Chapter 19

The ambulance arrived, determining he was alive, with very shallow breathing, but took him to Sts. Mary & Elizabeth Hospital, which was nearest us.

I was put in charge, as Mom and the Nicholas parents got in a car and went to the hospital.

“I’m scared,” my youngest brother Will said. “Don’t worry, I’m here,” Nancy said, holding him.

All of us, probably were as scared, but Will expressed it.

My phone rang, making me jump a bit, and Nevina’s soothing voice said, “Michael ... Listen, your father has been taken into surgery, at first they thought he had something stuck in his throat, but he didn’t. Keep everybody together, please. I will call back as soon as we know anything. Keep your phone close by and turned on, OK?”

I asked, “What’s the prognosis, Nev?”

“He’s in surgery. If everything goes well, he’ll be in the hospital for a couple of days. Tell everybody as much as you think you need to. You are the Boss, act like it.”

“The Love Family Singers have a paying job, in three days. Do I cancel it?”

“That’s up to you, Michael.”

“What would you do, Nevina?”

“That doesn’t matter, Michael. You have enough information to decide, all by yourself. You need to decide by early tomorrow morning. Assume your mother and father won’t be there, but Ty and I will be.”

“If I cancel, won’t that send a signal that I’m not serious about what we are doing?”

“You’re talking about that old adage, ‘The show must go,’ aren’t you?”

“Well ... yeah, I guess so.”

“Keep strong, Michael. I’ll let you know what’s going on. Bye!”

As I turned off my phone, April crawled up on my lap, and gave me a big hug, “It sounds like he’s OK, isn’t he?”

I enveloped my arms around her and told them all everything I knew. My brothers and her sisters were holding each other very tightly.

I wondered if I should play some music to stabilize the mood, but April wasn’t letting go of me.

“Is anyone hungry?” I asked them all.

That got everyone up, and my brothers helped up their respective girls. Instead of going in the kitchen, they all headed upstairs together.

April got up, and took me by the hand and headed up to my room.

“Keep your door open, everyone, please?” I said more assertively than I would normally.

In response to that, I heard doors slamming. I hope nobody does anything stupid, like I already have!

Near midnight, my phone rang, and it was Mom.

“Hey Honey, good news, Dad is going to be OK!”

“That is terrific news, Mom. How long is he going to be in the hospital, do you know?”

“At least a week, to recover from the surgery. I spoke to Nevina, and she told me your concerns. I agree that it is your call regarding whether the Love Family Singers perform or not. It’s fair to tell you neither your father nor I will be there. Both Ty and Nev plan to be part of it. They have left the hospital and should be showing up any minute at the house. Thank you for being so grown up to hold down the fort. How is everybody doing there?”

“Fine, everybody’s fine. No problems to speak of. When are you coming home?”

“In a couple of hours. I’m staying until your father comes out of the meds they gave him. Love you, Honey!”

“I love you mom, see you very soon, give my love to dad, when you can. Bye!”

I sent my brothers a ‘Their parents will be here any minute’ message, then woke up my sleeping angel.

To follow up my text message, I knocked on all the closed doors, announcing the news.

I went downstairs to wait on Tyrone and Nevina, hearing doors opening and people scrambling.

DING!

I got up and opened the door, with a rush from Nevina grabbing me and telling me, “Everything is going to be all right, Michael.”

She looked around and asked, “Where is everyone?”

“I sent them up to bed a few hours ago, I told them you were on your way.”

Down they came, looking flushed, but fully dressed, as each of my brothers presented their girls to their parents.

April loitered, coming down with her shoes in her hands. I took them from her and helped her into them as Ty got to the doorway.

“Thank you for taking such good care of my daughters. Is there a rehearsal before the birthday party in three days, Michael?”

“No, we’re good. Mom called to let us know how dad was doing. She said, she’ll be home in a few hours. Boys, give your girls a kiss goodnight, please?”

They each did, as our house went back to just us four.

“Thank you for not telling on us,” Will said. “You are a pretty cool older brother. Goodnight, everybody!”

As they left the foyer, I stayed downstairs to wait for mom.

Right about two thirty, she came in quietly, surprised to see me, saying, “Did everything go OK, Michael?”

“You say that like you were expecting trouble, my dear beautiful mother,” I said, with a big yawn.

I offered her my arm, and took her to her room. We kissed goodnight, and I went to my room, happy that everything went as it did.

I slept better than I had expected, although I did cry for a while, before finally going to sleep.

Waking up, I was startlingly alert, as I changed from the clothes I had slept in, to some fresh clothes.

I walked into the kitchen, finding it empty except for Nevina and Sarah completely naked drinking coffee.

Nev poured me a cup and walked over and handed it to me. This had better be a dream.

I felt like I was jostled, and found myself back in bed, with April on my bed, kissing me.

This is better! Relatively speaking.

“Michael, thank you for being a gentlemen last night. I spoke to my sisters and only Charles and Mary actually made out while in the boys’ rooms. The others apparently went right to sleep, until you knocked on the doors.”

“I just had the strangest dream, with your mom and my mom, in the kitchen. Weird!”

“Do I want to know anymore?” she asked.

“They were both naked,” I blurted.

“Were you?”

“It all happened so quickly, I don’t think so,” I said. “What time is it?”

“I forgive you,” she said.

“Thank you. I love you, you know!”

“Yeah, I knew that already,” she said giving me a kiss. “You have bad breath!”

“Sorry,” I said getting out of bed and going to my bathroom.

She followed me in, saying, “You have a boner, Michael. Was that because of my mother or yours?”

To make her point, she reached inside my boxers and squeezed me hard.

“Go downstairs, please? I’ll catch up with you in a minute, please?”

She did a very short hand job, then washed her hands and said, “Bye!”

I encountered my brother Charles, who quietly said, “I got my first blow job last night, Bro!”

“Too much information, Chuckie. Do not disrespect Mary, please?”

“Got it, Bro.”

He left, with a great big grin on his face.

Being alone, I called our client explaining what happened and we wouldn’t be able to make their party because of it.

They completely understood, and thanked me for calling them.

Damn!

I told the ladies and the kids this, and they all thanked me for doing it. Apparently, they had been hoping I would do it, but nobody had wanted to say it, out loud.

With the six ladies and three boys, I decided to do what the great Michael Thomas does in this kind of situation, so I sat down at my main keyboard and started to play and sing...

MICHAEL

Love, Love, Love
Love, Love, Love

Love, American Style,
Truer than the Red, White and Blue.

Love, American Style,
That’s me and you.

APRIL joined me (Our singing chorus)
And on a star-spangled night my love.
(you can rest) You can rest your head on my shoulder (shoulder).

The rest of the LFS joins in.

I was singing and crying at the same time, but it all seemed to work out just fine.

April came to me and we had a tight hug, my brothers all hugged and kissed their girls, and I was assaulted by the lips of Sarah and Nevina. (On my cheek!)

After that, we went over some of our show music, then took a break for lunch. When finished, Mom left to go check on Dad, leaving Nevina to chaperone.

I noticed all of us, even Nevina, had started to yawn, likely from lack of sleep. I pointed it out to her, and suggested we all take a nap.

She was worried, for obvious reasons, but I told her how everyone had gotten along, so, possibly against her better judgement, she made the announcement reminding them that the house rule of an open door was mandatory.

We all went upstairs together and she watched as each of the couples kicked of their shoes and laid down. Girls under the sheets, boys on top of the covers.

Instead of going into Mom and Dad’s bedroom, she asked if I had room on my king bed for her to lay down for a short while.

April put herself between us, turning towards me, giving me a nice kiss!

“Could I get a goodnight kiss, Michael?” she said.

April glared at me, but I got out of bed, went around to the other side and attempted to give her a kiss on the forehead. She moved very quickly and it became a lip to lip kiss.

“Mother, stop that!” April said.

“Sorry, Honey, he’s become very kissable looking these days.”

“Well, too bad. He’s mine! You’ve got Daddy.”

We all apologized and April got up really tight behind me, and we all fell asleep.

I woke up with a start, and looked to see Nevina was gone. I guess she had all the nap she needed.

Carefully walking downstairs, she was on the sofa, making what sounded like sexual moans, so I took a step to see both her hands down her panties, “Oh, Oh, Michael, Fuck me, please?”

I ran back up the stairs, crawling back into the bed.

I must have jostled the bed too much and April’s eyes opened and she said, “Hey you!”

“Hey pretty girl, go back to sleep.”

“Where’s my mother?”

“I don’t know, she left, I guess?”

“You’re out of breath, Michael. What’s going on?”

“Must you know everything?”

“Now, I do,” she said sitting up. “Why are you out of breath?”

I can’t lie to her, so I told her where her mother was and what I heard her say.

She didn’t believe me, so with both of us in bare feet, we walked down the stairs together, until we could hear her.

“Ooooh, Michael, you’re such a naughty boy, fucking me so hard, please, please don’t stop, please?”

April’s breathing had changed, and she was putting her hand down her pants.

“Stop!” I said as quietly as I could.

“I can’t, she’s fantasizing about getting fucked by you, and it’s hot, really hot to watch.”

“Sarah will be home soon. We can’t let her catch Nevina like that. Go ahead and get her attention,” I said.

“She doesn’t want me, you do it!”

“Are you kidding me?” I quietly responded.

“WHO’S THERE?” her mother said looking around.

This is going to end badly for me, but I got up, leaving April on the stairs.

“Hey, Nev, I got up and found you M.I.A. on the bed. Are you OK?”

She was buttoning up her slacks and sitting up.

“I ... I was restless, and didn’t want to wake up you guys,” she said looking at her watch.

At that very moment, Mom came through the door, “Hey, how is everything going, you two?”

“Good,” I said for both of us, “How’s Dad?”

“Recovering, where is everyone else?”

“Resting,” I answered, as April finally came down the rest of the stairs. “Hello, Sarah. How is John doing?”

“Restless, which means he is getting better,” she answered.

The pitter patter of the brothers and sisters preceded seeing them coming down the stairs.

“Are you guys hungry?” Nevina asked.

Various responses indicated we were, as Nev got up, took Sarah into the kitchen, with mom saying, “Wash up, please?”

Fifteen minutes later, we had a filling meal of toasted cheese sandwiches.

Will and Nancy offered to clean up, as April took my hand and walked me to my keyboard, “Play something, loverboy!”

A song flashed in my head, and I began...

MICHAEL

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
‘Til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a

treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems

to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them

I’ve looked around

enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box, just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems

to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them

I’ve looked around

enough to know
That you’re the one I want to go
Through time with

I wasn’t through playing before April started kissing me. Both Mom and Nev were crying, hard.

When she let me breathe, I said, “That song goes all the way back to 1973, wasn’t it pretty?”

“Michael,” Nevina said, “It was a very wonderful rendition of that song. Your voice has improved since the Love Family Singers has come along. Maybe ... once the summer is over, we could get some big jobs at some bigger venues, and negotiate a piece of the action.”

“By that, you mean?”

“Put together a ... a system of quotes, based on venue size.”

“Can you and Sarah help me do that, please?” I asked.

“Sure, Michael,” she said, “Can I sing something, Honey?”

“Mother!” April said aloud.

“Sorry,” she said.

“Anything in particular, Beautiful?”

“Michael!” April said, again.

“Remember that singer that killed herself a few years back, Adele ... how about something of hers?”

“I do have her ‘Best of’ collection. Just a minute, Nev.”

Finding it, I said, “How about her first big hit, “Make You Feel My Love?”

She nodded as she sat down next to me...

NEVINA

When the rain is

blowing in your face
And the whole world is on your case
I could offer you a warm embrace
To make you feel my love

When the evening shadows

and the stars appear
And there is no one

there to dry your tears
I could hold you for a million years
To make you feel my love

I know you haven’t

made your mind up yet
But I would never do you wrong
I’ve known it from

the moment that we met
no doubt in my mind where you belong

I’d go hungry, I’d go

black and blue
I’d go crawling down the avenue
No, there’s nothing that I wouldn’t do
To make you feel my love

I played the interlude between verses

The storms are raging

on the rolling sea
And on the highway of regret
The winds of change

are blowing wild and free
You ain’t seen nothing like me yet

I could make you happy,

make your dreams come true
Nothing that I wouldn’t do
Go to the ends of the Earth for you
To make you feel my love

To make you feel my love

“That was very nice, Ms. Nicholas,” I said as everyone else applauded her.

“Suddenly I’m Ms. Nicholas again? I thought I told you it was OK to call me Nevina, Michael?”

“That feels too informal, I am dating your daughter.”

“Don’t be silly, everybody here has become familial, don’t you think so?”

“It’s just that I feel I have been getting too familial, Mrs ... Nevina?”

She smiled at my play on words, and got up to say, “Who’s next to sing?”

Nev got up, Sarah took her place next to me, saying, “Whatcha got for me to sing, Honey?”

“I’ve seen you looking through the music I have, does anything ‘float your boat?’”

She just looked at me for a good 20 to 30 seconds, before saying. “Would you sing with me, my favorite song from BRIGADOON?”

“Which one was that?” I asked.

“Almost Like Being In Love,’ why don’t you start it?”...

TOMMY: (MICHAEL)
Maybe the sun gave me the pow’r,
For I could swim Loch Lomond

and be home in half an hour.
Maybe the air gave me the drive,
For I’m all aglow and alive.

What a day this has been!

What a rare mood I’m in!
Why, it’s almost like being in love!

There’s a smile on my face

for the whole human race!
Why, it’s almost like being in love!

All the music of life seems to be

like a bell that is ringing for me!
And from the way that I feel

when that bell starts to peal,
I could swear I was falling,

I would swear I was falling,
It’s almost like being in love.

When we walked up the brae,

FIONA: (Sarah)
Not a word did we say,
It was ... almost like bein’ in love.
But your arm link’d in mine

made the world kind o’ fine.

TOMMY:
It was ... almost like being in love!

FIONA:
All the music of life seems to be
TOMMY:
Like a bell that is ringing for me!

BOTH:
And from the way that I feel

when that bell starts to peal,

FIONA:
I could swear I was fallin’,
TOMMY:
I could swear I was falling,

BOTH:
It’s almost like ... being in love!

April started the applause, followed by Nev, with the brothers and sisters all joining in. Sarah gave me a kiss on the cheek and got up.

“Hey Doll face,” I said to my girl, “Now what?”

“How about us?” Charles said.

“Sure, what ya got, Bro?”

He laughed, pulled up into his arms, his girl.

“We’ve learned a few songs from BRIGADOON as well, haven’t we, Beautiful?”

Mary giggled, and added, “There but For You Go I,’ please?”

“Sounds good,” I said rolling right into this equally beautiful melody...

TOMMY: (CHARLES)
This is hard to say, but as I

wandered through the lea,
I felt for just a fleeting moment that
I suddenly was free of being lonely.
Then I closed my eyes and

saw the very reason why.

I saw a man with

his head bowed low.
His heart had no place to go.
I looked and I thought

to myself with a sigh:
There but for you go I.

(Nancy was harmonizing)
I saw a man walking by the sea,
Alone with the tide was he.
I looked and I thought

as I watched him go by:
There but for you go I.

Lonely men around me,

trying not to cry,
Till the day you found me,

there among them was I.
I saw a man who had never known

a love that was all his own.

BOTH
I thought as I thanked

all the stars in the sky:
There but for you, go I.

My goodness, he has become more confident in his performing. As we all applauded, they kissed quite provocatively in from of us all, until Nev pulled her daughter from him.

They are really good for one another, singing and otherwise.

After a while longer, the ladies brought out some food to eat. Ms. Nicholas sat by me, with April on my other side. I was equally uncomfortable and turned on at the same time.

“So, we have a paid job the day after tomorrow, correct, Michael?” Nev said.

“That is correct,” I remarked. “At this point I am expecting everyone except my Dad. Will you and Ty ... Mr. Nicholas be able to join us?”

“Please call me Nevina, Michael. I have grown to enjoy talking to you as an adult, you are nearly 17!”

“Excuse us,” I said taking her by the hand, with April behind us walking into our dining room.

Putting myself between the two of them, I told Nevina what we saw and heard ... her masturbating role fantasy, calling out my name.

She was embarrassed, but admitted to it, also admitting that she had feelings for me. April was being quiet, although I hoped she wasn’t too terribly upset at her mother.

“How do you feel?” I turned and asked my girlfriend.

“I don’t know, jealous, bothered, maybe a little bit turned on.”

“What do you mean?” her mother asked, “Turned on, how?”

“We both watched you, playing ... with yourself, and calling out my boyfriend’s name. I can’t believe I am admitting this, but it got me ... very turned on.”

Nev started to cry, and April and she were quickly crying in each other’s arms.

Mom walked into the room, and I got up to greet her. “Is everything all right in here, Michael?”

“Everything is just fine, Mom. We needed to have a confidential conversation, and it’s over now.”

“Can you at least tell me why they are crying?” she persisted.

“You can talk to Nevina later, OK?” I said turning her around and out the door. I had my hands on her butt pushing her out.

Turning back to mother and daughter, April asked me, “Does my mother turn you on?”

I gulped and admitted, “I ... You ... If she looks how you will grow up to look, yes, she is as beautiful as I hope and expect you to be. Am I in trouble?”

Nev walked from April to me and said, “Michael, you remind me of my very first boyfriend. I was April’s age, and he was older, by a year. We met at school, his name ... isn’t important, but he looked at me the way I see you two looking at each other.”

I looked at her, then April, and she went on to say, “He was ... as beautiful a boy as you are. He was my first lover, and it happened in my room, in my own bed, while my parents were both off to work.”

“Did he force himself on you?” I asked.

“N – No, I was the aggressor, but he did consent and it was the most wonderful afternoon I had, until I met and fell in love with Tyrone. God, he was remarkable, and his name was Robert. Sometimes I still find myself remembering that moment. Why I called out your name, I’m not quite sure, but it could be because I find myself so attracted to you. April’s father is the only man I have ever loved, and I hope you don’t hate me from what you heard me say, please?”

“Where were you living at the time, Nev?” I asked.

“Liverpool, England. With my mother’s younger sister, who became Cilla Black, a big-time singer in the 70s.”

This astonished April as much as I.

“So that is where you and your sisters and April and her sisters got the genetic disposition to become singers. What happened to Cilla?”

“She ... she moved to Spain where she died from a stroke brought on by a subarachnoid hemorrhage in 2015.”

“What about her husband, my grandfather?” April asked.

“He died in 1999 ... his name was Bobby Willis. She later married Jack Ryan, whose name we all took. My youngest sister Grace was the only child of Jack and Cilla.”

“Wow!” April and I both said.

“Let’s join the rest of them, before they all think we are doing something naughty,” I said.

April slapped my shoulder and I got up and pulled Nev up next to me, close enough for us to kiss for a moment.

“Hey now, stop that you two,” my redhead said, getting up giggling. Nev cleaned my lips and we all headed back downstairs with her following us, fixing her lipstick.

I went to my laptop which I left by my keyboard, and looked up Cilla Black, finding a website with a picture that proved all Nev had said. A redhead, and a knockout.

She worked at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, meeting the Beatles, Brian Epstein. He was the one who suggested she changed her name from Priscilla Marie Veronica White. Music Producer George Martin agreed to record her.

Cilla became popular first in England and Europe, part of the ‘British Invasion’ that happened in 1964. She moved to Tennessee where she met her future husband and had five girls.

In later years, her health became poor, ultimately dying after a fall in her holiday home near Marbella, Spain at age 72.

On the sly, I ordered a song book of the music she had recorded with a devious plan in my head.

Hearing that Dad would be home in three more days, we had a full-fledged rehearsal of the entire Love Family Singers early the same day we had our gig.

After very few musical errors at the rehearsal, we went on, in our two vehicles to the largest venue we had yet to perform at.

What’s that great line from ‘New York, New York’ If we can make it there, we’ll make it anywhere?

The Love Family Singers, were indeed loved. Our seventeen singers and four musicians were applauded and praised all night.

With Ty’s help, we had purchased 10,000 business cards, and before we were back in our vehicles, at least 1,500 of them had been handed out.

With Nevina right next to me, we booked seven jobs on the Fridays and Saturdays after school starts back up, getting cash or checks for retaining our services. There was even a Christmas party over six months away, on December 22^nd, in the Headliners Music Hall, that had 600 seats.

We had employees helping us get the equipment loaded up. It was midnight and we caravanned to our place, unloading everything back in our living room. The Ryan Girls all went into the kitchen to make everyone something to eat.

If I knew this bunch, and I did, all the equipment was installed ready to go.

I sat down on my bench and Ty came over to me, and said, “Excuse my french, but you are hot shit, young man. Although you are about ten years younger than him, I’ve seen Michael Thomas perform, and you are every bit as good a singer and keyboardist as he is.”

“Now, you are just making stuff up, Tyrone. He’s rich and famous, I’m poor and famous ... that’s a big difference, Sir?”

“Money isn’t everything, Mr. Love,” he came back with. “You sing just as easily with my wife as you do with my daughter. If I was a jealous man, and I’m not, I would worry a lot.”

“Thank you, I think!”

He stood up, and walked over to Nev giving her a very romantic kiss.

“Michael,” my brother Will said, “How many songs did we sing tonight, anyway?”

“Close to 55,” I replied. “More important than that, we got over a dozen jobs booked with down payments no less.

Martha, my first cousin said, “My sisters, Tiffany and Brittany asked me to ask you if they could join the group?”

“Are they as pretty as you are?” I asked, with April asking, “Can they sing?”

“Yes, and Yes,” the eighteen-year-old answered.

“Aaron, my first cousin plays the trumpet. Wouldn’t that help our overall ‘sound?’”

“We need to hear them sing first?” April said, “Don’t we, Michael?”

“Get them over here early Saturday morning, why don’t you?” I said to her.

“Will do, Loverboy?” she said.

April seethed a little, but I held her back, as she got on my lap and gave me a ‘He is my property’ kiss ... Wow!

Come Saturday morning, the entire LFS plus Dad, plus those cousins wanting to audition were all there.

Although he was home, Dad was content to be a quiet observer for a few more days.

Less than two hours later, the Love Family Singers had expanded to now include:

The Nicholas Family:

Tyrone T Nicholas (46) Singer

Nevina L Ryan-Nicholas (44) Singer

Mary I Nicholas (15) Singer

April J Nicholas (14) Singer

June E Nicholas (13) Singer

Nancy N Nicholas (12) Singer

Nevina’s Sisters:

Kathleen Ryan-O’Rourke (41) Singer

Leah P Ryan-Doyle (38) Singer

Tara G Ryan-Maguire (38) Singer

Grace M Ryan-Kane (36) Singer

The (Biological) Love Family:

John G Love (40) Singer

Sarah M DeMille-Love (39) Singer

Michael J Love (16) BOSS/Singer/Keyboards

Charles J Love (15) Singer

Kenneth J Love (13) Singer

William J Love (12) Singer