Crown's Law by Wolf Wootan

him, one would never know that he
was one of the leading physicists in the world.
    “I have no way of gauging that, Peter. She
passed my ken long ago,” laughed Sam as he sipped his beer.
    “Well, Sam, as you know, Becky is like a
brace of wild horses—it’s hard to keep her reined in, but in my
view, it’s necessary. She could have finished her doctorates in
both math and physics by now, but I’m carefully pacing her so
she’ll avoid burnout. Parties such as this one today are very
important to her successful maturation. She has to be a child some
of the time,” lectured Danforth.
    “I know she needs a proper balance, but it’s
hard to know what that is,” agreed Sam as he motioned Danforth to a
chair. They both sat down in the shade of an umbrella.
    Danforth continued, “Geniuses are commonplace
compared to super-geniuses like Becky. Even rarer is a super-genius
who is also a visionary. I’m holding the reins on Becky—not only
for health and maturity reasons—but I want her to properly absorb
and be knowledgeable of the accomplishments of those who came
before her. I want her to have a solid foundation to build upon. As
you’ve probably discovered already, geniuses need to be managed.
Becky’s teenage life needs nurturing also, which you and your
parents seem to be managing well.”
    “I hope so,” murmured Sam. “She certainly
deserves a good life.”
    “Yes, she does. It’s hard to explain to the
layman just how special Becky is. Most physicists spend their lives
learning that which others accomplished before them, then maybe
struggling in a specific area of expertise trying to unearth some
new truth. Every generation or so a true visionary comes along—like
Einstein—and develops a philosophy, or theory, if you will, that
others before him had not seen. The General and Special Theories of
Relativity are still not really grasped by many people. True, they
can manipulate the mathematics, and can even teach it to others,
while never actually feeling it—or understanding it.
    “Rebecca is this generation’s great
mathematical philosopher. Newton’s theories were astounding for his
day, and are still somewhat accurate when speeds are small when
compared with the speed of light. Einstein’s theories are excellent
as far as they go, but fall apart when speeds exceed his definition
of the speed of light. Rebecca’s new theory—vision—takes us into
that superluminary area and she has developed the mathematical
equations that help the rest of us try and grasp what we can’t yet
comprehend.”
    Sam couldn’t grasp it either. He had enough
trouble dealing with the teenager aspects of her complex being. Sam
had never really consciously taken on the role of father to Becky.
Becky had expertly maneuvered him into the job, and before he
realized it, he was performing the job quite well. Raising a
teenaged girl did have its embarrassing moments, however.
    ***
    Sam’s mind wandered back to when Becky had
turned 14. She had experienced a sudden growth spurt, and had added
some pounds to her spare frame, especially around her skinny butt.
She also grew some real breasts. She needed new underwear badly,
and was scheduled to go shopping with Nana the next Saturday. As
fate would have it, on Friday Helena had an angina attack and her
doctor put her in the hospital for observation. John got on the
phone and tracked down Sam and told him to come to the hospital in
Mission Viejo and pick up Becky. After checking on his mother, Sam
took Becky back to the beach house.
    Becky told him, “Nana was going to take me
shopping. I guess you’ll have to take me now, Sam.”
    “OK. What do you need?”
    “Well . . . I’ve grown a lot recently, and I
need all new underwear,” Becky stammered.
    “Aww, Becky! I don’t know anything about . .
. that,” mumbled Sam.
    “Just take me down to Del Mar in San
Clemente. There’s a lingerie shop there that Nana goes to all the
time. That’s where we were going,”