Spit-Take
Glenn pre-planned every
aspect of his trip to Ohio, from where he would stop to refuel to where he
would stop for meals. It was an old
habit he picked up from his days as a radio announcer. Good timing was good
planning.
“Forest City, Arkansas,
exit here,” he said to himself at around lunch time on Saturday afternoon. The
low fuel alarm on his car made its “ping” just as he pulled into the off ramp
of the Interstate. “Timed it just right.” He was smug about the accomplishment.
The car’s clock confirmed that he was ahead of his ETA, swelling his head even
further.
Memphis, Nashville, then
overnight in Bowling Green.
Glenn went to bed somewhat
later than he expected, but went to sleep quickly. He woke up in the middle of
the night after having had a dream skirt the edge of his memory. He recalled
sitting on a bench, holding a yellow rose, then being approached by a woman he
felt that he knew. She sat down next to him. He handed her the rose. She took
it and put it aside before she whispered in his ear: “C’mon, we have work to
do…”
After settling back down,
Glenn caught a few more hours of sleep before getting up and heading out. He
took advantage of Sunday morning to cut across Kentucky to approach Magnolia by
way of Lexington.
It was almost precisely
three o’clock eastern time when Glenn pulled up to a familiar three story brick
building in the middle of Magnolia. He looked across the street to see Jessica
Collins getting up from a public bench to approach him. She was holding the
yellow rose.
“Welcome back home,
Glenn,” Jessica greeted him as he got out of his car.
Glenn gave the old woman a
hug and a kiss on the cheek. “It’s good to be back, at least for a little
while. How’s Zeke?”
“Still holding his own…
right now he’s taking a nap. He left strict instructions to have you meet us at
four-thirty to go to dinner.”
“Still as feisty as he
ever was, eh?” Glenn smiled.
“Still feisty. Maybe even
a little more ornery than usual.”
“Has he found his
replacement, then?”
Jessica nodded her head.
“He’s kept files all these years. He has his replacement in mind, but he hasn’t
asked him yet.”
Glenn opened his car to
unload the gear he needed to take up to the apartment on the third floor of the
building. Jessica walked back to replace the rose before going back to let
Glenn in the front door. Instead of using the elevator to go through the radio
station, they went through the restaurant to the back of the building. There
was a set of stairs near the back entrance which served all three levels of the
building as well as the basement. Actual access to the back stairway was by
pass-card only. The second floor housed the offices and studios of the radio
stations, WZEK AM and FM. The side elevator went directly to the lobby in the
middle of the building. The broadcast studios were facing the street; the
offices for the salespeople and Zeke were toward the back of the building. The
third floor was occupied with a large, one bedroom apartment which was used by
the Collins family for chosen guests.
“You go on ahead and get
yourself settled in,” Jessica told Glenn when they reached the base of the
stairs.
“Any more I’m good for
only one trip up to the third floor per day and I’ve already reached my limit.”
She handed him a pass-card before going out the back door, through the
breezeway and into her house.
The apartment was pretty
much like Glenn remembered it. The suite was broad and airy with a good western
view of the river and hills beyond the town. Glenn noted the various touches
Jessica had completed before his arrival, including leaving an assortment of
radio trade magazines, fresh towels and linens and an empty vase next to the
night stand.
-----
At precisely four-thirty,
Glenn punched the doorbell of the back door of the Collins residence.
“You’re fifteen seconds
late, Michaels,” Zeke growled as he opened the door.
“I’m on Central Time,
Zeke… that makes me fifty-nine minutes and forty-five seconds early.”
Zeke laughed and gave his
protégé a hug. “As I say, there was a time I would smack you for that, young
man!”
Jessica made her way past
the men to open the green Buick she intended to drive to the Town Lake Club.
“Are you going to stand there or are the two of you going to get in?”
The drive up was slow, but
uneventful. Zeke filled Glenn in on some of the latest gossip which passed for
news in this little corner of the world. When they arrived at the Club, the lot
was mostly empty. It was still a little early for Sunday supper. They were
greeted at the end of the hall leading to the restaurant and promptly escorted
to a table by a window on the upper level overlooking Town Lake.
The Club was a throwback.
It was the type of restaurant where many of the patrons were regulars with
particular preferences of where they sat or what they would order for their
meals. And never, under any circumstances, would any of the servers refer to a
group of patrons as “you guys”. It was just that sort of place.
“Ah, Mister Collins and
the lovely Miss Jessica! How lovely to
have you this afternoon!” The server was a young man who appeared to be in his
mid to late twenties.
“Hello Thomas,” Zeke
replied. “We have a guest this afternoon; Mister Glenn Michaels from Dallas,
Texas.”
“Very good,” Thomas
replied, handing out the menus. He took drink orders before leaving them alone
to read the bill of fare.
“Michaels, I have a
problem,” Zeke said after they had ordered their dinners. “I have a Doctor who
tells me that for some reason he can’t cure old age. As I say, I may not have
too very much longer to be on this side of the grass.”
“Zeke, not yet,” Jessica
urged. “Can you at least wait until after dinner to have this conversation?”
“I may not have until
after dinner, woman, and you know that.”
Jessica looked at Glenn
and rolled her eyeballs.
“As I say, I’m glad you’re
here, Glenn. I’ve decided to give you the radio stations and the restaurant
before I die.”
“Excuse me?” Glenn
sputtered, thankful that he didn’t have a mouth full of water with which he
would have sprayed on his host.
“Zeke…” Jessica glared at
her husband.
“As I say, you are the
best person to carry on the business when I’m gone. Since I have no children, I
am naming you as my heir.”
Glenn took a deep
breath. “Oooookaay…” he said as he
gathered his thoughts. “I, uh, came up here just to play co-host for a part of
a morning and to say goodbye to Magnolia one last time. That’s it. I have a
life in Dallas.”
“What’s tying you down,
boy? Your woman? Since your divorce, my understanding is that you’ve fucked
your way from bed to bed.”
“Zeke… language!” Jessica
scolded him.
“So you make some money at
that job of yours. What do you do with it? As I say, money is like manure,
Michaels. It’s useless unless you spread it around.
“Your kids are grown, you
have all the skills that you need and, besides, you need a change in scenery.
That idiot you work with, the coke head… he’s bad news.”
“He’s dead, Zeke. He shot
himself a week ago last Friday.”
“I read about it; and good
riddance, too. Problem solved. Go get your things next week and come back up to
take over the whole shebang.”
Glenn looked over to see
Jessica covering her eyes and shaking her head.
“Zeke, I’m… flattered. Seriously.
But the business has changed. I’ve been out of it for fifteen years now. I
can’t go back. All I want to do is to play for part of a morning to show my ex
that I can still do radio, take care of some other business and head back
home.”
Zeke gave Glenn a hard
look.
“How soon are you going
back?” he asked.
“I was going to be on my
way back to Texas on Friday morning.”
“Before you say no, I want
to have a long talk with you. Can you at least let me talk with you on… say,
Tuesday?”
Glenn thought for a
moment. “I can do that much for you,” he finally told the old man.
Dinner came and talk
shifted over to some of the usual minutiae of day to day living. At one point,
Zeke excused himself to go to the men’s room.
“Is he serious about his
offer?” Glenn asked Jessica when Zeke was out of earshot.
“Most definitely,” she
answered. “If you don’t take his offer, I’m told that some big company which
doesn’t give a damn about our town will come in and take the place over. I’ll
be okay. If he goes right now, I’m set for the rest of my life, but the radio
stations and the restaurant will be at risk. There are a lot of people
depending on both of them, Glenn, and if you should decide to walk away,
Magnolia as you know it may just wither up and die.”
