I gave her a sheepish shrug and went downstairs, dumping my stuff off in the bedroom. I avoided Mom and any questions until later. Mom must have told Dad when he got home, but I stayed in my room studying Geometry until we all went up to dinner.
Now that we had six people in the house, Suzie had to share her side of the dining room table with Nana. She was in charge of making sure Nana didn't put salt on her plate before we sat down. She was on a low sodium high blood pressure diet, and she salted everything, driving my mother nuts. I never narced on her, figuring the old bat would just make a ruckus if we caught her. Usually Suzie caught her about once a week and ratted her out, causing Nana to start crying. Tonight I noticed Nana got away with it. I debated winking at her, but Mom would probably catch me and figure it out.
Dad was the one who started in on me. After we said grace, he picked up the serving plate of the pot roast and speared a piece. "So, you want to explain how you got a detention in Home Economics?"
Hamilton started laughing. He began singing, "Carl got detention, Carl got detention!"
"Hey, Dad, really?" I hooked my thumb at my brother, and Dad ordered him to shut up, or else. Hamilton had never given them the no-hitting ultimatum like I had, and could still get walloped.
"So?", he pressed.
I thought about it, and I must have looked very sheepish doing so. "I couldn't help it. I swear, I just couldn't help it. It just sort of burst out.", I admitted.
"What just burst out?", asked Mom coldly.
"Well, Mrs. Wakerman was talking about tropical foods and fruits and nuts and stuff, and she started talking about coconut milk, and she asked if anybody knew what you could use coconut milk for. So I just said that mommy coconuts fed it to the baby coconuts, so they could grow up to be big and strong, and that's when she gave me detention."
Mom stared at me for a second, and then just buried her face in her hands and started laughing. Dad leaned so far back while he laughed that his chair fell backwards and dumped him on the floor. Even Nana started laughing. Only Suzie and Hamilton didn't laugh; Suzie because she didn't understand, and Hamilton because he could see I wasn't getting in trouble.
He still tried to push it, though. After our parents calmed down, he started smirking and snarkily said, "You still got detention. You're still going to get punished."
I just shook my head at him. "Hamilton, you want to know why people like me more than you? I was named after a delicious and refreshing adult beverage, and you were named after a watch." That set my parents to laughing all over again.
The next day at school I got the approval for the project from our Biology teacher, Mr. Hailey. I told Shelley and she squealed with delight, and kissed my cheek again. This time I gave her a hug, which surprised her, but she didn't protest. My seduction strategy was a slow one, but would probably prove successful. A few discreet inquiries gave indications that Shelley had a much better understanding of the birds and the bees than would be expected in a ninth grader. How much was completely true, I couldn't say - yet - but I considered this as worthy of scientific investigation as cigarette tar.
"Now, for the next week we need to do preparation. I need to get over to Towson State and use the library there and you..."
"You're going over to Towson State College?", she asked, her eyes widening.
"Uh, sure. I need to do the preliminary research."
"Wow!"
I don't know why this surprised her, but I chalked it up to the fact that she figured only college students could go over there. The truth was that Towson State was only about a half mile from Towson High, and the college prep kids there routinely went over to the library for research. All you needed was your student ID card and they'd let you in. I didn't see why there would be an issue.
Getting over there would be simple, too. It was basically just a couple of miles further south on York Road, almost in the center of Towson. I could ride my bike there easily. Further, what with my wacky schedule and a lot of independent study time, I pretty much had an unlimited hall pass. As long as I let my teachers know what I was up to, I could take a day and go over there without worrying about skipping class.
I shrugged. "It's no big deal. Like I said, I'll go over there either tomorrow or the next day and figure a few things out. You need to sweet talk Mr. Hailey into letting us use a vacuum pump. I know they have one here, but we'll need to take it home."
She nodded in understanding. "I'll ask him at lunch. If he says yes, I can call Daddy and he can drive over and we can carry it out to the car. We can carry it down to the basement. How big a space do we need?"
Again, I shrugged. "I don't know. It's not like we're building anything all that big." I used my hands to measure out an area of about three feet by three feet. "I bet we could put it all together in a space like that. I mean, if you have an old table or something like that, I'm sure it can fit on that."
"We have an old dining room table in the corner."
"Sounds perfect. We can pull it away from the wall so we can move around it. We'll build our own lab in the basement, just like Doctor Frankenstein did!"
She laughed at that. I put an arm around her shoulder and gave her a quick hug, and she giggled at that. Then she put an arm around my waist and hugged me back, and then pulled away. She smiled shyly and we split up, and she gave me a hip bump as she moved away. This project looked to be very educational, indeed!
The next morning I rode my bike to school. After lunch, I checked out and rode down to Towson State. At the time it was known as Towson State College. It had originally been a small teacher's college, but over the years the size of the school and the quality of education there had grown substantially. By the time I graduated from college, it had transformed into Towson State University, and a few years later became simply Towson University, the second largest university in the state. The odds that I would be able to find relevant information were quite high.
They were even better than I thought. I quickly found an article on cigarette tar that had been co-authored by a professor there at Towson State. Figuring nothing ventured, nothing gained, I rode over to the chemistry building and locked my bike into the rack there. Once inside I found the professor was at class, but would be back in another half hour. Despite a number of curious stares from much older students, I sat down on the floor in the hallway to wait for him.
About half an hour later a middle-aged man came walking down the hallway towards me. He glanced at me curiously, and then opened the door to his office. He stopped and looked down at me as I climbed to my feet. "Can I help you?"
"Are you Professor Milhaus?", I asked.
"Yes. Are you waiting for me, Mister... ?"
"Buckman, sir. Carl Buckman. Can I talk to you for a few minutes?"
"Sure." He opened his office door and stepped inside, holding it open for me as well. "How can I help you, Mr. Booker?"
"That's Buckman, sir." I pulled out my wallet and handed him a business card. He stared at it in surprise, not expecting a teenager to have a card.
It had been as much a joke as anything else. Some of the guys at school had been talking about their fathers having business cards, and they seemed to think it was cool. I had commented that it was no big deal; they should get some of their own if they wanted them. That immediately started an argument about whether kids could do it, about how to get them, and about what they would say. I just said to give me a couple of weeks and I bet I could get some made for me. One loud mouth even bet me five bucks I was full of shit.