Different Circles

They made their way toward the living room, where the meeting was to be held. Celia pondered her love life—or lack thereof—a bit during the journey. She still had had no male sexual companionship since that last night with Greg all those many months before and still had no prospects for any on the horizon. She did still get together with Suzie once a month or so—Suzie was now pilot-in-command of a Gulfstream that flew on-call out of San Diego—but those were only stopgap encounters. She was grateful for them, and still enjoyed the softness of a woman, but she was craving the firmness of a man quite badly at this point.

Everyone was already seated and ready when they arrived at the living room. Pauline and Obie sat on one couch while the Nerdlys sat on another. Jake was seated in one of the recliners watching Tabby and Kelvin play with toys on the floor. Tabby was teaching him the intricacies of the See and Say Farmer Says toy. Kelvin’s favorite animal on the wheel seemed to be the pig, which was perhaps a bit ironic as he was a practicing Jew.

Hugs and greetings were exchanged and drinks were offered. Celia accepted a glass of wine, which Pauline fetched from the bar. They then talked a little about Jake and Laura’s recent vacation and their stay with Laura’s brother in Pocatello.

“His youngest daughter, Chastity—Chase for short—worships you, C,” Laura told her. “She has your poster in her bedroom and everything.”

“In the bedroom you slept in?” Celia asked. “You mean I was looking down on you two in action for three nights?”

“You didn’t see much,” Jake said sourly. “Laura closed down the attractions for the duration of that little trip.”

“There was no way I was going to ... you know... do it in my nieces’ room,” Laura said defensively.

“You poor things,” Celia said with false sympathy. “You had to go three whole days without it? I can’t even imagine.”

They all had a little laugh at that. Even Kelvin and Tabby seemed to find it funny.

“Anyway,” Laura said. “When they come out in April, they would love to meet you, C. Especially Chase.”

“I can’t envision being unavailable for that come April,” Celia said. “I’d love to meet them.”

“Yay!” Laura said, clapping her hands a little. “I’ll let them know the next time I talk to them.”

“All right then,” Pauline said. “How about we start talking some business here?”

“Let’s do it,” Jake agreed. “We need to be out of here by 1:15 at the latest.”

“It shouldn’t take that long,” Pauline said. “First things first. Brainwash II. Aristocrat has agreed to our terms, including the provision that they promote Lighthouse to the best of their abilities when their debut CD is complete. They did not even argue the point much.”

“I think they’re starting to actually have faith in my ability to find and promote a new band,” Jake said. “They didn’t fight us on it because they know there’s a pretty good chance that I came up with another Brainwash for them.”

“Yes,” Pauline agreed. “That and the fact that we’re giving them forty percent for Lighthouse sales and we’ve agreed to pay for fifty percent of a tour if such a thing is deemed feasible and necessary.”

“There is one thing I should mention about Lighthouse at this point in the discussion,” Jake said.

“What’s that?” asked Obie.

“They are no longer called Lighthouse,” he said.

“Excuse me?” asked Pauline. This was the first she had heard of this.

“I did an internet search on the name,” said Nerdly. “It turns out that there is already a Canadian band out of Toronto named Lighthouse.”

“I’ve never heard of them,” Obie said.

“I’d never heard of them either,” Jake said. “They were at their peak of popularity back in the early seventies, mostly in Canada but with some crossover into the US. They do still exist and still tour today, again, mostly in Canada. If we release a CD by a band named Lighthouse, we could potentially be in violation of a Canadian copyright. And even if we’re not, it could create confusion. The band has agreed to change their name.”

“To what?” asked Pauline.

“They’re still talking it over,” Jake said, “but they’re leaning very heavily in favor of V-tach.”

“Vee tack?” asked Obie. “What the hell does that mean?”

“Ted came up with it,” Jake explained. “It’s apparently some kind of really nasty cardiac arrythmia that kills people. The actual name is ventricular tachycardia, but those in the medical field just call it V-tach. The letter V, a dash, and T-A-C-H.”

“It does sound kind of cool,” Pauline offered.

“And I think it does go more in line with the kind of music they’re making,” Jake said. “To tell you the truth, I never really cared much for the name Lighthouse anyway. It just seemed too ... oh ... easy listening for the genre they’re setting.”

“Okay,” Pauline said. “I don’t think that will change anything as far as our agreement with Aristocrat goes. I will need to inform them, however.”