Chapter 3: Philanthropy

"Rebecca, Tony, wake up!"

Tony was on his back on the couch in the salon. Rebecca was laid out flat on top of him, with the top of her head at his chin. At some point during the previous night one of the other kids had thrown a thick blanket over the two of them. Rebecca tried to burrow deeper into the blanket and Tony at the same time.

"Come on you two. It's after nine. I'm holding off Rebecca's parents, the radio station, the newspaper, and some little twerp who says he's an agent. I could use a little help."

"I'm sorry Chrissie. What are these people doing here?" Tony asked sleepily.

He attempted to rise with Rebecca on his chest. "Never mind, bad question. We're moving."

"Tony, take the back shower, Kyle is still in there sleeping."

"OK, OK. Hey sunshine, your adoring public awaits. There's a lot more to do before the weekend is done."

Rebecca began to stir without further complaint. Tony looked back at Chrissie. "I suppose her parents saw us?"

"Marj did, but don't worry, she thought it was cute. She headed Rebecca's dad off before he came down."

Marj knew the score; she had, after all, signed off on Rebecca's birth control appointment months earlier. All involved couldn't come up with any reasonably sane way of breaking that news to her father. Tony had no illusion that Mr. Harris was stupid. He also had a strong suspicion that he really didn't wantto know those particular details either. "I'm taking a pot of coffee up," Chrissie said as she headed up the stairs.

"OK, we'll be up in a few minutes. Quick shower and we'll be up."

The two freshened up as quickly as they could. Tony roused Kyle from the master stateroom along the way and Rebecca woke Gwen and Dewayne, who had ended up in the guest stateroom. Tina was found in the top bunk forward where Dewayne had carried her after she fell asleep in a chair in the early morning. No one had slept where they had intended to the day before.

Tony walked up the stairs onto the enclosed back deck of Kalliste hand in hand with Rebecca. "Good morning everyone!" he called out, a little more cheerily than he actually felt.

The entire rear deck of the yacht was lined with couches in a 'U' shape around the stern. Marj and Chrissie were there with four men and a woman. The fact that Kalliste had a formal coffee service was, of course, known to Tony. That Chrissie was aware of it and had found it (carefully stored in the bar area) and put it to use on short notice was a surprise. Tony bent over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Not being nearly as dumb as he looked he did the same to Marj. "Thank you ladies, for taking care of our guests so early this morning," he said.

Marj proceeded to introduce Tony and Rebecca to the people in the room. They included a reporter from the paper who was told to follow up on (but hadn't written) the story in the paper that day. The next was from a local radio station. They also wanted an interview, but beyond that they wanted to simulcast the late performance that night on their station. It was no surprise that television was next, and they also wanted an interview with Rio Knights. Matt's helper, who was watching the stage during the morning, sent them to Kalliste. The fourth was an agent. He wasn't there to talk to the band. He was there to talk to Rebecca.

Mr. Harris' absence was explained by his arrival only moments later with waiters carrying a buffet. The hotel had provided dinner the night before, though it had to be consumed rapidly between the two shows. There was ample space on Kalliste's deck for the staff to set up a couple of folding tables covered with white linen and lay out a nice breakfast.

Tony invited the guests to stay for breakfast and the rest of the teens filtered up from below over the next few minutes. Tony did his best not to lead any conversation, mindful that he really needed to get out of his 'take-charge' persona. There were no real decisions to be made. The newspaper reporter made the rounds of all the teens, the radio guy was in a corner with Gwen, Chrissie, and Kyle disussing the technical issues of putting the band on the radio. The Sound Chicks mixed the band for live performances, but never for broadcast so they had some serious questions. When asked about the idea, none of the band members had objected until Gwen pointed out the technical problems. At that point they agreed to leave the idea up to the more technically-oriented band members.

Tina noticed that Tony had made introductions between the agent and Rebecca and when they returned to her father he pointedly removed himself from the conversation. There was no chance in hell that it would amount to anything. Tony surely knows that. Nope he doesn't, does he? She saw a physical tension in Tony. Oh! Shit! He thinks she'll actually consider it.

By the time she actually made her way to her brother he was engaged in a conversation with the female TV reporter. Tina thought she looked familiar. It was not just that Tina had seen her on TV, there was something else. She figured it out as she approached the two and caught a bit of the conversation.

"Oh wait;I know who you are now. My sister loves you guys, she even says she dated your drummer, Jerry is his name?"

"Oh, Beth has to be your sister then!" Tina exclaimed as she walked up and wrapped her left arm around Tony. "I was trying to put my finger on why you were so familiar looking. It makes perfect sense now."

The young woman, named Cindy, started laughing. "Well, us Porter sisters do share certain features." The features in question were the mammoth twin peaks atop an otherwise lithe figure. "Tony here is certainly better than most at trying not to stare. You must be Tina. I also have a brother, Riley, whom I'm convinced wants to have your children."

Tina broke into a fit of laughter. "Oh I have got to hear about this! Is he coming to the show today? My brother stays out of trouble because he's in luuv! Tony let me talk to Cindy for a minute, your girlfriend wants you."

"Tina I need to stay out of th..."

"Tony, Rebecca has looked over at you every five seconds for the last ten minutes. Trust me. She really wants you over there. Now just go."

"OK Cindy, give. Is your brother cute?"

Tony got the message and moved to where the Harris family was talking with the agent. He felt awkward, he didn't really know what this guy was offering but it seemed to be something that would be best discussed between them. When he reached Rebecca and she pulled his right arm around her waist and twined her fingers into his.

"Tony, this is Mr. Carroll. He wants to represent me. He thinks I need someone to ... he thinks I could make records. But I don't think we have that kind of money." Rebecca had a decided twinkle in her eye as she spoke.

"Oh no? I have a few dollars. And you know that I like you a lot. How much money does Mr. Carroll need to make this recording?"

"Well, we would need real musicians. Mr. Carroll says it would cost $30,000 for a couple of songs. Then Mr. Carroll could take it to a record company, and he only gets 34% of future money as my agent."

"Well I do have a question about all this," Tony said. "Does Mr. Carroll leave by the right side door or the left? I'm pretty sure there are more real musicians on this boat than real agents."

"Tony there's nothing outside the right door," Rebecca giggled.

"Oh there is a very wide river out that door." He turned to Mr. Carroll, "so I would really suggest the left one."

"Now listen here young man. I don't know who you think you are..."

"I'm the owner of the vessel you are standing on. It is private property and I own it. Now, you may freely leave the way you came in. I promise you though; if I have to have you removed by the crew it will be by the other door. I do believe Rebecca's parents will agree that this conversation is over." Tony stared hard at the little man who looked up to find Mr. Harris nodding.

Tony had just escorted the 'agent' out when JD stuck his head in the door, "Hallooo," he said.

"Hey JD," Tony replied, "come on in."

JD didn't hesitate. He walked right up to Rebecca, picked her up, and began swinging her around the floor. "You girl, magnificent! I've heard a lot, but nothing like that, ever!"

"JD stop!" Tony shouted.

JD immediately stopped, set Rebecca down, and released her. Tony moved quickly to steady her as she tried to balance herself. She giggled, "It's OK JD, thank you. I just don't have much balance yet. It's medical."

"OH crap! I'm so sorry."

"It's OK, JD you couldn't have known. Like Rebecca said, it's a medical problem and she really is getting better. She kind of just learned to walk a few months ago and the whole balance thing is new to her."

"I do it myself sometimes when I get excited. Daddy and Tony take turns keeping me from killing myself mostly," Rebecca said as she settled back into Tony's arms and smiled at JD.

"Tina, on the other hand, you're more than welcome to just grab her and jump in the river," Tony said.

JD made a great show of almost doing just that. He settled for a couple of turns of two-stepping around the deck with Tina laughing uproariously as he complimented her on her 'fiddle playing' among her other talents.

The afternoon show was the most fun of the weekend. The teens had handed out at least a hundred of the front-stage passes at school and the show was packed with family and friends. Tony had even gotten Mrs. Finch to come with her husband. It took some talking to convince her that not only would he be onstage, but that Tina and Rebecca, two of her current students, would be there as well.

Through the early part of the show a small dark-haired little girl who was obviously with Rhonda and Silly caught Tony's eye. She couldn't have been more than six years-old and absolutely could not stop dancing to the music.

Tony eventually pulled her onstage for one song and danced along with her while singing and playing guitar. He had to play the only guitar as Rebecca, Tina, and Dewayne were doing a complicated replication of a horn piece on synth, sax, and harmonica. A picture of the scene appeared in the next morning's paper with the girl's unbound hair flying while she looked straight at Tony while he was singing the song. The headline read:

All she wants to do is dance!

The photo was captioned: 6 Year-old Camile Burroughs dances onstage with the rock band Chaos on River Street Saturday

The irony of the name was not lost on Tony and he wondered if Silly's (Cecile's) parents weren't in some weird naming competition with his own.

The surprise of the day came between the shows. JD appeared on Kalliste carrying a manila folder overflowing with papers.

"Hey JD!" Rebecca called to him as he walked onto the enclosed back deck. She put down the book she was reading, stood and walked carefully over to him and hugged him briefly. "What you got there?"

"I brought these for ya. They're songs. I've been writing them for, well, forever I guess. I don't know how to explain it, but I like writing these type songs but they really aren't the kind of things the Knights play. Well, I mean I do write most of those as well, but these are different."

"You write rock songs as well?" Rebecca asked, tilting her head in a quizzical manner.

"Eh? Uh no, no. I mean these aren't really rock songs and they really aren't country songs. I heard you last night, singing. These are like ballads, love songs, or heartbreakers. I thought one day I'd sing them. But after I heard, last night, I think I'd like you to maybe try and sing them. I guess not all, but I figure I'd let ya pick and choose..."

"JD!" Rebecca gushed. "I'd be honored! I mean we'll certainly look at them and if we can do it. I'd love to try some of them! I don't know what to say. Thank you." She kissed him on the cheek.

"Well I guess I best get going. Got a show in twenty minutes." He turned and a bit sheepishly let himself out.