FAME and GLORY

by K. T. Hastings

  She didn't know when it had changed, but there was no doubt in her mind that she was a different person than the girl in the audience at Arena Auditorium earlier in the week. She knew in her heart that she could thank Brandee for unfolding the flower that had been dormant inside her all of her life. The young lady out front who was turning the crowd into a puddle as she swayed under the wind machine had brought Janelle to life. Janelle knew more than that, too. She mouthed her realization silently to herself.

  “I'm in love with Brandee.”

  Janelle was lost in the vision that was dancing before her. She didn't know that she was being watched by Brandee's husband.

  Jake recognized the look on Janelle's face. While he didn't associate it with love, he knew that Janelle was being profoundly affected by Brandee's performance. He knew that he had probably worn that very expression on his face during the windy times of Brandee's previous shows. As he watched Janelle watch Brandee, Jake felt a little sorry for the star struck young fan. This had to be the best few days of vacation Janelle had ever experienced, and it was going to be over in just a couple of days. He walked to Janelle's side, startling her out of her reverie.

  “She's really good tonight, isn't she?”

  Janelle's face reddened slightly as she wondered incongruously if Jake had been able to read her thoughts. “She's just so talented. Her voice is like an angel’s.”

  Jake nodded, “She has a gift, that's for sure. All of them do. I'm no musician, but it seems to me they've really grown as a group since we first started Brandee.”

  Janelle looked at the rest of the group and realized that she hadn't paid a bit of attention to them since the show had started. Brandee could have been backed by a chimp, a gibbon, and an orangutan and Janelle would never have been the wiser.

  Just then, under the thunderous applause of the crowd, the group finished their second encore. After acknowledging that night's crowd for the last time, they ran backstage. Suzi and Bruce immediately got into another heated discussion, this time about what would constitute the rest of the evening.

  ***

  Normally, the members of the group went to a restaurant of some sort to get a bite after the show. Things were a little more complicated tonight.

  Jackpot is in the part of the West that's called The Great Basin. It has a rugged harsh beauty to it. Part of its charm is that it is very sparsely populated. What that meant, though, was that not even Denny's was available to a hungry musician. The members of Brandee had two choices. They could dine on gas station ham and cheese sandwiches or the snack bar of the Sneaky Pete casino.

  Bruce was all for the casino. He didn't drink or do drugs anymore but that didn't mean that he had given up all of his vices. The clinking sound that a jackpot makes when it hits the tray of a slot machine was music to his ears. The sound of a blackjack dealer singing out “changing $500” was joyous to the keyboard artist. Suzi knew these things and was forcefully whispering into her man's ear, “I'm hungry too, Bruce. Let's go around to the back where the entrance to the snack bar is. I feel like a bacon cheeseburger with onion rings.”

  Bruce had another idea. “Let's go through the showroom and out the back. It's closer to the snack bar if we go through the casino. Besides, it's getting cold outside. I don't want you to catch a chill.”

  He punctuated his last statement with a protective pull of Suzi into his arms. Ever the attentive one, especially when it could get him into the din of a casino floor, Bruce started cleaning up the backstage area of the group's personal gear. Suzi wasn't going to let it drop quite that easily.

  “We just bought two bikes, Bruce. We can't afford to drop a bunch of money at a casino tonight. We have expenses that go with having a little one. Let's just get a couple of greasy burgers, okay?”

  Bruce shook his head. He knew that they had less than 3 and a half hours driving time to Winnemucca the next day. That was almost a day off in his mind. Besides, maybe he would hit a hot streak and make a bundle at Sneaky Pete's. It had happened there before, he was sure. Why couldn't it happen to him?

  “I'll tell you what, baby. I'll take $50 and no more into the casino. We'll split the money in half and just play slots. You go first. If we double your money we'll stop. If we lose your money we'll stop. Then we'll do mine. Same rules apply. It will be a fun “together” thing to do. What do you say?”

  Suzi rolled her eyes in exasperation. This big lovable lug was so transparent, but she had a really hard time turning him down. It was worth $50 to see the smile on his face. If she was with him the whole time, it would probably be okay.

  “Okay. Just this once and just for a fifty.”

  She smiled coyly at him before continuing. “If I hit a million dollar jackpot, maybe we'll let you do a hundred.”

  Bruce wrapped her in a hug and whispered into her ear.

  “If you hit a million dollar jackpot, we leave right then so I can do you.”

  The two musicians laughed so hard that the rest of the group wondered what in the world had gotten into them.

  Janelle was at the far end of the backstage area from where Bruce and Suzi were having their conversation. She was trying to be as helpful as possible without actually knowing what she was supposed to be doing. The traveling road show had the post show routine down to a science. Janelle realized that she should probably ask Brandee what it was that Suzi did after a show so that she could take over that position. She hoped it wasn't anything too messy or sweaty. She did want to impress Brandee, but she hoped she wouldn't have to break a nail to do it.

  Jake was hauling sound gear out to the vehicles in the parking lot. He was ready for a bacon cheeseburger himself, but was wary of sitting down for a post-show snack with his wife. Each of the last two nights, those occasions had ended in a shouting match between them. He desperately wanted things to get back to the way they used to be. This trip had started with such good feelings between the Evanses. So many hurtful things had been said. So many feelings had been damaged.

  Brandee had carefully removed her performance makeup, and was now looking critically at her image in the full-length mirror. She thought that she looked a little bloated. It was almost time for her period, so she knew that she might be carrying more water than was normal, but she also wondered if these late night dinners might be catching up with her.

  “A Chinese chicken salad for you tonight, blondie," she said to her image in the glass. “If you get any fatter, you'll split that cowgirl get-up wide open on the stage.”

  Janelle finished pretending to be industrious and found Brandee just as the singer left the mirror behind. The younger girl bounded up to her idol.

  “You were soooooo good tonight," she purred.

  “Thank you Jannie," Brandee said. “That's so sweet of you.”

  Janelle's face darkened for a moment. “I have a question, though," she said worriedly. “Don't you get scared when you go down into the crowd like that? Some of those men look like they want to rip your clothes off.”

  Brandee laughed. “I hope they do WANT to rip my clothes off. It's only if they DO rip my clothes off that I'm going to be scared. There's usually security pretty close by when I go into the crowd.”

  She put her arm around Janelle's shoulders and headed for the showroom and the casino entrance beyond. When they had emerged from the backstage area, she continued with what she had been saying.

  “You have to remember that my show isn't just about one song after another. It's about the music and my connection with the people. I want every one of those men to believe that I want to go home with them at the end of the night. That's part of the interactive experience. If they just wanted to hear music, they could turn on the CD player in their car. I want to create a memory that they take with them when they leave and keep with them for a long time. Maybe even keep with them forever. Does that make sense?”

  Janelle nodded, unable to speak for a moment. She was aware of Brandee's arm around her shoulders. She was aware of the heady fragranc
e of Brandee's perfume. Mostly though, she was aware of the moistness that had come about between her own legs.

  Brandee gave Janelle's shoulder a quick squeeze before releasing her.

  “How about one of those Sneaky Pete Bacon Cheeseburgers that I've heard people talking about. My treat!”

  The two young ladies then made their way through the casino and toward the snack bar. Brandee was stopped a couple of times by people wanting her to sign a cocktail napkin. She knew that those napkins would likely be thrown away eventually, but she was gracious and appreciative to those who detained her.

  Just before the two girls arrived at the small snack bar, a middle-aged man who had been enjoying a little too much barley pop reeled up to Brandee.

  “Could I get a hug?” he asked, his beer breath preceding him by a good ten feet.

  “How about a handshake, sir?” Brandee said coolly. “I'm kind of sweaty.”

  “YOU'RE KINDA HOT! THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE!” he said, reaching out to try to get up close and personal with one of Brandee's ample breasts.

  Just then, a part of the tribal security team that patrol the gaming area appeared. The two officers looked as if they had been chiseled from the rock outcroppings that dotted the landscape near Sneaky Pete's. They calmly moved together in a way that rode the cowboy away from Brandee and Janelle. As quickly as the altercation had started, it was over.

  The younger of the two security officers, a man of about 25, re-appeared next to the young ladies in a matter of moments.

  “I hope he didn't scare you, ma'am," he said to Brandee, tipping his Smokey the Bear hat in a way that was both professional and courtly. “That was just Old Mitch. He gets excited when singers come to town. He doesn't mean any harm. We just have to keep an eye on him when he gets his High Life on.”

  Brandee smiled. “It's quite all right. I'm just glad that you guys were so quick. You're quite a team.”

  “We try to keep things as calm as we can. Enjoy the rest of the evening,”

  Brandee watched the strong back of the security officer move away and disappear into the crowd that had gathered to watch. She nudged Janelle.

  “I wouldn't mind being read my rights by that guy.”

  Brandee entered the brighter lights of the snack bar, not noticing that Janelle hadn't said a word about the young cop.

  Jake arrived then at the snack bar. He had come from the parking lot and, since he had entered from the other side of the dining area, hadn't seen what had happened just a few moments earlier. Brandee and Janelle joined him as he sat down.

  “Where are Diane and the Pregnant Pair?” Jake said, using the nickname for Bruce and Suzi that Diane had coined earlier that day. Bruce had asked Suzi so many times if she was doing okay and if she needed anything, that Diane had finally snapped.

  “Leave her alone, Bruce!” she had said in the Nissan. “You're going to smother the poor thing. You act like a mother hen yourself.”

  It had been a short trip from there to calling Bruce a member of the Pregnant Pair. Jake and Diane saw a lot of humor in that, Bruce less so. Suzi thought it was funny too, but stayed quiet about it, in deference to Bruce's feelings.

  Brandee looked around. It was easy to take in the small snack bar area in one glance. None of the other three performing members of the group were to be found. Just then, Diane appeared at the entrance through which Brandee and Janelle had recently passed. The drummer was smiling triumphantly, holding a plastic cup mostly filled with orange soda, and Dippin' Dots on top.

  Diane's words came out in a rush. “I walked past the children's area of the casino. I was going to go into the gift shop to see if I could find any black hills gold to send to my niece. Look what I found! Dippin' Dots! Dippin' Dots in a float!”

  The three people at the table looked at the drummer in astonishment. Brandee and Janelle had never heard of Dippin' Dots. Jake had heard of them, but had never seen them floating on top of a soft drink. What had them in such rapt amazement, though, had nothing to do with the cream and orange dessert. None of them had ever seen Diane in such a spasm of delight before. She was looking at her Dots with lust in her eyes.”

  Diane was about to have a religious experience with pellets of super- cooled ice cream and eight ounces of Orange Crush.

  Her eyes widened as she took her first sip. Then, she closed her eyes as the creamy goodness swirled in her mouth. She murmured “Mmmmm-mmmmmm” just before swallowing.

  Jake's, Brandee's, and Janelle's jaws all dropped open. As quickly as their jaws dropped, though, the three of them snapped their mouths shut. They were suddenly overcome by the wash of saliva that had been generated by watching Diane. None of them had ever been so hungry in their lives.

  Long forgotten was Brandee's decision to have a salad. The three of them filed like automatons to the counter to order bacon cheeseburgers and onion rings. They wanted something on their stomachs before ordering Dippin' Dots floats.

  Just as they returned to the table, they were joined by Bruce and Suzi. The newcomers didn't even notice Diane and her Dots. They were engaged in yet another of their lover's quarrels.

  “It was an 'us' thing, Suzi," Bruce was saying.

  “It was first me and then you and that was it!” Suzi said, shaking her brown hair back and forth.

  “You're not remembering what I said," Bruce answered her.

  “What's up, kids?” Jake asked. He was 20 years younger than Bruce, but he always felt like the wise father figure when Bruce and Suzi got into it. The role amused him.

  “I won!” Suzi said, holding out a handful of chips. “I put my $25 in the machine and on the last one I won $150. Bruce put his $25 in another machine and he didn't win squat! Now he wants some of my money! Can you believe that?”

  What Bruce couldn't believe was how she had misrepresented the plan. He had thought of the whole $50 as being shared money. At least, he had thought of it that way after she won and he didn't. He actually hadn't thought it out all that much before they went into the casino. He just naturally figured, due to his greater experience, that he would win and Suzi would lose. He would buy her a box of candy or some flowers with a little of the winnings and they would both be so very happy. Suzi had other plans. She turned her back on Bruce and spoke directly to the others at the table.

  “I'm going to look at strollers when we get into Oregon. There isn't any sales tax there so my $150 will go farther. Then, I might get something that will fit me when I get big. Then I'll--”

  “Can you believe her?” Bruce said, throwing his hands in the air in exasperation.

  What Bruce hadn't seen was the twinkle in Suzi's eye when she had turned away from him. Jake was the first one who tumbled to the fact that Suzi was yanking Bruce's chain big time. She hadn't wanted to go into the casino, but when it worked out in the way that it did, she was thrilled. She had no intention of keeping the booty for herself, though. She knew that Bruce would be all for looking for something for the baby. She just needed to dangle him over the side a little bit first.

  Jake thought it would be fun to turn the needle a little. “Sounds like possession really is 90% of the law this time buddy," he said to the seething keyboardist. “Better luck next time at the slots. If there is a next time.”

  Diane looked up from her dessert in time to join in on the fun. She wiped her lips with a cocktail napkin and said, “Can I help you shop for maternity clothes, Suzi? We'll go to Nordstrom and The Bon. You can take me to lunch at Nordies with some of the money too. You can afford it.”

  “Aaaarggghhh!” Bruce said. “I need a cheeseburger. Maybe after she finishes spending my money, Diane can tell me what's in the cup. That looks really good.”

  The general good feeling at the table continued for the rest of the evening. Janelle had the good sense to stay quiet, since the last thing that she wanted was to antagonize anyone. She knew that she had Brandee to herself in the Sprinter for at least the next couple of days.

  She did her best to follow the con
versation at the table. It didn't take her long to feel that she had the members of the traveling party slotted. Janelle had two things going for her, in that regard:

  First, she was genuinely quite perceptive. She could read an expression or a gesture fairly accurately. A slight eye roll or turned up lip could readily tell her what was going on in someone's mind.