Chapter 1: Andrew's Story

It all started when my Uncle Stan died. He was 75 and died of kidney failure.

His wife, Claire, had died after 26 years of marriage.

Stan was just 45 years old at the time, but chose not to remarry. Instead, he had a series live-in girlfriends. The last was in her late twenties, name Nancy. For the last five years of his life, as his health deteriorated, she acted at his nurse, lovingly handling his dialysis and tending to his hygiene.

When it came to read his will. I expected to get a big cut of his inheritance. He had never had any children, and I had always been his favorite nephew. I was the only member of the family to visit him on a regular basis.

It turned out that Nancy got the lion’s share of his estate, about half. Considering what she did for him in those last year, I guess she deserved it. She really seemed broken up about losing her charge.

I got about a third of his worldly goods, including a gold 1984 Trans Am, that he hardly ever drove, in mint condition. I was not unhappy with my cut. The remaining sixth went to rest of the family, that he felt obligated to give something to.

As we were filing out of the lawyer’s office, the executrix pulled me aside and handed me a large padded envelope. The outside of it was marked simply, “For Andy”. She said, “Stan want you to have this as well.” Uncle Stan was the only one who called me Andy.

I could not feel anything through the padding. “What’s in it?” I asked.

She shrugged, “I have no idea.”

After I got home to my apartment, I opened the envelope. All that was in it was a key to a safe deposit box. That sent my mind reeling. I imagined stacks of bearer bonds or gold bars. I went to the bank inscribed on the key and accessed the box. I was disappointed to find only and a sealed envelope and a cassette tape.

Once I got back to my apartment I opened the envelope. In it was a one page letter. It read:

Dear Andy,

On this tape you will hear a series of five seemingly random tones. I discovered them by accident a long time ago. They have an amazing effect on post-pubescent women. The tones have no effect on men. Here are rules you need to keep in mind.

1. After a woman hears the tone, give her any command and she will follow it for the rest of her life.

2. The command cannot be too complicated. It can be no more than ten words long.

3. It works only once on any woman. There are no do-overs.

After Claire died, I used the tones on my girlfriends. I used the phrase “You are completely devoted to me until I tell you to stop.” It worked very well. I have never paid Nancy a dime for her services.

This is an amazing power that I am giving to you. I hope you use it wisely.

Your UncleStan

I read the letter several times. It had to be legit. Stan was not one to make things like this up. I had to listen to this tape.

Finding a cassette tape player was a challenge. I did not own one, and they were not readily available at electronic stores. I could have found one on the internet, but delivery would take several days. I would up buying a portable tape player at pawn shop for ten dollars.

Back home, when I was alone, I put in the cassette and played it.

True to Stan’s word, I heard five seemingly random notes played on a piano. I remember Stan having a piano, but he sold it about a decade back. It started with a low note, then a mid-range note, then a high note, followed by another low note. The second note did not sound quite right, like the piano was out of tune.

The cassette repeated that sequence ten time, before it ended.

I didn’t hear anything special in this tape, but I was a guy, and Stan said it would not work on us...

First thing I needed to do was test this tape and see if it really worked. I needed a test subject, and could not think of anyone more deserving than my ex-wife, Candace.

I could write a novel on how she screwed me over. Let’s just say that she was a gorgeous woman with an incredible body, who knew more about divorce law than I did. She hired a top-notch lawyer, while I defended myself, because I was a lawyer too. She took me to the cleaners, taking most of my funds.

As a result, I closed my entertainment law/ agent office because I couldn’t stand the thought of that bitch getting half of my earnings. I hated that she was going to get half of my inheritance.

I knew my ex’s routine, every Monday she went to this high-end hair salon at 3pm. She was done by 4.

I waited for her to exit.

She smiled as I approached. She didn’t realize how mad I was with her. In many ways, she was not too bright. “Hi, Andrew.”

I figured the best way to do this was be upfront about this. “Candy, listen to this.” I put the cassette player speaker against her ear and turned it on.

She stopped in her tracks, and stood in front of me, her eye staring dumbly into space.

I knew exactly what I was going say.

“Tell your lawyer to stop taking money from me.”

I could have made her a lesbian, or unresponsive to sex, but I only had a ten-word limit, and my financial well-being was top priority

She stood dazed for a second, then returned to normal. “Sure thing,” she said with a smile.

Candace pulled her phone out of her purse and dialed a number. “Barry, it’s Candace. I want you to stop taking money from Andrew.

“Why?”

That stymied her for a second.

“Well, he has stopped working, so we aren’t getting hardly anything from him.

“I’m aware he has just got a bunch of money from his uncle, but I think I’ve gotten enough out of him.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

She hung up.

My ex looked at me. “Happy?”

“Very. Thank you, Candace.”

I walked away.

That was the last time I’ve seen her.

My ex not leeching on me was a relief. That meant I could try and get my roster of performers back, and restart my business, without me being her employee.

I started making a list of who I could try and recruit. When I quit, many of my previous clients expressed regret, saying that finding as good an agent would be hard to find. I hoped I could get these back. But most of them were not big-name performers.

To get a quality actors to sign up with you, it helped to have an already big star in your stable. But getting one of those was not easy.

But then a name came to mind. She was one of the top earning actresses in Hollywood today. I will call her Sue. I had met her through a mutual friend. Sue liked me but said she would never become my client. She was fiercely loyal the agent she had had from the start.

If these tones truly work as Stan wrote, recruiting her will be a snap.

But before I used that tape again, I needed to make a backup copy. That cassette was several decades old and could break at any time.

I went to a store where they transferred music and movies on old media to new. In short order, the young guy there made two backup copies on a two cassettes, and copied it on to two CD’s and two memory sticks. He didn’t even bother to listen to the contents.

I then took one copy in each format back to Stan’s safe deposit box. Better safe than sorry.

When I got to my space in the apartment’s parking lot, I put the memory stick in my car’s sound system, and prepared to press “Play”.

I dialed up my target.

The familiar female voice answered, “Who is this?” Evidently, Sue did not have my number saved on her phone.