Excerpt: VIRTUALLY LONDON, Neighborlee, Ohio, Book 3
That summer, I spenta lot of time with Doni. Not just because I realized early what a smart,quietly fun kid she was. And not because I felt sorry for her. Bethany lefttown. It wasn't any fun working at Miller’s Diner without her. We had alwaysasked for the night shift because first, the tips were better with the eveningmenu and second, we liked to have our mornings free. We liked sleeping in. Exploringwhat new treasures had arrived at Divine's Emporium. Or just sitting somewherequiet in the park and reading or daydreaming about our futures.
Well, Bethany'sfuture not only arrived, it snatched her up and dragged her off to Hollywood.So I was pretty much alone. Yeah, I had friends, but nobody I really liked tohang with, day in and day out. I kept my night job at the diner, because I wasstill saving for my dream computer.
Mornings were forDoni and me. She was quite happy to spend her afternoons and evenings hangingwith Gram and Granddad, talking about books, working in Gram's garden, making aplace for herself. Roots.
She needed thoseroots when the Hallidays fought back.
They got prettyoffensive because they had to get defensive. Mr. Carr went after them witheverything he could think of, to protect Doni from them in the future. We wouldhave preferred to let sleeping dogs lie, meaning doing everything possible toavoid reminding the Hallidays we existed and Doni was with us. However, thesmart thing was to look for landmines now. We had been dealing with the Grandstonesfor generations, here in Neighborlee. So we knew to anticipate the Hallidayspulling the same kind of dirty tricks, and worse, once they learned just howrich Doni would be when she reached twenty-one.
For example, theGrandstones had bought up a bunch of old buildings, intending to get rich offurban renewal. Kurt Hanson worked for a garage they bought. He quit when thatjerk-face Reggie Grandstone marched into the garage and boasted that he was nowKurt’s boss. A year later, when Kurt sold a security alarm system he had beenworking on at the garage, the Grandstones claimed that anything invented bytheir employees was automatically their property. Even when they didn't signany agreement regarding intellectual property and work-for-hire.
The Grandstones sued, and lost. Kurt had proof he hadbeen inventing and tinkering with the system for years before that tiny windowof time between them buying the garage and when he quit. So he didn’t"invent" the system while he was still working for the garage. Mr.Carr got involved, and proved the single paycheck Kurt received after the Grandstonesbought the garage came from the previous garage owner. Technically he neverworked for them. They outsmarted themselves, making the former owner pay forany accounts payable generated before they took over.
