Caught in the rush
Chapter Seven
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"... the highway patrol has managed to keep traffic on the 405 under control and diverted away from the scene. The company that owns the overturned tanker, is cooperating with the highway patrol and HASMAT to get another empty tanker out there as soon as possible, so the other can be moved safely. The estimated time of arrival of the empty tanker should be in about one hour, taking at least another hour to completely pump the flammable liquid out. HASMAT crews should be arriving either sometime before or after the arrival of said replacement tanker. The driver, 47 year old Matthew Illsley, is in fair condition at a local hospital. His passenger, an unidentified female, is still in a coma. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident. In related news…"
"If they mention my name," Dirk mumbled, as his invited guest from the truck next door, Shawn, helped himself to a beer, "I swear to god…"
"...Singer Dirk Monahan..."
Dirk snarled.
"...of the rock group Trouble, has been reported to be at the front of the gridlock caused by the accident, his limo being one of the first vehicles actually trapped by the tanker. It has been reported that the singer, currently scheduled to perform tonight with Penny, his girlfriend for the past year, has apparently walked out of the performance tonight and was on his way to the airport following a spat…"
"Spat," he hissed, as Shawn started staring at him, "blasted media, it was hardly a spat."
"What was it then?" Bjornar asked, trying to get into a comfortable position in the seat across from Dirk.
"It was a war, an out and out war," Dirk mumbled, as Shawn leaned back and took a drink of this beer.
"Because she wouldn't marry you?" Shawn asked. Dirk looked down.
"That was only part of it," he replied.
"I don't understand that," Bjornar stated, "this was the woman in the press who said if you demanded it of her, she'd quit show business and live with you in Scotland and do nothing else but lay in your bed and bear your children from now until eternity?"
"Yes."
"And she said no?"
"Yes."
"Then what she said was bullshit?" Shawn asked.
"Obviously," Dirk replied.
"I don't believe that, I've seen the way she looks at you," Bjornar replied wistfully, "if I could get a woman to look at me that way, just once, I could die a happy man."
"What exactly did you say to her?" Shawn asked, "maybe it was the way you said it."
"I asked her to marry me," Dirk replied, rubbing his eyes, "I put my arms around her, and asked to run away with me now and marry me."
"And she said no? Just like that."
"That's right."
"Are you sure there was nothing else she added, or said?" Bjornar asked, "because remember what I said to you about your inability to hear everything the other person says?"
"What makes you so sure about that?" Dirk snapped. Bjornar shrugged.
"Oh, not too much, I just hear everything you two talk about when you share this limo."
"Name one example."
"Okay, remember that one time she told you that she had a dream that Damon Alphern made a pass at her, then kissed her?"
"Yeah, so?"
"You got pissed off because you only heard "Damon Alphern made a pass at me, and then he kissed me" then you tried to beat him up."
Shawn laughed.
"You do that all the time," Bjornar continued, briefly flashing Shawn an amused grin, "I can't even count how many times you've gotten upset or angry over something she said, because you didn't hear everything."
"I heard enough. She said I was no better than her dad."
"Oh damn, no she didn't," Shawn howled, clutching his stomach. Bjornar frowned.
"Am I missing something here?" he asked, "what is the whole thing about her dad?"
"You don't know?" Shawn asked, wildly surprised, "her dad is the biggest scumbag musician that ever walked the planet."
"Who is he?" Bjornar asked. Dirk snarled.
"Greg Donovan, the singer from the sixties."
"Oh, that guy. That's her dad?" Bjornar frowned, "that guy sucked. I bet she gets all her talent from her mother. I wonder what made him so big anyway, he couldn't sing, and his guitar playing sounded like someone was strangling a cat."
Shawn laughed again.
"Everyone was high on pot and LSD, I don't think they would have known decent music if it reached up and bit 'em on the bum." Dirk replied, opening another can of beer.
"So, what did he do that was so horrible?" Bjornar asked, reaching down and taking a can of soda for himself from the wetbar.
"Her mom was pregnant with her when he got this big chance to go back out on the road and re-establish his career," Dirk replied, scornfully, "he promised her that when he came back, he would marry her and give the baby a proper name."
"Let me guess, he didn't keep his promise?"
"Not even for two minutes. He was doing an interview with a blonde on his lap, and a reporter asked him didn't he have a girlfriend expecting his baby. He laughed and said no, just some lonely groupie trying to claim her unborn baby was his so she could get money out of him. He barred her from any of his shows, put a restraining order against her, for no reason, and refused to accept any of her phone calls. When she finally did get hold of him, his excuse was that he never wanted that child, and he was going to be damned if she was going to force him to be a father to some damned kid who would just ruin his life."
"My god.."
"When Joanie finally got enough money to hire a lawyer for child support, Penny was three. The whole world watched the news when it was discovered that the DNA proved Penny was his daughter. She ran up to him when court was adjourned and he pushed her aside saying, "Get this little bastard away from me, I don't care what the court says, I don't want anything to do with this brat, and that bitch ain't getting nothing from me." Penny never got over that. His career of course, was ruined, because the entire newscrew got every word on tape. The courts liquidated all his assets and gave everything to Joanie for Penny, even though he blew most of it on birds and booze when he was served with papers.
The whole limo got quiet. Shawn wiped a single tear away from his cheek. "Poor Penny," Bjornar whispered, "why on earth would she call you no better than her father? That has to be the worst insult anyone could say."
"I don't know. There was no name-calling. I can't even remember what led up to it. All I remember was asking her to marry me; everything after she said no was a blur. I just remember turning to walk away and hearing her say, "Go ahead and run, you're no better than my dad anyway." I wasn't even leaving; I was going to cool off. I was just going to pop off for a fag.."
Shawn suddenly spit out the beer he was about to swallow. Dirk frowned at him as Bjornar snickered. "A fag in the UK is a cigarette," Bjornar stated, patting Shawn on the back as he started to cough.
"Sorry Shawn," Dirk winced. Shawn looked up at him as he started to regain his composure and smiled, "I was going to pop off for a smoke, like I usually do when we fight, which is never very often, but when she said that, I just kept going."
"Maybe she was just upset dude," Shawn suggested, wiping a tear from his eye "I mean, maybe you said something to her, and she was just in the heat of the moment."
"She said a lot of other things to me Shawn. That was the clincher."
Penny climbed back into the limo after returning the baby, Silvia to her mother, and laid back. "So, interview me," she yawned, "might as well, we've got nothing else to do."
Kathy excitedly pulled her notebook out of her purse and started writing. "Full name," she asked.
"Penelope Marie Breslin," she replied, "but don't you tell anyone. As far as anyone reading this in your newsletter is concerned, my name is just Penny."
"Age?"
"31."
"Birthdate?"
"November 11, 1971."
"What city were you born in?"
"Torrance, California."
"Mothers name?"
"Joanie Breslin."
"Fathers name?"
"Deadweight."
Kathy snickered before continuing. "Hair and eye color?" she asked.
"Dark red hair, green eyes."
"Height?"
"Five foot four and three quarters."
"Weight?"
"Eat me."
"Heh. How did you get your start?"
"I was singing karaoke at this bar in Lomita, and it just so happened that the owner of the record label that eventually signed me, heard me sing. He approached me later, and after convincing me that he wasn't trying to get into my pants.."
"How did he do that?"
"He introduced me to his boyfriend."
"Oh. Keep going."
"Anyway, he asked if I wrote songs too, and I showed him some lyrics I had jotted down in my purse. When I told him my name, he recognized it from back in the seventies when Deadweight ruined his career by trying to ruin my mothers' life. So, he took me under his wing, helped me develop my voice and my songwriting, and signed me to a record contract. Derick was the only thing to a real father I ever had."
"And it all just went from there?"
"Well, I only had one real hit from my first album. It sold okay, but people knew who I was. I just remained real, I guess that's why people liked me. It was my second album that exploded. I guess I was more comfortable, and people decided to give me a real chance because I was unpretentious and nice. After that, my first album started selling more."
"When did you meet Dirk?"
"The first time I saw him, was in England, he was performing on Top of the Pops on the same show I was. I didn't really meet him then, I stayed in the audience to watch his set. I thought he was really good looking."
"What did you think of him?"
"I thought he had a lot of passion, and a lot of talent. The whole band seemed comfortable together. He's a great musician."
"When did you get to officially meet him?"
"At a party, when he got signed to Dericks label. I was bowling in Dericks little mini bowling alley and I caught him staring at me from the door."
"Love at first sight?"
"I don't know. I was attracted to him, looks and talent when I first saw him in England. He recognized me at the party, but I never did know what his first thoughts of me were. I felt a connection ever since I first saw him. I'm sure he liked me when we met at the party, because he felt it more important to talk to me all night than to sleep with that good looking blonde."
"What's your favorite song of his?"
"Penny from Heaven. What about you?"
"The same. It's the best rock love song I ever heard in my life."
Penny smiled.
"What do you think is your best song?" Kathy asked.
"I'm not sure. I like the remix of "Bigger than You", the one that the Wise Guys did. There's one I have been working on, but I haven't really done anything with it yet."
"How come?"
"After Penny from Heaven, anything I try to write for Dirk just doesn't sound right. I don't just want to do another cover and dedicate it to him, I want to write something of my own that would touch him like that song touched me. It's just not good enough. He thinks I don't love him."
"I know, you told me, because you haven't written anything for him?"
"That, and because I lied to him about being pregnant, because I told him I wanted to wait until the tour was over to marry him…"
"He asked you to marry him?"
"Yeah. All I said was no, we can't just run off in the middle of the tour. Of course, he didn't hear that, he just heard no and freaked out and accused me of not loving him and kept saying all these things about how it was probably all a publicity stunt and kept pushing me and pushing me, then he called me a brat. I snapped, and told him if that was what he wanted to hear, that I didn't need him, he wouldn't have ever made it without me and if he walked away from me, then he was no better than my dad."
"Christ. You didn't mean that, did you?"
Penny started crying again. "No," she cried, "I love him more than anything else in the world, not including my mother. He's the only man that treated me right, he's the only man who's ever cared enough about me to try and make me feel as good as he feels when we have sex. He's held me when I needed to be held, cried with me, laughed with me, stood by me, defended me, loved me enough to try and beat up Damon Alphern when he thought he made a pass at me.."
"Who's Damon Alphern?"
"Lead singer of Blur."
"He's rather cute."
"I suppose."
"Sorry, go ahead."
"He made it because he's good, his band is good. He was big in Europe before he met me, I had nothing to do with that. He made it here because of his reputation over there, that's why Derick signed him. I screwed up not telling him the truth about the baby and the miscarriage, but Val and I were only looking out for his emotional state, that's all. I didn't even think that when he found out that it would mean I didn't trust him, because I do trust him."
"Why don't you tell him?"
"I tried, he won't answer his cell phone, and I tried to call his limo, but he won't take the phone. I just wish I could take it all back, I should have just said yes and screwed the concert. I'm nothing without him. I don't know what to do now.."
"Apparently, Mr Monahan has been listening to KNX," Gus, Penny's limo driver who had, up until now, remained silent, "I just got a call from his driver. He suggests you call there."
"Remind me to get that guy something better than a DVD player for Christmas," Penny grinned, wiping her face and grabbing her cell phone.
* * *
Nothing But Trouble - Trouble
Review by Valleri Tandon
"This is the first major album release for this dynamite Scottish band. They had some minor releases in Britain, but this is considered their first major album. They were known as Dirk Monahan and Trouble, but lessened it to Trouble. Which was, in my opinion, a smart move. Saying the original, full name of the band just takes too long.
This band completely melds together. They are like a Scottish Beatles of their generation. They all compliment each other so well. Good looking front man, Dirk Monahan, plays a bass guitar almost as well as John Entwhistle of the Who. Val McMahon, an excellent keyboardist. Dave Brooks, well, I would like to say he's the Keith Moon of his generation, but there will never be anyone that good. He plays the drums on this album like it was the first thing he did since the day he was born. Then there's Dom and Lane, lead and rhythm guitar, respectfully, two equally good musicians.
The first single released, Penny From Heaven, an ode to Dirks famous girlfriend, pop singer Penny, will go down as one the greatest rock and roll love songs since Derek and the Domino's Layla (a song written by Eric Clapton who was in love with George Harrisons wife Patty Boyd, at the time). How could it not? With lyrics like "Ordinary girl, heart of a goddess, the devils in her eyes, but there's an angel in her touch, my friend, my lover, my Penny from heaven…"
Man. Lucky girl.
They also do a very credible cover of the song Temptation Eyes, originally done by the Grass Roots in the late sixties.
I'm not going to sit here and go too much into every song on the album, but I will say, it's a good album. My favorites are Penny from Heaven, Temptation Eyes and Lotion (I don't know what that one is about, I was too sexually frustrated at the moment to read the lyrics, but it does seem to be a sexually based song). I also had a chance to watch their first video from the album, which so happens to be Penny from Heaven (woohoo!) It was a great video, had the same intensity as Penny's video for her cover of "Something in Air" (probably because they had the same director) One of my favorite parts is when Dirk crawls across the floor, singing, and starts whispering line in Penny's ear (yes, she was in the video, returning the favor for him being the object of her lust in her "Something.." video.) Dirk Monahan is a good-looking man; he has sex appeal written all over him. Even though he does look like Pippin from Fellowship of the Ring."
"Okay, so what's the problem?" Joanie Breslin asked, as Penny finished reading the article to her, "it's a great review, she seems to think the sun shines on them."
"Mom, Dirk does not look like a damned Hobbit," Penny hissed. Joanie giggled.
"Well, in her defense, Pippin is a rather cute little Hobbit."
"He does not have big hairy feet, he does not look like a Hobbit."
At that moment, Dirk walked into the room. "What's all the uproar?" he asked, eyeing Penny, who, at the moment was wearing only a black bra, panties and a green lace robe. Penny turned and looked at him. "That damn Valleri Tandon says you look like Pippin," she replied, as she bid her mother goodbye and hung up the phone. Dirk grinned as he took off his shirt. "Ahh, rather sexy man he is then, isn't he?" he smirked. Penny huffed and tried to walk into the bathroom, but he grabbed her by the arm and playfully tossed her to the bed, then crawled on top of her and began kissing her like mad.
At that moment, the phone rang again. "Hello?" she giggled, trying to keep Dirk from taking the phone away. "This Penny?" a slightly agitated woman on the other end of the phone asked. "Yes it is, how can I help you?"
"I just want you to know that your precious Dirk has been cheating on you."
"And how do you know this?"
"Cause I'm the one he's been fucking. I thought you deserved to know."
Penny hung up the phone and stared at Dirk. "What?" he asked, puzzled. "Anything interesting happen at work today?" she asked. Dirk sighed. "I had to fire Leslie, one of the back up singers" he replied, "I didn't want to, but she wouldn't leave me alone. She's been trying to get into my pants, in fact, she tried to kiss me, but Val pulled her away."
"Oh," Penny sighed, and pulled Dirk back on top of her, and never thought about it again.