Jordan

Jordan

By

Retta Michaels

Disclaimer:

If you are under the age of eighteen, or live in a locale which doesn't allow you to read these sorts of stories legally, then please don't. Come back when it's legal for you to do so and it will be great with us who are here legally. In fact, we'll support you and in the right circumstances help get you laid. Now, skedaddle and shut the door on your way out!

Now, for the rest of you who are supposed to be adults, act like it!

Jordan ^Ö Chapter 10

When we went to the radio station to do some promo work, we took a look at the equipment. I believe the Station Manager was surprised anyone would request to look at his station's equipment. We introduced ourselves and found out his name was Mr. Sands.

"This equipment looks pretty old, is it?"

"What you're looking at is genuine antique equipment. This stuff is some of the oldest stuff in the business. It's so old, a lot of it's still using tubes instead of transistors or circuit boards like the equipment today."

"Doesn't that pull a lot of electricity?"

"Yeah, it does. We have to sell a lot of advertising in order to even break even I'm afraid. That's why I do everything I can to promote concerts. Any dollar earned by the station keeps us afloat for another minute...and that's an actual fact."

"So, you sell ten dollars of advertising to stay on the air for ten minutes?"

"Yeah, well, actually that's not correct. That's how much just this equipment costs to operate. In order to keep us on the air, we have my pay, and all of my other employees pay. So, we require a lot more income than that...try about fourteen dollars to stay on the air for ten minutes.."

"Wow, that must be a lot" Chad said.

"Yeah, well, one of these days, I'll be retiring and I doubt if anyone who takes over will even begin to know how to work on this equipment. Our sister station here in the city, the station manager there didn't know how to work on his when he first started and after me teaching him, he now knows about as good as I do."

"So, why don't you update it?"

"It's a money issue I'm afraid. It'd cost a lot of money for equipment."

"Oh, how much?"

"Well, for a top notch system, it'd be probably in the neighborhood of around sixty grand if we just did this here. For the whole station, we're looking at probably one hundred and forty thousand."

"Oh, let's see, that's about a third of what it takes to keep this stuff on the air."

"Yeah, and that's just for the equipment. The savings of the electricity would pay for it, but it's a lot of money to put out at one time."

"So, who owns this station?"

"Oh a corporation."

"Oh, why don't they put the money into it. You're a real cool station."

"I'm afraid it's all a matter of them probably not having enough money. There are a lot of radio stations in our company."

"How many?"

Chad and I looked at each other.

"The last I heard, they had over one hundred and thirty."

Chad said, "Wow, that's a lot. So, does each station have equipment this old?"

"Not all, but most of them do."

"So, the quick math tells me the company could invest twenty six million counting installation fees and save themselves a lot of money in electricity bills and be able to make more money."

"Yeah, but they think it's o.k, to break even. So, that's what we do."

"Oh, well, This equipment takes up a lot of room. What would you do if you didn't have it all in here and had new equipment?"

"Oh, that I've thought about a lot. I could use it for a different booth and I could have some equipment that would broadcast us on Sirius so we'd be able to earn more money. Each Sirius station makes a portion of what the listeners pay, so there's no commercials. That and a web radio station would be what I'd put in here because web radio is something I could do to offer our advertisers so we could make more money."

"Oh, well, thanks for giving us the tour."

"No, thanks for coming in and doing the promo. There's not many that come in and do it live. Most send in tapes or we do it by phone."

"Oh, there's no computers to send it through?"

"We'd do it, but there's no way for us to take it from a computer into this equipment. New equipment would let us do that."

"Oh, that'd be neat. Well, thanks once again."

We left and Chad said, "Jordy, that's terrible. A small investment would have made a big difference and saved that man money."

"Well, he thinks he could change it himself. Imagine if he had. The whole bunch of stations would all be different styles of equipment so if they had a company meeting, it'd be like a bunch of guys not talking about how they can do things better because not all of them have the same equipment. It'd be like an orchestra meeting and a tuba guy trying to tell an oboe guy how to best tune his instrument. It'd just not work."

"We've got to change that. I imagine the television stations are just as out of date. Whenever the radio station was built if probably the last time they saw new equipment. Well, let's figure fifty million and get each radio station all new computers, towers, and completely digital. Then, they can get ahead and start making money."

"Jordy, we're going to end up putting a billion dollars into this real fast. Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Chad, here's the way I figure it. That man's selling a half a million dollars of advertising a year just to stay on the air due to electricity costs. Now, say we take that down to twenty percent of what they do now, that's going to have them four hundred grand ahead. Then, those profits are coming back. Do that over a hundred and thirty times and that's fifty million back a year. So, our investment is recouped on the upgrade in five years. And, just for safety sake say seven years. Then in ten years with the cost of inflation, we're going to be either able to say we've got it back, or we can put the stations up for sale and break up the company."

"You'd want to do that?"

"No, but I'm not going to get like the old man and just sit and let it stagnate. That's ridiculous. Everyone's paying the price for his not doing something. Heck, look at us. We had to go there to do a promo because we couldn't send it in by computer."

"Well, let's see what the television stations are looking at. This one was an eye opener."

We went to the television station downtown and we'd been there countless times. The building was beautiful and I knew the station took up a lot of the space within.

When we got inside, we went to the station manager's office. His secretary said he was busy and couldn't speak to us. We saw through the glass wall in his office he wasn't busy at all.

"What's he doing that he's so busy he can't see someone?"

"That's not for me to divulge."

"Oh, well, let's see if you can understand something real clear. We just bought Flagship and you're a liar. Pack up your desk and get out. We'll find someone who can tell us the truth."

"Excuse me!"

"Yeah, you heard, the man's not busy and if he can't talk to his bosses, then he's about to be fired too. So, my advice is to get him un-busy and you can keep your job."

"We haven't heard about any sale of the company."

"Shall I get security to get you removed here?"

The station manager hearing us speaking to his secretary came to his door.

"What's the problem here?"

"Well, we came in to speak with you nicely, but you're too busy to speak to us. We've just bought Flagship who owns this station and wanted to talk with you, but your secretary just got herself fired for lying to us. So, either you're busy and are about to follow her out the door, or you're not busy and you can see if you can keep us happy and not get fired today."

He looked at us and then paused. "Let me get security and get you boys thrown out of here".

"Ok, and we'll have you fired by the end of the day." Chad said. You might want to call your boss and see if we're telling the truth. If he doesn't know, then I suggest you call RJ Shaw who's head of our record company and ask him if he didn't just pay for Flagship today from our accounts."

Chad stood and crossed his arms and said, "Well, I'm waiting."

"Let me make a phone call."

"Smart move."

Chad turned to the secretary and said, "I believe you were told to clean out your desk. If you lied for this man, my suggestion is to tell us why and we'll discover why he told you to lie to everyone. If you didn't, that was the dumbest move you could have ever made."

"He tells me to tell people he's busy, then he can take an extra hour for lunch."

"Oh, two hundred days of work a year and he takes an extra hour. For a forty hour work week, that's five weeks a year he takes as an extra break. Does he give everyone an extra hour for lunch?"

"No,"

"Then what makes him so special."

"He's the boss."

"Oh, so I'm his boss and I say it's not o.k, because he's robbing me of five weeks of pay a year. How fast do you think he'll be replaced?"

"I'd say he's going to be fired."

"Well, you can keep your job and watch him get fired. Who's his assistant and does that person do his job?"

"Well, the assistant he has does this job as well as his own."

"Great, we'll have him promoted. Maybe then we can get someone that knows how to work in here."

The man came back to the door and said, "I just talked to my boss and he says he doesn't know anything about any sale. You boys are out of here."

Chad stood in front of the guy and said, "Sir, we were just made aware you're taking extra hour long lunches every day. You are put on notice now that just as soon as I can get word here that the sale did indeed take place, you're fired." He turned to me and said, "Call RJ and have him send over a press release as to us buying the Flagship corporation for seven hundred million. Then, maybe this man will believe it."

I got on my cell phone and called RJ. RJ answered and I said, "RJ, the man here at the television station refuses to believe we bought it. We're finding quite a few things wrong and we're needing to fire the station manager. He's calling security on us and we need for them to understand they'll be hauling the wrong person out the door."

"Hold on one minute. Roger get Brashear on the other line and tell him Flagship corporation got sold and tell him to call his station in the city to tell that fucker he's fired."

I heard Roger on the other line calling someone. After about three minutes, the man's office phone rang.

"That would be your phone call now telling you by Brashear you're fired."

He turned and answered his phone. His face went pale and I turned to Chad. The man who is over the television division's name is Brashear We need to remember that for future reference."

"Thanks RJ, it's all clear now."

I hung up the phone and asked the secretary, "Where's his second in command?"

She pointed at a glassed in office across and down the hall.

I went over to his office and knocked on the door. He was on the phone and cut the conversation short.

"Hi, My names Jordan Johns and my partner Chad and I just bought Flagship. We're firing your Station manager and would like for you to step up into his position. Would you take that job? I hear you actually work for a living."

He smiled and said, "Yeah, I'll take it and I'll get someone right in here that can do mine. I've been doing his job since I got here."

"Well, since he just got fired, he's not seeing any severance pay. I'll contest that all the way to court. The dude's been robbing from the company as far as I care and as long as you're honest with us, we'll do what we can to see your job gets easier. Now, could you give Chad and I a tour of the station and answer a few questions for us?"

"Sure, one moment, let me put my phone on voice mail."

"How about if you just ask your new secretary there to answer it for you?"

"Oh, yeah! I forgot. I'll have a secretary now." He smiled real big and I could see he was a lot happier.

He went out and said, "Jeanie, would you come over and answer my phone while I give these guys a tour of the place?"

"That's all they wanted was a tour?"

"Yeah, it started out that way, but now, we're doing some house cleaning, so I'm sure there will be more."

The man stuck out his hand and said, "Nate, Nate Aldridge, I guess I'm your new station manager. Aren't you guys with that band?"

"Yeah, we decided to invest some money and bought Flagship today." I said smiling.

He laughed and said, "I'll say you did. You sure didn't get a charm here. This place is about to fall down."

"Well, that's why we're here, we're wanting to see what all the stations need and see what the people who actually work with the equipment would prefer rather than what the stuffed shirts say you all need."

"Oh well, if you started with a whole new clean slate, you'd save yourself a lot of money."

"How much does the whole new clean slate figure up to being."

"Here, probably about seven million. In that ball park."

"O.k., so say there's thirty television stations."

"You'd better raise that to seventy stations."

"Really!"

"Yeah, we're in a lot of different markets."

"Are all of the stations this big?"

"Well, yes and no. There are twenty that are probably this size. But most of them are smaller"

"You sound like you've been around, so how much would you figure they'd be needing per station?"

"Oh, Three million, but you might want to raise the figure to five million."

"What's the price difference?"

"A lot of those are able to go onto a local cable network, but they'd require a different call sign. The licensing and the transmitter would put everything up into compliance."

"So, another three hundred and seventy million to pull them all up."

"Yeah, expensive huh."

"You telling me. We bought the whole shooting match for seven hundred."

"Well, you got a sweet deal. I'll take you on a tour and then you'll see what I'm talking about."

He took us on a tour and as we walked through the station, the amount of equipment we saw was incredible. All of it looked old, but well cared for. He said all of it needed replaced with digital and HDTV capable. He then said that would afford them to broadcast in stereo and would take the energy usage down to about seven percent of what they were using now.

He smiled and said, "Now that I've told you all the bad news, I'll tell you the good news."

He rubbed his hands together and then began, "O.k., there's a lot of wasted space. If we moved everything up out of the basement sub floors and put it up into the top tower where it would all fit, you'd clean up seven floors of this building. We could keep the staff in the lobby downstairs, and pull everything except for the morning show studio upstairs and we'd be able to lease that space out. That space would pull in per year what you're putting out in new equipment."

I turned to Chad and said, "Another four hundred million, are you in?"

"Jeez, that's over a billion dollars today. Couldn't you wait until tomorrow so I could say I didn't spend it all in one place?"

"Well, you can wait another day, but the news will be just as bad and you do know we're in the news business now, don't you?"

He laughed and said, "Could we start a twenty four hour news channel?"

Nate nodded, "You could do that with the equipment already on the 'to buy' list. All it would take would be another transmitter and an extra satellite stub on our antenna. The antennas we have are in good order. So, that installation wouldn't be but maybe another fifty grand."

"Wow, you know your way around this place, are all of the guys who work in this company that good?"

"I'd like to think so, but there's a lot that are like what you just fired. They've been around and they think they are smart, but it's been common knowledge no one has cared for the company and corporation for a long time, so they've not really cared either."

"So, do they slough off their jobs onto their assistants like him? or what's going on there?"

"Well, to be honest, a lot of the guys that are getting it sloughed off onto them are shopping themselves around and getting away from this company. So, you're losing a lot of talented employees."

"Man, I'd like to know who to fire and who not to fire."

"I'll tell you how to do that. You go in and you find someone in the maintenance department. They work hard and they really resent people that make their jobs harder. They're the ones that keep the place standing. They'll tell you real fast who's working and who isn't. Believe them, and you'll do well. I came from that department and took promotions up. That's why I treat people under me like they need to be treated."

"Thanks, what you can count on is having the new equipment. How fast will it take to upgrade?"

"All together, I'd say it'd take about four months and that's if it goes slow."

"Now, I'm going to ask you a question which you might or might not know."

"Shoot, I'll tell you if I don't know, but I'll also tell you who will know if I know."

"O.k., we're thinking about putting stations off into Russia. If we did that, what do you think the best way to go about that would be?"

"Well, what I would do is do like we do here. We broadcast all of our national shows from the studios out in California. The news segments and the local interview segments are all in local stations. There's local live trucks out there, but there aren't many. I'd tell you to invest in a bunch of them, but that's going to be another seventy million dollars. But, the money they'd save you would be huge.You see, we have a satellite system which the parent broadcasts out and we pull it in. That's the antennas."

I looked at Chad and said, "Well, there goes more money. We're going to be going into debt here soon." He chuckled and said, "From Billionaires to paupers in one day, damn, I think we're batting a million."

Chad smiled, "No, we're about a half a billion away from being broke."

"You're forgetting Russia and possibly England."

Nate looked at me, "If you're going global and want good markets, go to Australia. You'd do good there."

Chad said, "Nate, what's in the vaults out at the main studio?"

"Oh man, you know about the mother lode."

"Well, we know about it, but we don't know what it has in it."

"Well, you have shows out there that syndication would scream for. Other networks have asked and they're told not no, but we'll never open our vaults. There are a lot of people who think we destroy old shows, but I know they exist. One guy I know says he went out there to get an old Christmas show and said the warehouses are huge and if someone would buy us out and hit those vaults, they'd pay for everything to be perfect in no time at all off reruns and DVD sales."

"Well, you see where we're headed. It's just taking us to spool up to get it all going."

"Well, you're heading in the right direction, but I'll tell you now, updating the studio is going to be a billion dollar investment. If you do that, you'll have a world class operation and could show the reruns yourselves by having a lot of different specialized channels."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, a lot of shows are similar. If you went in and had an old cop show channel, you'd be able to pull all the old cop shows from the vault and it'd probably run a month or two. Then, you put those out onto dvd and you show old detective shows on it, and you'd have a rolling stock with which to trade with other studios. If you watch your contracts, you'll do well, but never give them any rights to sell dvds off your vaults. They did that once with a Christmas show and didn't protect their rights, now they won't let the vaults open."

"Well, I'm not sure who's over the main station, but get plenty of practice here because we might need you. If he's been costing the company money by keeping the vaults shut instead of protecting our interests and having a good lawyer, then he'll go out the door fast."

"Well, the man out there who's over everything is the former owner, so you'll have a fight on your hands."

"Oh, well, he still owns twenty percent."

"Then sue first and collect damages later. He'll keep that twenty percent as the vaults if he's smart."

"We'll see about that."

"If that's the situation, my advice would be to upgrade everything and then reappraise it and then sue him for the full replacement value of the whole corporation. You'll have put in another billion, but you'll have upgraded the valuation of the company probably by fifty billion dollars. A completely new network would be what they'll appraise it at since that's what you just did, but what they'll take into account is the advertising revenues versus costs of operation. When one is so far down from the other, they'll do a multiplication formula which give you an increased net worth. I'm in the ball park there, but I won't be wrong. This network has been seriously undervalued because the equipment is so old. Now, you update and then sue, you'll get eighty percent of that fifty and that man will back off because he sure won't have a spare forty billion laying around."

"Thanks, I'm sure glad you know this stuff. Is it o.k, if we stay in contact and you?"

"Sure, if you need any questions asked, you know where I am and I'll tell Jeanie you've got free clearance to get through immediately."

"Great. Thanks Nate."

As we left, Chad said, "He's awesome with what he knows."

"Yeah, it seem like everyone knew what to do to save the place, but no one wanted to do it."

"Well, it wasn't theirs."

"True, but I'm glad we had to fire that guy because we wouldn't have had Nate tell us all the ins and outs of the business."

When we got back to the hotel, RJ was there smiling like a Cheshire cat. "You guys leave and you're firing people right off the bat letting everyone know."

"RJ, that guy running the place was a real horse's ass."

"There are a lot of them who will need to be fired, but you just gave all the rest of them advanced notice. It seems to me you cut your nose off to spite your face."

"No, we found a way to find out who's doing their jobs and who isn't."

"How's that?"

"Contact the people in maintenance and they'll tell us who is working and who isn't. They're a different breed apparently and really resent when they have to pick up the slack."

"Well, there's a lot of that going on. I've seen it myself when I've been in some of them."

"Well, we also got news on what it will cost to update the equipment in the radio stations and the television stations."

"So, what's the bad news?"

Chad groaned, "Four hundred million."

"Oh, damn, I knew it'd be a lot, but that's a bit steep."

"Yeah, but the guy we talked with said we could get it done by raiding the vaults and putting out dvds of the old shows."

"Yeah, we could do that. Do you want me to start looking for a manufacturing facility to do that?"

"Yeah, if we don't have one."

"You don't, and for the amount you'll be printing you'll have saved money for the whole corporation if you invest in one. We've needed one for a long time."

"Where would you have us put it?"

"In the warehouses out there. That's where all of our old tracks for the record company goes."

"RJ, we really need to talk with you about taking over management of the whole corporation."

"Guys, I'd do it, but we'd have to move that to New York. Roger's not going to move out there."

"O.k., so we'll put it in the extra space at the television station."

"That'd be excellent, but that's going to take time."

"Well, we think you'd do good for the position. There'd be a bonus in it for you." said Chad.

"No, what I want is to be able to hire and fire at will and put people where I need them."

"O.k., we'd like Jill to go over the record company."

"No, put her over television and bring Matt up to being over recording. Then, tie the radio stations in with the record company. Two heads in one spot which he'd be able to handle. Pay them both well and then we'll pull Pru up to manage you guys. He's skilled and qualified."

"We don't even know him."

"You know him, you've just not seen what he's able to do. I'll tell you now you'll be amazed as a whole lot of the good ideas for you guys came from him."

Chad said, "I hope he wasn't the one who decided the costumes at the beginning."

"No, that was someone who was in the main office. I found out who it was because after you guys changed costumes, he came storming to me. I told him he was over ruled and you guys hated the costumes. He's also responsible for picking out some of the songs on the first cd."

"Oh, is he good at anything??" Chad laughed.

"Yeah, but it's sure not editing or being in a booth. The guy's tone deaf."

"So, how did we get picked for the group?"

"Pru."

"Oh, well, we owe him a vote of thanks."

"He won't take it. He's also responsible for picking out a lot of other things you don't think of. I've felt bad for a long time we have him in the position he's in, but he came to us from RCA and I didn't trust him at first."

"O.k., You go home and tell Roger the good news and think of how much you want as a salary."

"I'll tell you now what I want as a salary. You can either take it, or leave it."

"O.k., tell us. After the figures we've heard today, we're pretty punch drunk."

"One dollar and a percentage of the incomes."

"How much of a percentage?"

"Fifteen percent to scale up to twenty after the first five years."

"O.k., you'll earn it and know something for the future RJ. We're planning on going global with a whole media conglomerate. We're getting good advice and something else. The guy who's over the television station now in New York, his name's Nate. He's real good and we'd like to see him go someplace in this company."

"He's real good?"

"Yeah, he knows the television stations and apparently knows how to pick good markets."

"O.k., how about if I put him at the head of that division and put Jill over news. I don't want to keep people who are loyal to the guy out in California. He might be your business partner, but I'll tell you now, he's not a businessman. What I'd like from you guys is for you to go out and get those papers signed and then let him be amazed at how fast you guys work at changing things. I think he thinks it's going to be business as usual."

"Nate said we'll probably have to sue him to get control of the vaults."

"No, he knows it's going to take money and either you guys are going to put it out, or he will. He's not wanting to put money in, so he'll be told we need to raise money and that's the best way to do it. If you sue, you'll put the whole industry on guard and it'll take years to get back in their graces. I do think you could lay it out there as a possibility, but I think the guy is smart enough to let us to go into the vaults. I know the story as to why he shut them and I don't blame him. CBS fucked him good and he lost a damned good property. Now, I think he'll see we're going in with really good lawyers and will protect our interests and once he sees we'll fuck back, I think he'll gladly open them up."

"O.k., after the concert tonight, we'll go back to California. It doesn't take me a whole lot of convincing to go out there."

RJ smiled and said, "You guys really love that house, don't you."

"Yeah, it's home to us. It completes me and I'm feeling really lucky we found it."

"That's why Roger is so adamant about staying in New York."

"RJ, what does Flagship have for airplanes?"

"They've got quite a few of them, why? Are you planning on using one to replace the Cardinal?"

"No, but we're going to be going a lot of different directions and we'll need to have them. The one thing I think we should do is to paint them all to match the Cardinal so they'll get clearance into Russia."

"O.k., will do on that. Anything else?"

I paused and said, "Why don't you contact them and send one to go to Miami to pick up my parents. I promised them we'd show them the house in California."

"Ok, will do. Now, you guys go do sound check and be prepared for the guys to give you flack about being richer than you. They think it's funny you all decided to be moguls."

We all laughed and Chad said, "Well, when we turn this around, they'll be amazed at how fast we make it back."

"Not Niles and Red, they'll have you beat."

"What do you mean?"

"They're invested heavily and I mean HEAVILY into the Apple corporation and have been for a long time. Almost every penny they make goes there. They've not said anything, but while everyone else was thinking they were getting rich from the sales of those products, those two were silently cleaning up. They've made enough they couldn't go any higher on ownership without drawing attention to themselves, so they went over to Brunei and are now invested with the Sultan there. Those sources of income are really making those boys smile."

Chad looked surprised and said, "Well, I guess!"

RJ winked and said, "Bandy's the one that will need help. He's so afraid of sending anything to his parents, he's socking it away in places so they won't burn it all up and give it to their church. He sent them a gift of ten thousand because times were hard and they didn't keep one penny for themselves. Since then, he's bought them things they need and not sent money."

"His mom made reference to that when we were down there. Chad and I thought it was interesting when she mentioned it."

"Well, if you want some advice, talk to Bandy and have him come on board with you guys for Australia and Russia. All of you will do good and will benefit together."

"How would we do that?"

"Sell him a thirty percent share for a billion. He'll snatch it because he trusts you guys. When he sees the results, he'll be amazed."

"That's steep, isn't it?"

"Guys, he wanted to buy the Carlisle for four hundred million. He had it all worked out on paper and thought he could make it go. On paper, it looked good and then I had to break his heart and tell him it wasn't for sale. So, if you offer the deal to him, tell him if things go bad, you'll spin off the hotels to him for that investment. He'll eat it up."

"Wow, Band wants hotels?"

"Yeah, he's lived in them so long, he figures he knows what it takes for quality service. He's not far off the mark."

"O.k., we'll talk with him this weekend."

"How about you guys talk with him when you get back tomorrow afternoon before you go on stage? I'll have him waiting."

"O.k., let's get to sound check Chad."

"O.k babe, this thing is really taking off. I'm excited."

"Yeah, I'm hopeful. At first, when we were talking to that guy, I wasn't."

"I could tell. Now, you're kind of taking the lead and I really like that." He smiled at me and said, "Jord, you might not understand me sometimes, but when you're out in the lead, I feel better about us. I just feel secure."

"Well, I'll try not disappointing you. I just feel so insecure out here. As you can see, I do it by putting people I trust in positions so I have a better sense of security."

"I know and you've not went wrong yet, that I can see."

"Well, all it takes is one failure and I'll be feeling like I let you down."

"No, don't feel that way."

"Chad, I have to feel that way. We've worked too hard for this money. If I take the money you've made from being a prisoner in this system for the past going on three years and blow it, I'll never forgive myself."

"Well, don't think that way. What did I ask you when we were out there? I asked you if you'd support me. Now, it's reversing and I'm still getting what I want. You're in a position where you're not at home filing your fingernails and I'm going to be doing what I want. This is so cool."

"Yeah, I like the way it's falling together. Remind me to tell RJ to go ahead and have my parents waiting out there. They can spend the night with us if we leave right after the show tonight."

"O.k., that will be cool. I like how you told your mom she couldn't redecorate."

"Well....our house out there doesn't need redecorating. It's perfect the way it is. I don't know who did it, but it's peaceful to me."

"Yeah, and the look on your face when you're there is all dreamy. It turns me on."

"Oh.....I love you."

"Oh believe me, I love you too."

We went down and did sound check. Things went wonderfully and the guys were all joking with us about asking us if we'd bought Carnegie yet. We chuckled and said, "No, is it for sale!"

The all laughed and I could tell everyone was happy for us.

Later, in the dressing room, Bandy made an announcement that he and Kurt were an official couple. I think what was funny was everyone looked at them and basicly said, "So, that's old news!" because we all thought they were soon after Kurt joined the band, but I guess it took a while for Band to decide him being with Kurt wasn't being unfaithful to Wend....like that wasn't a brainfart....

We called RJ and he said he'd get mom and dad out to California and have their jet meet ours so we could all ride to the house together. He said he'd spoken with my parents and they were happy to go as mom wanted to see the house.

The performance went flawlessly. The acoustics are fabulous there for a larger venue and I compared them with the Fox in St. Louis. Chad said he liked Carnegie better. To me, I didn't care because all that mattered was we had places where we sounded really good.

The neat thing was Band and Kurt's performance was so good. Band gave Kurt a huge kiss after their first love song and the crowd went wild. After the second one when Kurt was the one that initiated it, the crowd went wild and I think about thirty people ran for the exits to get the shots into the Daily's scoop column.

After the last encore, Chad pulled me aside and said, "Babe, we need to get to Mississippi, there's been an accident."

"What do you mean?"

"Your parent's plane went down. Apparently, they used the same maintenance standards as........."

The world went black.

From My Keyboard To Your Heart,

Retta

RettaMichaels@Gmail.com

Copyright Notice - Copyright © December 2007 by RettaMichaels

The author, RettaMichaels copyrights this story and retain all rights. This work may not be changed or duplicated in any form, media, ( known or unknown) without the author's expressed permission. All applicable copyright laws apply.

Disclaimer: All individuals depicted are fictional, and any resemblance to real persons is purely coincidental

-- From My Keyboard To Your Heart Rhett

Here is a list of stories I've written and where to find them:

With Love - Nifty - Beginnings Section Rural Love - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com Write Me A Love Story - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com To Love Him - Author Heading - DeweyWriter.com Military Zone - Nifty - Military Section Evan - Nifty - Beginnings Section Jordan - DeweyWriter.com If I Could Give It All Back - DeweyWriter.com