Chapter 73

Erin and I got to Amy’s building just before one o’clock. We went into the lobby and there was a fancy plaque on the wall with the words ‘The Stone Agency” with an arrow pointing to the right.

I was expecting a tiny room with a desk for Amy’s helper, but we opened the door to a bright, clean, outer office. There was a friendly looking older man sitting behind a desk, and sitting across from him was a pretty girl who looked familiar. It wasn’t until she said, “Hi, Pete,” that I recognized her. It was Jasmine, the girl who made the glamour shots with me in Van Nuys. I was going to say something, but the man behind the desk said, “Hello, you must be Erin and Pete. Go right in,” and he pointed to an inner door. Jasmine looked at me with a puzzled expression as soon as he said it, and her eyes narrowed as she watched us go through the door.

It was a large room with a desk, a couch, and several chairs. Mom was sitting at the desk, Amy was standing beside her, and sitting across from them were Tammy, Mrs. Devon, and a pretty woman in a business suit, who Mom introduced to Erin and me as Gail Adams, from Martin, Balzer and Cohen. She stood up like a man does, and the hand she put out to shake mine was perfectly manicured. Her grip was strong, and she turned to Erin to do the same after we said hello. Her jacket fell slightly open when she did, and I noticed a very nice bulge in the front of her blouse.

Mom motioned Erin and me to the couch, and after we were seated, she said, “Some things have come up that we need to discuss, Kids. Mrs. Devon has been talking with Dad and me for some time about the two of you appearing in a show she’s trying to get made. We said no at first because you’re both doing well in school, and we think that’s much more important, but some things have recently happened that made us take another look. Your dad and I were approached by a man from an ad agency a week ago, Pete. He told us that they wanted you to appear in an upcoming campaign that they were going to produce. He told us that the owners of the company he represents had specifically asked for you when we asked him why they wanted you. Who do you know at a business called Solotronics?”

I thought for a minute before I answered, “Gee, Mom, I don’t know anyone from there. The name sounds familiar, but I can’t think of where I’ve seen it.”

“Well, someone there apparently knows you, because he said that he knew when we told him that you had no training in these kinds of things, and that they would take care of training you.”

“So, what did you tell him?”

“I said that we would get back to him. Amy is checking into it. But in the meantime, both Mrs. Devon and Tammy have some ideas that involve both of you, and we want to talk with you about them. They involve big changes in your lives, so wait until we finish talking before you try and make any decisions. I’m going to ask Mrs. Devon to talk first.”

Mrs. Devon turned to us, and said, “Getting a television show started is a long process. It starts with an idea, then you have to see what people are watching right now and see if your idea seems to fit. Major studios don’t like to break new ground unless they have to. They like to see what works and jump on the bandwagon with a similar show of their own. If a cop show gets hot, a bunch of cop shows show up before long. It’s the same with doctor shows, reality shows, and whatever is currently popular. So, if you have an idea about a story line that you think will work, but doesn’t fit what’s popular, you write it, then you present it to as many people as possible and try to sell it. By ‘sell’ I mean it has to be presented to the studios and hope that one of them will take a chance on something new and fund it. We’re talking about a lot of money, so it’s a hard sell. My daughters and I have been around for quite a while, so we have some contacts, and I showed an idea I had to some people I know back in January. They seemed excited about it, so I began putting a script together. The studios put out the word that they’re looking for shows for the fall schedule around the middle of March, so they’re hit with tons of scripts. The studio people look at the scripts and pick out a few that they’re willing to take a chance on, and they call you around the first of April if yours is one of them, and say to go ahead and make a pilot. They give you an office and a budget at that point, and you make the pilot. So you have to hire the talent, secure the filming locations, and get it on film.”

She paused for a minute, and I said, “Wow! It sounds like a lot of work in a short time. What happens next?”

“It IS a lot of work. There’s a bunch of eighteen-hour days, and everyone works very hard. You go through a number of re-writes and tune-ups after the filming is complete, then you turn the pilot in and you wait. They call you about the middle of May and say that either they picked your show or they didn’t. Everybody goes home if they didn’t, and that’s the end of it until next year when you try to sell it again. They test market it if they decide to pick it up. They order a few more shows if it works, usually from four to six. What happens after that depends on how successful the show is.”

“This is really exciting, but why are Erin and I here?”

“Because the first of May is in less that two weeks, and I just got the call from a friend of mine. He tells me that my script will be accepted, and I’d like both of you to be in the pilot, especially Erin.”

Erin and I looked each other, and I said, “How can we do it? We don’t know how to act, and what about school?”

Mrs. Devon glanced at Mom, and when she nodded, Mrs. Devon went on with, “I’ve already talked with your folks about this. The State of California is very strict about minors working in the entertainment industry. Every studio has full time tutors. Besides, summer vacation starts in less than two months. You return to school if things don’t work out, and you won’t be behind in your studies. As far as the acting goes, don’t worry about it. We’ll give you all the instruction you need.”

Erin squealed, “You mean we’ll be in a TV show?”

Mrs. Devon smiled at Erin, then she answered, “Yes. The show is a light comedy named ‘Double Trouble’, and it’ll star my daughters, but you are going to be an important part of it. You’ll all be in high school much as you are now, but most of the plots will be unrelated to the school. My girls will play freshmen just starting high school, and you’re going to be a girl from their neighborhood. You’re a year ahead of them in the school they go to, and you’re sort of their mentor.”

“But they’re nearly three years older than I am, Mrs. Devon.”

“I know, Dear, but they don’t look seventeen and you don’t look fourteen. I showed the photos we took at the picture shoot in Van Nuys to a bunch of people from the studio, and they all went wild over you. You’ll be great.”

Erin’s eyes were bigger than ever, and I asked, “What will I be doing?” as she sat back taking things in.

“You’re going to play a neighbor boy who sort of looks out for the girls. You’ll see when you read the script. It’s not a big part, but don’t worry, we have other things planned for you.”

“We? Who’s ‘We’?”

Mrs. Devon looked at Mom, “Why don’t you explain it to them, Beth.”

Mom nodded and said, “ This meeting is a result of a lot of talks and planning, Kids. Amy, Mrs. Devon, and Tammy have pooled their resources and formed a company called ‘Stone Entertainment’. I’ll tell you all about it, but I want to talk with you about this acting thing first. Here is what will happen if you decide that you want to be a part of this. I’ll go to school with you and sign both of you out to the studio tomorrow morning. We’ll go right from there to an office at Pacific Studios where you’ll meet your tutors, and set up a schedule. We’ll go to another building from there, and each of you will start working with your speech and acting coaches.”

Erin broke in with, “You mean that we’ll actually be working at Pacific studios?”

“Mrs. Devon replied with, “Yes, you will. We haven’t been funded yet, but I’ve arranged for the two of you to work out of an office belonging to a friend of mine. You’re coming into this thing late, and I want you to have as much exposure to the surroundings as possible. Let me tell you both about the downside of all this, especially for Erin, before you get too excited. You must both be at the studio by eight in the morning for a week to ten days. You’ll be there until around five in the evening for the first few days, but you could be there much later as soon as casting starts, then we’ll be on location when the filming starts. Location shoots start very early, you’ll have to be there by six in the morning, and you could be there until midnight if there are night shots, so you’re not going to have much of a social life for about a month. We should be finished filming around the end of April, then you’ll be off for a while. We’ll know if the pilot sells about the middle of May. We bring on a team of writers and start building sets at the studio at that point. You won’t be involved much at the beginning. The writers will want to meet with you and get a feeling about you, but you’ll be with the acting coaches most of the time. It’s getting close to the end of semester, so you won’t be missing much school as far as our show is concerned.”

“What about in the fall?”

“You’ll be busy for a while, especially Erin, but there is no guarantee on how long the show will run. We hope that it’ll be a hit, but it might only run a few episodes if it doesn’t do well. That’s the nature of our business, but you both have some other things happening.”

I asked, “Why did you say ‘especially for Erin’?”

“Because she’s going to be in almost every episode if she decides to do this. You’re scheduled to be in the pilot, but whether or not you’re able to be a continuing character depends on some other things.”

“Oh? Like what?”

Mrs. Devon nodded to Tammy and leaned back. Tammy picked up the conversation with, “Part of it depends on what this thing with Sototronics turns out to be, but I talked with you before about my ideas for WE. I want to take it nationwide as you know. Tony has been going along with it, and even agreed to fund the salons that we’re planning here on the west coast, but he has a lot of other interests that require his time and money. Mrs. Devon has an idea that we’re really excited about, and that’s why we decided to form the new company. She said that she told you about ‘Perfect Care’ hair products. Well, Seth Greenberg has agreed to let WE do the marketing for ‘Golden Glow’, their new hair color product.”

“Is that the hair bleach thing that Mrs. Devon told us about?”

“Yes, and you could be a part of it, but it would involve you full time, and there would be a lot of long distance travel.”

“Long distance travel to where? You said that Tony is only going to fund the west coast.”

“That’s one of the things that our new partnership is about. Erickson Foods, Seth Greenberg’s parent company, has decided to join with us through Mrs. Devon’s efforts, and we are going to take WE across the country. They want Monique to be their spokesperson, and I think that you would be great working alongside her.”

“Doing what?”

“We want to show that blond hair works for a guy as well, and we think that you would be perfect for the job.”

“But my hair is already blond!”

“We’re not going to say that you used the product; we’re only going to show that it’s also a great look for a guy. It could start a trend, and add a whole lot of additional customers.”

“But won’t building a bunch of new salons take a lot of time?”

“Yes it will, so we’re going to partner with a lot of existing salons at the beginning. They won’t be full service salons like ours in most cases, but they’ll handle our products and use our methods.”

“Wow! That sounds like a big deal.”

“It is a big deal, and most of it is already through the planning stages. The only things left are signing the people who we want to work with us.”

“What people are you looking for?”

Tammy glanced at Amy and smiled, then she went on, “We need someone to scout locations and talk to existing store owners. It has to be an outstanding looking girl with a good personality. I think that Amy would be perfect for it, but she’s going to be too busy here negotiating leases and keeping track of things, but I think that Marla could handle it. She’s pretty enough, she has a good head on her shoulders, and I don’t think that it would take long to train her.”

I glanced at Erin, and we both sat thinking about what a change this would make in our lives. It was a little overwhelming. Mom finally said, “ Why don’t you go to the other room and discuss this, Kids?”

There was a door in the side of the room that led to a smaller office, it also had a desk and a couple of chairs, but it wasn’t as large or as neat as the other office, and I noticed Amy’s bookbag from school lying on the desk. Erin and I closed the door and looked at each other. I said, “What do you think?”

I was surprised at her intensity when she said, “I really want to do this, Petey.”

“You realize that we’ll be away from our friends for a long time, don’t you?”

Erin came to me and hugged me. We hadn’t hugged each other for a while, and I realized that I missed the closeness we used to have. She said, “I don’t care, there’ll be new friends. I want to do it. Pleeeze do it with me!”

“Are you sure that you don’t want to think about it for a while?”

“No, Petey, I don’t have to think about it. I want to do this more than anything.”

I knew right then that I couldn’t let her do this without me being there to watch over her, at least at the beginning, and it really did sound exciting ... So I said, “Okay, let’s go for it.”

We were about to go back to the other office, when Erin said, “Look!.”

One wall of the room was covered with pictures. Some were of Amy’s mom and her brother, but the majority was of our family. Most were snapshots, but several were blown up and nicely framed. One extra large one was on the desk. It was of all of us. The next door neighbor took it when we were all in the back yard for a barbecue. Everyone was smiling at the camera, and we looked like a poster.

Everyone was gathered around Mom’s desk looking at papers when we went back inside. Erin blurted, “Yes-yes, we both want to go for it,” when they looked up at us.

Everyone except Mom smiled at first, but she smiled too after a minute, and we were talking about what we would do tomorrow when a phone buzzed. Amy picked it up, listened for a second, and said, “Okay, we’ll take it,” then she said, “Quiet, you guys, it’s the producer, and she handed the phone to Mom. Everyone quit talking as Mom reached for the button on the phone. She talked for a few minutes, then she hung up and grinned, “It’s the producer. He’s flying in tonight, and he wants to meet me for a drink and talk about Alice. He wants to get the ground rules down before he talks to her in the morning.”

Everyone grinned and nodded, then Mom turned to Erin and me, and said, “ We have a lot of things going on here, Kids. Why don’t the two of you go see Kate and see how she’s doing? We’ll talk more at dinner tonight.”

I said, “Okay, Mom,” and we were about to leave when I thought of something. I turned to Mrs. Devon and I asked, “What is Jasmine doing in the outer office?”

She raised and eyebrow and answered, “She’s here to interview for a job. We’re moving to larger offices upstairs, and we need a more presentable secretary.”

“But I thought that she’s an actress.”

“She is, but things are slow this time of year, and she thinks that, she’ll have a shot at a part in our show if she hangs in here.”

“What part does she want?”

“She wants to play your love interest.”

“I’m going to have a love interest?”

Mom interrupted with, “Never mind that; we’ll tell you about it later. Now get out of here so that we can work.”

Tammy said, “Please don’t reveal our plans to Marla or her family until I have a chance to talk with her,” as Erin and I turned to leave.

We both nodded and went to the car. Erin was jumping up and down all the way to the hospital, saying. “ Can you believe it, Petey? We’re going to be on TV.”

I have to admit that the more I thought about it, the more excited I got.

Erin excitedly babbled all the way to the hospital, but she stopped talking when we got to the door to Kate’s room, and whispered, “ Isn’t that great, Petey.”

The baby was awake, making little gurgling noises and sort of looking around. Kate’s eyes were closed and she was holding him close to her. It was like a scene from a magazine, and I never saw Kate look more beautiful. I stepped inside and cleared my throat to get her attention. She opened her eyes and gave me an odd look when she saw that it was me. She glanced down at the baby then back at me, and it looked like she was going to say something, but Erin stepped from behind me and cried, “Can I hold the baby, Aunt Kate?”

We were telling Kate about what happened at the meeting today, and I was holding the baby, rocking him back and forth, when a voice from behind me said, “You look pretty natural there, young man,” and Sylvia swept into the room. She went to Kate’s bed and the two of them hugged for a long time, then she turned and took the baby from me, and I saw that tears were streaming down her face. Concerned, I asked, “Are you okay?”

She held the baby up to me and said, “Yes, I’m fine, it’s this little baby. Look at him, he’s perfect. Kate and I have both wanted a baby for as long as I can remember. We talked about it a million times. It looks like I’m never going to have one, so I feel like this is as close as I’m going to get. Kate just asked me to be his godmother, and I can’t think of anything I’d rather be.”

Kate made a sniffling noise, and she was smiling through tears of her own when I looked at her.

Then, still holding the baby, Sylvia went to Erin. She looked at her for a minute, then she said, “My God, you’re getting more beautiful every day. You look like your mother did when she was your age.”

Erin asked, “You knew Mom then?”

“Yes, We went to school together. Kate, your mom, and I were best friends.”

I thought about the times Sylvia and I had been together as I watched them. Even though I know that she and Mom are the same age, I was thinking about the time that she, Kate, and I had made love by the pool in Scottsdale. The age disparity made no difference at the time, and I couldn’t think of her as an older woman even now. I had to turn away from her because just thinking about her started to get me hard, as a matter of fact.

We stayed until almost five. Kate surprisingly kept getting out of bed and walking around. She told us that California law states that if a woman has a baby in the hospital, they have to keep for a minimum of two days, so she couldn’t leave until tomorrow when I commented that she looked well enough to go home.

I asked Sylvia how long she was going to be in town, and she said that she was going to stay at Kate’s house for a few weeks to help with the baby. She said that she told Herb that she was going to do it months ago, and he was going to have to live with it when I asked her how she was able to get the time off. She was only sorry that she couldn’t have been there for the birth.

I asked her about her husband. She frowned when I did, and said that she would talk to me about it later.

Sylvia said, “Can you drop me at Kate’s?” when we got ready to leave. “I caught a cab directly from the airport, and my bags are downstairs.”