FAME and GLORY

by K. T. Hastings

  Tom stood up. “I'll tell you what? Let her rest. Talk to her tomorrow. I'm going to be with you for your next show anyway. I know it's in Eugene. Is it another fair?”

  Bruce said, “Yes, it is. The Lane County Fair this time.”

  “Great, I'll probably ruin another pair of Italian loafers at that one. Oh well, never mind. Anyway... Talk amongst yourselves as a group. Arista is interested in signing you to a three year deal. Three records and two singles in the three year span. One domestic tour, one international tour, and one mixed tour. It will be hard work, but you'll have publicity support, the finest tour transportation that money can buy, five star accommodations, and a twenty-person crew to set you up and break you down.”

  The silence was palpable. All the members of the group had the same thought: they needed to have Brandee with them before they talked to Tom any more. However, Tom had just left out one tiny little part that was kind of important, letting them dangle for a few seconds longer.

  “Oh yes. How much are we offering? 1.5 million a year plus 8% on every CD you sell. We can negotiate the clothing and gear sales when we sign the contract.”

  The members of Brandee collectively held their breath. Tom was offering $375,000 per year for three years to everyone in the group. That was just the beginning. With the clout of Arista behind them, their record sales would be limited only by how hard the group worked to stay relevant. Jake calculated their probable individual income at $400,000 in royalties alone if they sold a million records. There was no reason that the deal wouldn't gross the members of the group $1,000,000 a year for three years.

  Good God! He thought. We're going to be rich!

  Out loud, he said, “This is all very interesting Tom, but like you said, we need to talk as a group. Right now, we need to break this show down so we can get some rest before tomorrow night. Will we see you backstage tomorrow?”

  “Count on it, Mr. Evans. I look forward to it.”

  Jake laughed. “Call me Jake, Tom.”

  “Right Jake. Thank you.”

  With that, Tom turned to the others. He shook hands with all three of the musicians, showing his manners by starting with the ladies. Later, Suzi would say that it was all that she could do to keep from kissing the lips that had offered her so much money. Bruce would respond that, not only was he not jealous, but that he had considered kissing the man himself.

  After Tom had made his way across the muddy parking lot and into his rented Cadillac, the members of Brandee stared at one another in amazement. That only lasted a moment, though.

  “Go talk to Brandee,” Diane said to Jake. “Do it now, before she's been asleep for long.”

  Jake looked out at the equipment that was still unpacked. “I need to help wi--” he started.

  “Go talk to Brandee!” Suzi said.

  “But--”

  “GO TALK TO YOUR WIFE!” Bruce thundered.

  Jake smiled at the people that he had grown so close to in the last months. It had been a long ride from when he and Brandee had auditioned musicians. It had been a fun ride, though. Now, it looked like it might start raining money on them all. He couldn't wait to talk to his beautiful wife.

  “I think I'll go talk to Brandee, if it's all the same to you guys. I'll walk back and leave the Nissan with you.”

  Jake stopped talking, remembering something else. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the jewelry box from Araxa Jewelers.

  “Timing is everything, isn't it?” he said to his dear friends, and headed for the parking lot with a spring in his step.

  ***

  Brandee had every intention of going straight to sleep when she got back to the hotel. Janelle followed her into Room 116, talking to her about the show that night. Brandee promised herself that she would have just a few minutes with Janelle before sending her to her own room.

  Janelle kicked off her shoes and placed them beside Brandee's. Then she sat on the bed behind Brandee, who was seated at the table removing her makeup.

  “Another magnificent show tonight, baby,” she said to the singer. “You just get better every night.”

  “Tonight was a hard one. I'm sore all over.”

  Janelle waited until Brandee had finished removing her makeup before starting to massage Brandee's neck.

  “Mmmm, that's nice,” Brandee said, closing her eyes and leaning into the massage.

  “I like to take care of you. I want to make you feel so good. You work so hard on stage.”

  Janelle's hands moved down to Brandee's shoulders, smoothing knots that the singer had been fighting most of the evening. Brandee rolled her head, first clockwise, and then counter-clockwise, loosening further the places that Janelle had rubbed.

  “Try some deep breathing again, love,” Janelle said quietly.

  Brandee got up from the chair and sat down beside Janelle, taking her hand.

  “All right, but just for a minute. I have to get some sleep.”

  Brandee breathed as deeply as she could. She felt her lungs filling with new air. When she let the air out slowly, she felt some of her stress go with it. At first, she barely realized that Janelle's lips were on her neck. When she did realize it, she looked at the bedside clock and did some quick calculating. Satisfied with the answer, she started to unbutton Janelle's shirt.

  ***

  The Northwoods Inn is only a three-minute drive and a ten-minute walk from the Del Norte County Fairgrounds. Jake felt like he could have run it in just about three minutes, too. His mind was racing with the news that he had to tell Brandee. He knew that this news, finally and at last, was going to be the thing that would draw the two of them closer again. It meant that their lives were never going to be the same again! It would provide for a new start. A new start doing what Brandee loved to do and what Jake loved helping her do.

  Jake walked through the parking lot and went in the hotel's lobby door. He greeted the desk clerk and wanted to whistle as he headed down the hall, but refrained from doing so. He didn't want to wake the whole first floor; he just wanted to wake Brandee if she was already asleep.

  She probably is, Jake thought. Poor kid.

  Jake took the electronic door key from his shirt pocket and slid it neatly into the card slot. He heard the slight buzz and saw the green light that indicated that the door had recognized the key. He opened the door to Room 116.

  Jake later remembered his walk down the hall. He remembered thinking that this was the beginning of something new in his life and the life of his family. As it turned out, he was right.

  Jake's ears were assaulted by the sound of a high-pitched howl. His first thought was that Brandee was crying. He walked through the abbreviated entryway and was confronted by a sight that he knew would haunt him for the rest of his days. He saw his wife lying prone on the bed. He saw that her face was buried between Janelle Kelly's thighs.

  For a moment, neither Janelle nor Brandee knew that Jake was in the room. Brandee had her back to her husband and was busy. Janelle's eyes were closed as she arched her back, pushing herself into Brandee. The sound that Jake had thought was crying when he heard it at the door was Janelle moaning her pleasure.

  Janelle's right eye opened slightly and she saw Jake standing in the room. She pulled herself into an upright position and put her hand on Brandee's head, pushing her away. She pulled a sheet over herself, but otherwise sat seemingly unperturbed.

  Brandee sensed that something was wrong. She turned around, looked over her left shoulder, and saw her husband standing in the hotel room.

  Brandee sighed. “Oh, shit.” she said.

  Jake was paralyzed, but only for a moment. He looked at the betrayal before him with a face devoid of all emotion. He glanced at Janelle, then back to Brandee. Without a word, he turned on his heel and left the room.

  He left the hotel and marched across the parking lot, retracing the steps that he had taken with such a joyous heart a few short minutes before. He never heard Brandee's voice as she called “Jake, stop!” from t
he window of the room.

  Jake headed for downtown Crescent City. The deserted little town's dark streets matched the feeling in his heart. He walked aimlessly. He didn't know where to go.

  ***

  Brandee quickly looked for some clothes to wear. Janelle asked her what she was going to do.

  “I'm going to follow him, of course.” Brandee said.

  “Do you want me to come, too?” Janelle asked.

  “I don't think that would be a very good idea. Why don't you just go back to your room? If he comes back while I'm gone, you shouldn't be here.”

  Janelle put her clothes back on. Before she headed for the door, she kissed Brandee. The singer returned the kiss absentmindedly.

  “Call me later, please,” Janelle said.

  “I will.”

  Brandee left The Northwoods Inn and randomly chose to go toward the harbor. She was moving quickly and might have caught up to Jake if she had chosen to head for town. As it was, she was hurrying west while Jake was wandering north. She found the shoreline of the harbor to be deserted.

  ***

  Jake was cold. He wondered briefly why it suddenly had gotten so chilly. What he didn't know was that the air temperature had actually increased by a degree since he had gone into the hotel. The shock that he had suffered was chilling him from the inside. He thrust his hands deeper into his pockets and continued to walk the streets of Crescent City, CA.

  ***

  Brandee followed the shoreline as it curved southwest, forming the crescent that gave the city its name. She was looking for Jake, certainly, but she was also thinking about what she would say when she found him.

  I never wanted to hurt him, she said to herself over and over. I'm so sorry that I did.

  Finally, after about three hours of fruitless searching, Brandee went back to the hotel. Surely, he would have shown up by now.

  ***

  Jake didn't come back to the hotel. At about 4:00 in the morning, he sat down on a bench at an outdoor bus stop. His legs were weary from the walk. He stared ahead of him with eyes that didn't see. After about 20 minutes, he fell into dreamless sleep.

  He awoke with the sun, which rose a scant hour after he had drifted off. His body involuntarily shuddered as he remembered the sight that had greeted him in the hotel room. Made nauseous by the memory of her betrayal, he turned and vomited on the ground beside the bench. When he was finished, he turned his head and saw Ray's Groceries behind him.

  “I need some water,” he said aloud to himself.

  He got up from the bench and walked toward the grocery store, which was just opening its doors for the business day.

  ***

  Brandee hadn't slept. When Janelle knocked on her door the next morning, the singer realized that she had forgotten her promise to call her upon arriving back in the room. She opened the door.

  “Hi Janelle, I’m sorry I didn't call--”

  That's all she got out before Janelle threw her arms around her neck.

  “It's okay. I fell asleep, but I woke up so worried about you. Are you okay?”

  “I'm fine. I didn't get back until really late.”

  “Did you find him?”

  Brandee shook her head. “No sign of him. He'll probably leave with the others and not talk to me.”

  Janelle said, “That wouldn't be real mature, would it?”

  Brandee looked at the younger girl and spoke sternly. “Whatever happens from here on out, this isn't Jake's fault. It's my fault. If you and I were going to get together, I should have been honest with Jake about what I wanted to do. Have a little compassion for him.”

  Janelle looked down at the ground, speaking quietly. “I know. I just don't like you to be sad.”

  “I'm more worried than I am sad. I don't know where he is or what he's going to do next.”

  There was a knock on the hotel room door. Brandee went to the door, expecting to see Jake when she opened it. Instead, she saw Bruce. The keyboard artist looked quizzically at her.

  “Where's Jake? We don't want to be late tonight of all nights.”

  Brandee briefly wondered why “tonight of all nights”, but she left that discussion for a later time. “Come in,” she said to Bruce.

  Bruce came into the room and looked around, expecting to see Jake tying his shoelaces or something. When he saw that the room was Jake-less, he looked back at the girls.

  “What's going on?” he said simply.

  “Jake and I had a fight last night. He left and he hasn't come back.”

  Bruce couldn't believe his ears. “Last night!? Last night you fought!? Why would you fight last night?”

  “It's just something that he and I have to work out. It'll be okay. Anyway, he isn't here. I thought he might be with you guys already”

  “We're loaded and ready to head for Oregon. Do you want me to look for him?”

  Brandee checked the clock. “No, go ahead. He was pretty mad. He might decide to catch a bus to Eugene. He knows where the next show is going to be.”

  This didn't make any sense to Bruce. “Why wouldn't he ride with us if he's mad at you? I don't understand.”

  Brandee knew that there were holes in her story. Of course, if she and Jake had just had a garden-variety marital spat, it would make sense that he would commiserate with Diane, Suzi, and Bruce. They hadn't just had a marital spat, though. He had walked in on his wife performing cunnilingus on Janelle. That ratcheted up the situation just a bit.

  “Just let us work it out, Bruce. You guys need to go!” she said as she took Bruce's arm and steered him toward the door.

  Bruce went to the Nissan and fired it up, telling the others of the curious conversation he had just had with Brandee.

  ***

  Jake bought a bottle of orange juice at Ray's. He stepped back outside and returned to the bench on which he had slept, carefully sitting on the opposite end of the bench, away from the evidence of his upset stomach. He opened the juice and sipped it a couple of times before throwing it away. He couldn't put anything on his stomach this morning.

  Just then, an Amtrak Thruways bus pulled up beside him. The driver opened the door and said, “You going with us, sir?”

  Jake answered, “Where are you going?”

  “Seattle, eventually, but lots of stops in between. We gotta go, though. Are you going?

  Jake suddenly wanted to be anywhere but where he was. He stepped on the bottom step of the red and white bus.

  “Why not? Can you sell me a ticket?”

  “I can give you a voucher that you can exchange for a ticket in one of the larger cities. Welcome aboard.”

  The driver released the air brakes and the bus headed up the street. Jake found an unoccupied seat toward the back of the bus. He sat down, looked out the window, and started to cry.

  Harvest Moon

  “I don't understand it! Was it about having children again?” Suzi asked.

  Bruce raised his hands, palms up. “All I know is what she said. They had a fight. He left. She doesn't know where he is.”

  “I hope he's okay.” Diane said with a worried look as she steered the Nissan through the curves of California's Smith River Highway. “Whatever it is has to have hit him awfully hard for him to just leave and not tell anyone.”

  “That's what I thought when I was in the room.” Bruce said. “Remember how excited he was to tell Brandee about Tom Ferrari? He couldn't wait to get back to the hotel. Then poof, he's gone.”

  “Suzi looked at Bruce. “honey, was Janelle with Brandee?”

  “Yes.”

  Suzi nodded slowly. “I don't know what happened, but I'll bet Janelle's in the middle of it somehow.”

  “In my experience, some people are followed around by trouble. I don't like to think of Janelle like that, but I kind of do,” Diane said.

  “We can't jump to conclusions based on what we know now,” Bruce cautioned. “And we don't really know anything.”

  “Bruce is right,” Diane answered,” Maybe
Jake will be waiting for us in Eugene and everything will blow over.”

  “I hope so,” Suzi said. “He's as much a part of this group as any of us. He makes the arrangements for... well, pretty much everything. He does it all with a smile, too.

  Diane and Bruce nodded their agreement. Jake had been a good traveling partner and a better friend. Now that it looked like the group was really going to take off, they were looking forward to sharing that with Jake.

  Brandee and Janelle waited at the Northwoods Inn for as long as they felt like they could before heading for Oregon. Even after they delayed at the hotel, Brandee drove around Crescent City for a bit, hoping that Jake would suddenly appear in her view . Once, she thought she saw him on Front Street, but it turned out to be someone else. Finally, early in the afternoon, Brandee pointed the nose of the Sprinter to the northeast and left the California coastline.