"I got it," she said. "Finally. I had to send a notarized copy of your authorization twice because they claimed they'd lost the first one. Then I had to spend about two hours on the phone getting passed around from person to person like a joint. Eventually, I wore them down and got hold of that Acardio guy."
"A real prince, isn't he?"
"Yeah, about as fun as a yeast infection. Anyway, he tried to play some hardball with me but he finally sent me a copy after I threatened to fly down there and get a subpoena. It just arrived yesterday. Postage due no less."
"And what do you think?" he asked. "How screwed did we get?"
"Pretty damn screwed," she told him. "I'll go over it with you tomorrow. Are we still getting together for breakfast?
"Fuckin' A," he replied. "I'm looking forward to it. I'm at the Royal Gardens, room 1602."
"A suite," she said. "I'm impressed."
"It's all for show," he said. "There's going to be a stream of media people interviewing us tomorrow and National wants them to be impressed with our decadence. Usually we stay in second rate hotels."
"Ahh," she said. "That makes sense. What time should I be there?"
"How about seven?" he suggested.
"That early?" she groaned.
"Sorry, we have to be over at KROT at nine for our first radio interview."
"I guess I can drag my ass out of bed then," she said. "Did you get tickets for all of us?"
"Yep," he confirmed. "Tickets and backstage passes for you and Mom and Dad." He hesitated. "Are you sure they still want to come? I mean... after the article and all?"
"Of course they want to come," she said. "You're still their only son, even if you do snort coke out of ass-cracks."
Jake went to bed at ten o'clock that night, his mind troubled but his body fatigued enough to allow him to drift off. A wake-up call at six-twenty got him out of bed and - as was usually the case on the rare occasions when he went to bed sober and got a good night's sleep - he felt almost giddy with energy. It was getting so it felt strange not to wake up exhausted and hungover.
He shaved, showered, and took care of his other morning duties. By the time he finished this and got dressed in a clean pair of jeans and a fresh pullover sweater, the room phone began to ring. It was the front desk, inquiring if a "Ms. Pauline Kingsley" was authorized to visit him. Typical of Pauline, she was ten minutes early.
"Send her up," he said.
Less than five minutes later she was knocking on the door.
She was as beautiful as ever. Dressed in a fashionable pair of slacks and a tight sweater, her brunette hair neatly styled, her make-up just right, she smiled broadly as she saw him. Jake was surprised to find himself near tears as he looked at her. Hers was the first familiar face he'd seen outside the band since leaving Heritage. They hugged affectionately and sincerely. Jake then gave her a brief tour of the suite, suitably impressing her. They then retreated to the sitting room, taking seats on the couch where they perused the room service menu for a few minutes before Jake placed the order.
Jake wanted to get into the discussion of their contract right away but Pauline told him that he might want to tune into the morning news instead.
"The news?" he asked. "What for?"
"I caught the six o'clock edition while I was getting ready," she said. "You guys have been moved from the entertainment section to the top story."
He took a deep breath. "The Spinning Rock article?"
She nodded. "Turn it on and see."
He turned it on, getting a strange sense of satisfaction in knowing what channel to turn to. The timing was perfect. The seven o'clock edition of the Channel 4 Reports was just starting.
Again, he felt a sense of melancholy nostalgia when they introduced the two lead anchors for the news show. He knew their names and faces, had grown up watching them deliver their daily reports to the citizens of Heritage County. It was Maureen Steward and Mike Jacobs, faces he hadn't seen or even thought of in almost a year. His nostalgia withered, however, when Jacobs began discussing their top story of the day.
"Excitement over the return of Heritage's own Intemperance for two sold-out concerts at the Community Auditorium have been somewhat marred by an article that appeared in the latest edition of Spinning Rock," he read, his face staring solemnly at his audience. "In the article, penned by veteran Spinning Rock reporter Gloria Castle, who spent twenty-four hours with the band when they visited New York City in February, are allegations of heavy cocaine and marijuana use, gross alcohol intoxication, and sexual debauchery with a number of young girls in their hotel room after the show. Ms. Castle alleges that she witnessed a drug and sex orgy in which young girls were forced to strip naked and engage in lesbian sex as well as group sex with the band members."
"Forced?" Jake nearly yelled. "Where they hell did it say..."
"Shhh," Pauline hushed him. "Just listen."
"The most disturbing allegation made is that two of the band members - lead singer Jake Kingsley and lead guitar player Matt Tisdale - ingested cocaine from the nude buttocks of a young girl while she was performing oral sex upon another young girl. The descriptions of the activities in the hotel room that night are a little more graphic then we're able to go into on the air, but many people around the country - particularly here in Heritage, the band's hometown, and in New York City, where the alleged activities took place - are shocked and disgusted."
They cut to a series of interviews in which a reporter was asking people what they thought about the allegations. The first was an overweight, middle-aged woman. "I think it's completely disgusting," she opined. "I bought my daughter tickets to that show when they went on sale but now she's certainly not going to go."
"They're just a bunch of degenerates," said the next interviewee, a middle-aged man in a suit and tie. "I never liked their music to begin with, but now I truly find it revolting."
"Would you let your children go see an Intemperance show?" the reporter asked him.
"Never," he said. "I wouldn't let them within ten miles of those people."
"Jesus," Jake said, shaking his head.
The showed a few more clips of interviews - all of them negative in nature - and then Jacobs reappeared, still looking solemn. "Intemperance sold out both of the scheduled shows in Heritage within two hours of the tickets going on sale. However, reports now are that many parents who had given permission for their teenage children to attend one of the shows have revoked that permission in light of the allegations. It is also reported that a coalition of parents are attempting to get the shows at Community Auditorium canceled."
They cut to another interview, this one with a mid-thirties woman with a beehive hairdo and thick glasses covering her eyes. She was listed as Monica Toland, member of something called the Family Values Coalition of Heritage.
"This is just another symptom of the disease that these rock music personalities are inflicting upon the American youth," Ms. Toland said angrily. "This is a band that spits upon everything American families hold sacred. They make videos about Satanism and twisted serial killers. They advocate promiscuousness, homosexuality, and drug addiction. We are calling on the Heritage City Council to meet and pass an emergency decree revoking the performance permit for this band and to pass a further measure permanently banning any future performances. Lacking that, we will picket their performances tonight to show them just what they're up against."
The scene cut back to Jacobs. "Meanwhile, in New York City, the scene of the already infamous after-show party, the NYPD is opening an investigation into the events of that night. Captain Barry Stern, spokesperson for the NYPD, had this to say at a press conference outside New York City Police Headquarters just an hour ago."