Getting paid to write the truth

"Damn it Robert!  You said you had his ambitions under control!  How could you have him involved in something like this behind my back?" Being half awake, it took me back to the days when we all lived together and she would yell at Dad for being out all night. 

He must have had a lot to say to her because I fell back asleep and it was a while before I heard her voice again.

"Elias James O'Shea!  Get up!  I need to see you in the kitchen please."

"Are you in trouble Dude? " Benny rolled over.

"Sounds like it.  I thought she was yelling at my dad earlier.  So I don't know what I did." I rubbed my eyes and headed to the kitchen like I was going to face the dentist, hair on end and all.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" she spit out as soon as I entered.

"Uh, morning Mom?"

"Cute.  I leave you alone with Benny, so you think I'm a cool mom.  So you tell me things.  That's always worked pretty good right Eli?" Oil was trickling from her olive green eyes.  I didn't have a clue as to what was going on.  Was I dreaming?  Was she mad or sad? And was it at me or Dad?  "I don't know who you are anymore Eli."

"Mom it's me same old kid."

"No.  One day your voice starts cracking.  Then you spend a weekend with your father and you come home wanting to be a comedian.  Now, you're supposed to give an interview to Hollywood Variety about a story you and Benny wrote and they published.  Who are you?  How could I possibly lose control of my son in such a short time?  This move cannot come soon enough"

It hit me like an unexpected soccer ball to the head.  With everything that was happening, I never told her about the Updated Spectator.  If that kid hadn't let the story out she'd have never known, just great, another lucky break for me.  "Mom I'm sorry.  I had no control over it.  I filed it away…then Sam called…and."  I not only had no idea who I was, but I quickly losing control of why, where and when, I was too.

"I know.  Your Dad filled me in after I reamed him a new, wait a minute, he didn't even yell back.  He just told me the whole story and said he thought it would all be taken care of.  I don't know him anymore either."

"He's doing really well Mom, even though you're pushing him to the edge.   I wish you could spend some time with him," I was truly wishing out loud, happy to get the attention off of me.

"Yeah well.  I'm pushing him?   Why do you think I'm moving?

"I thought we were moving for your career."  I didn't like the track I steered that runaway train onto.

"Well, he's made the decision easier.  Go get Benny, I'll make you two some pancakes while we talk about your interview, that's scheduled for tomorrow."

"Good Morning Ms. O'Shea," if anything, Benny knew his manners.

"Have a seat Benny.  We're going to fill up first and then have a long talk," Mom had calmed down quite a bit.

"What were you guys thinking when you did the Updated story?" Mom asked.

Benny took the first question. "We weren't really.  It all just came to us, like Eli's mustard fudge.  Plus it was fun making jokes about Eli and Gus Gowen."

With that I was quickly into the top of my memory box, there it was:

'How does someone know which path to take?' I had asked Dad.

'That's the age-old question E.  I think if you are truly following your bliss, it's like your being helped by hidden hands.'

"Mustard fudge," I mumbled.

"Eli?  What do you think," Mom brought my thoughts back to the table.

"It's what Benny says, we never expected something like this to happen."

  

"And you're up for facing Connor Faldrane if his dad pursues us?"

I found myself reaching for the necklace and again it wasn't there.  "Long as you make plenty of egg salad." I had to lighten things up.

I think it worked because Mom's answer was encouraging.  "You know how much I'm against the thought of you having anything to do with show business, and I thought you were in agreement with that," she cleared the dishes.  "If you insist on exploring this, even for just one interview, you have to let me be a part of it."

"I will Mom, I promise.  I guess I should let you know Gramps O'Shea is going to introduce me to Simon," I felt a rare relief.  But I was surprised that Mom considered Simon just another one of Dad's co-workers.

"Well, that's no big deal, you've met tons of actors."

 I decided not to push it.  "Hey Mom, when did you first know you wanted to be a musician?"  She wasn't in the public eye as much as Dad, and she was certainly not ready for her own ringtone, but she was working hard and she was good.

"I was lucky, I suppose," she started.  "I had a wonderful piano instructor the summer I was eleven.  I remember I was furious with my mom for making me go to piano practice while the other kids were running around outside.  Then after just one session with Miss Ray, I was hooked.  She was a little woman with strange blue eyes.  I was so mesmerized by her that the lessons came naturally.  There was a pin she wore.  A big moon, or sun and a wolf, it was right on her chest, so I always felt odd looking at it.  She gave me one like it at our last lesson."  Mom gazed at the ceiling as if that was where she stored her memories.  "Anyway, she told me that I was a gifted student and that I would go far.  Here I am in the entertainment capital of the World and I'm moving to get a break.  I've wondered what ever happened to her, she was so inspiring I could have used her for a lot longer than one summer."

"So you knew then that you'd grow up to be a piano player?" I'd never really thought about how my parents, or anyone for that matter, decided what to be but it was definitely another new mystery knocking around with the questions that I felt pressured to figure out.

"Well I don't remember deciding right then but I did know that I'd always have music in my life somehow.  I just got sidetracked -- five years as an assistant for the talent agency -- four more years as a housewife," she turned on the dishwasher.  "What d'ya say Benny we better get you home so your mom doesn't think you moved in here."

"She won't be home.  But I should check in on Grandma Silver." Benny answered without a clue to the information I was collecting.  I filed Mom's story in my top spot for instant access.

"I have an idea," Mom added.  "Why don't we all go to a matinee of Normal or Dead, after we swing by Benny's?"

 "Awesome." Benny and me answered in stereo, as usual.

The repeat performance of Normal or Dead refreshed our minds as to why we did the Updated Spectator story to begin with and it also served as good inspiration for the interview and my meeting with Simon.  Not taking any chances though, I decided to wear the yellow mask just as Dad pulled in to pick me up the next morning.  It turned out to be a good decision.  The interview was unbelievable fun from the second we set foot in the lobby of Hollywood Variety Magazine.  In fact everything would have been perfect until Benny brought up the idea of us getting paid to do more stories for more celebrities.

"Eli thinks it will be more trouble than it's worth.  But I'd like to do it," he snitched.  I wanted to fart on him.

"Interesting," Mr. Hughes who was just about to wrap our meeting up, got comfortable again and asked,

"How many offers have you gotten?"

"Five," Benny couldn't contain himself.   

"Can you boys give me a minute alone with Sam and Mr. O'Shea?  Kathy," he called to his assistant. "Can you take Elias and Benny to the snack bar?"

 And that was it, by lunchtime on August 7th, Benny Silver and me had a paying job to write a story for the leading magazine in the entertainment business, Hollywood Variety.  The deal was to take two of the five offers and come up with our own take of what the real Hollywood story was, in a comical way like we did for the Updated Spectator.  The two we chose would pay Benny and me.  But the magazine would then publish the article.  The only catch was, we had to come up with a new title that didn't rip off Celebrity Spectator and we had to use our own photos and could not reprint the original lies the Spectator had published.

Dad and me both called Mom on speakerphone to make sure she wouldn't blow a fuse.  She made us add a sentence to the contract that said we could back out any time for any reason.  Benny was beyond thrilled.  It was worth it just to see him so happy.  Dad stopped at the bank and gave him his share of the money out of his own account so he could surprise his mom that night.  We had two weeks to do the work because Mr. Hughes wanted to print his follow up interview first.  We needed it too, were going to be busy day and night getting this story just right.  It took a few days, just to get the interviews scheduled with Bruce Monroe and Vivian Weaver.  Dad hated the fact that he had to buy the copies of the Celebrity Spectator where the lies they were fighting had been printed, I insisted that we needed them for reference.  So, he dressed up in a funky fisherman cap and sunglasses and made me wear an equally funky fisherman vest and told the clerk that he was buying the tabloids because the only thing they were good for was wrapping fish. 

That night I called Gramps to find out what he had set up for me to meet Simon.