Crystals Summer Fantasy
- 1 year ago
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They called it the 'lateral arabesque'. You hopped from company to company, each time a little farther up on the food chain. It was the result of several things:
First, there was very little promotion within a company. Most companies, when they posted a job internally, were also required to post it for the outside world.
Second, HR Departments tended to believe, absolutely, what was on resumés, leading them to conclude that the people outside a company were infinitely smarter and more qualified than those who worked there.
HR Departments hated people who jumped from job to job, regardless of the reason, but they were stuck with their own bad habits. IT Departments, on the other hand, thought exposure to many different environments was a good thing. Besides, they had all played that HR game.
Crystal heard her phone chime. She touched a button to make sure she looked "presentable", mostly that her hair wasn't a mess, then pressed .
"This is Crystal."
The screen on her monitor blinked and showed her caller, the Receptionist. "Your 10:00 is here, ma'am."
"I'll be right there."
She killed the connection, then put the cover over the camera lens. She had insisted HR send her all job applicants, not just the ones they liked. Everyone had learned that when it came HR wonks were easily bamboozled to programming skills. They also missed some gems in the rough. That was because they pigeonholed people, and denied some very talented people a chance to move up, which led to lateral arabesques, which lead to...
Crystal stifled that though. She stepped into her slacks, slid her shoes on, collected her interview material, and headed for Reception in the South Satellite Office right next door.
The company had put in a covered walkway, which was a good thing today because of the light drizzle.
She'd spent two years at the Blue, finally choosing to go back to Hubbard, but only after a six-month stop at a bank as a contractor. The bank work had been a lot of fun. She had come away with all sorts of ideas about computer security. The last month of her stay at the bank had been an opportunity she'd seized with both hands: she'd loaded up on as much information about computer security as she could cram in her had.
She'd been a Senior Programmer at Blue Cross, a System Analyst at the bank (jokingly referred to as the Joe's Feed and Grain by employees), and was now back at Hubbard as a Manager. She did less coding, and a lot more supervising and managing. What was funny was she found she liked it a lot more than the coding, and cutting code had been a lot of fun.
The applicant was Rosie, a network tech she'd met at Blue Cross.
"Tired of the insane hours and workload?" Crystal asked as she sat down.
"Just a little," Rosie said. She was a slender woman who looked uncomfortable in her nice slacks and blouse. Like most network techs, she was used to more informal clothes, what you needed to wear when you were crawling all over equipment.
"I handle a lot of the security here," Crystal said, "and most of that is through software. We're not up to mainframe security, but we're getting there."
"I was thinking this was a hardware job," Rosie said.
"Consider extending yourself. I need someone who is good with equipment and is willing to learn how to code. It's been my experience that coders don't make good equipment people, but equipment people can make fair coders."
"Well, ma'am, I, uh..."
"So let's talk about your hardware experience."
Rosie relaxed, clearly feeling in her element. Crystal ticked off the points she was after, though she didn't let Rosie see that. The girl wouldn't be working in the private part of the company, but that was all right. They never hired off the street for that, but moved someone to that after a lot of investigating and testing.
Finally, after a good 30 minutes of questions and answers, Crystal said. "Okay, I have no further questions." She looked at the summary. She made a decision and slid a sheet of paper out of her folder and handed it to the young woman. "This is our job offer."
Rosie looked at it, then went back and reread it very closely. "This is more than I thought it would be."
"Actually it's competitive with the salaries being paid in the local area. Insurance companies and banks tend to underpay. We are a 24-hour a day shop, and have to do a lot of games with mirror-imaging to get our backups done. I'll warn you, if you accept, you'll be on Tuesday through Saturday shift, starting graveyard. However you should be able to move on to one of the other shifts fairly quickly."
"What's the busiest one?"
"Evenings. People are home and they call Customer Service. That's what we do around here."
Rosie nodded, staring at the offer sheet. "That's a different mix of benefits than I've seen."
"Our boss insisted. I understand she got some flak from the insurance carriers when she began looking for someone to offer that, but after a bit they agreed. I think it's a good mix, personally."
Rosie rubbed her chin. "All right, I'll accept the offer."
Crystal held out her hand. "Good. We'll have to arrange a start date. Let me walk you over to one of our HR people to get the paperwork started."
Rosie smiled, looking relaxed. "Software, eh? You'll pay for me learning to code?"
"We have people in-house who can teach you. Learning to code will be part of your job. However, we don't push you like a death march, learn or else. We want people who can do the job as an adjunct to what they're doing. I can get any number of pure coders who can't be trusted within ten feet of a server."
Rosie laughed, and the two walked a few steps to the HR person sitting at a nearby desk. There Crystal introduced them and got things started. "Let me know on the start date," she said. "The Blue might want you to take a leave after you turn in your notice."
Rosie nodded. "I think that's the procedure. They're a bit paranoid there."
"A lot of insurance companies are, it's not just the Blues. The health care laws almost mandate a company be concerned about such things."
Crystal walked back to her desk feeling pretty good. She knew Rosie was a hard worker, and giving her a chance to learn the coding side of things would be a plus. She liked it when she found someone who had that much potential.
She checked to make sure the cover was still on the camera lens in her monitor. You couldn't be too careful, she thought as she hung up her slacks. She smoothed out the towel on her chair and sat down with a sigh. She was feeling some tension, and was going to need some relief, probably over lunch.
Her phone beeped. She removed the lens cover to check her appearance. Her hair was in pretty good shape, and she looked neat and professional. She wanted to laugh. If they only knew she was bare from the waist down. It used to be that she would leave her bra off after her morning break; it just felt more comfortable to do so. You couldn't do that with these new picture-phones. She hadn't thought about it, but a woman from the main office had explained it.
"Your boobs don't move together if you're not wearing a bra," she said, "and if you're wearing a white blouse, your nipples and areola will show through the fabric. You don't want that. That's why you'll have to wear a bra. The good news is that you won't have to worry about the rest of your underwear."
The woman had been right. There was no way you could tell if someone was wearing panties under their clothes. And, one of the benefits, you also got rid of the dreaded Visible Panty Line. Men didn't realize how far women were willing to go to avoid showing those lines under their clothes.
With everything presentable, Crystal touched the correct button. "This is Crystal."
"Hey Crys," Janet said. "That fix we put in last night didn't work, and..."
Crystal hid her smile. Hiring people might be fun, but she still liked getting her teeth in a good programming problem. Deep in her heart she was still a programmer.
She had to cut short the coding bull session as they brainstormed fixes. HR wanted her back to finish the paperwork for Rosie. She was still turning code problems over in her mind, and when she got to the door she remembered she needed her slacks. This building was adjacent to the South office, which was a "normal" business wear facility. The Tech Adjunct wasn't, and she'd almost walked out bare.
Rosie was all pumped and enthusiastic, and Crystal shook her hand, got her pumped even more, and generally did the rah-rah for the company. She even loaned Rosie a self-teaching guide for the coding she'd be learning. That got the young woman even more excited.
Crysatal Maid Crystal Broken Mariam eyed him with her big doe eyes as Hamid entered the room. He gestured at her to join him at the small padded bench in the middle of the room. With a single finger he slipped the bra strap of her shoulder. No words were needed and Mariam unhooked her red demi cut bra and stepped out of her matching knickers. He noted with satisfaction her little cock was standing erect. Hamid patted the bench and obediently Marian climbed up and knelled on all...
Polly Tarantella hadn’t always been the great custodian of Crystal Passion’s legacy nor always the music’s greatest champion. In fact, I first heard of her when Olivia—one of the few original band-members I still keep in touch with—e-mailed me a link to a Rock Music website I’d never have discovered otherwise in which Polly Tarantella lambasted Crystal Passion with a vehemence that was bizarre given the many years since the band had broken up. In those days she was known as Sally Tyrant and was...
Crystal and I came trotting back from our morning run and a twenty-minute period of meditation in the little clearing in the woods. We'd seen a deer as we sat motionless, but the deer just meandered away in no particular rush. As we got near the house, I said to Crystal, "Would you marry me?" Crystal whirled around in complete surprise. She tried to speak, sputtered, her mouth moved, but no words came out. Then, I figured out what she tried to say: "No." She shook her head, paused, and...
‘Where is everyone?’ I asked when after an exasperating journey on Philadelphia’s public transport system I’d finally got back to the hotel and found Crystal sitting in the hotel lobby with only Jenny Alpha and our luggage for company. Crystal pretended to look around the hotel lobby at the scuffed velour chairs and the sticky linoleum floor. ‘They’re not here, that’s for sure,’ she said with a smile. ‘In fact, they’ve all left in the camper van for Boston.’ ‘They left without me?’ I...
I cried almost nonstop for an entire week. Everyone came by the house and tried to console me, as well as the others close to Crystal. We were all crying or moping around the house; we relished the few moments when we fell asleep exhausted because for a few minutes we were numbed from the events Crystal precipitated. Crystal was gone, disappeared, and maybe even dead somewhere. I couldn't even think of her without feeling total devastation sweep over me. For two days that first week, I...
Chapter One How well did I ever really know Crystal Passion? I ask that because everyone says that no one knew her better than me. And that’s just not true. It’s obvious why so many people believe I know more about her than the dozen or so others who were with her on that last fateful tour. I’m the one who renowned American rock critic Polly Tarantella has elevated to the status of Chief Guardian of the Crystal Passion legacy. Of the rest of us who were there, does anyone remember...
Both Crystal’s and Judy’s parents preferred that their daughters be buried rather than cremated so the final moments of the funeral weren’t of two coffins sliding inside a furnace and being incinerated. Instead a procession of hearses snaked out of the funeral home and wound through the roads and avenues of Rock Hill to Crystal’s final resting place at the Forest Hills Cemetery. I was a mess of sorrow and tears during the whole drive. The brief respite I’d had from my grief by the need to...
If you looked for a sexy, feminine, human dynamo with spectacular artistic talent, Brite Reber would flawlessly fill the bill. She lived outside St. Cloud, Minnesota, and for the past five years had done business on her own terms. She commanded top-dollar for her photo sessions, and last I knew you had to book her at least two years in advance even if you were the queen of England, the President, or the newest movie star. "Jimmmm," she crooned into the telephone, responding to my name...
Polly Tarantella hadn’t always been the great custodian of Crystal Passion’s legacy nor always the music’s greatest champion. In fact, I first heard of her when Olivia—one of the few original band-members I still keep in touch with—e-mailed me a link to a Rock Music website I’d never have discovered otherwise in which Polly Tarantella lambasted Crystal Passion with a vehemence that was bizarre given the many years since the band had broken up. In those days she was known as Sally Tyrant and...
Dan bumped his head a couple of dozen times against the wall in the bedroom he'd been in with Ellen. The act looked funny given he was naked and sober, but so were the rest of us. He'd dropped the newspaper that repeated the story in a British tabloid about me carrying around pornographic and lewd pictures that had been sexted to me or taken by me on my cell phone. I took his head pounding as an indication that my publicist hadn't the slightest idea how to cope with this sudden release of...
"Where is everyone?" I asked when after an exasperating journey on Philadelphia's public transport system I'd finally got back to the hotel and found Crystal sitting in the hotel lobby with only Jenny Alpha and our luggage for company. Crystal pretended to look around the hotel lobby at the scuffed velour chairs and the sticky linoleum floor. "They're not here, that's for sure," she said with a smile. "In fact, they've all left in the camper van for Boston." "They left without...
I slept between Crystal and Ellen the night we got back from Minnesota. I think we were sexed out because uncharacteristically no one made any overt gestures to any of the others regarding sex. We were cuddly and happy, and even went to bed early making up for the sleep deprivation we'd suffered when we opted to keep messing around until the wee hours while at Brite's home. I remember wondering what each of the women was thinking or dreaming as I drifted off. Were these moments a calm...
I felt her lips reach the base of my cock and I gave the back of her head a soft caress followed by a little push. Her lips gently flared out on the base of my hairless shaft and she moaned with my cockhead buried in her throat. I looked down and watched her green eyes as they stayed locked into mine. Crystal had enhanced her eyes the way she usually did when we went out somewhere. She fringed her lashes with lots of that CoverGirl ThickLash mascara that gave her lashes a longer, plush look....
I felt her lips reach the base of my cock and I gave the back of her head a soft caress followed by a little push. Her lips gently flared out on the base of my hairless shaft and she moaned with my cockhead buried in her throat. I looked down and watched her green eyes as they stayed locked into mine. Crystal had enhanced her eyes the way she usually did when we went out somewhere. She fringed her lashes with lots of that CoverGirl ThickLash mascara that gave her lashes a longer, plush look....
I felt her lips reach the base of my cock and I gave the back of her head a soft caress followed by a little push. Her lips gently flared out on the base of my hairless shaft and she moaned with my cockhead buried in her throat. I looked down and watched her green eyes as they stayed locked into mine. Crystal had enhanced her eyes the way she usually did when we went out somewhere. She fringed her lashes with lots of that CoverGirl ThickLash mascara that gave her lashes a longer, plush look....
you can visit www.boomsex.tk for the best porn :)I felt her lips reach the base of my cock and I gave the back of her head a soft caress followed by a little push. Her lips gently flared out on the base of my hairless shaft and she moaned with my cockhead buried in her throat. I looked down and watched her green eyes as they stayed locked into mine. Crystal had enhanced her eyes the way she usually did when we went out somewhere. She fringed her lashes with lots of that CoverGirl ThickLash...
I think our rendition of the song brought tears to nearly every eye in the arena. The song was Perhaps Love; it was a cover for one done years ago by John Denver and Placido Domingo, except Crystal and I had added our own touch to both lyrics and melody shifting the song into a romantic ballad of the country music genre. I could tell we'd seriously moved the audience because as the last bars of the song died out an eerie silence hung over the stadium for a full five seconds before the...
‘We’ve been invited to her home!’ an excited Andrea announced after she and Crystal emerged from the hotel lobby’s public phone booth. ‘Whose home?’ I wondered, not really having paid much attention. I was sitting splayed across one of the Crown Hotel’s most threadbare red velour sofas. We were now on the latest stop of our trans-American tour and in the city of Providence, the capital of the tiny Ocean State of Rhode Island. I’d been browsing statistics about the state in a tourist brochure...
If you were touring America these days and you wanted to contact your manager or, indeed, anyone back in the UK, all you need to do is switch on a laptop or tablet or smart phone and use Skype. And if not Skype exactly, you’d use Viber or exchange e-mails or instant messages. But in the early 1990s, the internet was very slow and ridiculously expensive and most people weren’t online anyway. So, when Crystal wanted to contact Madeleine, our agent, to find out how things were doing she had to...
It had been several years since I’ve been back to my hometown, I didn’t know what to expect when I moved back since I really haven’t stepped foot in this town since I graduated high school. Once I arrived back at my hometown I noticed that the town really hasn’t changed much. I noticed a new water tower, a new school but everything else was the same. What did I even expect from a small town, nothing is going to change in a small town. I got to my grandparents house, I looked around to...
The envelope had a wax seal across the flap embossed with the script letters 'NR'. On the front, written in bold letters, were the words, "To be opened only by Jim Mellon." An usher brought it to me at intermission time. I thanked him and went to tip him, but he said, "Oh, no sir, the young lady handsomely tipped me to deliver this to you personally." I figured it was some not-so-subtle fan mail. The green room door opened and a stage hand yelled into the room to Crystal and me, "On...
"You don't really want to know about my sex life or nearly the lack of one." I told her. We had joked about sex as Carol was growing up and had our talk about safe sex, I had let my ex wife do the sex talk with Carol. Carol had asked questions about different things about sex over the years but nothing that was personal. "Dad you are a great looking guy and I wish you would get out more, maybe get laid once in a while." Carol was blushing badly by the time she finished saying...
‘Wherever it is we’ll be tomorrow, it won’t be Kansas,’ Crystal announced when she’d returned from the hotel foyer after what was originally intended to be a routine phone call to Kai about the tour itinerary. ‘And it most certainly won’t be Kansas City.’ ‘No need for ruby slippers then,’ said Thelma. ‘So, if we’re not going to Kansas, where are we going?’ Andrea asked. ‘Weren’t we supposed to be travelling from there to Chicago, Washington and New Orleans?’ ‘It isn’t only Kansas we won’t...
I was working ate in the campaign office along with about three volunteers. I was in charge of a Get Out The Vote effort for a local candidate and we had been brain storming things for weeks with staff. One of the three volunteers was a college-aged girl named Crystal. Crystal had an engaging smile and the only thing bigger than her smile was her heart and her boobs. I had secretly stalked her Facebook photos after she added me as a friend. I had hopes of determining a little more about her...
Hardcore"Ellen will be your very special assistant. She'll be your script girl, check your makeup, help you go over your lines, and keep you on schedule." Crystal smiled at me to be sure I thought I'd be taken care of, "And, of course, she'll keep you warm in bed, and she's promised to remind you that I love you even though I'm six thousand miles away." She laughed at her innuendo abd then whispered, "And I've left instructions that she's supposed to fuck you senseless at least once a...
I'm sure most of the population think that music and movie stars have chauffeurs everywhere they go, plus a huge entourage who wait on their every need. Not true! I personally drove the crowded SUV across Tennessee from Nashville to a rural suburb of Knoxville where Crystal and Ellen's parents lived. With Crystal and me also were Ellen, Claire, PJ, and Nadia. We were all in a jovial mood, laughing and even singing Christmas carols along with the radio. The back of the car was so full of...
Nobody should approach me if they want a fair, balanced and informed opinion of Rock Hill, South Carolina. Most of what I discovered about the city was well after the Crystal Passion tour and what we saw was probably unrepresentative and, to be honest, not especially attractive. It was a town very much in the shadow of the somewhat larger city of Charlotte, 25 miles away and mostly only glimpsed at as we drove by on the relatively new Interstate 485 which also took us past Charlotte Douglas...
The Moscow concert and premiere of Crystal's film The Naked Truth had gone off without a hitch. The worry I'd felt over those events before paled in comparison with the angst I felt over having to check out of the country with Russian immigration and customs carrying a contraband iPod with a terabyte of highly classified Russian data on it. I tried to calm myself by recalling one of the missions I'd had in Russia when I was a Green Beret. My squad had done a HALO drop into the edge of the...
Not surprisingly, I found a few residual women in my bed on Tuesday morning, and we made love again. After that, we all showered, having some sexual play in our shower room, dressed, and then had a light breakfast. I felt like a kid waiting for Santa Claus to arrive, just knowing I would get my favorite and most wished for present later that day – Crystal! The clock slowed to a crawl. I kept looking at it, trying to see how fast 5:30 p.m. would arrive. It wasn't coming fast at all....
Nobody should approach me if they want a fair, balanced and informed opinion of Rock Hill, South Carolina. Most of what I discovered about the city was well after the Crystal Passion tour and what we saw was probably unrepresentative and, to be honest, not especially attractive. It was a town very much in the shadow of the somewhat larger city of Charlotte, 25 miles away and mostly only glimpsed at as we drove by on the relatively new Interstate 485 which also took us past Charlotte Douglas...
I looked at the pretty young woman and pondered how to answer her question, 'Mr. Mellon ... err, this is delicate ... I don't know how to put this ... but, well, ... do you have a child ... by a woman who lives in Greenville, Ohio – a baby about seven or eight months old?' I practically choked out loud. I did indeed have a child I'd fathered in Greenville, Ohio. Crystal knew too, but other than the baby's parents no one else should have figured out the lineage of that child. Crystal...
However much I admired Crystal’s song-writing skills when I was playing in her band, I didn’t really dwell much on the meaning of her lyrics. Certainly not with the intense attention to detail as Polly Tarantella. She quotes from Crystal Passion’s lyrics as if it was poetry and uncovered depths of meaning in them that had never occurred to me. I suppose it’s natural to think you might glean everything about Crystal’s philosophy of life from her lyrics, especially since she never explicitly...
By the time I called room service for lunch, four nearly nude women sat engaged in various activities in the living of our suite at the Hotel George V in Paris: Crystal was reading a script she'd been asked to consider for our next movie, if she liked it then I'd read it next; Jill had started to read a Clive Cussler book on her iPad; Helen sat near a corner of the room practicing various yoga positions au naturel; and Margo, naked except for her thong, alternately worked on her computer or...
I guess it should be obvious to just about everyone simply by having a look at an atlas, but it came as something of a surprise to me, to realise how big America actually is, and we were only travelling from North to South down the Eastern United States. Almost every single one of America’s states is bigger than England, and some are bigger than France or Germany, but when you travel across Europe you know for sure when you’ve left one country and entered another. In America the differences are...
"Wherever it is we'll be tomorrow, it won't be Kansas," Crystal announced when she'd returned from the hotel foyer after what was originally intended to be a routine phone call to Kai about the tour itinerary. "And it most certainly won't be Kansas City." "No need for ruby slippers then," said Thelma. "So, if we're not going to Kansas, where are we going?" Andrea asked. "Weren't we supposed to be travelling from there to Chicago, Washington and New Orleans?" "It isn't...
If you were touring America these days and you wanted to contact your manager or, indeed, anyone back in the UK, all you need to do is switch on a laptop or tablet or smart phone and use Skype. And if not Skype exactly, you'd use Viber or exchange e-mails or instant messages. But in the early 1990s, the internet was very slow and ridiculously expensive and most people weren't online anyway. So, when Crystal wanted to contact Madeleine, our agent, to find out how things were doing she had to...
*** This tale is an ADULT experience. It contains strong sexual content that is not at all suitable for minors. *** This story can be read separately, or be regarded as a continuation of ‘Phoenix Rising’. Be aware that there are spoilers here for ‘Phoenix Rising’ and that you may wish, therefore, to read that story before you tuck into this one… As you wish, it’s your experience not mine… *** CHAPTERS. CRYSTAL A job with prospects. CRACKED CRYSTAL A service with no prospects. LEAD CRYSTAL The...
FetishMy meditation was broken by the almost inaudible sound of a footstep nearby. I sensed an animal; but instead of jerking my head around to look I remained absolutely still and slowly opened my eyes. From my right side, a fawn moved into the clearing with me – light brown with white markings, large dark eyes full of curiosity. The pretty animal knew I didn't belong, yet obviously didn't fear me. It approached and sniffed at my ear and cheek. Not too far away, I heard the heavier footfalls of...
Edie Gerst and her editor published the story about my baby, Summer, George, Crystal, and me on Thursday. They carefully picked the day of the week, because that's the day most of the tabloids get to the newsstands, so it would be a week before they would be able to catch up with the scoop we'd given the Dayton Daily News. By the time they would be able to write about the story, it would be old news, and depending on what else happened during the week, including what flying saucers landed...
"We've been invited to her home!" an excited Andrea announced after she and Crystal emerged from the hotel lobby's public phone booth. "Whose home?" I wondered, not really having paid much attention. I was sitting splayed across one of the Crown Hotel's most threadbare red velour sofas. We were now on the latest stop of our trans-American tour and in the city of Providence, the capital of the tiny Ocean State of Rhode Island. I'd been browsing statistics about the state in a tourist...
Both Crystal's and Judy's parents preferred that their daughters be buried rather than cremated so the final moments of the funeral weren't of two coffins sliding inside a furnace and being incinerated. Instead a procession of hearses snaked out of the funeral home and wound through the roads and avenues of Rock Hill to Crystal's final resting place at the Forest Hills Cemetery. I was a mess of sorrow and tears during the whole drive. The brief respite I'd had from my grief by the need...
A lot of hate is thrown on boredom, but without boredom, where would humanity be? Boredom has been the impetus behind many of man's most significant accomplishments. Along with sex, it's one of our primary guiding motivations.From Boredom to WhoredomNothing is worse than sitting around with nothing to do. Why do you think we all masturbate so fucking much. It's the easiest solution to having nothing to do. Boredom can even lead a bitch to discover porn, and that's precisely what happened to...
Twitter Porn AccountsIn her best-selling biography, Polly Tarantella makes clear that she ranks the most significant days of Crystal Passion’s life as those from when she arrived at JFK airport until her fateful last day on American soil. It’s probably not surprising that an American writer asserts that Crystal’s few weeks in America should be her most important. Although Polly interviewed me for the book and we continue to exchange e-mails, there’s a lot in her account I don’t really recognise. And this is even...
We dozed for a long time, drifting in and out of a pleasurable nap brought on by the soporific afterglow of the pleasure we'd just completed. Not unexpectedly, I had dreams of a sexual nature. I held Kim's naked body against me; our spent sex organs nestled together at our groins, and my hand cupping one breast. Behind Kim, her daughter Crystal lay naked and tightly against her mother's body; one arm wrapped around and cupping Kim's other breast. Ellen had spooned behind me; her erect...
"You don't really want to know about my sex life or nearly the lack of one." I told her. We had joked about sex as Carol was growing up and had our talk about safe sex, I had let my ex wife do the sex talk with Carol. Carol had asked questions about different things about sex over the years but nothing that was personal. "Dad you are a great looking guy and I wish you would get out more, maybe get laid once in a while." Carol was blushing badly by the time she finished saying...
Crystal always had me fascinated from a young age. The eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Clifton nextdoor, she was older than me by about 5-10 years. She was more mature than the rest of us k**s growing up, but still cooler to hang out with than the grown ups when our parents would get together for one of the many neighbourly BBQs on their back deck. We had a close relationship with the Cliftons. I was about 4 or 5 when both our families had moved into the street about the same time. The summer...
Crystal always had me fascinated from a young age. The eldest daughter of Mr and Mrs Clifton nextdoor, she was older than me by about 5-10 years. She was more mature than the rest of us k**s growing up, but still cooler to hang out with than the grown ups when our parents would get together for one of the many neighbourly BBQs on their back deck. We had a close relationship with the Cliftons. I was about 4 or 5 when both our families had moved into the street about the same time.The summer...
When my dad passed away last year, I wanted to come home and be with my mother. But mom insisted that I finish the semester. College was important to both my parents. I did come back for a few days for the services. Mom and dad had a modest savings account and dad had a pretty good insurance policy, so we were ok financially, at least for a while. The first few days back at school were difficult as you can imagine, but I called mom almost every night to be sure she was ok. When the semester...
In her best-selling biography, Polly Tarantella makes clear that she ranks the most significant days of Crystal Passion's life as those from when she arrived at JFK airport until her fateful last day on American soil. It's probably not surprising that an American writer asserts that Crystal's few weeks in America should be her most important. Although Polly interviewed me for the book and we continue to exchange e-mails, there's a lot in her account I don't really recognise. And this is...
However much I admired Crystal's song-writing skills when I was playing in her band, I didn't really dwell much on the meaning of her lyrics. Certainly not with the intense attention to detail as Polly Tarantella. She quotes from Crystal Passion's lyrics as if it was poetry and uncovered depths of meaning in them that had never occurred to me. I suppose it's natural to think you might glean everything about Crystal's philosophy of life from her lyrics, especially since she never...
It's often assumed that because I've been cast as Crystal's best friend, I'm also the one who knows most about her childhood or at least about her life before she became a musician. That's just not true. Her husband Mark knew Crystal's family far better than I ever did. Mark was never really a close friend. In fact, I regarded him rather more as a rival. Neither Crystal nor Mark were jealous lovers but that wasn't what it was like for me, although I accepted Crystal's sexual...
Crystal Clear Crystal Clear.Written byGemma Swallow AKA Tainted Angel "She knew that she was out of her depth; she was usually self assured, confident, controlled. She was proud of her ability to handle herself well, people saw what she wanted them to see, that is not to say that she was deceptive she had just got used to dealing with things alone. If she was honest with herself she was a bit of a control freak. It was safer that way. She always thought that she would like to have a man...
Edie, the pretty reporter from the Dayton Daily News, appeared nonplused. "You ... err, how can I ask this delicately ... you conceived a second child last night?" She looked between Summer and me about a dozen times in ten seconds. Summer spoke directly, not being evasive in any way, "Yes, exactly." "How do you know you're pregnant? You can't tell for sure for at least a couple of weeks." "I can," Summer replied with great certainty. "I knew it the second he ... the second his...
There’s a lot I simply can’t remember that happened in the following few days we were stranded in Rock Hill. My attention was almost entirely focused on my overwhelming sense of grief. I was completely disconnected from the many events swirling around me. I guess I was hoping that Crystal might still be alive and would magically appear from somewhere. And when it was established that Crystal had been murdered at almost exactly the time that Judy Dildo made her brief appearance at the Penitence...
The powers that be at Sony Entertainment had decided that Wengen, Switzerland, would be the perfect place to film the outdoor ski scenes for our movie Downslope. The small ski town was serviced by a rack railway system. The massive and famous Eiger rises spectacularly in front of the town, a well-known part of the Alps. Ski slopes of all varieties and difficulties left from the town, with a wide variety of transport to return to home base once some end point had been reached. Crystal and I...
Crystal Sky: Origins by Red The Bard It all started when a rock fell from the sky and landed on Zoey's head. It had been a pretty nice day so far, she had finished her morning shift at the hospital, and was heading home for some sleep, the noon sun pounding hot against her head. It wasn't long, however, until she felt a more decisive pounding, as a small yellow rock cracked against her skull, sending the brunette crumpling to the floor. She groaned, motes dancing in her vision and her...
Chapter Seven ‘Detroit!’ Jacquie exclaimed as she looked up from the tour itinerary she’d been reading. ‘That’s where our next gig’s gonna be. I’ve always wanted to go there.’ ‘Home of the MC5 and Iggy Pop,’ remarked Judy Dildo. ‘And much more importantly,’ I said. ‘The home of Techno.’ ‘It’ll be good to see Juan Atkins or Derrick May on the decks,’ said Jane. ‘I absolutely love that Nude Photo album.’ ‘You’re irrepressible!’ giggled Philippa who excitedly gripped Jane’s shoulder. She was...
I guess it should be obvious to just about everyone simply by having a look at an atlas, but it came as something of a surprise to me, to realise how big America actually is, and we were only travelling from North to South down the Eastern United States. Almost every single one of America's states is bigger than England, and some are bigger than France or Germany, but when you travel across Europe you know for sure when you've left one country and entered another. In America the differences...