A Taste of Respect is an erotic gay comedy about a thirty-two-year-old African American self-made multimillionaire who is coming to terms with his homosexuality. His name is Thaddeus Hanson Richards II, and he decides to pursue his dream of owning his own private school. Richards is Roman Catholic and decides to buy a Canadian Catholic boys' boarding school on the verge of closing 120 years after it opened. He also buys the counterpart girls' school. Richards gets lots of support from family, religious leaders, and parents of the students. But in the beginning, he has little support from the male students while the female students adore him. The male students play constant pranks and give Richards a very hard time, so much so he decides to fight back and initiate a few pranks of his own. Richards's pranks remind him of his youth, when he and his buddies played a prank or two on people. Both schools are predominantly white, with Richards being black, he gets quite a bit of disrespect from the Caucasian boys. While Richards struggles to earn a taste of respect from the boys, he discovers the secret one of the misbehaving boys has been keeping for years, since the age of five. Now fourteen, the boy yearns to tell the secret and trusts no one-that is, until the new owner, Richards, shows up. Unsure how to get Richards's attention, the boy begins playing very irritating pranks. When the secret comes out, it nearly gets someone killed. And now a taste of respect eventually evolves into a four course meal.

A Taste of Respect

A NOVELBy E. T. Hawks

Trafford Publishing

Copyright © 2012 E. T. Hawks
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-2977-7

Chapter One

August 2007

African-American self-made millionaire Thaddeus Hanson Richards II is reflecting on all his accomplishments in his life of 32 years while seated in the first class cabin of a new VAC Airways (Vancouver Airways of Canada) Boeing 777. The first class cabin is luxurious, a luxury he and his family have come to appreciate since Thad became a millionaire at the age of twenty. Thad remembers riding in cramped coach when he was a young boy. He has been riding on planes since the age of two but his fondest memory is when he was nine. His Uncle Robert, who at the time was single and a transplant surgeon just beginning his career but is now married with adult children, decided to surprise the family with a trip to Orlando, Florida. He knew it would be expensive and had been saving money for years. Uncle Robert wanted to spare no expense. Thad's uncle had begun planning and saving for the trip since just before Thad turned three and he'd been planning it with Thad's father, Thaddeus Sr. Only Uncle Robert, Thad's father and his mother, Beverly, who is now dead, knew of the trip planning. They did not want the kids in the family to be disappointed if the trip fell through, so it was kept a secret until about a week before the trip. Thad's family was not rich, but not poor either. Money was tight and his Uncle Robert had sacrificed for years to do something special for the family. The time they spent in Orlando was fun but traveling there wasn't the greatest. The plane had been grounded for two hours in St. Louis due to thunderstorms going on all day. A break in the weather had allowed the plane to finally take off and head for Orlando only to have to circle Orlando for another two hours because of storms there before diverting to Miami to refuel. The weather had been fairly clear in Miami. And by the time the plane left Miami, the weather in Orlando had cleared.

Thad enjoyed flying on the plane but he did not enjoy, at first, having to sit next to an overweight woman who kept sneezing. They had flown on an L-1011 jumbo jet and were able to get a direct flight from St. Louis where Thad and most of his family lived. His Uncle Robert lived in Chicago and had flown to St. Louis to travel with the family to Florida. But the flight had been overbooked which Thad later learned the airlines tended to do on purpose. And because there were so many traveling in Thad's family they could not all sit together. He'd had the option of sitting next to his uncle in coach where they had to sit in order for everyone who was going to Florida to be able to go because first class was too pricey. Coach had been cramped and uncomfortable, even for a small nine year old, and Thad had wanted a window seat. He loved looking out the window of a plane. But his other option was a center seat in a center row. And there was not much to see there but the person next to you on either side. The gate agent had honored his request but informed him and his parents that he would not be able to sit with them. Thad had wanted a window seat so bad he was cool with that. Had he been younger he would have wanted to sit next to mommy. But he was practically grown, as grown as a nine year old could get, and he informed mom and dad he would be okay sitting by himself. His mother had started to protest and say "no" and that she wanted the family to sit together but dad had told her, "Thad will be fine. Let him have his window seat or he will be irritable and upset all the way to Orlando."

Thad was happy at that development but did not know he would be sitting next to the "nasty fat lady" as his older brother, Paul, had said. Since there were so many kids in their group the gate agent had requested for Thad and his family to board the plane first along with the other families with kids. And there were a lot of kids on the flight being of course that it was a flight to Orlando, Florida. And every single family on the plane was visiting the same amusement park there. But since Thad and his family had boarded the plane first, even before other families, he didn't know who he'd be sitting next to. He'd hoped he would get to sit next to one of the cute blond girls his age that would also be on the plane. His hopes had been put to pasture as he saw Mrs. Georgia Crumholtz, as she had introduced herself overweight as she was, take her seat next to Thad. The cute blond girl and her family had taken seats in front of Thad. He also remembered that Mrs. Crumholtz, "Georgie" as she had requested Thad call her, had smelled very nice. Like lilac and roses or was it lilac and vanilla? Thad struggled to remember. He just remembered enjoying the wonderful scent "Georgie" radiated while Thad was next to her on the flight.

Thad had thought his mom might enjoy some perfume of that scent for Christmas. Even though "Georgie" was overweight she had been very nice, even offering some of the candy to Thad that she had brought with her to give to her grandkids. She had explained that her husband of thirty years had recently passed and that she was flying to visit her son, daughter-in-law and three grandkids in Florida. They lived in Orlando and planned to take "granny" to an amusement park because "Georgie" had never been to one before. "Georgie" had said that her son was in management at the park and that she and her son and family could get in for free at all the different attractions over the forty square miles of park. Thad had then wished that his dad worked at the park; to be able to get in free, wow, cool! Thad had explained to "Georgie" how his uncle had paid for the family to go to Orlando and that they were staying at the hotel where a monorail goes through the second story of the building.

"Georgie" had said, "Oh that is a very nice hotel. You and your family will love it. My son has told me nice things about it."

And when the plane finally arrived in Orlando, "Georgie's" son, his wife and kids had been waiting at the gate with expectant smiles on their faces. "Georgie's" grandkids had run up as soon as she had walked through the gate. Of course nowadays that is not allowed since 9-11-2001. But in 1984 there had been no terror attacks in the USA and people could still greet their families as they walked off the plane not at the baggage claim. Of course Thad and his family had no one to greet them as they exited the plane. He fondly remembered that "Georgie's" granddaughter was very cute with her long blond hair. Her name was April and he remembered that she was very nice. She was slightly older than Thad was, eleven, but still seemed to like him. Thad remembered that April smiled at him a lot and was all giddy when "Georgie" had introduced her family to his. "Georgie" had told her son how courteous Thad had been with her and that he should do something nice for Thad and his family. And "Georgie's" son did. When Thaddeus Sr. had said how much his brother Robert had spent on the trip, Danny, as "Georgie" had introduced her son, responded by giving Thad's Uncle Robert $500 worth of park currency later at the hotel which he then split up among the family. Each child had gotten $50 and had spent every dime. Danny had explained that he was high up in management and that allowed him to do things like that. After "Georgie" and her family had left the airport, Danny had immediately called his boss and told him how long Thad's uncle had saved. And it had turned out that one of Uncle Robert's patients, who he'd performed a successful surgery on, was a relative of...