me a hug. We started out racing pedal boats, but her longer legs gave her the advantage. Then despite her Mom's worries we spent time racing on JetSkis. It was fun watching her scream in delight as we rounded the buoys while racing. Samantha headed home on the last day of August and Matt started his first two-week vacation. Matt was busily working to ensure the team brought in to cover for him was thoroughly trained on his procedures.

"Matt, it'll be fine," I finally told him.

"They work for the company that trained you. They have more experience than you. There are more of them than you."

"Right, okay. Thanks, boss."

"No problem. Now go enjoy your vacation. Just remember the excuse dentists use for not liking red heads."

"What, why not?" he asked.

"Gingers bite us." He laughed, gave me a quick pat on the shoulder, and headed off to meet some old friends in San Diego. I knew he'd remember the joke when he'd meet a stunning red-headed dentist on his vacation. My joke would be the perfect icebreaker for him. The first day he was gone, my first royalty check from Corning arrived. I went and showed it to Grandpa.

"Look what I got today," I told him, handing him the check.

"Impressive. I spent more than that yesterday."

"Oh, what did you buy?"

"The Hotel Edison, in New York City."

"Congratulations, how much did you spend on it?"

"Forty-two million."

"Cool, it'll cost about that much to renovate it, but it'll be worth over two-hundred million by the turn of the century." He pounded on his calculator, trying to figure out the return on investment. Finally he looked at me, "Well?"

"Well, what?" I asked.

"What's the return on investment?"

"Forty-two million to purchase, forty million to renovate and expand the rooms. Eight hundred rooms is enough, It'll be worth about two hundred fifty million in the year 2000. That's a growth rate of about 7. 7 percent a year."

"I was hoping it would be higher."

"That's just the appreciation. It's still going to be generating income."

"Right, so what's the payback time on this one?"

"Five years," I told him.

"Perfect. Now what did you really come in here for."

"It's time to head to the Caymans to deposit this check and the 'Cocoanut Treasure' for Grandma's birthday."

"Is this the royalty for the year?" he asked.

"No, a bit over a quarter of the year."

"Interesting," he mused.

"So you're looking at sixty million a year in royalties?"

"Oh, it's much more than that. They've doubled the production of graphene felt three times since May and are planning on tripling that output with the next expansion. I'm also getting a dollar for every new lightbulb, but that adoption isn't very fast.

"So you'll pay back the loan I made for your computer company this year?" he asked.

"Sure, it's not like I've got cars and women to spend it on." He handed back the check.

"Not yet," he muttered to himself.