Chapter 45
“Hair, up or down?”
“For Radio, up” Willow said
“Skirt or pants?”
“Um…pants…those”
“The brown ones?”
“No, the grey – hey, hey – have you read this?”
“What’s that?” Buffy was looking at herself in her long mirror, holding her hair up with one hand, and the pants against her with the other, turning this way and that.
“Coach O’Connor in second brush with death!
Somebody got into the hospital, dressed up as an orderly and got into his room. They didn’t realise when they switched off the life-support machines that all these alarms would go off in the nurses work-station area – so he was caught immediately”
“And how is he now, does it say?” Buffy threw the pants on an ever increasing pile on the bed and turned back to her wardrobe
“It says, and I quote: Coach O’Connor has suffered no lasting affects from his second brush with death, and a man will appear in court later this week – golly, to be hated that much huh…another disgruntled father I shouldn’t wonder. Anyway, what was wrong with those pants?
“Too mom-ish”
“No they weren’t, anyway, who’s going to see them, its RADIO don’t forget!”
Buffy wrinkled her nose and sat on the bed
“How’s William?”
“He said he’d phone me, but he hasn’t, yet”
“Well it’s not lunchtime yet, still loads of the day left – why don’t you phone him?”
“No, in case I wake him, he’s very jet-lagged still”
“Is that why he didn’t stay – I was surprised when you phoned me this morning, I was going to phone you, but then I thought you’d either be here with Will or at the flat with him”
“Well, like I say, he’s still very jet-laggy, if that’s even a word…oh, I know!”
“What?”
“I forgot about them, two skirts I bought in sale, one blue, one black, they must be still downstairs!”
Buffy dashed out of her room with Willow saying,
“But Buffy, for Radio, we agreed no black, and not a skirt…”
Buffy’s disembodied voice called out from downstairs,
“That was for TV”
*********************************
………Drusilla tried to read the letter, but she was shaking so much with the DT’s, she couldn’t concentrate, so she put the letter on the table and tried again…
“Dear Miss Tate, blah, blah………our client Mr Hart has received no payment of rents from you for the last three months after repeated attempts to do so, he has no alternative but to give you notice of eviction, that if no payment for the amount of back rent and accrued interest to the sum of $8,056 has been received by him or us, Thomas Watson Assoc. Mr Hart’s appointed agents by the 24th of this month, then your official removal from the property will go ahead, any costs which Mr Hart incurs by doing this will be added to the sum total amount to which you owe our client…yours, Thomas Watson Associates
Drusilla was numb. She knew she’d not got a lot of money left, and there was no way she would be able to afford the back rent to keep this apartment going – and now she was going to be homeless too, as well as jobless and penniless…she desperately needed to do something, and needed to do it quickly.
***************************
“Mom, if he rings, tell him I’ll ring him as soon as I’ve finished at the radio station, okay – they don’t allow you to have your mobiles switched on”
“Honey, I won’t be here, I’m out at the gallery, we’ve got a showing tonight, press only, I won’t be home until midnight at the earliest. Tell Angela, and when she’s gone, the answer machine will be on, so don’t worry, you won’t miss a call from him”
“I was hoping he’d wish me – well you know, break a leg,” Buffy said not being able to hide the disappointment in her voice
“Well why don’t you phone him then, huh?”
“But what if I wake him?”
“Honey, he’s had from when he left you last night until now to sleep, he’s bound to have got a few hours in there somewhere – besides, too much sleep can be just as bad as hardly any when you’re jet-lagged – tell you what, ask him over for dinner here tomorrow night if you like, I’ll do a lasagne”
Outside a car horn bibbed, and Buffy looked through the window
“Okay great, I will. That’s my car the studio sent to get me, they told me a blue Chrysler – I must go have a good night then mom”
“And you honey, break a leg!”
Buffy left the house and took out her mobile as she walked down the path
She called William’s mobile, but all she got was the message desk, and the landline she got the answer machine.
“Will, if you’re there, pick up………Will? Okay then, guess you’ve gone out or are still asleep or something, talk later, bye – I l-miss you, missed you, bye”
From the sofa William looked at the phone. Then holding his head in his hands he said to himself,
“Yes pet, later” he heaved a sigh and tried to get some thoughts together as to what to do next…
**********************
“And we can have ‘free rein’ and ask about anything?”
“Not Coach O’Connor, I don’t want to make ANY comments whatsoever about him, okay?”
“Nothing, not at all not even about-“
“No, NOTHING” Buffy said firmly
“Okay, are you happy to talk about the plane crash?”
“Uh huh, don’t remember much, but it’s okay to ask”
“And about your silver medal at the Olympics?”
“That’s fine yeah”
“Okay then Buffy, we’ll get you a coffee, have you heard the show before?”
“A while ago now”
“Well, what we’ll do is let you listen to a compilation tape of the last two weeks guests, so you can get the feel for the show – that okay with you?”
“Yes, fine thanks – and make sure nothing about the Coach comes up, because you’ll have ‘dead air’, I won’t answer, and I know how much you guys hate dead air” The researcher gave her a tight smile and nodded, scrubbed out the ‘will possibly speak about if provoked’ and put a cross right through the whole subject of Coach O’Connor, meaning it was a total no-go area – THAT would please his boss………
**
The host of the radio chat show Gareth Gordon was not pleased, juicy gossip and little miss tightly wound wouldn’t talk about it wouldn’t she? Well he’d got an idea…
****************************
“I’d like to confirm an Internet flight booking please”
“Certainly sir, what is your destination?”
“London, Heathrow”
“London, Heathrow, thankyou sir, when is the flight and whom did you book with?
“The flight will be the day after tomorrow, the 17th, with Virgin Atlantic”
“The 17th…Virgin Atlantic………do you have your booking number there please?”
“Yes, it’s VA7446571” William could hear the operator tapping away on a keyboard
“Here we are, I’ve got it, and you paid by American Express – yes sir I can confirm that your flight is booked, 1.35pm, Thursday the 17th with Virgin Atlantic Club Class. You can collect your tickets anytime now sir from LAX at any Virgin ticket desk, and then go onto the VIP check-in, please be at the airport at least one and a half hours before the departure time, and we hope you have a good flight sir”
“Thankyou, bye” William hung up.
*****************************
Buffy found herself in a rather small recording studio with a trio of rather boisterous teenagers, the latest singing sensations from American Idol, the boy band ‘YELL’
Buffy sat, sipping her coffee until it was her turn to be introduced…
“So tell me Adam –“ Gareth started
“Which one, which one!” A bleached blonde piped up, pointing to his band member to his right
“Well, I was just going to ask that, does it make things awkward when the girls scream ‘Adam’ at you when you’re on stage, as there’s two of you called Adam?!”
“No, coz we all know they’re yelling for me!” The darker one said grinning. This started some playful banter off between them, and to be truthful, Buffy was bored already, and slightly worried……
“Well, they can’t shout Adam 1, or Adam 2, can they? We thought about it, I was going to use my middle name-“
“Cedric!” the third member shouted out laughing
“It’s NOT Cedric!”
“Tell you what, let me get you to introduce yourselves to all the listeners and tell them a bit about yourselves, you’re-“
“Hi, I’m Adam Rickman, I’m the baby of the group, I’m 17, 18 in a few months time, I love girls, pizza, gaming on my XBox and going to the beach”
“And you?”
“Hi, I’m Simon Vectra, I’m the eldest in the group at 19, I love girls, in-line skating and hanging with my friends – oh yeah, and my mom’s chicken-pot-pie”
“And you?”
“Hi, I’m the other Adam, Adam Young, I’m 18, I love girls, chilli-dogs, going to the movies and chillin’ out with my friends”
“Good, so tell me what’s it like to be the hottest thing in the music business right now?………………………
**********
“………And at which point did you know the plane was going to crash?” Gareth asked Buffy
“We didn’t really, after coming down to land everyone was suddenly aware that the plane was trying to raise up again, the engines… (Buffy was hit by a rush of emotion and she had to stop and swallow) I’m sorry, it’s the first time I’ve really spoken about this…the engines were screaming – people were screaming, things were flying out of the overhead lockers, it was mayhem…one of the stewardesses was trying to get us in the crash position…”
“Is that where you put your head on your legs if you can?” Gareth asked helpfully
“That’s right…then something hit me on the back of the head and I don’t remember anything else until a firefighter trying to lift me out of my seat, but my foot was trapped”
Buffy was suddenly aware just how quiet it had gone in the studio, no more silly banter from the boy-band
“So what happened then?”
“Some other guy came over and cut the bar that was trapping me, then I remember going down the shoot from the plane – next thing I woke up in hospital bed”
“Were you worried for your career then?”
“I didn’t really give it much thought, it wasn’t the first thing on my mind”
“I’ll bet, wow, never met a plane-crash survivor before!” Adam Young piped up, and the other two band members made similar rumblings.
Gareth Gordon then said
“So at which point did you decide to give up ice-skating?” then giving Simon a ‘pre-arranged’ glance, he piped up,
“Oh god yeah, your Coach was that one that was done for child molestation wasn’t it?”
Buffy looked daggers first at Simon, then at Gareth, but she said nothing
“He was shot, then somebody tried to turn his heart machine off, didn’t they?” Adam Rickman said
Buffy grabbed the clipped on microphone and pulled it off her top and stood up
Gareth Gordon motioned her to sit as the fumbling noises were going out over the airwaves
“Hey, what’s up, where you goin’ man – s’not finished!” Simon asked looking confused
Gareth coughed, and said
“So, Buffy have you been back on the ice since?” Furious with him because it was so obviously a set up after she said she specifically wouldn’t talk about Coach O’Connor, Buffy said nothing
“So folks we have a technical problem going on here while we get that fixed let’s listen to YELL’S new single out, their version of the Jackson’s ‘One Day in Your Life’ the song began and Gareth said to Buffy
“Oh for goodness sake sit down!”
“How DARE you – I said I WOULDN’T talk about the Coach, then you set me up with THAT moron!”
Simon frowned
“Hey, do you mind – I’m not a moron, he just asked me to-“
“Now, now, calm down we still have twenty minutes to do here!” Gareth said trying to laugh it off
“Yes well, it’s twenty minutes you an do without me!” Buffy said
“You can’t do this!”
“Watch me!”
“Hey, look, I‘m sorry okay I thought I was doing something for the show” Simon said, frowning
Buffy was totally adamant that she wouldn’t continue with the interview and she was let out of the studio.
“Sorry about that folks, we can’t bring you anymore of our interview with Buffy Summers, so it’s back to the boys – so, when is the album due?…………………
Buffy got outside, she hailed a cab and once inside, she got out her mobile phone.
Feeling down, as there wasn’t a message from William, Buffy phoned Willow.
“What happened Buffy, I thought it was a live interview – Gareth Gordon just said they couldn’t bring you any more of your interview”
“I walked out…I expressly forbid them to ask about the Coach, so they set up those moronic schoolboys to do it, idiots they were”
“Never mind…have you heard from-“
“No, and I’m not phoning him again, I’ll just wait until he does contact me”
Willow could tell that Buffy was in a foul mood, so she thought that she’d cut and run.
“Oh, that’s the door, I gotta run Buffy, I need to get to the library, phone me when you get a minute okay?”
“Sure Will, bye”
“Which mall would you like dropping at?” The cab driver asked
“Second thoughts, would you take me onto Sunnydale please, I’ve changed my mind about shopping”
The cab driver nodded and pulled out into the afternoon traffic.
Buffy was just about to put her key in the lock, when her mobile rang, she was pleased to see it was William.
“Hi baby”
“Hi”
“I wasn’t sure if I’d get you, I just left a message on the ansa phone – where are you, still at the station?”
“No, I’m just stepping into the house now” Buffy closed the front door
“How’d the interview go?”
“Don’t ask – I walked out, I expressly forbade them to mention Coach, so that slimy little toad sets up one of those kids in a moronic boy band to mention him…put him in a right flap when I wouldn’t play ball though, I just wouldn’t say anything”
“Oh kitten, that was wrong if you told them not to”
“Still, what’s done is done…I phoned you earlier, did you go out?”
“Oh, no…I must have been in the shower” William didn’t like lying, but it was simpler for now.
“Mom said to say hi, and would you like to come to dinner tomorrow night – she’ll do her famous lasagne”
“Oh, well, ordinarily, I’d have really loved to…” William began
“But there’s a but, right?”
“Um, yeah, sorry Kitten, got to go to England – short notice I know, but my flights booked and everything”
“Oh – golly that was quick – what is it, some player from Liverpool United or something broke his leg, and you’re the only one to fix it?”
William chuckled
“Actually no, kitten, it’s not an operation, I’m checking something out, a tip given to me by Quentin”
Buffy suddenly went cold
“Is it…is it about a clinic?”
“Well, it’s a about a job, anyway, sounds right up my street, listen kitten, I want to get a few things together, I’ll phone you the minute I get there – unless it’s the middle of the night of course”
Buffy felt her throat constrict and tears well up in her eyes
“Buffy…Buffy, are you there?”
“ M-me, um yeah, yes - I’m oh, er, s-sorry Will, I’ve got to go, bye!”
Buffy put the receiver down, her face crumpling
“Buffy – Buffy? Oh…” William slowly put the receiver down wondering what was the matter – he’d ring her in an hour or so and find out.
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