Chapter 79

The next morning after breakfast, Mandy hugged Pete and said she was going to see her mom. And the two of us got into my truck and drove to the airport. He filed a flight plan for up to Bakersfield and back, then arranged for the fuel truck to come after we returned.

I helped him do the pre-flight, and soon we were in the air. And as we were going over the mountains he had me take the wheel. And the plane felt a lot more powerful than it was, probably because of the large engines compared to the smaller ones of more modern aircraft. But she flew like a dream, and I told him they had made a good investment.

He directed me to turn west over Bakersfield, and we flew to the coast before heading back to LA. And he actually said this was now his third favorite plane to fly. “Oh, the Bonanza will always be special to me, as well as the Conquest. But this comes in right behind those.” And when he asked me, I said it was the Conquest, then the Colt.

He looked at me when I said that, and I grinned at him. “Well, she was old and slow, but it was almost like piloting a cloud she was so responsive. A bit of a maintenance nightmare, but once in the air she was a gentle aircraft. If a tad loud.”

He nodded and said that was his opinion also. “George, what would you liked to have seen changed in that if you could?”

I thought a moment, then smiled. “Well, replace the skin with something more modern. Most of it was cloth, replacing that with say aluminum with some insulation would improve it a lot I think. And a glass cockpit. Real GPS, not my laptop on a mount that Ivan made. And if I was going all out, rip out that high maintenance oil hungry nine cylinder Shvetsov radial and put in something more modern. Something along the lines of a horizontally opposed six or eight cylinder.”

“Wow, you’ve been thinking there. Not a turboprop?”

“Well, if my pocketbook was bottomless, sure. Of course, by that time it’s almost an AN-3.”

“They actually made an AN-3?” Pete asked, and I nodded as I was entering the holding pattern. “Sure, only built a few though and it was never a real designation. Ivan told me about them, it was anything they tried to develop as a follow-through, the next generation. But most were rejected, and by the time they were ready to produce it the Soviet Union was gone and Russia took over the project. Antonov was in independent Ukraine by then, and over the years they did make an AN-4 and AN-6, but never sold very many. Upgraded some others from AN-2 to those configurations. But with over eighteen thousand of the originals made, there was just no demand for them.”

I supervised the fueling as he did the final inspection and secured the plane, and as I was driving him back to the hotel he said they were having dinner with Rosie that night. But I apologized and said I could not make it.

“I’ve taken a few days off of study this weekend, I need to do at least some before class tomorrow.” He actually seemed to like that, and said he understood. I gave him a final hug before he climbed out and went inside the hotel, and I went home. Where I made some soup and spent the rest of the evening studying.

Things continued like that until March. Mandy called me and confirmed that my flight up there with Mike and his family would be in the Conquest. And the next day I got a call from Sherry reminding me that she needed to see me at the studio.

I went in after my day classes, and she laid out some forms. “Here, this is our standard performer contract. Giving us the right to use your image and what we film for whatever distribution method we choose.” I read through it, and it was fairly straightforward so I signed. And she also had me take another blood test, she said all performers were required to do that by state law. Then she had me follow her downstairs and into a room in the back.

I then met the lady that did costuming, and after taking some measurements had me try on a pair of dark blue slacks and a green silk shirt. Sherry said it looked good, and reached over and unbuttoned half the buttons in the front. “There, that’s better. Oh, and grab the mask.”

The lady went to a closet and came back with a mask that looked like it came from Mardi Gras. It covered the entire face, had feathers around the edges, and appeared to be of a smiling moon. And Sherry immediately got on the radio and ordered somebody named Chet to get in here immediately.

“OK Chet, I guess you forgot what I told you. George, is the mask good enough?” I tried it on and said it was fine. “OK, now take this back and do whatever you need to make it right. I told you, it needs stop at below his nose. His mouth needs to be visible, or he will sound muffled on the microphone and we’ll have to loop it in editing. Now take this and make it right by Saturday!” He apologized, and after taking a few measurements of my face picked up the mask and took off.

Sherry smiled at me, and said they really wanted to show I was a real DJ on set, and not just a person in a costume pretending to DJ. And I said that was fine, not like anybody would recognize me anyways. And when she took me next door to the stage, she showed me that behind the main set already in place was the Pampered Persian set.

And it was huge, and would take up most of the set. On two sides were sets smaller than the bedrooms on the main one. One of them a closet, the other an office. “Oh, and the office can be changed to a bathroom if needed” she said as she smiled. And at one end she had me check out the DJ area. It was a raised stage area about two feet higher, with a waist high wall on the front and side, and a solid wall on the back with the name of the club in neon.

It was about six feet deep by ten feet wide, and I said it was a bit bigger than I needed. “Oh, it will not only be for you. We’ll likely use it at other times. But we need room for your DJ equipment, and at least one or two other people in there.”

I said that made sense, and I asked her if they had equipment yet. And when she took me to the back I whistled, as it was a brand new Pyramid board. A generic amp and four speakers finished it out, as well as two twin CD decks. “OK, I’m guessing Mike did this. You did not get the MP3 head?”

She laughed and said it would be in the next day. “Mike’s gonna come by and mount it all in a road case, but the case and MP3 deck as well as the computer were not ready.” I told her that was fine, and that I would be there early to make sure it was all set up and ready to go for the shoot. I called Mike on the way home for dinner before my evening classes, and he said I would like the setup. “I mirrored it after yours, so it should feel familiar.”

On Saturday I slept in, and after either a late lunch or early dinner threw on some sweats and headed to the studio. When I got there Sherry had one of the stage hands walk me to the stage, where they were putting the finishing touches on converting it from the apartment set to the club set. And I saw that Mike had indeed installed everything in the DJ case, and once the stage was in place I started to set it all up.

I smiled at Honey when I saw she was one of the gaffers, and she helped me place the speakers as well as run the wires and tape them down. And when I asked for a table she looked at me, and I said I needed at least one table inside the booth, two would be best. “I need something to set my drink on, an ashtray, and CDs.” Honey nodded and headed off, and I was impressed with how sturdy the DJ booth was. Of course, Sherry had already told me they would be using it again, so that only made sense.

Two hands came back with a heavy looking wood table that they set near the entry on the left side, and a slightly smaller metal one on the right side. I looked at them and commented it did not look even, and one of them laughed. “Oh, the long one is on the side where the cameras will film from. So that has more room, the other side is largely unseen, so you can put on that things you do not want seen on camera. Like a script or anything like that.” Then one of the gals that had been dressing the set came over and placed a dark green tablecloth on each of them.

I was looking through the folders on the computer, and saw it was as Rocco had said. I put on some headphones and was sorting through the songs, then stopped at one. It had a heavy baseline, and sounded familiar as hell. It was called “The Big One” by somebody named Alan Tew. And then I got it, it was the People’s Court theme!

I asked one of the hands if Sherry was available, and he got on the radio and told me she would be over in a minute. And when she came over, I turned off the headphones and had it come across the speakers.

“Now I know what Rocco told me, but can I really use this song? I mean, it’s from a big TV show.”

And she just laughed and nodded. “George, I actually know this song, we’ve used it before. In fact, it was used in porn movies long before the TV show. This is just another of those library songs we can use. In fact, here, play this one.”

She pointed at the screen, and it was called “Heavy Action” by Johnny Pearson, and right away I knew it! “Wait, the Monday Night Football theme? Really?”

“Uh-huh, you think they had that written for them? They just grabbed it off a record of library music like this.” I played several others, and some of them were indeed familiar. “Feel free to use anything on here you want. Everything is public domain, a library disk we have the rights to, or music composed for Rocco.”

I apologized for taking her time, and she just waved it off. “Honest, I’m glad you asked. Better safe than sorry I say. But you need to head on over to make-up and wardrobe shortly.”

First I sat in a makeup chair, and a cute gal looked something up on a sheet of paper, then came back and asked me to put on the mask. I put it on, and after examining the part of my face that was shown smiled and had me take it off. She then used some glue to put a goatee on my face, and applied some powders and creams before having me put on the mask again and look in the mirror. And I would not have recognized it as me, with the dark brown goatee on my chin. And as I was getting up I smiled at Dani as she took her turn in the chair.

I was then sent to the next room, which was wardrobe. I was surprised when I walked inside and saw Jen in only panties standing next to a lady going through a rack of clothes, and the guy playing the handyman was naked and about to step into a jumpsuit with a skeleton on it. And seeing her breasts fully exposed, they were magnificent. I started to apologize, and Jen just laughed.

“George, it’s OK, come on in. It’s not like you won’t be seeing me wearing this or less out on the stage.” I smiled and nodded, and the gal handed her an outfit on a hangar then turned to me. I gave her my name, and she quickly pulled off the outfit from the other day and I started to disrobe. Jen giggled at me as I started to pull on the slacks and shook her head. “George, go commando under it.”

“Why? I’m just the DJ here, ain’t nobody gonna see if I got briefs on or not under it.”

The gal in charge of the wardrobe however nodded, and pointed to my underwear and said “Lose them.” I shrugged and pulled them off, aware that Jen was actually now in fishnet stockings and black panties, and she was watching me. And as she was putting on a matching black corset she smiled and nodded. And that is when I realized how thin the fabric was. And that likely they could see a hint of my package through the material, especially if I got hard.

Jen was pulling on long black gloves as the lady fit a pair of rabbit ears on her head, and I got what her outfit was. And as I left Marcus was wearing a skull mask.

I went ahead and got into the booth, and saw that they had turned on some lights inside and over the booth to give it some illumination. I started the playlist I had selected, and saw over a dozen people at the bar and at tables. This was actually quite a crowd, and they were all in costume.

I actually smiled when I saw that the bartender was dressed up as Raggedy Andy, and the waitress as Raggedy Ann. In fact, seeing that reminded me of a time when we were kids that Grace and I dressed up like that once for Halloween. Although this Ann looked nothing like Grace had then. As she was a medium black color, and most of her breasts were revealed in a top that pushed them up and out.

She came over to me and smiled, and asked if I wanted something to drink. I asked her what they had, and she giggled. “Sadly, none of the good stuff. It’s a dry set. But we got Sharp’s Non-Alcoholic Beer, regular and diet soda, and orange and apple juice. And punch over in the bowl.”

I told her the fake beer was fine, and she smiled and headed over to get me one. I saw Sherry point at me, and then down. I lowered the volume, and she told everybody they were about to start filming.

“George, watch the light we set up right above your board. Green is play at the volume you were at before. Amber is play at half level, and red is kill the sound.” I saw then that the light was red, so turned the sound all the way off. Rocco told everybody to get into their places as the light went to Amber. And right after he called Action it went green.

I turned up the sound, and several people got up and started dancing. Marcus had gone to the bar and was drinking from a beer pitcher, and I smiled at the waitress when she returned with mine. I even saw her checking out my package, and she winked at me before returning across the stage.

After about ten minutes of the three dolly cameras and two cameras held by hand were moving throughout the party, I saw the light in front of me turn red. I smoothly lowered the sound, and heard Rocco call out “Enter!”. At that point I saw the main cast come in.

I had to snort in a laugh, as Ron was actually dressed as Steve Urkel! Complete with tortoiseshell glasses instead of the black hornrims with tape like he usually wore in character. A plaid western shirt that could have come from Pete’s closet, and rainbow suspenders. And jeans where the waist was not all that far under his armpits.

I saw Jen in her outfit, and she looked hot as a Playboy Bunny. Especially as the black corset really accentuated her figure, making her waist appear smaller and her boobs even bigger than that were already. And I remembered what Linda had said to Jen earlier, as her “boyfriend” was in a skeleton outfit just like the one Marcus wore.

But Gina, oh my god. I stared, as what she was wearing was hot. Tan shorts that hugged her amazingly, and must have been spray painted on her. And her top, it was dark green. It was almost a halter top, and left her midriff bare. Almost like a bib in the front, but a large cutout showing her cleavage before becoming a turtleneck around her neck.

Her arms were bare, other than one of them having a kind of tight weave fishnet fabric that went past her elbow, but left her hand free. And suddenly, I got it! She was essentially doing a cosplay of Yuffie from Final Fantasy 7! Just add the almost random black belts and the large glove on her other hand and it would be Yuffie. It was a perfect outfit both for her character as well as for her. She looked hot as hell, and I hoped I would at least get to see her more close up in it instead of from across the room.

Luna was the last one to come in, and, oh wow. She was dressed up as of all things a nun. But an incredibly sexy nun, with spectacular boobs. And a slit up the side of her habit that showed she was wearing stockings and a garter belt under it.