DASHED DREAMS (6 page)

“Gary, since we finished the album ahead of schedule, I think I’m going to go in to Tahoe a few days early. Just take some R&R time. I’ve been thinking about buying a house there. I’d like to take a look around and see what’s available. I called a realtor and they’re looking.”

Gary shook his head in the affirmative, and they started down the stairs to the basement. When they opened the doors to the studio, the sounds of country music resounded.

Monday morning Joy came into Jillian’s office. “You have a call on line two.” Jillian had been busy with her office and surgical schedule, since returning from the Seattle trip.

“Thanks.” She punched two on her telephone, “Dr. James.”

“Jillian, this is RJ. I’m in Tahoe. When shall we have dinner? How does your schedule look?”

Jillian thought to herself: These days have sure passed quickly. She’d almost put his telephone call out of her mind. She looked at her surgery schedule for the rest of the week, “Well, I have surgery on Thursday and I’m on call Friday, so, I have a couple days open.”

“Affirmative! I have it under control. I know right where you live, I looked Yerington up on a map. I’m here at Tucker’s and I’ll see you at about seven. I thought we’d catch a show, if you’d like.”

Jillian left the hospital at about three-thirty and went straight home. She’d been telling herself all day that she was not going to be excited or impressed. But as she unlocked her front door, she definitely found herself excited. The telephone was ringing. She tossed her keys onto the entrance table, dropped her purse and briefcase onto the floor, and grabbed the phone.

“Hello.”

“Hi, it’s me. Just checking to see if you were home. I’m coming right over.” The phone went dead. Jillian didn’t have a chance to say, No, don’t come over. I’m busy.

“Where are you?” Emma yelled as she opened the back door.

“I’m upstairs.”

In a second she appeared in the doorway of Jillian’s bedroom. She looked in to see what looked like a whirlwind in the clothes closet. The mirror in the walk-in closet revealed Jillian’s image holding up a dress, shaking her head and then choosing another.

“No, I’m going to Tahoe. He’s appearing the end of the week at Tucker’s for a charity appearance and playing in the celebrity golf tourney at Edgewood. Em, I’m a nervous wreck. This man and I have nothing in common. The only thing I really know about him is what I‘ve heard and read in the news. Why me?”

“Jillie, you’re the most unafraid person I know. Girl, you’re a professional woman. You deal with life and death problems daily. You can handle an old country star.” Both girls laughed.

“Let me French braid your hair”

Jillian told Emma about the phone call. “He’s sending a car for me!” They decided on the gray tweed dress, the one she’d purchased in Seattle, and a pair of black heels. As Jillian dressed Emma said, “I can’t believe it… Robert John Montgomery.”

The old grandfather clock struck six times, as the girls were coming downstairs. Both Jillian and Emma held their breath. Jillian grabbed Emma’s hand and said, “Come with me. I’ll put the car on hold. You run across and change.”

“Jillian, I can’t. You know that.”

Jillian was loading her black evening purse, when the doorbell rang. Jillian answered the door and found Joanna standing in the doorway holding a plate of cookies.

“My name’s Lionel, and I’ll be your driver for tonight. I’ll be at the car whenever you’re ready,” he motioned towards the street.

“Oh, dear,” Joanna said, seeing the black stretch limousine sitting in front of her house. Emma stepped onto the front porch with Jillian’s purse and coat, handed them to her and said, “I’ll put these cookies in the cookie jar and lock up for you.” She hugged Jillian and she whispered in her ear. “You’re going to have a great time. I love you. If you need me, call.”

“You, too.”

As Lionel opened the door for Jillian, Lynda came around the corner to see her friend getting into a limo. She honked her horn and waved with a questioning look on her face. She saw Emma and Joanna standing on Jillian’s front porch. Emma was still holding the plate. Lynda parked her car at her house and ran over.

“What’s going on?”

“Joanna and I are going down to Dini’s for dinner. If you go to dinner with us, I’ll give you all the details,” Emma said to Lynda.

“Let’s go. I can’t wait.”

Jillian made herself comfortable on the butter-soft leather seat. Lionel leaned in and said, “The controls above your head are for climate, light, radio, and TV. The cabinets to your right are fully stocked, and please help yourself. The button on this console is the speaker button to speak to me. This button raises and lowers the partition between us. Do you wish to keep it down?” Jillian nodded.

“Please make yourself comfortable. We’ll be over to the Lake in about an hour and a half.”

“Thank you.”

As the door closed, she looked at her friends standing and waving toward the limo. For a second she had misgivings and wished she was staying home. But curiosity took over.

As the car drove down Main Street, people stopped to watch; it’s not often that a stretch limousine is seen in Yerington. Jillian adjusted the air and looked around the inside of the limousine. To her count it’d probably seat about seven people. The shiny wood cabinets were topped with cut-glass glasses and the drink-holders were of polished marble. She reached into the cabinet to find a fully stocked bar. She took a Perrier water, opened it, and took a sip. She placed the bottle into one of the cup holders and settled back.

As the car started out of town heading south, Lionel said, “There should be a brilliant sunset tonight. Please enjoy your ride.”

“Thank you.”

The Nevada sky was turning dusky, the sun sitting behind the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. The car snaked its way through Wilson Canyon and into Smith Valley, a farming community in Northern Nevada. Jillian sank into the seat while watching the scenery pass. She’d driven this route for years, but somehow tonight it seemed like she was seeing it for the first time.

During the drive to Lake Tahoe they passed through the small communities of Smith, Wellington, and Topaz Ranch Estates; from there the car turned onto Highway 395 heading north to the turnoff for Lake Tahoe. They passed through Gardnerville-Minden, turned onto Muller Lane, then onto Kingsbury Grade highway. The grade was steep and curved to Lake Tahoe from Highway 395, the most direct route to the lake. As quickly as she’d placed her head back, Lionel said, “We’re coming into Lake Tahoe.” Jillian wakened with a start and, embarrassed that she’d fallen asleep.

She looked out the side window and noticed that they were at the corner of Kingsbury Grade and Highway 50. Since it was dark outside, Lake Tahoe was just a glimmer of light reflections. The limo turned left and passed by the outer edge of Edgewood Golf Course. Jillian and the girls had once been invited to play on this course a few years back. The lights of the Stateline casinos were bright and shining.

The limo turned left into to Tucker’s Casino parking lot and garage. Tucker’s Hotel Casino has been a popular destination for years. Walter Tucker built the casino in the early 1940’s and in the 1960’s built a motor lodge, that’s transformed through the years to a five-star hotel. The high-rise hotel overlooks the lake, as do all the other hotels. Their suites are always in demand.

They traveled under the walkway to the parking garage and the entrance marked, “Valet Parking.” The car stopped and Jillian waited for Lionel to come around to open her door. She noticed that several people in the valet line were staring to see if “somebody” would be getting out. When Lionel opened her door, the crisp mountain air with a fragrance of pine drifted in. Jillian took a deep breath, smiled and thought, I love that smell.

Lionel introduced her to Bertie, a rather striking woman with bright-red lipstick, probably the same shade she wore during World War II. Bertie Walker was one of Tucker’s Entertainment Department representatives, as her nametag read.

“Good evening, Miss James. Hope you had an enjoyable ride.”

“Yes, thank you.”

They entered the hotel lobby. In a massive rock fireplace, the red-hot logs popped and cracked, and the smell of burning pine was pungent. People were milling about. To the right of Hotel Registration was a bank of hotel elevators. When Bertie inserted a key card into the slot above the “up” and “down” buttons, an elevator door opened. A handful of people tried to enter behind them. From out of nowhere a security guard appeared, telling the group this was a private elevator and there’d be another elevator quickly. The disappointed patrons were scoffing about only two people being in the elevator. Jillian was almost embarrassed to turn and face them.

Bertie touched 25, one of the private floors. They quickly arrived at the 25
^th
floor. Bertie walked Jillian to the double doors of Suite 2556. She rang the doorbell, turned and said, “It was nice meeting you. Have a good evening. If there’s anything I can do for you, please call me.” She pressed her business card into Jillian’s hand, and Jillian slipped it into her coat pocket.

“It was nice meeting you.”

Jillian only waited for a second, and the doors opened. Robert John Montgomery stood before her. He looked so much different than backstage in Seattle. He was dressed in a navy-blue sports coat, a pink shirt, navy tie, and camel slacks. And penny loafers replaced the soft cowboy boots.

Only one thought crossed Jillian’s mind: This man looks beautiful!

Homewood, Iowa was a rural farming town with a population of just over 700. Most of the farm children help out on the farm or at the dairy, while growing up. As in many small rural areas, when children graduated from high school, they wanted to leave and to go to the “big city,” either to continue their education, get jobs, or join the military.

Robert John Montgomery was born into a multi-generation farming family. His great-great grandfather, Harrison Montgomery, arrived in Homewood on a bareback horse with only a few Confederate coins in his pocket and a will to work. He went to work wrangling horses for the Army. His wage was small, but he worked hard and saved his money.

Robert John Montgomery’s father, Michael, was born and raised on the same Homewood, Iowa ranch on which they now live and hadn’t traveled far from Iowa, until he met Natalie. Born into a Swedish family, her family traveled quite often. Her children say that they got their dad’s sense of roots and their mother’s gypsy feet.

Mike and Nat met when Mike was stationed in Missouri while in the Army. Theirs was a whirlwind romance; they met and married in a three-week courtship, while World War II stormed. While Mike was away, Natalie moved in with Mike’s parents on the ranch. When Mike came home, they built their home down the road from his parents.

They’ve been married for almost 45 years. They laugh and say sometimes those years feel like forever, other times like their marriage was just yesterday. Natalie and Mike had five children, four sons: Joshua, Robert, Samuel, Kevin and a daughter, Lucille; almost all left home, but Joshua and Lucille stayed. It seemed that like having lived their youth on a farm soured their adult life for farming. They all came home to help when the need was there, but Josh and Lucille’s husband, Nick, wanted farming as their career. Robert John Montgomery left home as soon as he graduated from high school, knowing he wanted to be in the music business.

While in high school he sang at dances and at the Senior Prom. His fellow-students voted him the “most show-off.” His music teacher showed him an ad, which he answered and got an interview at a Charlotte, North Carolina music-recording studio, Twilight Studios. He got a job as an assistant to the producer of new talent in the country division of the studios. RJ liked searching for new talent, but was always reminded of his own: I can do just as well as these folks. On the side, he sold a couple of his songs to Gaylord Long and to Pierce Layton, both gold record singers. His song,
“Whispers,”
earned Pierce another gold. When Pierce asked him to join him in a duet singing his song on the Country Music Award show in Nashville, RJ was overwhelmed.