Chapter 18

We were both up at 5, and after a quick shower, I got into slacks, my blue shirt and tie that Becky had laid out as she got herself ready. I drove to Winchell’s and bought five dozen doughnuts, and by the time I got home she was almost ready.

She only used lip gloss, so I was able to give her a kiss before we headed over. A tight black pencil skirt, with the white silk blouse. And two inch heels. We were there at 6:30, and she started the coffee as I started putting things near the door. The equipment was all ready, and Mike and Peggy arrived as we were sipping coffee and having doughnuts. Peggy was complaining to Becky about the aches and pains in her breasts as Mike and I started running things out. We soon had the light truss installed, and I hooked up a small boombox I had bought and put a Hank Jr. CD in. Mike laughed and pulled out a disk and started to copy files to the computer. I would have to do something soon, over half of the black systems now were either in use or sold.

Finally, Mike laughed and yelled “Enough!”, and grabbed a Phil Collins CD out of his car and started playing that. I laughed and said he did not know good music when he heard it. “Pete, that might work in Idaho, but not here. We want something with a beat, not some cowboy crying about his broken truck and lost dog!”

By 7:30, Rad, Sharla, Karl, dad and Dee, Julie, and everybody else was there. And Mandy got out of her car and gave Becky and I huge hugs, then handed her a large roll of white plastic. I helped her unroll it, and everybody laughed.

“The Geek Crusaders” was printed on it in bold Gothic letters. And the image of a face wearing an open great helm, and wearing horn-rim glasses filled the center. Keith laughed, as did everybody else and I said it looked great. Everybody started setting up as dad and I hung up the banner on the back of the stage. Holly and Dan showed up as they were checking the sound levels, and after hugs and kisses Becky and I took them inside for a tour. They both thought it looked fantastic and were amazed at how much we had done in such a short amount of time.

“Well, it helps a lot when your old boss writes a check for a million and a half. But this would not have been possible without Pete. But we have decided to do this every Saturday, for as long as people want to show up. Different bands each week, kind of a day-long party.”

I nodded and said it was helping my business also, and things were looking good for both of us. And Jean and Tom came in as we were showing them upstairs, and Becky headed down to show her new employees everything they needed to know to get started as I gave them a tour of the upstairs.

“Holy hell Pete, this is a long way from 1981! That desk is nice, and her office is nicer than your old one was!” She sat on the couch and stuck her hand in the cushion, and giggled. “Sofa bed, I should have known!”

I laughed and said Becky is the one that selected that, I had no idea until the night before. She grinned at me and asked me how I found out, and I just smiled and pointed to the unlit candles still scattered around. Dan looked out the large window that overlooked the sales floor, and said “One way?” I nodded and said it was Becky’s idea. That way she could work up here and still keep an eye on how things were down below. They both said the view was great, and I showed them the rest of the area. Dan loved the computer setup and asked me where I had gotten that desk. I explained it was from an old RADAR system, and we got it from the TRW swap meet. And I promised to invite him along for the next one.

We headed back down and went outside to check out the show. There were around thirty people out there, and the tent was up and they were getting food ready to serve. Dee had joined them on the stage, and they were doing a decent job at “Root Beer Rag”. But Dee was setting the pace as fast as the original was, and different members would laugh as they blew a note or fell out of time. But the audience was laughing and loving it. And I saw dad had one of my camcorders on the hood of my car and was recording it. He waved us over and handed me a bunch of cash. “Here Pete, this is yours.”

I looked, $600! “Dad, what’s this for?”

“Oh, those scopes I took from the desks? I got $200 each for them from work. We still have a contract to maintain them, and when I said I had three of them my boss made a call and cut me a check on the spot.” I tried to hand half of it back, and he just shook his head. “Nope, that’s all yours. Hell, you are the one paying for the extension, just use it all for that if nothing else.” I hugged him and saw Holly looking at us funny.

“Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you. Dad is moving home to Idaho in the spring, Becky and I are moving into the house.” She gave us both hugs and kissed me softly. “Oh Pete, it is almost like 1981 all over again.” I saw Mandy dancing towards the front of the stage in a peach colored sweater dress, and nodded in agreement.

Shortly afterwards Lisa showed up, and of course, she got a tour also. And I got to meet Paul, her new boyfriend. He was a civilian and thought the shop was great. A bit later I grabbed four hamburgers and went inside, and saw Becky ringing up another customer. Jean was watching as she entered it into the computer, and Tom called me over and asked how to unhook the lights. Holy hell, she sold the old truss, with the old controller already! We got it all unhooked, and I showed the guy how all the cables were color-coded to the back of the panel. We loaded it into his van and I gave Becky a hug. We left the other two downstairs with their burgers as we went into her office and shared a kiss, then started eating.

She told me how much she sold the truss for, and I whistled. “I think that is more than you have invested in the new one.” She nodded and told me it was. Seems the guy owns a strip club and wanted to add it to his stage. I shrugged when she said he gave her ten free passes, and she aid she would keep two and give the rest to Tom.

“Pete, I did ask, he knows nobody named Linda or Holly. It’s in Mission Hills, and I would at least like to see what one is like. Please?” I smiled and nodded, and she kissed me again. “Thanks, Baby. I am kind of curious, just to see what one is like.”

Jean called Becky on the intercom, and she shoved the last bite in her mouth and headed down. I watched in the 1-way window behind the desk as she went and talked to a guy, and took him over to the keyboards. I went back outside, and they were taking a break as Mike was playing a CD. There was a line for food now, and the parking lot was half full of people, must be almost a hundred of them now. Holly was off to the side of the stage blowing up balloons for the kids, and loving it. More than a few came up and said that this was great. I had a few others say the same thing, and then saw Sharla waving me over.

“Pete, this guy is a guy I know. He asked me about playing here.”

“Oh, that’s simple. Only clean songs, most in English, and we don’t pay. As you saw you are free to put out a tip jar, but no more than once an hour asking for donations. Whatever they pay, is all yours. We do not have a license to do music, but so long as it is free for both sides, technically this is an ‘open practice session’ as far as the law is concerned.”

He nodded, and said they were like Rad, did a bit of everything. He tried to hand me a tape, and I shook my head. “Go on inside, talk to the beautiful lady with the amazing legs. This is hers, I am just the janitor and trash collector.” He laughed and shook my hand, and headed on in. Sharla said he was good and had recently left another band and started his own.

“This would be their first public performance, and I think you will like him. He was actually our lead guitar before Keith, but he left to join another band.”

“Well, that’s all up to Becky really, but I know she has nobody booked for next week. This would be good I think. This is what she wants. Free concerts, so people can get to know new bands.”

A short time later Becky came out, and after talking with Mike a few minutes the three of them headed to the stage. She pointed at Sharla’s keyboard and Sharla nodded and smiled. Becky played a few chords as the guy hooked up his guitar, and soon Mike gave them a thumbs up. “OK everybody, first I want to thank you all for coming by and sharing the opening of ‘New Dawn Sound’ with us. In case you did not know, my name is Becky, and along with Pete over there we own this place. And as long as people show up, we intend on doing this every Saturday.” By the applause and yells, that seemed popular with the crowd.

“Now today The Geek Crusaders have been playing, but I hope to have a different local band up here every week. Now since I did not have a band yet for next week, when Critter here asked me if he could play I decided to let him show you all what he could do. And yes, that is what he told me his name was, ‘Critter’. So we are going to do three songs, and at the end please give us a round of applause if you think he should be here next Saturday.”

Critter gave a count, and I immediately recognized “Beat It”. And he was a good guitar player, that was for sure. But then he started singing. It was not “Beat It”, it was “Eat It”! Everybody started to laugh as they got what he did, and he was really good! His singing was just a tad rough, and Sharla leaned over to me and said he did not sing lead often, he more than likely had somebody else that would do that. I nodded and said that the crowd did not seem to mind.

When the song ended, they slowed it down, and transitioned into a good rendition of “Arthur’s Theme”, and I saw Dee move onto the stage and do drums on the other Yamaha. Critter nodded and smiled, and when that song was done the three talked briefly, and with Becky doing sax on the keyboard they started doing a long rendition of “Make Someone Happy”. And I’ll be damned if he did not sound just like Jimmy Durante! Even ending with “Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are! Ha-cha-cha-cha-cha!”

Needless to say, everybody was blown away, and the applause was deafening. Becky got back on the mic, and thanked them, and to be back next week to enjoy more of Critter. Sharla waved at everybody, and they all made their way back to the stage as I followed Becky and Critter inside. I shook his hand and said that was awesome, and he smiled. “I know my voice is crap, but I do a good Durante. And for things like Weird Al, it does not matter all that much. I actually kicked around with a few bands the last few years, gave it up because it did not pay the bills. Then I realized I missed it, and after talking with Rad decided to do like he does. Play mostly for the fun of it. I’m a mechanic now, make good money. But on weekends, I got a bunch of others like me and we all play for fun.”

Becky said he could play here whenever he wanted, and he smiled. “So, the Geek Crusaders, is that like a house band or something?” I laughed and said it was a name Keith came up with when they played at a game presentation I did earlier in the year. “Yea, Rad showed me the tape. That was pretty awesome.” He asked if we were doing that again anytime soon, and I said not until next year.

“But tell you what. Becky, Keith, and Sharla handle that part with my publisher. So long as it’s OK with them, you can join them. It kind of is a house band really, but they also work with a gal that shoots videos and they sometimes have worked with her on other projects. I’m just a computer guy that likes games.”

He then asked Becky if she could print scores, and she nodded. She went back and opened the case with her sample work, and brought out a thin booklet and handed it over. “Here, these are scores Keith did up, he wanted me to do one so he could give it to people like me if he wanted to something off the cuff we had not rehearsed. It would take me about a week for something similar.”

He nodded and said he would bring some stuff over next weekend. They haggled for a bit, then came to an arrangement. She would do it for free, and give him ten copies. And in exchange, she could sell fifty copies here in the store. After that, they would discuss further arrangements. He thought that was fair and soon left.

At 4:30 Becky thanked everybody once again for being there and invited them all back next Saturday. “Oh, and if it rains, we set up inside. So rain or shine, we will be doing this.” She then got in front of her keyboard, and they all closed out with “The Final Countdown”. I went back in as they were finishing because several headed inside to look around. One guy was checking out the computers, and thankfully I could answer all of his questions when it came to that. He loved their look and what they did. And told me to box up three of the black ones.

I quickly grabbed Tom and had him pull them out of the vault and grabbed the one Mike had been using. And after making sure he had saved all his programs for the lights on a disk and blew away that program. The guy looked at me, and I told him that was brand new that morning, we had only pulled it out for the show. He nodded, and after loading them in his car Becky gave me a big kiss.

“That’s what, three computer sales”?

“Four actually, I need to do another for the skating rink now. I can see I’m gonna have to increase the number of black units.” I then told her how I was after that going to keep the RAM and drives separate, so if sold it would take a few minutes to just add them in and send them out the door. “Takes a bit longer, but more flexibility as the color will not matter as much.” She said that was a good idea. Finally, everybody left, and Becky said she would see Tom and Jean on Tuesday. It was almost 7 before we finally got out of there, and I followed her home. We heated up leftovers, and after watching TV for a bit we both went to bed. Both of us were exhausted.

On Sunday we drove to New Dawn, and I went ahead and flipped the OPEN sign as she went upstairs to look over the sales and work out her order for Monday. I went ahead and worked out the initial proposal for the skating rink, using the information Jack had given me the day before. I did not have much time to talk to him, but he was at the opening and told me that the project was a go, but would take a large chunk of the stock to do it.

I handed three copies to Becky, and she nodded and sighed. “Holy hell, Pete. If there is anything I did not expect, was selling that much in just a single day.”

I moved behind her and rubbed her shoulders. “Well, not only are you new, you have great merchandise and a flair for presentation. We really gotta order the lights though, we are already almost out, and we should get at least three more of those disk controllers. And the computer card and software also, I have a feeling those will be big sellers.”

“Uh-huh. Peggy complained to me yesterday morning that Mike was at it until after midnight the night before. Oh, he starts here in two weeks, I already offered him a job. And he is working out a list he will drop off here tomorrow of things I should get for a DJ to use. He wants to bring over his old setup and have me sell it, and get a new one. The amp and speakers we have he said are fine, but that uses a different type of mixer board and case, as well as CD players and turntables. And that is another area we got to set up displays for.”

I went through the catalogs with her, and by 3 we had an order all done. She faxed it off to her supplier and told them to call to confirm Monday morning, and she got in her car as I drove the truck home. I stopped to fill it up with gas and was parking it in the driveway when Becky came out. She told me to get in the car, and soon we were driving through Pacoima.

We pulled off into a strip mall off Devonshire, and I chuckled as I saw the name “Candy Cat” above a bar in the corner. I held Becky’s hand as we went inside. And it was, different. A girl with large fake breasts shaking them for a few guys drinking beers, and a few others clustered around a pool table on the side. Soon we were sitting at a table as a bored-looking waitress asked us what we wanted. Becky ordered us both beers and some chicken strips.

I went up and tossed a buck on the stage, and Becky asked me if they were normally like that. I saw the dancer pick up her bikini top and leave the stage, and nodded. “Well, this one seems to be topless and not fully nude. The fact we got beers and she did not show her kitty tells me that. But this seems pretty typical of what I have seen.”

I did notice that they did not have a DJ, but a jukebox was used for the music. And the dancers went behind the stage to change the lights. “But yeah, this is a bottom tier place I have to admit. I have been to better ones. Most of them actually pay for a DJ, not use a jukebox. They announce the girls, play the songs, and do the lights. Here, if I really wanted to fuck a girl up I could put in $5 of crap music on the jukebox, or just the same song over and over again. The girls would be stuck dancing to whatever I put on it. I admit I bet the new lights are popular, you can see the older lights and they look like they were crap.”

She nodded, and when the chicken strips arrived she took one bite and spit it out. I tore mine open, it was pink in the middle. She called the waitress back and complained about them. I took a fast count, we had six each. And a few minutes later she brought the baskets back. Still six each, hers with a bite missing from one and mine with one torn in half.

I just shook my head and gave the waitress $10. “Yeah, whoever is running this place is an idiot. Don’t eat that, just finish your beer and we can head out of here.” I handed her $1 and told Becky to put it on the stage and she did, finally looking at the dancer. If I did not know better, I would swear that was a baby bump on her belly, and it was not a very trim belly to begin with. We finished the beers, and Becky said at least that was cold. “Yeah, too bad the chicken was cold too. Let’s get outta here.”

She shook her head as we drove off, saying that was worse than she had ever expected. “Yeah, that is the second-worst I had ever been to. The other was bad, but smaller and had no food. Full nude, but a jukebox, and most of the girls were either fat, ugly, or did not know how to dance. I went there when I was home on leave and Linda was at school one day out of curiosity. And ironically, the next year she started dancing there.”

We stopped for pizza on the way home, and I promised to take her to another one if she still wanted to. She nodded and admitted she was still curious. Even more so, as now she knew what a bad one was like. “And now it is a professional curiosity. I see why he wanted that light setup, it was basic and they probably had it installed in an hour or two. But tell me, what would you do to that place?”

“Well, first off get a cook that will not try to poison the customers. After that? Hire a DJ, somebody that can work the lights, music, and mic. I bet those are the only girls he can get because nobody else would work there. I saw that when I tipped her, there was only $3 on the stage, so she danced for only about $5. I do not know about there, but many clubs do not pay the girls, or pay them little. They live off of the tips. I bet they are sinking, and he hoped the lights would help. Have Mike do up a proposal for a full DJ setup, and if he ever comes back show it to him. I bet he would refuse, but you can hold it for a future example.”

Becky nodded, and we headed on home. I was up at 4 in the morning, and at just after 5 Cliff and I were heading north on the 5. I was glad we had cruise control, and I was eating McDonald’s as we started up the pass. We stopped at around noon for lunch and gas, and by 2 we were pulling up at Weird Stuff.

Cliff was amazed when we walked in, and I grabbed a cart. All the copies of Novell 86 on the shelf went into it, all of the 3Com network cards, and a dozen AdLib cards they had in a box. Along with a two dozen copies of DOS 4, a dozen of Windows 2, and twenty older copies of WordStar. I set the basket by the counter and the guy nodded as I said I was still shopping. A flat cart this time, and I grabbed over 100a hundred desktop cases. Almost half of them of them older 386 systems, and the others a mix of 286 and XT. Then in the keyboards, something caught my eye. They were thicker than regular keyboards and looked like the usual AT/XT switchable kind. But these had a power brick taped to them, and on the back had serial, parallel, network, and video ports on them. There were ten of them at $75 each, so I decided to take a chance. I then talked to the guy near the back about things they had not brought out yet, and he took Cliff and me in the back.