Chapter 40: The Deal Of The Art

Blossom finally brought her laughter under control and shook hands with Walter and Ed.

“I’m sorry, it’s just that Margaret Erin gets a little pedantic at times. She reminds me of an old teacher of mine, Mr. Loucks. He was so pedantic he drove me nuts sometimes. Hi, I’m Blossom O’Dell.”

“Hello Blossom, I’m Walter. Walter Reese. I’m a talent coordinator with XYZ Records and this is Ed Smith. He’s a producer for XYZ. It’s very nice to meet you. This place and your family are amazing.”

“Thank you. The adults and kids all take a lot of pride in our home.”

“Has Paul made all this money from the band?”

“What? No! He was a swimming coach when he and Lynn met. Not exactly a path to prosperity.”

“But all this...”

“Belongs to a foundation that Lynn manages.”

“And my two bars are owned by the Foundation as well, Walter,” Erin explained as she walked into the room. “Are you pumping my wife for secret information?”

“Pumping? No!” Walter replied quickly. “I was just curious. I’ve seen a lot of opulent living in my time but the O’Dells are the most normal abnormal people I’ve ever come across.”

“Normal? Did you hear that Erin? He thinks we’re normal!” Blossom let out a loud laugh.

“Walter, if we were being our normal selves,” Erin said like it was a secret, “everyone in this place would be naked. We are nudists. All of us. From my parents, when they visit, to the youngest children who are potty trained. Even Paul!”

“Even Paul what?” I asked coming in at the tail end of the conversation.

“Nothing, Sweetie. You had to be there.”

Blossom laughed out loud again.

“Come on, everyone is out back,” I said knowing that I’d just been the butt of a joke, like normal.

We walked out and I led them to Taylor Erin’s tree and told them the short version of the tale. I walked them around as the children tore around chasing butterflies and grasshoppers. I explained about the eighteen trees along the front drive and how I was going to need four more soon. We were almost back to the patio when Margaret Erin came out of the door to the kitchen and called that lunch was ready.

We went in and Ed and Walter got into the chow line and soon were seated at the dining room table with the older children and my three wives. We talked about the music business and Lynn asked some questions about the papers Ed had given her. She asked about the proprietary issues and told Ed she’d talk about the monetary stuff later.

The children were feeling free to ask about Walter and Ed’s families. Ed was married to a woman who did a lot of studio work as a backup singer. Margaret Erin told her story of singing with Bonnie Raitt and Ed looked amazed.

“You know my wife told me that Bonnie had mentioned a little girl who sang with her at a gig. She said the little thing had the voice of an angel. She said she wanted to do some songs with her but the family wanted to keep her a secret. It was you, wasn’t it?”

“Miss Raitt was very nice but when we explained our situation she understood,” Erin said looking lovingly at her eldest daughter. “She was one of our friends who came and sat in for a night at the Club-Club.”

“That’s another thing. How the heck do you get a Charlie Daniels and his band or Bonnie Raitt or RUSH to come to Boise to play a single night gig with you?”

“Actually it happened a long time ago,” I started. “The band I was with opened for Rush at the last minute in Houston. The band they were touring with couldn’t go on and we were called the day before. We got up and opened and afterwards, Geddy gave us his card and said if we ever wanted to go on tour with them to call us. A couple of years ago, Lynn called and asked them to come and stop here on their way from Salt Lake to Seattle. She sweetened the deal with the offer that they could play anything they wanted and that we would donate a substantial amount of money to their favorite charity. They came, we played together, they had a great time. We had them over for a BBQ...”

“A certain little girl ran around naked and told Geddy he had a funny voice,” Ed injected.

We all laughed and Margaret Erin blushed a little.

“Yes. From that RUSH’s people put out the word and Lynn had a running list of people who want to come and sit in with us. They all understand that they do it for free. They get no billing. It’s treated like crashing a party with the exception that the Foundation makes a nice donation to their favorite charity.”

“That’s sort of the story we heard from others. And that gave us the idea for the show. Sort of like the band plays and once in a while a famous act crashes the party. If the ‘friends’ didn’t want to do it we’d have a work around of recording the band on another night. Heck after watching the place last Monday you could do a once a month show featuring music students and karaoke stars.”

“I’ll tell you one thing right now. And it is a deal killer...”

The bell rang for the front gate so I stopped talking and looked at the wives.

“Are we expecting anyone, Paul?” Erin asked.

“Yes. Sofia was coming over after she was done with the drink delivery.”

Erin went to the front door and spoke into the intercom. The answering voice was Sofia and Erin buzzed her in and then watched her come up the drive to be sure she was alone.

“You all seem a bit skittish, Paul,” Ed noted.

“Yeah, we’ve had some rough times here and about. Shootings and another home invasion and the older girls getting kidnapped. We are a bit on edge.”

“So who is Sofia, Paul?” Walter asked.

“Sofia is the composer.”

“And she is the bar manager at The Club-Club,” Erin proudly chimed in as she opened and walked out of the front door.

A small car pulled up in front of the house and parked alongside the others. The pretty, olive-skinned, girl who got out of the car had a huge smile when she saw Erin and ran to her. The two hugged and started back for the house when Sofia stopped and ran back to the car. She opened the trunk and took out a shoulder bag. She flung in onto her shoulder, closed the trunk, and quick stepped back to Erin.

The two walked into the house and stopped inside while Erin closed the door behind them.

“This is Sofia Papadopoulos. The bar manager at The Club-Club. Sofia this is Ed Smith and Walter Reese. Both work for XYZ Records.”

The two men stepped forward, Ed first. Walter hung back a little, very unlike his usual self.

“Hello, Miss Papadopoulos. It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Ed extended a hand and received a firm handshake in return.

Walter stood there, seemingly petrified. He looked at Sofia and was completely taken. It was like he had binoculars and had zoomed in on only her. In response, Sofia tilted her head a bit to the right and looked at the man who stood before her.

“Mr. Reese?” Sofia said, extending a hand.

“Yes, I am ... er ... yes that’s me.”

“Walter, are you OK?” I asked walking to the foyer to see what was taking Sofia so long to come in.

I placed a hand on his shoulder and he seemed to snap out of a spell.

“Miss Papadopoulos, I’m terribly sorry. Hello, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

The two shook hands and Erin got a sly smile on her face in recognition of the affect Sofia was having on Walter. Erin took Walter and Sofia by the hand and led them out to the back of the house.

“Erin, I’m sorry I’m late. I was dealing with one of Rockwell’s final bits of sabotage. He completely underordered for the week. The distributor called me and asked if this was really all I wanted. I had to do a quick inventory and changed the order before the truck left the depot. I hope I can get my hands on him one time.”

“But everything is straight now and on the up and up, right?”

“Right, Erin. We are all set for the rest of the week and I’ve cross checked the order for the weekend. So, what’s going on here?”

“Sofia, these guys wanted to meet the composer of “In The Mix”. I don’t know why,” my big blonde wife said slyly.

“Because the leader of the band said it was a great song and wanted to see the rest of the things I’d written, Mrs. O’Dell,” Sofia replied with a bit of fun sass.

“He said that? I’ll have to talk to him.”

“RONNIE!” Erin yelled in her loud outdoor mom voice.

Ronnie came trotting into the kitchen, Carla, and the baby right behind him.

“What? Oh, hi Sofia.”

“Hi Ronnie. Hi Carla! Hellooooo Baby,” Sofia replied using a finger to tickle the tummy of the little boy.

“Ronnie, Sofia said that you said “In The Mix” was a great song and that the XYZ guys should meet the composer. Is that right?”

“Yeah Erin. She needs to get those songs heard.”

“Then you get her out there to get to know the guys. I think Walter might be the better one of the two. But first, Sofia are you hungry?” Erin asked.

“I’m starving. I was going to eat before I left the Club but then I saw the time and saw how late I was. Bottom line is I haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“What? Come on Sofia and we’ll fix you up. Those guys can wait until I’ve taken care of my bar manager.”

Erin took the girl by the hand and led her to the kitchen where pandemonium immediately broke loose. The Herd saw her and recognized her from The Club-Club and the excitement level went to eleven. Sofia was welcomed by all the children who could walk and talk. Offers to show her around were made by all. Genevieve Lynn organized her sisters to feed Sofia when they heard that the girl had missed breakfast AND lunch.

Sofia was overwhelmed and overjoyed by the attention. But she was that and more so when Walter pulled a chair out for her at the table and sat next to her.

“Do you always draw such attention everywhere you go, Sofia?” Walter asked.

“No! Never. I’m just a little old bartender who scribbles out an occasional song.”

“Well, if you’ll allow me, I think that you scribble pretty darned well. I’m looking forward to hearing some of your other songs.”

“Really? Why?”

“Hasn’t Paul told you?”

“I haven’t told her anything about anything, Walter,” I said when I heard his question. “Sofia, these guys are from a record company. Someone sent them a recording of us doing “In The Mix” and they liked it so much they want to record it and release it. We invited them for lunch and thought that it was appropriate to also invite the composer. So here you are.”

“Record? Release? You mean like to play on the radio and internet?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Walter said softly. “If your other efforts are as good, you have a great career looming on the horizon.”

While Sofia ate and Walter sat in awe of her, Lynn went back to the office to go into depth looking up record deals and calling our past friends and getting opinions. Blossom was supervising clean-up of the kitchen, again. Ed was standing off to the side watching the well-oiled O’Dell family in full post meal action. Erin was sitting on the other side of Sofia and I was sitting outside on the deck, thinking.

I knew that Sofia’s life was about to take an amazing turn. The concern I had was how it would affect the O’Dell family. The last thing we needed was for outside influences to come in and raise hell about me having three wives and seventeen, soon to be twenty-one, children. I was sure that we could fend off the problems, I just didn’t want the problems we’d have to fend off.

When all was clean, everyone retired to the ballroom. Ronnie sat down at the piano, then moved to the electronic keyboard at Sofia’s suggestion. She opened up her shoulder bag and took out a stack of sheet music and a laptop. She set up the computer on the table we’d dragged across the room to the keyboard.

“How do you want to start this off?” she asked.