Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Part 2: Storm and Party - 1.
Part 2: Storm and Party
1.
By the time Gary pulled the Land Rover off of the Amity Road exit, the Wilbur Cross had become virtually unpassable. Just after the exit, the Wilbur Cross was a slow incline up through Woodbridge towards Orange, but the hill was completely covered in snow, and as Gary pulled into the exit lane, he could see several cars sitting at the bottom of the hill not moving, and nothing but white up the hill. As he circled around the ramp, two DOT plow trucks went by on the on-ramp, presumably headed to plow the hill. Good luck, he thought.
Route 69 wasn’t much better, but the Land Rover had four wheel drive, and Gary wasn’t the type of idiot driver who thought that four wheel drive meant four wheel stop also. They slowly crawled up 69. Not many people were out on the road, which was a good thing. He hoped that people had shown up. He looked in the rearview mirror at Doug, who was sitting with his arms crossed, staring out the window. He hoped Doug wasn’t mad at him. He hadn’t meant anything by wanting to hear the tape, and he certainly hadn’t meant to piss off Bill, who was glowering behind Doug in the rear seat. Jack was sitting next to Doug, eyes closed.. Gary assumed that Jack was asleep, but just as he thought that, Jack opened his eyes and looked back at him in the mirror. Charlie was asleep in the seat next to him. He assumed that Charlie hadn’t slept much last night, and so he was catching up on it. Charlie snored lightly.
Finally, he reached the turnoff for Pinewoods, and as he did so, he noticed a car pulled over next to the entrance. He pulled into the driveway and opened his window. Kevin Maurer stood next to his car, which was stuck in a small snowbank next to the driveway.
“Hey dude, are you okay?”
“Hey, Gary. Yeah. I’m fine. I just misjudged the turn. Can you guys give me a hand?”
“Sure.” Gary nudged Charlie awake, and the five of them got out and pushed Kevin’s car, a Plymouth Volare that was even older then Doug’s car, out of the snowbank and back into the entrance to Pinewoods. The snow was over ankle deep now, and they hopped back into their cars and headed up the road towards the main house slowly. Kevin pulled into the long driveway in front of the house, and parked behind several other cars that were now covered in snow. As he got out, he noticed that there were quite a number of cars in the driveway. Gary pulled the Land Rover around the back of the house into the three-car garage that was attached to the house. They got out as he closed the garage door.
“That was some ride, huh, guys?” Gary stomped his boots as he got out of the car.
“It wasn’t so bad,” Charlie said. He’d slept almost the whole way, so as far as he was concerned, it was a good ride. “I’m now ready to party. Let’s see if anyone showed up.”
They walked up the staircase to the door leading into the house. The lights were on in the kitchen, but no one was out there.
“Hello?” Gary called. “Where is everybody?”
They walked through the kitchen and out into the main hall on the first floor. Charlie rounded the corner into the living room, and at least a hundred kids were standing there.
They burst into a round of applause, and then a “Golden Boys” chant as the others filed into the room behind them. Audra and Kat came out of the midst of the crowd, carrying bottles of Champagne. Kat came up and hugged Charlie and planted a sloppy kiss on him as the crowd whooped it up. Kim was behind her, and Doug picked her up and swung her around. Charlie popped a bottle as he noticed that there was plastic on the floors and on the furniture. He proceded to shake the bottle with his thumb on the top, then sprayed Kat and himself with the bottle before taking a swig from it. Then he took the second bottle and sprayed Doug and Kim with it. After a few minutes of merriment and a good dousing, Charlie put his hands up in the air.
Everyone quieted down as he took another bottle and opened it, then poured glasses for himself and the others. “A toast. To absent friends. Not that it looks like many of you didn’t make it.” He laughed. “And to the end of an era.”
Gary raised his glass. “To the Golden Boys and three championships in three years.” He clinked his glass against Charlie’s, and everyone drank, then applauded again.
Audra stepped up to the front of the living room. “Okay, everybody. The guys have to go and get changed now, so we’ve set up the first of the food over in the dining room. There’s also plenty of stuff to drink, both hard and soft. But remember, if you’re gonna drink, you have to drop your keys in the jar.” She paused for a second. “Not that anyone’s going anywhere tonight.”
Most of the people headed off towards the dining room, and the guys headed up to the second floor to clean up and change. Audra and Dan Ostrowsky cleaned up the plastic and Champagne toast debris, while Colette took Kim and Kat down to her bathroom on the second floor to clean up. Gary took the guys up to the third floor. He figured that since he was with them, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.
Bill took one look at the master bathroom on the third floor and let out a low whistle. In the center of the room was a large Jacuzzi tub, about twice the size of a normal bathtub. It was trimmed in gold, as was the door of the shower stall that was set into one wall. There was a toilet and a bidet in the far corner, and next to the toilet, there was a small rack with about a half dozen magazines in it. “My dad spends a lot of time in here,” said Gary as he tossed Bill a towel.
“I guess so. Shit, I would too. This bathroom’s bigger then my bedroom.”
Bill hadn’t gotten much of a drenching, so he just stuck his head underneath the shower faucet for a few seconds, and then left the room to towel off. Charlie stripped off his wet clothes unselfconsciously and stepped into the shower stall. Gary took the clothes and threw them into a laundry basket. He’d been prepared for this, and he already had a set of new clothes for Charlie sitting on the couch in Burke’s study.
Down the hall, Doug was singing as he showered in the half bath in the guest room. He had assumed something like the Champagne bath was going to happen, so he’d had Kim bring him an extra change of clothes also. He felt pretty good, and he was ready to go downstairs and show everyone that he wasn’t just a good Bon Jovi imitator. This was his chance, too. He didn’t care what Bill thought of the demo. If he was that torqued off about it, he could go and find another cover band to go and play in. If there was one thing that the New Haven music scene was good for, it was cover bands. Doug hadn’t even wanted to be a cover artist at first, but he realized it would be easier to get gigs that way. But now, he was ready to break out of that mold. He’d actually lied to Bill and the guys. He’d already shopped the tape around in the city and gotten a callback on it.
Andrew Proctor had called him personally. He’d been surprised when he got home from school the day before the semi-final and found the message on his answering machine. Proctor was a shrewd operator, and Doug was a bit wary of him. His charges all made tons of money very quickly, but their careers also went supernova just as quickly. That wasn’t what Doug was after. Proctor had seemed very interested, and Doug had been nice, but cautious, in their conversation. When Proctor found out that he was still in high school, he’d told Doug to hold off on doing anything until he graduated in June, because he didn’t want to interfere with Doug’s classes. Doug had thought that somewhat odd, seeing as Proctor’s two biggest clients at the moment weren’t much older then he was, but he’d agreed. Besides, he didn’t have enough material for a full album anyway, and three months would probably give him enough time to put something together.
He turned off the shower and stepped out. He looked at himself in the mirror over the sink. One of the seeming requirements of being in Andrew Proctor’s stable of artists was that you had to have a certain teen idol look about you. He wondered if a gawky, red-haired kid with a slightly off-center nose fit the profile. He certainly didn’t look like a member of the New Kids On The Block, that was for sure. And he couldn’t dance, either. But something about him must be attractive, because he’d managed to land Kim. Plus there were always half a dozen girls hanging around after Cerebus played their shows, wanting to buy him drinks or give him a ride home. He never took them up on it though. Taking drinks from anyone at all at most of the gigs they played would have been detrimental to their gigging, because most of the places they played didn’t know(or care) that Doug and Bill were well under 21. And he wasn’t about to take a ride home with some strange girl, even if she did just want to get into his pants. New Haven was a fairly small town, after all, and the rumor mill around the clubs was vicious. The last think he needed at this point in his relationship with Kim was to get busted just because he wanted a blowjob from a groupie.
He put on a robe and headed into the guest bedroom. Jack was sitting crosslegged on the floor, eyes closed, meditating. “Your turn, bro.”
Outside, the storm raged on. By two thirty, five hours after the storm had started in earnest, seven inches of snow covered the ground. In New Haven, the public works department cut their plowing to main arteries only, and entire neighborhood areas were cut off. The temperatures remained just below freezing, and ice started forming on power and phone lines. Soon after the last car arrived in the driveway, the DOT passed the entrance to Pinewoods and plowed a foot of hard packed snow into it. For all intents and purposes, Pinewoods would be cut off from the outside world at least until Gary figured out what had happened and called in his private contractor to clean out the driveway. Of course, Gary had no intention of doing that today. After all, there was partying to be done.
Shortly after three o’clock, the party began in earnest, as the Golden Boys came down from their cleanup and joined the others. Charlie plopped down on the couch in the living room, where someone had turned on the Rangers/Flyers game. Gary and Audra disappeared from sight for a few minutes. Doug and Bill headed out to the great room, where Cerebus’ equipment was set up. Jack headed straight for the food. He was starving, having not eaten anything since his rice and juice breakfast. He loaded up a plate with cold cuts and chips, and headed off into a quiet corner to eat.
He was happy to have the quiet corner to himself. He’d seriously considered not coming to the party, finding some way to politely blow it off. But he knew that Charlie wanted him to be here, and you didn’t really blow Charlie off very easily. Ah well, it was probably better than sitting around the house watching the snow fall while his parents tried their hardest to ignore each other’s existence. He dug hungrily into his roast beef sandwich. He was just about finished when he noticed the girl sitting across from him. She was watching him intently. She was also gorgeous, and Asian. She had long dark hair cascading down her shoulders, and lovely pale blue eyes. His radar immediately perked up. He smiled, and she smiled back at him. Guess it WAS a good idea that I came to the party after all, he thought as she came over and sat down next to him.
“Hi,” she said, “I’m Keiko.”
“Mmph-mmph.” Good one, Jack. “Sorry, it’s been since this morning since I ate. I’m Jack.Shanahan.”
“I know who you are. I saw you at the game today. You seemed to give a very Zen performance out there.”
“I don’t know about that. It’s hard to think about inner peace when you’ve got a frozen piece of plastic rocketing towards you at eighty miles an hour. So, where do you go to school? I know all the Asian girls at St. Brigid’s, and you’re not one of them.”
“Hopkins. But I know Kim Masters. All the Asian girls, huh?” Jack understood. Kim was trying to hook him up, and obviously Doug had told her of his preference for Asian girls. He didn’t mind though. He’d been without a girlfriend for a while, and Keiko was a definite prospect. What did he have to lose?
“Uh yeah.” Good going, jackass, that’s the way to get her interested. He backpedaled quickly. “Hopkins, huh? That’s cool. You must be pretty smart. I took the test for there, and just missed making it. But my mom and dad insisted I go to Catholic school, fat lot of good it did.” He put his hand on her knee, and she didn’t remove it. That was a good sign.
“Kim tells me you speak some Japanese.” She started talking to him in Japanese, and he put up his hand.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down. Mine’s good, but it’s not that good yet. I’m better on paper than I am in conversation.” He grinned at her. Yeah, it was gonna be a good party after all.
1.
By the time Gary pulled the Land Rover off of the Amity Road exit, the Wilbur Cross had become virtually unpassable. Just after the exit, the Wilbur Cross was a slow incline up through Woodbridge towards Orange, but the hill was completely covered in snow, and as Gary pulled into the exit lane, he could see several cars sitting at the bottom of the hill not moving, and nothing but white up the hill. As he circled around the ramp, two DOT plow trucks went by on the on-ramp, presumably headed to plow the hill. Good luck, he thought.
Route 69 wasn’t much better, but the Land Rover had four wheel drive, and Gary wasn’t the type of idiot driver who thought that four wheel drive meant four wheel stop also. They slowly crawled up 69. Not many people were out on the road, which was a good thing. He hoped that people had shown up. He looked in the rearview mirror at Doug, who was sitting with his arms crossed, staring out the window. He hoped Doug wasn’t mad at him. He hadn’t meant anything by wanting to hear the tape, and he certainly hadn’t meant to piss off Bill, who was glowering behind Doug in the rear seat. Jack was sitting next to Doug, eyes closed.. Gary assumed that Jack was asleep, but just as he thought that, Jack opened his eyes and looked back at him in the mirror. Charlie was asleep in the seat next to him. He assumed that Charlie hadn’t slept much last night, and so he was catching up on it. Charlie snored lightly.
Finally, he reached the turnoff for Pinewoods, and as he did so, he noticed a car pulled over next to the entrance. He pulled into the driveway and opened his window. Kevin Maurer stood next to his car, which was stuck in a small snowbank next to the driveway.
“Hey dude, are you okay?”
“Hey, Gary. Yeah. I’m fine. I just misjudged the turn. Can you guys give me a hand?”
“Sure.” Gary nudged Charlie awake, and the five of them got out and pushed Kevin’s car, a Plymouth Volare that was even older then Doug’s car, out of the snowbank and back into the entrance to Pinewoods. The snow was over ankle deep now, and they hopped back into their cars and headed up the road towards the main house slowly. Kevin pulled into the long driveway in front of the house, and parked behind several other cars that were now covered in snow. As he got out, he noticed that there were quite a number of cars in the driveway. Gary pulled the Land Rover around the back of the house into the three-car garage that was attached to the house. They got out as he closed the garage door.
“That was some ride, huh, guys?” Gary stomped his boots as he got out of the car.
“It wasn’t so bad,” Charlie said. He’d slept almost the whole way, so as far as he was concerned, it was a good ride. “I’m now ready to party. Let’s see if anyone showed up.”
They walked up the staircase to the door leading into the house. The lights were on in the kitchen, but no one was out there.
“Hello?” Gary called. “Where is everybody?”
They walked through the kitchen and out into the main hall on the first floor. Charlie rounded the corner into the living room, and at least a hundred kids were standing there.
They burst into a round of applause, and then a “Golden Boys” chant as the others filed into the room behind them. Audra and Kat came out of the midst of the crowd, carrying bottles of Champagne. Kat came up and hugged Charlie and planted a sloppy kiss on him as the crowd whooped it up. Kim was behind her, and Doug picked her up and swung her around. Charlie popped a bottle as he noticed that there was plastic on the floors and on the furniture. He proceded to shake the bottle with his thumb on the top, then sprayed Kat and himself with the bottle before taking a swig from it. Then he took the second bottle and sprayed Doug and Kim with it. After a few minutes of merriment and a good dousing, Charlie put his hands up in the air.
Everyone quieted down as he took another bottle and opened it, then poured glasses for himself and the others. “A toast. To absent friends. Not that it looks like many of you didn’t make it.” He laughed. “And to the end of an era.”
Gary raised his glass. “To the Golden Boys and three championships in three years.” He clinked his glass against Charlie’s, and everyone drank, then applauded again.
Audra stepped up to the front of the living room. “Okay, everybody. The guys have to go and get changed now, so we’ve set up the first of the food over in the dining room. There’s also plenty of stuff to drink, both hard and soft. But remember, if you’re gonna drink, you have to drop your keys in the jar.” She paused for a second. “Not that anyone’s going anywhere tonight.”
Most of the people headed off towards the dining room, and the guys headed up to the second floor to clean up and change. Audra and Dan Ostrowsky cleaned up the plastic and Champagne toast debris, while Colette took Kim and Kat down to her bathroom on the second floor to clean up. Gary took the guys up to the third floor. He figured that since he was with them, it wouldn’t be such a big deal.
Bill took one look at the master bathroom on the third floor and let out a low whistle. In the center of the room was a large Jacuzzi tub, about twice the size of a normal bathtub. It was trimmed in gold, as was the door of the shower stall that was set into one wall. There was a toilet and a bidet in the far corner, and next to the toilet, there was a small rack with about a half dozen magazines in it. “My dad spends a lot of time in here,” said Gary as he tossed Bill a towel.
“I guess so. Shit, I would too. This bathroom’s bigger then my bedroom.”
Bill hadn’t gotten much of a drenching, so he just stuck his head underneath the shower faucet for a few seconds, and then left the room to towel off. Charlie stripped off his wet clothes unselfconsciously and stepped into the shower stall. Gary took the clothes and threw them into a laundry basket. He’d been prepared for this, and he already had a set of new clothes for Charlie sitting on the couch in Burke’s study.
Down the hall, Doug was singing as he showered in the half bath in the guest room. He had assumed something like the Champagne bath was going to happen, so he’d had Kim bring him an extra change of clothes also. He felt pretty good, and he was ready to go downstairs and show everyone that he wasn’t just a good Bon Jovi imitator. This was his chance, too. He didn’t care what Bill thought of the demo. If he was that torqued off about it, he could go and find another cover band to go and play in. If there was one thing that the New Haven music scene was good for, it was cover bands. Doug hadn’t even wanted to be a cover artist at first, but he realized it would be easier to get gigs that way. But now, he was ready to break out of that mold. He’d actually lied to Bill and the guys. He’d already shopped the tape around in the city and gotten a callback on it.
Andrew Proctor had called him personally. He’d been surprised when he got home from school the day before the semi-final and found the message on his answering machine. Proctor was a shrewd operator, and Doug was a bit wary of him. His charges all made tons of money very quickly, but their careers also went supernova just as quickly. That wasn’t what Doug was after. Proctor had seemed very interested, and Doug had been nice, but cautious, in their conversation. When Proctor found out that he was still in high school, he’d told Doug to hold off on doing anything until he graduated in June, because he didn’t want to interfere with Doug’s classes. Doug had thought that somewhat odd, seeing as Proctor’s two biggest clients at the moment weren’t much older then he was, but he’d agreed. Besides, he didn’t have enough material for a full album anyway, and three months would probably give him enough time to put something together.
He turned off the shower and stepped out. He looked at himself in the mirror over the sink. One of the seeming requirements of being in Andrew Proctor’s stable of artists was that you had to have a certain teen idol look about you. He wondered if a gawky, red-haired kid with a slightly off-center nose fit the profile. He certainly didn’t look like a member of the New Kids On The Block, that was for sure. And he couldn’t dance, either. But something about him must be attractive, because he’d managed to land Kim. Plus there were always half a dozen girls hanging around after Cerebus played their shows, wanting to buy him drinks or give him a ride home. He never took them up on it though. Taking drinks from anyone at all at most of the gigs they played would have been detrimental to their gigging, because most of the places they played didn’t know(or care) that Doug and Bill were well under 21. And he wasn’t about to take a ride home with some strange girl, even if she did just want to get into his pants. New Haven was a fairly small town, after all, and the rumor mill around the clubs was vicious. The last think he needed at this point in his relationship with Kim was to get busted just because he wanted a blowjob from a groupie.
He put on a robe and headed into the guest bedroom. Jack was sitting crosslegged on the floor, eyes closed, meditating. “Your turn, bro.”
Outside, the storm raged on. By two thirty, five hours after the storm had started in earnest, seven inches of snow covered the ground. In New Haven, the public works department cut their plowing to main arteries only, and entire neighborhood areas were cut off. The temperatures remained just below freezing, and ice started forming on power and phone lines. Soon after the last car arrived in the driveway, the DOT passed the entrance to Pinewoods and plowed a foot of hard packed snow into it. For all intents and purposes, Pinewoods would be cut off from the outside world at least until Gary figured out what had happened and called in his private contractor to clean out the driveway. Of course, Gary had no intention of doing that today. After all, there was partying to be done.
Shortly after three o’clock, the party began in earnest, as the Golden Boys came down from their cleanup and joined the others. Charlie plopped down on the couch in the living room, where someone had turned on the Rangers/Flyers game. Gary and Audra disappeared from sight for a few minutes. Doug and Bill headed out to the great room, where Cerebus’ equipment was set up. Jack headed straight for the food. He was starving, having not eaten anything since his rice and juice breakfast. He loaded up a plate with cold cuts and chips, and headed off into a quiet corner to eat.
He was happy to have the quiet corner to himself. He’d seriously considered not coming to the party, finding some way to politely blow it off. But he knew that Charlie wanted him to be here, and you didn’t really blow Charlie off very easily. Ah well, it was probably better than sitting around the house watching the snow fall while his parents tried their hardest to ignore each other’s existence. He dug hungrily into his roast beef sandwich. He was just about finished when he noticed the girl sitting across from him. She was watching him intently. She was also gorgeous, and Asian. She had long dark hair cascading down her shoulders, and lovely pale blue eyes. His radar immediately perked up. He smiled, and she smiled back at him. Guess it WAS a good idea that I came to the party after all, he thought as she came over and sat down next to him.
“Hi,” she said, “I’m Keiko.”
“Mmph-mmph.” Good one, Jack. “Sorry, it’s been since this morning since I ate. I’m Jack.Shanahan.”
“I know who you are. I saw you at the game today. You seemed to give a very Zen performance out there.”
“I don’t know about that. It’s hard to think about inner peace when you’ve got a frozen piece of plastic rocketing towards you at eighty miles an hour. So, where do you go to school? I know all the Asian girls at St. Brigid’s, and you’re not one of them.”
“Hopkins. But I know Kim Masters. All the Asian girls, huh?” Jack understood. Kim was trying to hook him up, and obviously Doug had told her of his preference for Asian girls. He didn’t mind though. He’d been without a girlfriend for a while, and Keiko was a definite prospect. What did he have to lose?
“Uh yeah.” Good going, jackass, that’s the way to get her interested. He backpedaled quickly. “Hopkins, huh? That’s cool. You must be pretty smart. I took the test for there, and just missed making it. But my mom and dad insisted I go to Catholic school, fat lot of good it did.” He put his hand on her knee, and she didn’t remove it. That was a good sign.
“Kim tells me you speak some Japanese.” She started talking to him in Japanese, and he put up his hand.
“Whoa, whoa, slow down. Mine’s good, but it’s not that good yet. I’m better on paper than I am in conversation.” He grinned at her. Yeah, it was gonna be a good party after all.
Interlude: 2004
Interlude: 2004
Jack Shanahan and his girlfriend changed planes at Los Angeles International Airport. The flight from Narita had been a bumpy one, but not too horrible. They had to wait through a two and a half hour layover before their flight to Hartford, so they decided to have a bite to eat. They ended up choosing a faux British pub and walked up and sat at the bar. They ordered drinks and Jack pulled a battered address book out of his backpack.
“I should call Gary, let him know I’m coming in.”
“Who is Gary?” Mie asked. She didn’t really know much about Jack’s past, as he was loath to discuss his days in the States with her. She’d been with him about two years, and she’d come to understand that he was really almost as Japanese as she was, despite his white American good looks. As far as she knew, he’d given up his life in the U.S. to live in Japan.
“He’s a guy I used to go to school with. His dad’s an international player. Ablett Investments. But Gary’s a computer genius. You ever play “Realms Of Wonder”? Or “Nightfall In Middle Earth”? He created them when he was in college. Now he’s worth like, a billion dollars, and he runs a video store in the town next to the one we’re going to. He’s a bit uh, what’s the word...” Jack struggled for a second, trying to remember the Japanese for eccentric. “...henshin? Maybe kawarimono would be a better word.”
“Oh, I understand. He’s a bit unusual.”
“Yes. That would describe Gary.”
“Okay.” She took a paperback out of her purse and opened it as Jack took out his DoCoMo cell phone. He hoped it worked in the airport. He turned it on and saw that he had a nice fat signal. He was sure he’d end up paying through the nose for the call, but he dialed the number for Twenty-Four Frames that he’d copied off their web site anyway.
“Twenty-Four Frames, this is Brett speaking, how can I help you?”
“Uh, yeah, hi there, Brett. Is Gary Ablett around by any chance?”
“He’s in his office. Can I ask who’s calling?”
“Yeah. My name is Jack Shanahan. I’m calling...”
“Oh, yes, Mr. Shanahan. We all know who you are here. We’re terribly sorry for your loss.”
“Uh, thanks.”
“No problem. Let me transfer you upstairs.”
Jack was put on hold and sat waiting, listening to Ennio Morricone’s main title theme for “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” on the hold music. He was about to hang up when the phone clicked.
“Jack! How the hell are you?!? Wait. Forget I asked that question. Where the hell are you?”
Jack smiled despite himself. Same old Gary. “I’m sitting in a cheesy fake British pub at LAX, waiting for my flight to Hartford.”
“I should have had Dad send a plane over for you when your uncle called me and told me what happened. I’m terribly sorry about Anne. You know that we all loved your mom a lot. She was one of our best customers, you know.”
“No, actually, I didn’t. That’s nice to hear, man. Listen, have you seen the guys?”
“Yeah. Well, not with my own two eyes, not yet anyway. But they’re all coming down anyway. Bill works in the store with me, and Charlie and Doug were already coming into town. You know that Darrell Masters is finally getting hitched.”
“No. I hadn’t heard that.” Jack wasn’t a particularly big baseball fan, and U.S. baseball news in Japan was usually related to whichever Japanese export was having a big year in the majors.
“Yeah. Doug and Charlie are both in the wedding. Listen, give me your flight number, and I’ll call and make sure someone’s going to get you at the airport.”
“Someone from Uncle David’s law firm...”
“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll talk to David. He’s a good customer here also.”
Jack gave him the information. “Hey, it’s good talking to you, Gary. I feel guilty about not calling or anything.”
“Don’t worry about it. Anne always kept me up on what was going on with you in the land of Sailor Moon and naughty tentacles. Look. I’ll see you in a few hours, anyway. I don’t want to run up your cell phone bill anyway. I’m glad you called, man. I’ll see you later.” He hung up the phone, and Jack found himself glad that he’d called Gary. He turned back to the bar. The television over the bar was turned to VH1, and Jack was surprised to see Doug O’Donnell on the screen. He nudged Mie.
“See him? I went to school with him also. This is turning into a very weird day.”
“You went to school with Doug Harris? Doug Harris the rock star?”
“Well, yeah. But he was just plain old Doug O’Donnell in those days. He played a pretty mean guitar back then. Not at all like that guy up there on the screen.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“It’s like, you know when I’m playing in Tadanobu’s combo, right, I’m playing sort of quiet background lines, right, good rhythm lines. But when I play at home, or if I’m not playing jazz, I play with some force.” She nodded at him. “Well, when Doug was in high school, he was into being the next Eddie Van Halen. But now he’s more like Elton John or Eric Clapton. He got big because he subdued his desire to rock.”
“Oh. Will we get to meet him? I like his music very much.”
“Yeah. Gary said he was going to be in town already, so he’s going to be at my mom’s service.”
“That’s nice. Any other famous friends I ought to be aware of?”
“As a matter of fact...”
The Honda Accord pulled off of Route 69, and Charlie drove up the familiar pathway through the woods. Pinewoods hadn’t changed much in the years since Charlie had headed off to the world, and as his car rolled out from the tree-lined drive into the main driveway of the house, he noticed one thing. The poolhouse was still there, but now there was a cupola at the top of the roof. Charlie wondered what that was all about. He hadn’t been here in fourteen years. He drove the Accord up to the main house. A golden retriever came bounding out of nowhere up to the car as he stopped at the front door, barking happily.
“Hey, you’re a friendly fella,” he said as he got out of the car. He leaned down and offered the dog his hand to sniff. After a cursory sniff, the dog allowed Charlie to pet him and scratch behind his ears. The dog followed him up to the front door as he rang the doorbell.
“Hang on a second.” A female voice called through the open front door. He thought he recognized it, but he wasn’t sure. He was surprised when Audra Ablett opened the front door. He recognized her, but at the same time, she looked different. He supposed it was the chestnut brown hair color, or the fairly plain overalls and t-shirt she was wearing. “Charlie? Oh, my God! Gary told me you were coming by, but I didn’t expect you until later!”
She practically leapt through the door and hugged him. “Look at you,” she said, “You look good. Not as good as your rookie year, but still...”
“Hi, Audra. How’ve you been?”
“Oh, you know. I’m still the same old Audra.”
“Well, not quite.”
“Oh, the hair? Well, you know, we all have our phases. Besides, a respectable soccer mom and gallery owner can’t go around with purple hair these days.”
“So, where’s Gary?”
“Still at the store. When I talked to him an hour ago, he was still trying to get the girl from Baker and Taylor to finish his orders for the week.” She opened the door. “Come on in. I guarantee you won’t recognize the place.”
And he hadn’t really. Some of Pinewoods still looked the same as Audra guided him through the house, but she and Gary had changed a lot of things. The house was a lot lighter now, he thought. The old design was a cross between a great big farmhouse and a Victorian mansion, but Gary and Audra had turned it into a sparkling modern showplace, while still retaining some of the country style. They walked into the large living room. On one wall, a fifty-inch widescreen plasma TV was playing VH1 Classic. Next to it was a framed, blown-up magazine cover. On it, Gary was smiling and holding the box for Nightfall in Middle Earth. The cover read “Gary’s Latest Masterwork: “Nightfall” Comes For You”. On the wall opposite the TV, there were shelves covering the length of the wall. These were full of DVDs and VHS tapes. Most of the VHS tapes had homemade labels on them. Below the TV, there was a large entertainment center full of various video equipment, including three VCRs and two DVD players. Gary walked over and looked at the videotapes.
“He still has all this stuff?”
“Yup. He keeps everything. Even watches a lot of it. You know how little he used to sleep? Well, he’s still that way.”
“Jeez. I noticed something odd as I came in.”
“The poolhouse? That’s a mini-observatory up on the roof. He spends a lot of nighttime out there. He and Colette are out there all the time.”
“Colette, you mean...” Charlie hadn’t seen her in years, and he didn’t know if he could deal with it.
“No. Our daughter. She’s ten, and a budding genius just like her father, except that she’s into astronomy, not computers.”
“Oh. I forgot. It’s been a long drive. Silly me.” As he said this, Colette came bounding into the living room.
“I’m all finished with my... Oh, hello. Who’s this, Mommy?” She looked more like Audra then Gary, he thought. She had long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail, and a spread of freckles around her nose and cheeks.
Audra smiled. “This is your Uncle Charlie. He’s an old friend of Daddy and Mommy’s.”
“You’re the hockey player, right?” She walked over and picked up a picture from a table in the corner. “That’s you, isn’t it?” Charlie looked down at the photo. It had been taken in this very room, on a snowy night fifteen years before.
Jack Shanahan and his girlfriend changed planes at Los Angeles International Airport. The flight from Narita had been a bumpy one, but not too horrible. They had to wait through a two and a half hour layover before their flight to Hartford, so they decided to have a bite to eat. They ended up choosing a faux British pub and walked up and sat at the bar. They ordered drinks and Jack pulled a battered address book out of his backpack.
“I should call Gary, let him know I’m coming in.”
“Who is Gary?” Mie asked. She didn’t really know much about Jack’s past, as he was loath to discuss his days in the States with her. She’d been with him about two years, and she’d come to understand that he was really almost as Japanese as she was, despite his white American good looks. As far as she knew, he’d given up his life in the U.S. to live in Japan.
“He’s a guy I used to go to school with. His dad’s an international player. Ablett Investments. But Gary’s a computer genius. You ever play “Realms Of Wonder”? Or “Nightfall In Middle Earth”? He created them when he was in college. Now he’s worth like, a billion dollars, and he runs a video store in the town next to the one we’re going to. He’s a bit uh, what’s the word...” Jack struggled for a second, trying to remember the Japanese for eccentric. “...henshin? Maybe kawarimono would be a better word.”
“Oh, I understand. He’s a bit unusual.”
“Yes. That would describe Gary.”
“Okay.” She took a paperback out of her purse and opened it as Jack took out his DoCoMo cell phone. He hoped it worked in the airport. He turned it on and saw that he had a nice fat signal. He was sure he’d end up paying through the nose for the call, but he dialed the number for Twenty-Four Frames that he’d copied off their web site anyway.
“Twenty-Four Frames, this is Brett speaking, how can I help you?”
“Uh, yeah, hi there, Brett. Is Gary Ablett around by any chance?”
“He’s in his office. Can I ask who’s calling?”
“Yeah. My name is Jack Shanahan. I’m calling...”
“Oh, yes, Mr. Shanahan. We all know who you are here. We’re terribly sorry for your loss.”
“Uh, thanks.”
“No problem. Let me transfer you upstairs.”
Jack was put on hold and sat waiting, listening to Ennio Morricone’s main title theme for “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” on the hold music. He was about to hang up when the phone clicked.
“Jack! How the hell are you?!? Wait. Forget I asked that question. Where the hell are you?”
Jack smiled despite himself. Same old Gary. “I’m sitting in a cheesy fake British pub at LAX, waiting for my flight to Hartford.”
“I should have had Dad send a plane over for you when your uncle called me and told me what happened. I’m terribly sorry about Anne. You know that we all loved your mom a lot. She was one of our best customers, you know.”
“No, actually, I didn’t. That’s nice to hear, man. Listen, have you seen the guys?”
“Yeah. Well, not with my own two eyes, not yet anyway. But they’re all coming down anyway. Bill works in the store with me, and Charlie and Doug were already coming into town. You know that Darrell Masters is finally getting hitched.”
“No. I hadn’t heard that.” Jack wasn’t a particularly big baseball fan, and U.S. baseball news in Japan was usually related to whichever Japanese export was having a big year in the majors.
“Yeah. Doug and Charlie are both in the wedding. Listen, give me your flight number, and I’ll call and make sure someone’s going to get you at the airport.”
“Someone from Uncle David’s law firm...”
“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll talk to David. He’s a good customer here also.”
Jack gave him the information. “Hey, it’s good talking to you, Gary. I feel guilty about not calling or anything.”
“Don’t worry about it. Anne always kept me up on what was going on with you in the land of Sailor Moon and naughty tentacles. Look. I’ll see you in a few hours, anyway. I don’t want to run up your cell phone bill anyway. I’m glad you called, man. I’ll see you later.” He hung up the phone, and Jack found himself glad that he’d called Gary. He turned back to the bar. The television over the bar was turned to VH1, and Jack was surprised to see Doug O’Donnell on the screen. He nudged Mie.
“See him? I went to school with him also. This is turning into a very weird day.”
“You went to school with Doug Harris? Doug Harris the rock star?”
“Well, yeah. But he was just plain old Doug O’Donnell in those days. He played a pretty mean guitar back then. Not at all like that guy up there on the screen.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“It’s like, you know when I’m playing in Tadanobu’s combo, right, I’m playing sort of quiet background lines, right, good rhythm lines. But when I play at home, or if I’m not playing jazz, I play with some force.” She nodded at him. “Well, when Doug was in high school, he was into being the next Eddie Van Halen. But now he’s more like Elton John or Eric Clapton. He got big because he subdued his desire to rock.”
“Oh. Will we get to meet him? I like his music very much.”
“Yeah. Gary said he was going to be in town already, so he’s going to be at my mom’s service.”
“That’s nice. Any other famous friends I ought to be aware of?”
“As a matter of fact...”
The Honda Accord pulled off of Route 69, and Charlie drove up the familiar pathway through the woods. Pinewoods hadn’t changed much in the years since Charlie had headed off to the world, and as his car rolled out from the tree-lined drive into the main driveway of the house, he noticed one thing. The poolhouse was still there, but now there was a cupola at the top of the roof. Charlie wondered what that was all about. He hadn’t been here in fourteen years. He drove the Accord up to the main house. A golden retriever came bounding out of nowhere up to the car as he stopped at the front door, barking happily.
“Hey, you’re a friendly fella,” he said as he got out of the car. He leaned down and offered the dog his hand to sniff. After a cursory sniff, the dog allowed Charlie to pet him and scratch behind his ears. The dog followed him up to the front door as he rang the doorbell.
“Hang on a second.” A female voice called through the open front door. He thought he recognized it, but he wasn’t sure. He was surprised when Audra Ablett opened the front door. He recognized her, but at the same time, she looked different. He supposed it was the chestnut brown hair color, or the fairly plain overalls and t-shirt she was wearing. “Charlie? Oh, my God! Gary told me you were coming by, but I didn’t expect you until later!”
She practically leapt through the door and hugged him. “Look at you,” she said, “You look good. Not as good as your rookie year, but still...”
“Hi, Audra. How’ve you been?”
“Oh, you know. I’m still the same old Audra.”
“Well, not quite.”
“Oh, the hair? Well, you know, we all have our phases. Besides, a respectable soccer mom and gallery owner can’t go around with purple hair these days.”
“So, where’s Gary?”
“Still at the store. When I talked to him an hour ago, he was still trying to get the girl from Baker and Taylor to finish his orders for the week.” She opened the door. “Come on in. I guarantee you won’t recognize the place.”
And he hadn’t really. Some of Pinewoods still looked the same as Audra guided him through the house, but she and Gary had changed a lot of things. The house was a lot lighter now, he thought. The old design was a cross between a great big farmhouse and a Victorian mansion, but Gary and Audra had turned it into a sparkling modern showplace, while still retaining some of the country style. They walked into the large living room. On one wall, a fifty-inch widescreen plasma TV was playing VH1 Classic. Next to it was a framed, blown-up magazine cover. On it, Gary was smiling and holding the box for Nightfall in Middle Earth. The cover read “Gary’s Latest Masterwork: “Nightfall” Comes For You”. On the wall opposite the TV, there were shelves covering the length of the wall. These were full of DVDs and VHS tapes. Most of the VHS tapes had homemade labels on them. Below the TV, there was a large entertainment center full of various video equipment, including three VCRs and two DVD players. Gary walked over and looked at the videotapes.
“He still has all this stuff?”
“Yup. He keeps everything. Even watches a lot of it. You know how little he used to sleep? Well, he’s still that way.”
“Jeez. I noticed something odd as I came in.”
“The poolhouse? That’s a mini-observatory up on the roof. He spends a lot of nighttime out there. He and Colette are out there all the time.”
“Colette, you mean...” Charlie hadn’t seen her in years, and he didn’t know if he could deal with it.
“No. Our daughter. She’s ten, and a budding genius just like her father, except that she’s into astronomy, not computers.”
“Oh. I forgot. It’s been a long drive. Silly me.” As he said this, Colette came bounding into the living room.
“I’m all finished with my... Oh, hello. Who’s this, Mommy?” She looked more like Audra then Gary, he thought. She had long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail, and a spread of freckles around her nose and cheeks.
Audra smiled. “This is your Uncle Charlie. He’s an old friend of Daddy and Mommy’s.”
“You’re the hockey player, right?” She walked over and picked up a picture from a table in the corner. “That’s you, isn’t it?” Charlie looked down at the photo. It had been taken in this very room, on a snowy night fifteen years before.
