Doris Duke

Doris Duke was the richest woman in the world and she lived in Summerville New Jersey, where I lived when I went to high school and college. She was really a legend in our town and everybody knew that she lived on the gorgeous estate right at the edge of Summerville. You were even able to drive through the property, but the house was setback from the road and exuded an aura of isolation. Everybody in town was well aware that she lived there but most people had never even seen here. The estate went on for miles and had very little traffic going through there. Due to that, some of the boys I hung out with had the idea that'd it'd be a great place to go and drag race where there'd be no police. So they painted two white strips across the road, a quarter of a mile apart.

On the night we decided to go drag racing my friends Weezer and Connie and two guys named Ralph, who was driving, and Tommie who was Connie's boyfriend came in the car with us. We got to the point where everyone was gathering to drag race. One of the guys got in the middle of the road, and put his arms up. The second he dropped them, all of the drivers put the petal to the metal and flew out into the street. We took off and we were in the lead. We had just crossed the finish line when we heard police sirens coming from behind us. Our car was the first car so we immediately pulled into Doris Duke's driveway, figuring that she was never really there anyways. Ralph was scared because as a driver he would've gotten a huge ticket, resulting in his parents taking the car from him.

We all breather a sigh of relied, when suddenly a woman walked out to the driveway. We assumed it was a maid. Ralph looked at her, and she looked at Ralph and asked "Why are you in the driveway?" Ralph was nothing if not truthful.

"We were drag racing and the cops were chasing us and my parents would kill me if I got a ticket," Ralph said, his head hanging low. We couldn't really see the woman, but we could hear her speak.

"The cops are chasing you? Well for Christ sake, go into the garage!" she exclaimed and she opened the garage for us. As soon as all the police car excitement was over, we backed out of the garage and thanked her, still thinking that it was a maid. "What are your names?" she asked. We answered in the order the way we were sitting.

"Tommy."

"Weezer."

"Ralph."

"Beverly."

"Connie," she said gulping, afraid of being the last one to answer. The supposed maid bent over and held out her hand to Ralph.

"I'm Doris Duke," Doris said. All of us just about fainted. Then a strange thing happened. "Now that you're here, why don't you come in and see the house?" she asked. We were awe struck and followed her into the house. We were amazed and as soon as we opened the door we witnessed the most beautiful home ever. The walls were decorated with impeccable artwork, and her furniture looked like it came from the best catalogues in the world. A little short, fat man came out.

"Are these your friends?" he asked Doris. Doris grinned.

"Cook," she said. "These are my friends." She then introduced us all to him. "Bring us some cookies and chocolate milk please. Young people like that!" The whole thing was very surreal. We were sitting around a beautiful table with magnificent flowers in the center of the table while eating cookies and milk with Doris Duke. Imagine that. I couldn't wait to get home and tell my parents. We all thought it'd be a one time thing but after we ate she took us on a tour of her house. The art studio was outrageous, and it turned out she loved to paint herself. She then invited to come and take lessons with her. I wondered if I was sleeping and this was a dream. The house had 52 rooms and she lived alone! She told us that evening that she loved kids. "I had a child once. Just one, and she passed away while she was still a baby," she said. None of us really knew how to respond to that, but Ralph reached up and gave her a little hug.

"It's ok Doris, maybe that's why you met us," Ralph said and Doris couldn't help but chuckle. She really was a delightful person.

"Thanks," she continued. "The art lessons are on Wednesdays," she told us. "Can you be here by the afternoon?" We were all so excited to be there that we would've said yes to anything. We could hardly contain ourselves when we left the house. We talked over each other in the car, trying to throw out our two cents about every dismal detail. We drove to our favorite hangout which was called Mauers, because we knew that's where most of the drag racers would be. If they weren't in jail! Bob, the football star, who drove the other car, showed us a ticket and we told him that we'd been far luckier.

"We had cookies