Independence Day

People are usually quite different from each other. They say that there is something called a norm that tells us how we are all supposed to be. If we fall within a short distance of that norm, they say that we are normal. It is an illusionary kind of line. Nobody is truly normal. The norm is just some kind of averaging of human behavior. If you ask me, I will say that it is a very ridiculous notion. It is however true that some people are so far below the norm that they cannot survive in this world unassisted. Others are so far above the norm that they have trouble relating to what the rest of the world considers normal. Like, going to school, getting a job, getting married, and so on.

Ronit belonged to the second group. She had managed to get through kindergarten and first grade somehow, but by the time she got into second grade, she was having a difficult time keeping up with the much slower children in her class. She was having a difficult time keeping up with the teachers as well. This was a young girl who had devoured Jules Verne, H.G Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, and others by the age of four. At five, she zoomed through the Harry Potter stories and went on to heavier stuff. By second grade, she was going through Hemingway, O. Henry, Dickens, Tolstoy, Melville, and other writers that were certainly considered by everyone to be way out of her grasp. True, there were many concepts that she did not at first understand, but that was why the web had been invented. Through her reading, she learned that money is one of the most important things in the world for most people. She started looking for ways to make money and it seemed to her that it was quite simple. She followed the stock market for a couple of weeks and she got a very good understanding of it. If she had any money that she could invest, she would have gotten a 500% return on her investment during that time.

Having the money to invest, was only a part of her problem. She was also much too young to be legally able to handle money. She decided to take a dramatic approach to the problem. She studied the teachers during the lunchtime period and eventually she picked one: Ms. Rodriguez. Googling Ms. Rodriguez took a while because there were hundreds or perhaps thousands of hits. She filtered them and eventually, she found the correct Ms. Rodriguez on Facebook. She started her own account on Facebook. It was not difficult to become Ms. Rodriguez's friend. Very slowly, she convinced Ms. Rodriguez to follow her investment tips. It only took a month before Ms. Rodriguez opened an account with Fidelity Investments and bought some actual stocks. Just as Ronit had predicted the stocks went up 300% in only three weeks.

Ronit approached Ms. Rodriguez during a lunch period and asked if they could have a private conversation.

"What is your name child?" asked Ms. Rodriguez.

"My name is Ronit, Ms. Rodriguez, I am in 2-02".

"Perhaps you should talk to Ms. Johnson then".

"I would very much like to talk to you. If it doesn't work out, I will talk to Ms. Johnson".

"Very well, why don't we just sit at one of the empty tables and you can tell me all about it".

They did just that and Ronit started the conversation:

"Ms. Rodriguez, I am not sure how much you know about me. I am trying very hard to blend in".

"That's cute".

"Please, I just need five minutes and the lunch break is almost over".

"O.K. so what is it?"

"You have befriended a Ronit Cohen on Facebook. I am her".

"That's ridiculous!"

"Nevertheless, you have made some money by following my advice. You can make a lot more if you work with me".

"Yeah, me and a seven-year-old girl! We should incorporate".

"We will if you follow my advice. Within the next year or two, we will be very rich".

"Ha, ha!"

"I did not expect you to agree right from the start. I have prepared a list of stocks that will appreciate very nicely in the next two weeks. You can invest or not, it's your choice".

The bell rang and everyone went back to class. Two weeks later at lunch, Ms. Rodriguez asked Ronit to come and sit with her.

"This is funny, but I have made some more money by following your advice. I am not sure where this is going, but the money is good".

"You may not know this but my IQ is so far above the average it is practically off the scale. Still, legally, I am a nobody so I need you to be my adult front. I promise that I can make you very, very rich".

"This is silly of me, but I am willing to give it a try. What would you like to do next?"

"To start with, do you have an account with Chase?"

"I actually do".

"That is good. Do you have any credit cards?"

"I have an American Express and a Capital One Visa".

"Please apply for a Chase Sapphire Card and get one in my name. They do not require any information other than that. I also want you to open a PayPal account, put $100 in it and send me the userid and the password in Facebook messenger. You also need to give me your userid and password for your Chase account. I will use $100 from that account. It will take me a little while to grow our investment. In three months. I will deposit $1,500 into your bank account. That will be your starting salary. You do not need to do anything in return for now. I also need the time to plan our strategy. We will not meet in the meantime other than saying hello in the lunchroom and you can give me the credit card when you get it. O.K.?"

"I have to admit that more than anything, I am very curious, so I will do as you say. I should have my head examined, but here is the banking info". She wrote that on a page in her notebook, ripped it off, and gave it to Ronit after folding it nicely.

"I have been teaching for almost fifteen years and I have seen all kinds of children in my classes, but you are definitely one of a kind. Let's see where this thing might go."

Surely enough, the next day Ms. Rodriguez sent her the PayPal info. Ronit got to work right away. Her brother Avigdor would bring her home from school, but for the next five hours, she was pretty much on her own. Avigdor would be in his room playing games, so she had no problem getting to her mom's laptop. Her mom had even created an id for her but she had long ago logged in as her mom and given herself admin privileges. The first thing, of course, was to change the PayPal userid, password, and e-mail address. For a couple of weeks, Ronit did not do anything other than following stock performance. Anyway, I think this is getting too tedious so let us skip forward two months. Ronit had gambled a little on offshore sites. She had also placed some bets on horses and played with the stock market. She had grown Ms. Rodriguez's $200 into a little over $10,000. After three months, she had more than $100,000. It was logical that she needed to take the next step. She contacted Ms. Rodriguez through Facebook and instructed her on their course of action. Within another month, they hired a lawyer and an accountant. The lawyer helped them incorporate and they were in business. The various strategies that Ronit used, made their money grow very rapidly. By the end of the first year, their company, Cohen Investments INC., had $1,000,000 and some change in the bank.

During the last week of school, Ronit convinced Ms. Rodriguez to quit her job and work for Cohen Investments full time. Ms. Rodriguez was cautious, so she agreed to a trial period. Her first job was to rent office space in a strip mall. At Ronit's direction, she also bought and sold a few real estate properties. Ronit had a strong sense of locality. Somehow, the properties that they invested in appreciated very sharply within a very short period.

O.K. we need to skip forward a little more. By the end of the second year, Cohen Investments offices had moved to a much larger space in the financial district. Their bank account was pushing the $100,000,000 mark. Ms. Rodriguez had of course quit her job at the school and was the CEO of Cohen Investments. The second day of school that year happened to fall on a Friday. Ronit had managed to stay below the radar, as they say, up to that time. On this particular day, that was about to change. There was an obnoxious boy in her class that somehow always seemed to be in her way or else he'd have some annoying thing to say. On this day, the teacher was talking about The City of Lights, Paris, and at some point, she asked:

"Who knows where Paris is?"

Bernard, for that, was the annoying kid's name replied:

"Why everyone knows that Paris is in London".

Ronit couldn't help herself and she burst out laughing.

"Ronit, there is no need to make fun of Bernard. That's what I am here for".

Ronit laughed even harder.

"I meant, to teach him better", said the teacher.

They were saved by the bell or so Ronit thought, but Bernard passed by her on the way to the lunchroom and whispered in her ear:

"You should have known better than to mess with the Saliva Gang".

She didn't know what to make of it, so she just paid him no mind, but later on, when they went into the yard for playtime, he was waiting for her. There were some nine or ten other boys with him and he yelled out:

"There she is", pointing at Ronit "charge!"

The group of boys surrounded her and they all started spitting on her.

She cried out and one of the teachers was there at once but she had saliva dripping from her hair and her clothes. Luckily she had covered her face in time, but still, this was ridiculous. She went to the girls' room to wash up a little and she called Ms. Rodriguez to come and pick her up. Ms. Rodriguez showed up in forty-five minutes and signed her out for the day. Ronit explained to her what had happened and told her that she was not going back to school anymore.

"You do know that there are laws about that right?" asked Ms. Rodriguez.

"Yes, of course. I have been thinking about it for a while. Let's stop by the bank and get some cash. I have it all planned out".

The next day was Ronit's ninth birthday. Her mom had baked her a peach cobbler cake which was her favorite, so after dinner, they all sang the birthday song and urged her to make a wish and blow out the candles.

"Mom, Dad, I would like to tell you what my wish is, but first, I want to tell you a little story".

"Sounds good", said her brother Avigdor sarcastically, "I can hardly wait".

"It is about a nine-year-old girl named Lisi. Lisi was the smartest girl in her school but she was not happy there. She had already read all the books that the teachers wanted her to read. She had also taught herself everything that the teachers wanted to teach her. She was so smart that she had already made a lot of money. So, on her birthday, she offered her parents a bribe. She asked them to tell the school that from that day on, she was going to be homeschooled".

"What do you think of my story, Dad, Mom?"

"It is kind of silly. How would a nine-year girl get so much money?"

"The same way that I did", said Ronit.

"You have money?" asked her Mom.

"Yes, lots of it and I would like to make a deal with you".

"Let's see the money", said Avigdor.

Nobody else said anything, so Ronit went into her room and got her book bag. She took out ten bundles of $100 each bundled neatly in a mustard-colored band.

"$100,000", she said "there can be more if you listen to my proposal. Here are my conditions:

1. You will arrange for me to be home-schooled.

2. You will not interfere with anything I do, as long as it is legal.

3. From now on, mom, you will keep a healthy kitchen - no foods or beverages with any laboratory-made ingredients.

4. The three of you will continue as if nothing has changed. I mean Mom, Dad keep on working for the time being. Avigdor will keep going to school.

Here is what I will do if you agree:

1. I will pay off the mortgage.

2. I will pay all living expenses (utilities, gas, phone, groceries, etc.)

3. Mom, Dad you can get new cars if you like.

4. I will eventually pay for Avigdor's tuition at a college of his choice.

5. Avigdor can get a car when he becomes legally able to drive.

For a while, I would like for us to try and continue to lead a middle-class lifestyle without attracting too much attention. What do you say?"

"My goodness, Ronit. I always knew that you are much brighter than anyone around us, but this is a surprise", said her Dad.

"You sound so grown-up", said her Mom "does this mean that we are losing you?"

"No, Mom I just have to figure out some things for myself, but I am still your little girl".

"Well then, group hug", said her Mom with teary eyes.

They hugged and her Dad said:

"I think this hug should serve as a stamp of approval. I will take off from work on Monday and I will take care of all the paperwork".

On Monday, instead of going to school, Ronit called Uber and got a car that took her to the Cohen Investments offices. The driver was very friendly and she managed to learn that he was currently unemployed and he was driving for Uber to try and make ends meet. Ronit convinced him to come up to the office with her and she made him wait in the cafeteria for ten minutes while she went to talk to Ms. Rodriguez. After that, she took him to Ms. Rodriguez's office. She offered him a job as the company chauffeur, which he accepted when he heard the generous salary offer.

Ronit got Saladin (the chauffeur) to drive her to the beach and she got ice creams for both of them.

"Aren't you supposed to be in school?" he asked.

"Not since my ninth birthday this past Saturday. I think that from now on, I will call it Independence Day".

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