Intemperance Volume 2 Standing On TopChapter 6A
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New Beginnings
Los Angeles, California
December 9, 1986
Jake opened the door to his condo and led Jill Yamashito and her father, John, inside. The house was clean — the maid service had been in just that morning — and he gave them the ten-cent tour. They were both suitably impressed with his accommodations.
So far they'd been impressed with everything they'd experienced on this day, just as Jake had intended. It had started at 7:00 that morning when a limousine, sent by Jake, had picked them up at their respective homes and driven them to the Heritage County Airport. There, two first class tickets to Los Angeles had been waiting for them. They landed at LAX shortly after nine o'clock and another limo took them to their individual suites at the Hollywood Hilton Hotel. Once there they were offered use of either room service or the hotel restaurant for dining then allowed to rest up until eleven o'clock, at which point Jake arrived in yet another limo to escort them to Pauline's house to begin work.
At Pauline's they'd spent about ninety minutes going through every wire transfer receipt and every check Jake had received since the new contract had gone into effect. Pauline had then presented them with a document she'd drawn up regarding the band's contract with National Records. In order to look at the contract — and thus be able to calculate how much income Jake should be receiving from National Records — they had to sign a strict non-disclosure agreement that threatened severe civil penalties if the agreement was broken. This was because National — despite many rumors — had never actually admitted, either publicly or privately, that they'd renegotiated their contract with Intemperance for fear that other bands would try the same thing.
Jill and her father were both a little reluctant to sign such a document at first and Pauline had to explain to them that they would not be able to do business if they didn't. "It's not trickery of any kind," she explained to them. "It's a simple half-page document that's not even written in legalese. All it says is that if details of the Intemperance contract with National Records are made public and the source of that information can be proven to have originated with your firm and National, as a result, reverts to the old contract because of this, your firm will be held liable for damages."
"Which would be considerable," Jake added, much to Pauline's chagrin. "We weren't pulling in any money at all under the old contract."
"So in other words," Pauline said, shooting a dirty look at her brother/client, "as long as you keep your mouths shut about the specifics of the contract, there will be no problems."
Jill and her father both read the agreement several times, word for word, looking for hidden pitfalls but, as Pauline had promised, it was written in a simple, straightforward manner. They signed and Pauline then gave each of them a copy of the Intemperance contract to keep. She also gave them copies of Jake's contract with Gibson Guitars and Buxfield Limousines.
Both had spent the entire trip to Jake's condo reading through the documents.
"So the band is due another five hundred thousand dollar advance soon?" Jill asked as Jake led her to his office next to the condo's master bedroom.
"As soon as we submit a demo tape for the next album," Jake confirmed.
"Will that be before the end of the year?" she asked.
"Not a chance," he replied. "National is already pestering us for it but we haven't even all been in the same room together since the end of the tour, let alone jammed together."
"Jammed?" she asked, confused.
"Uh... yes, you know? Played together? Tried to compose new music?"
"Oh... of course," she said, filing that word away.
"Anyway, I've got two songs I've picked out on my acoustic there." He pointed to the battered Fender up on the wall. "And Matt's probably got one or two in mind as well. We need to come up with at least twelve tunes, maybe as many as fourteen, jam them out and perfect them, and then record them for submission. That won't happen until at least March, maybe even April."
"So your advance will not be forthcoming during this tax year?" she asked.
"Exactly," Jake said.
"Okay," she said. "We won't worry about that now then. What other income are you expecting this year?"
"All the big stuff is paid quarterly or on delivery," Pauline said. "Their next royalty checks will come in January. This includes the royalties from National and Jake's share of the profits from the Jake Kingsley signature guitar from Gibson. Merchandising profits are also paid quarterly and that will come in in January as well. The only thing left before the end of the year is the payments from NBC for the Saturday Night Live performance and the payments from CBS for their appearance on Rockline on December 28th."
"How much will those be?" Jill asked.
"SNL is fifty grand for the band," Pauline said. "Minus my twenty percent and divided by five, that will be another..."
"Eight thousand dollars for Jake," Jill said before Pauline could. "And the Rockline payment?"
"That's twenty-five thousand for the band," Pauline said.
"So that's another four thousand," Jill said. "Anything else?"
"Two more record store signings before the end of the year," Jake said. "Those are a flat five hundred bucks apiece."
"And two hundred of that goes to Pauline?" Jill asked.
"Yes," Pauline confirmed.
"So another eight hundred then," Jill said. "That means Jake is expecting another twelve thousand, eight hundred dollars before the end of the tax year?"
"Right," Pauline said.
"Okay," she said, consulting some notes she'd made while going through Pauline's neatly arranged files on Jake's income back in her office. "Last year, Jake pulled in one point three million dollars, upon which you paid $455,000 in federal taxes and $33,000 in state taxes?"
"Right," Jake said sourly. "They fuckin' raped me."
Jill and her father both blinked, shocked at his language.
"Sorry," he said, embarrassed. "Hollywood sometimes brings out the crudity in me."
"To each their own," Jill said. "So in any case, this year, you've made roughly $820,000 in royalties and other forms of contractual compensation, not including the twelve thousand, eight hundred we were just talking about."
"That sounds about right," Jake said.
Jill looked at him strangely. As an accountant it was inconceivable to her that someone making as much money as Jake didn't know the amount down to the penny at any given point in the year. "Okay then," she said. "We have a starting point to work with. Now, my understanding is that you do not own this condo we're sitting in?"
"No," he said. "I'm renting it from a real estate company."
"So nothing that you've paid in housing costs over the year is tax deductible," she said.
"Right," he said sourly. That had come up last year as well.
"And all of your travel expenses are paid for by National?"
"Well... either National or someone else. NBC is paying for our flight down to New York this weekend. There is one exception though."
"Oh?"
"When the tour was over I paid nine grand for a chartered flight home from Seattle so I wouldn't have to ride the bus. Isn't that tax deductible?"
"No," she said. "Not if your employer had a way to get you home and you simply paid out of pocket for something nicer. That would be the same as a business traveler upgrading from the coach seating his employer gives him to first class out of his own pocket and then wanting to deduct it. It doesn't work."
"That's a rip," Jake said.
"A rip?" Jill asked.
"Uh... unfair," Jake said.
"Unfair or not, it's the law. This office we're sitting in. When did you furnish it?"
"Last year," Jake said. "I already deducted everything that's in here then."
"I see," she said. "Well... Pauline mentioned that you've kept all of your receipts and cancelled checks for all of your purchases this year in a file?"
"Yes," Jake said. "Well... most of them anyway."
"Most of them?"
"I might've misplaced one or two here and there."
"I see. Well how about we look through the file and see what, if anything, we can deduct."
"Sounds like a plan," Jake said. "Before we start that, I could really go for a beer. Anybody else want one?"
Pauline thought that sounded like a good idea but Jill and her father both declined.
"I rarely drink," John said. "And I never drink while working."
"I've only had one bottle of beer in my entire life," Jill said, somewhat proudly.
"No shit?" Jake asked, trying to comprehend that.
"No shit," Nell said. "Why don't you show me where your file is and I'll start going through it while you get your beer?"
"Okay," Jake said. "Why don't you sit down at the desk there and I'll go get it for you?"
"Thank you," Jill said. She sat in his six hundred dollar chair while Jake went across the room to the closet. She watched as he opened it and removed a cardboard box that had once contained a case of Corona. Written on the side of it in black magic marker were the words: RECEIPTS AND SHIT. He carried it over and upended it over the desk. Approximately ten pounds of paper scraps, receipts, cancelled checks, junk mail, and a few bottle caps and cigarette butts came pouring out.
Jill was appalled. Her mouth dropped open. "This," she said, "is your file?"
"Well... I'll admit it's a little disorganized," he said, "but everything is there. Well... most of it's there."
The two accountants stared at the heap of papers and debris that represented the worst sort of blasphemy to their profession.
"Maybe I'll take that beer after all," John said.
"Yeah," Jill agreed. "Me too."
December 12, 1986
10:00 AM, Pacific Standard Time
The NBC-owned Lear Jet roared down runway 16R of the Van Nuys Airport, lifted off the asphalt surface, and soared into the overcast sky above the San Fernando Valley. It turned left to a heading of 086 and climbed to a cruising altitude of 43,000 feet. Projected flight time to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey — a general aviation facility just twelve miles from midtown Manhattan — was five hours and twelve minutes, which would make it just after 6:00 PM Eastern time when they landed. The plane was not even out of California yet when the first round of drinks — served by Roberto, the cabin steward — was nothing but a bunch of empty glasses and bottles on the way to the trash and/or dirty dish storage drawer.
"Yo, fruit fly!" Matt barked at the obviously homosexual Roberto. "Get another round going here, huh? You ain't earning your tip!"
"Right away, sir," Roberto replied, seemingly nonplussed by Matt's slur.
"And hey," Matt said, pulling a large joint out of his shirt pocket and waving it around. "Is it cool if we burn in here?"
"Well... technically that's against the rules," Roberto said. "But I'm sure I wouldn't notice anything if you were to light that up. After all, we fruit flies are pretty unobservant about tiny little cylinders like that."
Matt laughed. "You're all right, Roberto," he said. "If I was a faggot I'd let you suck my dick for me."
"Give me a call if you ever decide to switch teams," Roberto said. "Will you be requiring a light?"
"Naw, just start working on them drinks. I'll use Jake's smoke. Hand that thing over, Jake."
Jake took a drag off his cigarette, tapped the ash into the ashtray and started to hand it over. Before Matt could grab it, however, Pauline, who was sitting near the door to the service area, suddenly spoke up.
"Uh... before you burn that thing," she said, "maybe we could have a little meeting first? I have a few things I need to go over with you guys and I'd prefer you keep your heads semi-straight for it."
Matt sighed dramatically. "I suppose," he said. "And there is that other matter we have to take care of too, isn't there?"
"Yes," Pauline said. "There's that too."
"What other matter?" asked Darren, who was reclining in the seat next to Coop on the right side of the plane.
"We'll get to it," Jake said, putting his smoke back in his mouth. "Go ahead, Pauline. Do your manager shit."
"Thank you," she said, pulling a notebook out of her purse and looking through it. "First thing is Crow and Doolittle. They're calling me every day and asking when you guys are going to hit the warehouse and start putting together some music for your next album. They seem particularly fond of reminding me of your submission deadline, which is March 15, and then reminding me that that is only the deadline. They'd like something sooner."
"What the fuck for?" asked Matt. "They're not gonna release anything until Balance starts heading down the album chart and it don't look like that's gonna happen anytime soon. Can't we enjoy a little vacation time?"
"They still want the album in production on schedule," Pauline said, "whether they plan to release it by next September or not. I hate to nag, guys, but if you don't have something for them by mid-March you are technically in breach of contract. I might remind you that any breach is grounds for reversion to the old contract, and none of us want that."
"Especially not you," Darren said, getting a little dig in on Pauline, who he most definitely did not like.
She did not take the bait. "Especially not me," she agreed.
"We'll have a submission for them by the deadline," Matt said. "It may not be early, but it'll be there."
"When do you guys plan to start working on your submissions?" she asked. "Just so I have something to tell them when they call me tonight at the Plaza."
"We'll start working full-time as soon as Jake's preliminary hearing is done with," Matt said. "As you can imagine, having the lead singer up on an obscenity charge in some fuckin' Victorian-American shithole of a city is a bit stressful."
"Fair enough," Pauline said. "And you do have some tunes to work on when you start?"
"I've been strumming some out at night," Jake said. "I have three solid pieces and two more in the beginning stages."
"I've got three good ones too," Matt said. "I've also got two more riffs I've composed that I haven't put any words to yet."
"How are the tempo changes in yours, Jake?" asked Darren, who preferred solid tunes with little variation in beat. Jake, to his chagrin, was quite fond of multiple tempo changes in his compositions.
"Only one with radical tempo changes so far," Jake told him.
"I guess I can live with that," Darren said, lighting another cigarette.
"Glad to hear it," Jake said.
"Okay then," Pauline said. "I'll let Doolittle and Crow know that you'll hit the warehouse as soon as the preliminary hearing is settled."
"Unless they throw Jake's ass in some jail cell and deny bail for him," Coop said. "I hear that's what that fuckin' prosecutor is shootin' for."
"Thanks for reminding him of that, asshole," Matt said.
"I ain't sweatin' it," Jake said. "My dad's an ACLU lawyer, remember? He tells me they don't have a prayer and I believe him."
"As do I," Pauline said. "If there's one thing Dad knows, it's First Amendment legal precedents and he's been making sure the National legal team defending Jake knows about them too. Jake will never do any time over this. That's pretty much guaranteed. All this thing is doing is giving you guys free publicity."
The tour went on. After the third show in Long Beach, the band went to their own homes for the last time. The next morning, limousines took them to a truck stop on Interstate 5 just outside the Los Angeles city limits. Here, the tour caravan had formed up and they climbed onto the dreaded tour bus for the first time in almost two years. The first trip was relatively short. They went to San Diego and did two shows there. The following trip was considerably longer — from San Diego to San Jose,...
Jake and Helen boarded a DC-10 the next day for their trip to Omaha to pick up Jake's plane. Jake had booked them first class, a form of air travel that Helen, with more than two thousand hours of flight time, had never experienced before. She marveled over the plush seats and the attentive stewardesses but seemed a little nervous as the aircraft actually began to accelerate for it's take-off roll. "Something wrong?" he asked her as he watched her fingers gripping the armrests. "I hate...
Paris, France March 22, 1989 The limousine crawled along in the dense afternoon traffic as it headed from Charles de Gaulle International Airport to the luxury hotel on Champ de Mars. The weather was overcast with occasional drizzles — typical continental spring conditions. Inside the limo were the members of Intemperance, Helen, and Sharon. The band had finished their last Great Britain date the night before and were now embarking upon a two-day off period while their equipment was being...
"Jake, will anyone buy an album like that?" she asked. "I mean... realistically, will they? Will the radio stations play songs that don't involve you being accompanied by distorted guitars and heavy drum beats?" "I make music, Pauline," he told her. "It's what I do and I'm good at it. There might be some kind of backlash from the hard-core Intemperance fans, but I think I'll pick up enough new fans to replace them. There is a precedent for this." "There is?" she...
Los Angeles, California April 2, 1990 The 747 touched down at LAX at 12:33 PM after a five-hour, non-stop flight from Atlanta, Georgia. Jake, Nerdly, Charlie, and Coop — first-class passengers all of them — were among the first to deplane. They managed to make it through the crowded airport terminal and out to the limousine awaiting them before any of the public realized who they were (thank God for small favors, Jake thought, as this was an extremely rare occurrence at an airport). Matt was...
"We do?" Jake asked. "What the fuck?" asked Matt. "Nobody told us nothing about no meeting." "What's it about?" Nerdly wanted to know. Pauline answered them one by one. "Yes we do, nobody told me anything either until an hour ago, and I don't know what it's about. They just said it was important and that all five of you and myself should be there." "Freak-boy is still in Birmingham, isn't he?" asked Matt, using his recently coined nickname for Charlie. "Yes," Pauline...
Jake knew right away that The Northern Jungle was not going to be everything Greg predicted. In fact, by the time it was over — after an agonizing 176 minutes — he was starting to think that maybe Greg had just done irreparable damage to his career and credibility. The movie was horrible. There was no other way to describe it. The very premise of it — that global warming had killed off most of the Earth's population and caused the Pacific Northwest to be one of the few habitable places left...
"So anyway," Jim went on. "We did the cover tune thing for about six months or so and then I started introducing some of the tunes I'd written over the years. When we saw how good we were at putting them together into a coherent form..." "It's Jim who does that," Steph said. "He's the one that is able to take all of our lyrics and basic melodies and turn them into actual music." Jim shrugged this off modestly. "I have a gift for that sort of thing," he said, "but everyone...
The prevailing rumor over the next few weeks was that Darren was a vegetable, languishing on life-support without awareness or comprehension, only waiting for someone to make the decision to pull the plug. This was not even close to the truth. Darren remained on a ventilator because his respiratory muscles no longer had the strength to draw air into his lungs. His arms and legs remained flaccid because they no longer had the strength to move. Darren's brain, however, was still quite in the...
Jake's urge to panic was very great as he stared at the smoke and flame billowing from the engine on the right wing, as he felt the seemingly uncontrolled yaw to the right, as he felt the nose of the aircraft starting to drop. Panic seemed a perfectly natural response. Based on the screams of the passengers around him, based on the painful way that Helen was clutching his arm and the terrified whine coming from her lips, it seemed like panic was all the rage. He very nearly succumbed to...
Matt's preliminary hearing was the following Monday morning, once again before Judge Waters in the Santa Ana Superior Court building. Matt arrived looking much better than he had during his first court appearance. His face was no longer swollen and most of the bruises were fading away. He was dressed in a suit and tie, his long hair hanging over his shoulders. The accusations against him were read. He was officially charged with: possession of cocaine for sale, possession of marijuana for...
Jake did not feel she was taking advantage of him. He liked having her live there. The domestic cohabitation appealed to his sense of relationship and seemed to help keep his life in some sort of stable rhythm. He enjoyed having someone to talk to when he came home after a long day of recording. He liked having a companion to go out with to the movies, to social obligations, to the beach, or just to picnics up in Griffith Park. All of these were roles the groupies could not fill in his life,...
Lyttelton, New Zealand January 31, 1991 Jake opened his eyes slowly, trying to focus on the softly spinning ceiling fan above his head. After a few moments, he was able to do so. He watched it spin round and round, casting faint shadows on the vaulted ceiling of his bedroom. The light in here was dim. It was always dim in the mornings, usually until eleven o'clock or so during these summer months. His newly constructed house, and the bedroom within it, faced southwest, toward the town of...
In Escrow Los Angeles, California January 17th, 1987 11:30 AM The yellow 1986 Volkswagen Cabriolet wound its way up the narrow two-lane road into the hills below Griffith Park. Rachel Madison, dressed in a pair of designer jeans and a silk blouse from Buffington's on Rodeo Drive, was behind the wheel. Jake Kingsley, wearing a pair of Levis and a long-sleeved pullover shirt, sat in the passenger seat, directing her on where to turn and where to go straight. They were on their way to see...
The session went reasonably well. The first two hours was spent taking their instruments out of storage cases, cleaning them up, plugging them into the sound system, and tuning everything. The instruments were not the same ones they used on stage. Jake used a top-of-the-line Brogan Les Paul knock-off because its components were superior and it recorded better. Matt used a newer version of the Fender Stratocaster. Darren had a different version of the same Brogan bass guitar. Coop had a...
"What mistake?" She pulled a piece of paper from one of her desk drawers. It was an official looking legal form with numbers printed all over it. "This is a breakdown of your tour revenue as of last week. It lists all forms of expenses and all forms of income, including merchandising. When you read the bottom line it says that we made $1,116,428, or, to round down a bit, $1.12 million." "Wow," Jake said, whistling. "That's not bad." "Not bad at all," Pauline agreed. "It's a...
The very next day, Darren was destined to find out about that price. After less than twenty-four hours of stalemate in the Darren vs. Charlie issue, the Mexican standoff, as Pauline called it, was broken. Jake's first inkling of the issue's possible resolution came at just after eight that morning. He was under the covers and snoring in his bed, still sleeping off the eleven Coronas and eight bonghits of the night before. Suddenly, someone was pounding on his door. He tried to ignore it...
Heritage, California October 31, 1989 The sound of knocking, gentle but insistent, woke Jake up. He slowly opened his eyes, feeling the familiar dryness in his throat, the mild pounding in his temples, that came from drinking a few too many the night before. He took in the wood paneling that surrounded him, the ceiling that was only eight feet above his head, the tight confines of the bedroom. It was both alien and nostalgically familiar to him, as was the surface he was lying upon. He was...
Pasadena, California December 31, 1986 Rachel ended up wearing a black, thigh-length cocktail dress that clung to her body quite alluringly. Her toned legs were clad in dark nylons. She wore three-inch patent leather high heels on her feet. Her blonde hair — which was usually tied up in a ponytail at the restaurant — was styled and hanging down around her shoulders. Her face was carefully and expertly made up with just the right amount of blush, eye shadow, and bright red lipstick that...
The break-up went down as discussed and scheduled. Georgette and Shaver gave their press conferences and read brief statements written by Jake and Mindy in which both proclaimed that the reason for their break-up was personal and that they were still "dear friends" and would always remain so. The media went into a frenzy over the announcement, with headline stories and analysis taking up more room in some local publications than the stories about the pull-out of the US Marines from Beirut...
Frowley was still infuriated when Pauline called him two hours later. She was forced to endure a five-minute lecture about lack of decorum and uncouth behavior and proper legal procedures and judges who didn't know their ass from a hole in the ground. "That's all very interesting, Frowley," she said when he finally wound down. "Now, if we could get to the point of my phone call?" "What do you want?" "I would like to arrange a meeting between you, myself, and at least one member of...
March 25, 1983 Portland, Oregon A soft spring rain was drizzling down as the band walked from their hotel room to the tour bus. As usual, they were looking a little haggard, their faces unshaven, all dealing with varying degrees of hangover. By this point in their careers, however, being hungover was an almost normal state, something that a few more hours of sleep on the bus and a few lines of coke and a few beers upon awakening would take care of. Their humor was good since they were not...
January 1, 1983 Interstate 95, Southern Maine Jake woke up slowly, his head throbbing, his mouth dry and tasting of rum, his stomach knotted with hunger pains. He felt the familiar rocking of the bus, heard the familiar rumbling of its diesel engine as it pulled them up a hill, but he was not in the familiar confines of his fold-down bunk near the back. He opened his eyes slowly, wincing a little at the sunlight streaming in from the windshield up front. He found he was sitting at one of the...
June 28, 1983 John F. Kennedy Airport New York City, New York The limousine stopped as close to the Nationwide Airlines terminal as possible. The driver had been instructed not to open the door for them. That would only attract attention. The hope was to get through the airport lobby and security checkpoint as anonymously and unobtrusively as possible. It was a slim hope at best, but a hope nonetheless. Jake opened the door and stepped out. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a button...
South Island of New Zealand January 24, 1989 10:24 AM, local time The rented Cessna 172 leveled off at thirteen thousand feet above mean sea level, just five hundred feet below the maximum operational ceiling of the aircraft. Jake was a little nervous. He had never flown this high before and he didn't like the sluggish way the plane responded to the controls in this thin air. "You're doing just fine," Helen told him. She was sitting in the seat next to him, handling all of the...
Jake did not stand, did not rise to the bait. "I've told you this before, Matt," he said mildly, "and I'll tell you again. This isn't high school. You don't win just because you can kick my ass. I will tell you that if you lay a hand on me in anger, you and I will never play music together again." "Gentlemen!" Crow said, now truly alarmed. "We must stop this! We must..." "Shut your ass, Crow," Matt told him without even glancing in his direction. He continued to glare at Jake...
December 17, 1984 Los Angeles, California It was Monday morning and Steve Crow was going over the music sales reports from the previous week. He was dismayed to see that La Diferencia's debut album The Difference had moved into the number two spot on album sales, selling only six hundred fewer copies than The Thrill Of Doing Business, which was holding at number one for the eighteenth consecutive week. At this rate it was entirely possible that The Difference would take over the number one...
The back of the stretch limousine was filled with a thick, pungent could of marijuana smoke, a cloud so dense the passengers could barely see from one end to the other. All five members of Intemperance were back there as well as Janice Boxer, their publicity manager, and Steve Crow, the man identified as the producer of The Thrill Of Doing Business album and all the songs featured on it. There were two fat joints going around, the band members smoking them with enthusiasm, the two management...
The twenty-seventh annual Grammy awards took place on February 26, 1985. Intemperance once again hot-boxed the limousine with marijuana smoke as they made the trip and were stoned out of their minds as they walked up the red carpet and entered the building. In all there were three nominations associated with Intemperance. The band itself and Crow, the producer, were both nominated for Record Of The Year for Crossing The Line. Jake was nominated for Song Of The Year for writing Crossing The...
Jake's stage outfit consisted of tight red leather pants and a black, loose-fitting shirt that came down slightly below his waist and covered about half of his arms. For shoes he was given patent leather, ankle-length boots that had been polished to a high shine. The moment he got dressed he began to sweat. He knew it would only get worse out beneath the heat of the stage lighting. "Fabulous," crooned Reginald Feeney, the wardrobe manager. "It accents that nice ass of yours but hides the...
National Records Building July 2, 1989 The meeting with Crow was scheduled for eleven o'clock that morning since that was the best time to catch Matt and Coop both awake and in a relatively sober state of being. Jake, who was not looking forward to the subject of the meeting in any way, shape, or form, nevertheless showed up forty-five minutes early. He had a few items that fell under the umbrella of "personal business" to take care of while he was in the building. Since he was Jake...
Later, Jake, his mother, and Nerdly's mother took their places at the front of the room to perform the wedding song Jake had written for his friend. Jake picked up the battered acoustic guitar he used when composing. His mother removed the $18,000 Nicolas Lupot violin she played onstage with the Heritage Philharmonic from its case and put some rosin on her bow. Nerdly's mom sat down at a baby grand piano she'd arranged to have trucked here from her house. As he had done with Celia's...
Jake and Helen did continue to socialize with each other outside of the classroom. He took her out to dinner on a few occasions, to a Los Angeles Dodgers game one Friday night, and to a party at Matt's house. Everywhere they showed up, the media soon followed, dying to get a glimpse of Jake and Helen in some sort of compromising position. The public was fascinated with Helen for some reason Jake could not even begin to put his finger on. Not even Matt's newfound relationship with the famous...
"You know something, Nerdly," Matt said. "All kidding aside, I have to tell you, that bitch of yours is all right. She's a good sport." "Uh... thanks," Nerdly said. "I like her a lot. She's got a good ear for music." "How's her titties?" Matt asked. "It's hard to tell with those baggy clothes she always wears. She got a premo rack, or what?" "The specification of Sharon's breasts are not your concern," Nerdly said. "Oh come on, Nerdly," Coop said. "Give it up. Was...
"Got another one of those?" Celia asked him, taking up position on the rail next to him. She, like everyone else at the rehearsal, was dressed informally. She had on a pair of khaki shorts and a white sleeveless blouse. Her hair was pulled into a simple ponytail. "I think I can spare one," he said, pulling out his pack. He shook one out for her and then lit his lighter so she could ignite it. She drew deeply on it and then exhaled, sending a plume of smoke out over the beach where it was...
January 29, 1983 Texarkana, Texas The deputy was about as stereotypical of a Texas lawman as he could be. He was tall, white, had a gut that protruded over his belt, and he wore an actual Smokey the Bear hat upon his head. He had black leather gloves upon his hands. His light blue uniform featured an American flag on the shoulder and a five-pointed star pinned above the left pocket. His southern accent was so thick as to be nearly unintelligible. "Ya'll better eat up your chow now," he...
Los Angeles, California September 18, 1987 10:30 AM Jake sat shirtless in one of the chairs adjacent to the wet bar out on his patio. Sitting on the bar next to him was an ashtray that contained half a dozen cigarette butts and half of a joint he'd lit earlier. There was also a potent rum and coke sitting there — his third of the day even though it was only 10:30 in the morning. Sitting next to the drink was a notebook and a pen he was using to transcribe lyrics from his head onto paper....
Palm Springs, California November 11, 1988 5:24 PM "Wow," Helen said as the limousine came to a stop in the circular driveway at 210 Jacinto View Drive. She was looking out the window at the huge house that towered above them. Even though the sun had just gone down, bringing an inky twilight to the desert city, she could see enough to be quite impressed. "That is a big motherfuckin' domicile," Jake agreed, managing to combine a Nerdlyism with a Mattism and successfully pull it...
Buying land, even in one's own country, was not simply a matter of walking into a real estate office, writing a check, signing a few documents, and then walking back out again with ownership papers in hand. When such a purchase was being made in a foreign country, things became even more complex. Though to Jill, Jake seemed to be acting on foolish impulse, in reality he planned to proceed very carefully. The first things Jake wanted done were to make sure of all the legalities involved in...
Santa Monica Municipal Airport November 24, 1989 Celia Valdez stood on the tarmac of the airport, looking at Jake's twin-engine plane nervously. Jake had just finished the exterior pre-flight inspection of the aircraft. He had checked the control surfaces, the tires, the brakes, the fuel sumps, the propellers, the antennas, the lights, and had visually verified that his two tanks were actually full of fuel (true, he had watched the fuel truck pump both tanks full just thirty minutes before,...
Austin, Texas June 7, 1984 They moved about the stage, their motions pulsing, frantic, as they closed out Almost Too Easy. As the last beats were hit in a carefully timed crescendo, Jake, Matt, and Darren moved backwards, entering the safety perimeter that would keep them untouched by the coming explosion. By now they were well practiced in this maneuver and there had been no mishaps. The last beat was hit, the last strings strummed, and the two canisters detonated, sending a boom and a...
Heritage, California January 2, 1985 It was well past 9:00 PM and Pauline was sitting behind her desk on the sixteenth floor of the Markley Building. The ultra-modern, thirty-two story building was the tallest, most exclusive high rise in Heritage. Situated directly adjacent to the Sacramento River, its westward facing offices featured spectacular views of the waterfront. Pauline didn't have one of these offices. In fact, she had no view at all. Her office featured no windows and was less...
The movie premier that Jake and Matt had been pretty much ordered to attend (their contract stated they were required to make themselves available for public appearances as arranged by the record company — this was without compensation, of course, with only travel being paid for) was for a film called Thinner Than Water. Neither Jake nor Matt knew anything about it other than it starred Mindy Snow and Veronica Julius, two of the hottest young female actors on the movie scene today, though two...
They met with Steve Crow. He was a young, hip-talking man in a loud but fashionable suit. He had long platinum blonde hair styled in punk rock fashion. He wore sunglasses even though he was indoors. He was intelligent and articulate and he sat and went over each of the previously rejected tracks with them, rating each on its relative merits. "The only one you're absolutely forbidden to record is Its In The Book," he told them. "Which is one of our best songs ever," Matt said...
February 24, 1984 Los Angeles, California "God I hate these fucking leather pants," Matt barked as they emerged from the makeshift dressing room and made their way towards the back-stage area of the rehearsal warehouse. "That ain't no shit," Jake agreed, pulling at his for the twentieth time to keep it from constricting his testicles. "I forgot how hot and uncomfortable these get-ups are." This grumbling was met by more grumbling from the rest of the band. Coop complained about the...
They put in their normal jam sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, with none of the core members speaking of the conspiracy they were hatching to Darren or to Coop. Not that it was likely to matter if they did. The drummer and the bassist were both so strung out on what Matt, Jake, and Bill were increasingly coming to suspect was heroin that it was chore enough just to keep them focused on their musical tasks. On Wednesday, Coop actually fell asleep a few times — nodded off you might say —...
Jake, Matt, and Bill all received multiple phone calls over the next two days. They received them from Doolittle, from Crow, from Shaver, even from William Casting, CEO of National Records — the big guy himself. These phone calls were all in the same vein — demands to submit recordable music by the deadline, threats of what would happen if they didn't, promises that National would not cave on this issue no matter what, that they would sacrifice the millions they stood to make even if they...
Two days later, Jake was sitting in his living room, sipping a rum and coke and flipping through a collection of apartment brochures that had been sent to him. Manny was already gone, his fate unknown to Jake and uncared about. Jake himself had thirty days to find new lodging. He now had $79,780 in his bank account, his share of the $500,000 advance minus Pauline's twenty percent and the amount he'd spent on groceries for himself and the monthly insurance payment for his Corvette. On...
July 8, 1983 Los Angeles, California "Jake, where are you going?" Manny asked as Jake picked up his key ring and headed for the front door. It was 9:25 AM and Manny had just finished cleaning up the mess made from the light breakfast he'd served. "Out," Jake said simply. "But you didn't call a limo," Manny said. "Just taking a little walk, Manny," Jake told him. "Don't worry about it." "But, Jake, you can't just..." "Don't worry about making lunch," Jake said as he...
It was eleven o'clock the next morning when Mindy dropped Jake off in the usual place. As was the usual routine, they did not kiss or hug or show any sort of affection toward each other. They simply smiled, said their goodbyes, and parted company. Jake was limping as he made his way back to his building. He was tired, having gotten less than two hours of broken sleep the night before. He and Mindy had spent the entire night naked in her bedroom, lustfully boffing each other's brains out....
Jake was actually quite concerned that Mindy would do just as he'd suggested and call an end to the relationship in the name of imagery. He knew, based on phone calls the two of them had shared, that Georgette was pressuring her to stay as far away from Jake as possible and to start repairing the damage the photos had inflicted. "She's trying to set me up with Joseph Clark," Mindy told him during one such conversation. "Can you believe that?" "Joseph Clark?" Jake asked, lying in bed...
Jake stopped the Corvette before the closed gate that guarded access to Mindy's property. There was a mailbox, a newspaper delivery box, and a small intercom box that could be used to communicate with the inside of the house. Jake pushed the intercom button, holding it down for several seconds. He hoped he was wrong about what he was thinking — he hoped that sincerely and with all his heart — but he rather suspected that he wasn't. No matter how hard his brain tried to twist and distort...
Afterward, as they lay naked on their backs, staring up at the ceiling, smoking their cigarettes, she turned to him. "I really am going to make it up to you," she said. He grunted in response, feeling his usual post-coital guilt at giving into her emotional blackmail. She gently kissed his ear. "Jake," she said, "I know I've been unfair to you. I've been parading you around like a toy, exposing you to all kinds of things and people you don't want to be exposed to. I've ruined your...
That night, after eating the dinner Manny had prepared for him — something with an unpronounceable French name that was made out of chicken breast and rich white wine gravy — Jake walked into the office of his new place. There, beside the computer desk and the filing cabinet was a black case that had been moved from his apartment in Heritage to his apartment in Hollywood to a storage house during his first tour to his first condo after it to another storage house during the second tour and...
Los Angeles, California November 19, 1984 Jake's Corvette moved slowly down Hollywood Boulevard, caught in the thick Monday afternoon traffic. Jake was behind the wheel, feeling the usual frustration that came with driving a high performance vehicle he could rarely get out of second gear. Bill sat next to him, his thick glasses perched firmly upon his face, his hand playing with his crewcut, trying to determine if it was time to get another haircut or not. They had just finished a jam...
DAY AND KNIGHT VOLUME III Chapter # 1 by Lewis Chappelle Note: this is a very long, multi-volume, story beginning with ?Day and Knight Volume I? published in early March 2007. A LOOK BACK and A LOOK FORWARD? In volume I of this story, two dancers were introduced; Patti Day who was white and Susan Knight who was black. The girls were professional dance partners in point of fact, but were as different as their last names. They were now the featured act at Clairet?s Musical Review...
Well back at the end of volume 3 we had all come back in from our play time in the barn and playing in the rain naked. Grandma had gone to the kitchen to get Supper ready, We went to the kitchen and sat at the table, I asked can we set the table in the dining room for you Grandma? She said yes that would be a big help. So we proceeded to do just that. It was Friday and Tony's mom was coming to pick him up in the morning. He said I don't want to go, but his mom insisted because they were...
Thanks. Copyright 2010 Sidney dropped her head on her desk. It was Thursday morning. She looked down at her hands and groaned. “God, I hate my life.” Sidney was naked, and held a fluid-covered vibrator in one hand and was wiping the other with a paper towel. “I hate my life,” she repeated, trying to convince herself otherwise. She sat up and closed the window where she had been viewing some porn while masturbating. It was her favorite type, but she was getting tired of watching...