Chapter 36

David
His habit of getting up at the crack of dawn had David half-awake, contemplating rolling over and doing what any normal college kid would do: sleep in. Then he heard two women’s voices from the outer room. He reached over to the other side of the bed and confirmed that Crystal wasn’t in bed with him.

A moment later, the door opened, and suddenly he had a child land on his chest, who wiggled off him and began jumping up and down on the bed. There was no doubt that he was now wide awake.

“Coby,” David groaned as he grabbed the little man’s ankle, causing him to fall back onto the bed with a delighted squeal.

David opened his eyes and saw Coby’s mom, Pam, smiling down at the two of them. He gave her a wink.

“Dude, it’s way too early,” David moaned to his son, grabbing Crystal’s pillow to cover his face.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Coby chanted gleefully as he stood back up and began to bounce on the bed.

“Too early,” David’s muffled voice said.

Then he felt the little monster jump on his stomach. That might have hurt if David wasn’t serious about his ab work.

“Daddy! Daddy!” Coby yelled.

David had no idea his son had gotten so big. It was like having a medicine ball dropped on his stomach as his son bounced up and down.

David peeked out, which made the munchkin giggle.

“Up now!”

“Coby,” David said with resignation in his voice.

He held out his arms, and his son dropped to his knees right on his solar plexus, causing David to oof out air as Coby snuggled in his dad’s arms.

Pam joined them on the bed and cuddled up to David’s side.

“I want a snake,” Coby announced.

David moaned.

“All this before I even have my tea?” David asked Pam.

“You get to play the bad cop on this one,” she said, throwing him under the speeding bus that was his youngest son.

“Why does he want one?”

“His cousin Kyle thinks he’s getting one. The neighbor’s snake ate his kitten,” Pam said as if that explained anything.

Kyle had always loved kittens, almost as much as his sister loved horses. The problem was that his kittens all seemed to have a short life span. None of which was his or his family’s fault. Well, one had been accidentally offed by Kyle’s dad when it bit his hand, and he jerked back to get away. The kitten’s tooth had sunk in and caught on his skin, so when Greg lurched away, the fur-ball had bounced off the wall. That caused it to ‘fall asleep,’ as Greg had tried to sell it.

This latest kitten, Mittens, had been brought into the household when Greg and Joey returned from Hawaii. Kyle had guilted his dad into getting a new kitten after Precious left, and he and his siblings had to go to grandma’s house for a week.

Honestly, David had hoped that the cat curse might befall Precious, but she was too evil for anything like that to happen to her. Or it could be that only kittens died in Kyle’s care.

“Back up. What exactly happened?” David asked.

“The neighbor boy was home for the summer and had brought his escape-artist python with him. Greg said the boy’s dad literally wet himself when he got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. The snake had gotten itself on the shower rod and hissed at him when he went to use the toilet.

“Your brother said the neighbor had brought it out to sun, and when he got a phone call, the snake escaped and found its way into Greg’s backyard. Kyle went outside to play with his kitten when an episode of National Geographic occurred. Joey rushed outside because Kyle was screaming bloody murder. When Greg heard Joey shriek, he rushed out. By then, the snake had the kitten in a death grip, and it was too late,” Pam shared.

“Oh, my,” was all David could think to say.

“Greg did save the kitten’s collar. He was worried it would make the snake sick,” Pam said, then gave a nervous giggle.

“Help me connect the dots. How did Kyle go from being traumatized to wanting a snake?” David asked.

“He watched the snake eat the kitten. Apparently, that was very cool,” Pam shared. “And he shared that with your son.”

His first thought was that he could still borrow the snake and see if it could deal with Precious. Then again, that cat would almost certainly kill the snake, and his nephew would need therapy.

“In the future, you are allowed to tell Coby ‘no’ when he asks for something like this,” David said.

“Daddy says no snake,” Pam said and then nodded to their son.

On cue, Coby gave his dad a shy look.

“Can I have a puppy?”

’Fuck me!’ David thought as he chuckled at the two of them.

“Nice,” David said to Pam, who looked pleased with herself. Then he turned to his son. “No puppies. Duke couldn’t handle the responsibility.”

Plus, his mom would send the puppy to his place until it was potty trained and quit chewing on furniture and shoes.

“Give him your pouty face we practiced,” Pam encouraged her son.

David watched, bemused, then turned to Pam. “I give it a six out of ten.”

It looked like Coby might be a little actor if given some guidance. Saying ‘no’ to both Pam and Coby was like trying to teach Japanese to Duke. That hadn’t worked ... at all. Fortunately for David, he had one more out.

“You have to convince my mom,” David said to play his ‘get out of jail free’ card.

Pam wrinkled her nose at him, knowing that was a deal-breaker. Neither of them wanted to rile her up because she and his dad had agreed to help raise Coby while David was in college. Pam knew his mother wasn’t beyond shipping both puppy and their son back to her as revenge if she were to step in something unspeakable.

“How about I get you a goldfish?” ’to kill’ David added in his head.

“Really?!” Coby asked as he stood up on David’s chest.

“Yes,” David said.

His son leaped off the bed and crashed to the floor. If it had been any of his other kids, there would have been tears.

“Tell the others!” Coby announced.

Pam chuckled when David face-palmed himself. If one got something, the others had to as well. And to top it off, he hadn’t discussed this with any of the other baby mamas. The odds of at least one fish going belly-up each week were a dead certainty with this group. He would have to figure out how to get the horde only a single fish.

David and Crystal found her dad and Ms. Dixon waiting for them.

“David, I’m Kendrick Knaggy, the managing partner of Knaggy, Anderson, and Petters, better known as KAP Entertainment and Talent Management.”

David shook his hand and sat down at the table.

The four of them made small talk until they’d finished their meals. Then Kendrick focused on winning David’s business.

“May I ask why you aren’t currently represented?”

David sat back in his seat as he recognized the sales technique. It was designed to get him to talk about what he wanted, which would allow Kendrick to tailor his response to fit David’s needs.

“While I’m playing ball, the NCAA won’t allow me to do new projects. That means that I have no need to have an agent.”

What he didn’t say was that he’d fired his former agent and never got around to hiring a new one. David just assumed he didn’t need one because he couldn’t do any acting while in college if he wanted to play ball.

“Is it that you can’t work or can’t work for money?” Kendrick asked.

David was caught by surprise.

“My previous agent would have never looked for work where he wouldn’t be paid,” David said to explain his surprised look.

“To clarify, can you work if there’s no compensation?” Kendrick asked.

“I can. I just did a photo shoot for Latest Obsession with the understanding that they would donate to some charity. I’m not even sure if they did because I can’t be seen directing money toward anything. The NCAA could construe that to be benefiting me in some way,” David explained.

“Tell me what you think an agent does,” Kendrick said.

“They find an actor work and then help negotiate contracts.”

“Having an agent shows casting companies you are a professional actor, and the agent helps streamline the work a casting director has to do. That’s the primary reason most casting directors in major markets won’t take submissions from actors not represented,” Kendrick said.

“But I’ve had studios ask for me specifically,” David countered.

“It’s the second half of what we do that then comes into play: negotiating contracts. While I’m sure Ms. Dixon is excellent at what she does, she doesn’t have the specific experience to know what should and shouldn’t be in an actor’s contract. She also doesn’t know how to value your worth, nor does she know the dirty tricks studios pull to take money out of your pocket.”

“Can you give me an example of dirty tricks?” Ms. Dixon asked.

“Did you make any money from College First when Netflix picked it up for streaming?” Kendrick asked.

David’s eyebrows scrunched together. He honestly didn’t know. When he signed up to do the J-drama, he was under the impression that it would only air in Japan.

“I’m not sure.”

“What’s the main way you’re being paid for Devil May Care?” Kendrick asked.

“Shares from the profits,” David said.

“Does your share include streaming? Cable? Broadcast? Merchandise licensing? What if they come up with an NFT?”

“I think I’m missing something,” Ms. Dixon said. “Isn’t income, income?”

“It is until the studio can cloud the issue. Ticket and DVD sales are more straightforward, but it can become murky when you turn it over to multiple streaming sites like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon. I expect that in the future, movies will be released both in theaters and streaming at the same time for this very reason. Eventually, most theaters will go out of business,” Kendrick predicted.

David remembered his parents talking about driving to a store to rent movies when they were kids. Now he just tapped his phone or used his TV to find a film to watch.

“In one of my business classes, we’ve talked about whether a storefront was even needed anymore for most businesses. For example, I buy my groceries with an app. I thought I would want to check out the produce and the like, so I wasn’t for it. But I found that the shoppers who select my groceries don’t send me food that I’ll have to throw out. If they do, I just call, and they come and replace it.

“I also get a lot of stuff delivered that I used to go to the store for. I’ve found that I can get it cheaper online than paying for the overhead that a storefront requires. My mom’s a realtor, and she told me that some of her investors are selling their malls and strip malls because they see this trend. It would make sense that movie theaters will be in the same boat,” David shared.

“But isn’t going to see a movie a social event, like a date?” Crystal asked.

“I’m not saying they’ll completely go away anytime soon, but there used to be drive-in theaters. Why do you think they went away?” he asked.