Caught in the rush
Chapter Ten
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Kathy stared at Penny. "Okay," she remarked, "he got the message and said to prove it, and in a fit of hysteria, you start crocheting?"
Penny didn't even flinch. With a rather large crochet hook and two strands of a very thick yarn held together, she continued working on something she had started a long time ago. "It helps me to think," she mumbled, "I've run out of ideas, other than running over to his limo and exposing myself, I don't know."
"That might work though," Kathy replied, as she stopped staring at Penny and started staring at what she was doing. Penny stuck part of her tongue out as she concentrated on the stitches
"I already did that once," she replied, "tricks like that only work on him once, I've used every trick I know on him."
"So, if you do something to him once to get his attention..."
"Or to listen to me."
"Whatever, it won't work a second time?"
"Nope."
"Fool me once, shame on you."
"Exactly."
"Fool me twice, shame on me."
"Dirk doesn't get shamed more than once on the same trick, trust me."
"Damn. Now what?"
"Don't know."
"So, what are you making?"
"Afghan I started a while back for Dom's birthday."
"Dom is so cool."
"Yep. He got me "10,000 Bedrooms" for my birthday, and that's a very hard to find movie."
"Movie? Never heard of it."
"Old Dean Martin film. He did that, I believe after he ended his partnership with Jerry Lewis."
"You really like Dean Martin, huh?"
"Yep. He was a good actor, great singer, the best. And handsome."
"Kinda like Dirk.."
"Well, I don't know about acting, but yeah, kinda like Dirk. An Italian Dirk."
"What else do you do besides crochet?"
"I knit."
"Really? Isn't that hard?"
"Well, I'm not a hard core knitter, but it's a little more work than crocheting. There are some things that I can knit, but can't crochet and vice versa. I can knit a hat and little sachet bags, but I can't crochet them. Then again, it's easier to crochet a blanket than knit one."
"Oh, okay. What other hobbies do you have?"
"I make homemade soap, bath salts. My mom taught me to make jam when I was little."
"Cool. Do you sell them?"
"I have a website up under an assumed name, my cousin runs it. She gets part of the profit, the rest goes to charity.."
"That's so cool…"
"Kathy.."
"Yeah? "
"Not a word to anyone. I don't want anyone else knowing about this. I'd rather save whatever praise I may get out of it for when I die, you know?"
"Sure thing."
"You know what?"
"What?"
"I bet he's been drinking."
"Who, Dirk?"
"Yeah."
"What makes you think so?"
"He's usually not this disagreeable. That radio spot should have brought him to his senses, but all I got was a "prove it" message. He's much more stubborn than he normally is when he's been drinking."
"Okay, now that you've figured that out, what do we do?"
Penny sighed, still madly crocheting Dom's blanket. "I don't know," she replied.
As some sort of ironic joke, one of the radio stations Dirk was listening to started playing Penny's cover of "Rush Hour". Since Bjornar and Shawn were in the front of the limo, looking at picture of Bjornars hometown of Oslo, Norway, and he was too tired to get up and change the station, Dirk just sleepily slid into his seat and dealt with it.
He tried to drown out his estranged "beloved's" voice, but he couldn't. His thoughts suddenly turned into a fantasy he had for a long time. He wanted to do a cover of "Burning Love" with Penny, but she always brushed it off saying she was afraid of ruining the song because she didn't think she could sing Elvis very well, and that it would be great if he did it.
He always pictured the whole video in his mind. It would be a split screen video, he and the band on one side, Penny on the other. He would be wearing white; she would be wearing black. The first verse, they would take turns singing, he would sing the second verse; she the third, and they would duet on the chorus. The whole premise of the video would be two lovers who were connected to each other but too far away, but during the last bit of the song, he would grab his guitar and knock down the wall that separated them. Suddenly, she would be wearing white and he would be wearing black. They would rush to each other and slowly sink to the ground, still singing the chorus together as they nuzzled and touched each other; kissing each other deeply as the song ended and the background started to smolder.
He changed his position on the seat restlessly as his mind went from his fantasy to the memory of him being in Penny's "Something in the Air" video. His role was of somekind of phantom that really wasn't supposed to be there. He would appear and do thing to her as she moved through different parts of her house, going about her day as she sang. He would kiss her shoulder, press his mouth against her neck, slide his down her thigh, and as she would realize what was happening, he'd disappear. One scene that was cut from the MTV release of the video (it was deemed pornagraphic), there was a bathroom scene where she had just gotten out of the shower, and wearing only a towel, he slide his hands between her legs, she gasped, and as she looked in the mirror, he was gone.
Dirk liked that part. He was disappointed they cut it out, but he got to take home the unedited version. That was the only payment he asked for.
The video ended with her walking into a dark room and seeing him sitting in the middle of a bed, with his shirt undone. She crawled in the bed towards him and kissed him as she placed one hand on his bare chest. As the song ended, the door to the room slammed shut. His mind then shifted to the "Penny from Heaven"video.
That video was more romantic than erotic, the video was based on the Greek story of Pygmalion. The band was scattered about a room, doing various activities, Val was reading a book, Dom and Dave were playing chess; Lane was playing a video game and Dirk was finishing up touches on a portrait he did of an angel. During the course of the video, the portrait started to come alive as he continued singing the song. The angel eventually came to life as Penny and rushed from the room. He followed and found her sitting on the floor. He crawled up to her, whispered the last lines in her ear and she fell back into his arms and he began kissing her shoulders as the song ended.
Dirk let out an anguished howl as he threw himself back on the seat and covered his face. He was trying to keep himself from weeping, he could feel it in the middle of his chest, and it hurt.
In the front seat, Shawn turned and looked briefly towards the backseat. "What do you suppose that was all about?" He asked. Bjornar grinned. "He's beginning to crack."
* * *
"I'm sick."
Jamie Whitaker looked up from her portfolio she had scattered around her on the floor and blinked at her older stepsister, as she paced back and forth in her apartment, blowing her nose into a napkin. Dirk looked up from his coffee and newspaper, and smirked. "She's always sick," he stated to Jamie, as he sat his paper down and sat down on the floor next to her, "are these the photo's you were talking about?"
"Yeah," Jamie replied, excited that someone was interested in her work, "I took these at the studio. These are the ones I want to put in my portfolio…"
Penny continued to pace back and forth. "I can't be sick," she mumbled, "We're leaving for Hawaii in two days to start the tour, I can't be sick!"
Dirk and Jamie looked up at her at the same time, knowing fully well she was just trying to get attention. "Oh, go wrap yourself up in that wubie I made you," Jamie snapped jokingly, "and shut up."
"What the hell is a wubie?" Dirk asked, frowning.
"Fleece," Jamie replied, as Penny huffed off into the other room, "I cut fringes into a length of fleece, it's kinda like a blanket, but not really big enough…"
"Like a throw?"
"Something like that."
"Interesting. Where did you come up with the name?"
"My daughter. She couldn't say blanket, so she said wubie. The name kinda stuck. I can make you one, if you want. They're really warm, you might need one when you guys are on those cold buses in Canada."
"That would be nice, thank you."
Penny came stomping out of the other room, a multi-shaded purple wubie wrapped around her shoulders, madly blowing her nose into her napkin. Dirk looked up at her and sighed. "Other than blowing your nose out," Dirk remarked, "what other symptoms do you have?"
Penny sneezed, three times in a row into her napkin and sniffed. Dirk shook his head. "Runny nose, sneezing," he remarked again, reaching up and taking his coffee cup from the table. Jamie turned back to her photos. "And let me guess," she asked, "are your ears blocked up?"
"Yes," she muttered, sitting down on the couch behind them, "my head hurts, and I think I'm getting a sore throat."
"You should go see a doctor then," Jamie stated, yawning, "not good for you to be sick when you have a tour to do."
"All a doctor is going to do is put me on decongestants," Penny pouted, wiping her nose, "its not like he's going to put me on antibiotics."
"So?" Dirk asked, taking a drink of his coffee, "you'll feel better."
"No, she won't," Jamie replied, smirking, "you see how she handles booze, right?"
Dirk smirked as well. The last time Penny had anything to drink, she nearly wet herself laughing at a dumb Tarzan joke that Lane told her. And she only had one Zima. "She's the same on decongestants, trust me," she replied. Penny looked down at her stepsister and boyfriend, wondering what the big joke was. "And what the hell are you smirking about, Dirk? You're not still tripping about that time I had the Zima?" she whined, "I wasn't even drunk, I don't know what's the big deal."
"You laughed at Lanes joke," he replied, setting the coffee cup back down.
"It was funny."
"What did Tarzan say when he saw an elephant coming over the hill?"
Penny sucked in her bottom lip, as Jamie put her head in her hands.
"Look, there's an elephant coming over the hill," Dirk continued, "that is not funny."
"It was at the time."
"Only because you got knackered on one Zima."
"You're picking on me."
"Everyone picks on you Penny," Jamie retorted, giggling, "it's in your contract, didn't you read the fine print?"
"No, I'm not," Dirk protested, getting up off the floor, "but I think your sister is right, you should go see a doctor."
"I'll just get some over the counter stuff," Penny sighed, "What do you take when you get sick?"
"I don't get sick."
"For some reason, I believe that," Jamie remarked, picking up the photos off the floor. "Why not?" Penny asked, pouting.
"Well, I eat right and I dress according to the weather," he replied, sitting next to Penny on the couch, "and I drink a lot of tea."
"I eat right.."
"Carls Junior and Taco Bell is not eating right. You eat too much red meat, you don't exercise enough, and you drink too much soda. And even in below zero weather, you wear tank tops and jeans.."
"He's on to ya Penny," Jamie remarked again, "or else he's talking to me, but I don't wear tank tops, so it must be you.."
"Oh, go take a picture of a tree," Penny snarled, sticking her tongue out at her sister, "I wear a sweater.."
"That's not warm enough sometimes," Dirk replied, "You need to dress warmer."
"But its summer. How can I have gotten sick by not dressing warm in the middle of the summer?"
"I don't know. You don't take care of yourself properly, that's all I'm saying. I'm not saying become a vegetarian or anything, but you need to cut back on all that junk you eat. I've seen you eat, especially when you eat steak."
"What's wrong with steak all of a sudden?"
"Nothing. It's what you eat it with, its revolting.."
"What? The ketchup and mayo I dip it in?"
"I'm going to have to try that one of these days," Jamie said aloud to no one, as she got up and walked into the kitchen.
"Yes, that," Dirk replied, twisting his face in disgust.
"You think that's revolting?"
"Yes."
"This, coming from the land of Haggis?"
"Hey, haggis is pretty good," Jamie called out from the kitchen.
"Don't knock it until you've tried it, my pet." Dirk mildly snapped. Penny sneered at him.
"Take your own advice then."
Penny got up and stomped into her room. Dirk sighed as he got up and followed her. "I'm sorry you think I'm picking on you," he apologized, as she tossed herself on the bed, "I love you, and I'm just telling you why you get so sick all the time, that's all."
"I know," she sniffled into another napkin, "I just don't feel good."
"I'll tell you what," he stated, kneeling next to the bed, and stroking her cheek gently with his thumb, "I'll make you some stuff my mum used to make us when we had colds," he offered, "its just peppermint tea with lemon. And I'll get you some medicine, and you just sleep all day. I promise you'll be ready for the concert Saturday, okay?"
He leaned over and kissed her on the cheek, then walked out of the room. "Just remember," Jamie suggested, as he grabbed his coat off the chair, "Sudafed will put her in a coma, Benedryl makes her itch, and Nyquil makes her horny..."
"Okay, so get the Nyquil then," he smirked, taking his keys out of his pocket, "anything else?"
"Then generic alka seltzer cold works best on her," she laughed, "and a bottle of Cuervo."
"I thought Penny didn't like tequila?"
"She doesn't. That's for me."
Dirk laughed as he walked out the front door.