The Rock Star Next Door, a Modern Fairytale (10 page)

“
Cool.
We’ll pretend
you’re expecting.
It adds to the disguise
.
We
can tie a pillow to your belly. C
an you waddle a little and push out your gut?”

“You are freakin’ crazy
.
” Jessie took in his country boy hillbilly getup, scrutinizing him from head to toe,
and laughed until her insides ached.

“I’ve had lots of practice evading the media. Believe me, this works. People believe what they see. If you own the disguise,
assume it, people believe that’s who you are.”

*   *   *

“What’s it going to be, Kelly?” Lex asked as they stood in Main Street USA.  “Tomorrowl
and, Fantasyland
or Adventureland?”

“What does the brochure say?” Jessie jerked it out of his hand as she waddled along beside him, doing her best to look pregnant and married to a farmer from Tennessee.

He bent his head
close to hers
to whisper, “My favorite is the Haunted Mansion, the ghosts are more friendly than scary
for the kid’s sake
, but they
do
have some pretty radical special effects, a dismembered head in
a crystal ball, for one
.”

Jessie looked to the map in her hand. “T
hat’s in Adventureland, it says here Adventureland also has Pirates of
the Caribbean--oh and the
Jungle Cruise, a mock African Queen excursion
! C
ool
.
Adventureland here we come.
”

The
wig was starting
to itch. Jessie kept
reaching up to scratch more and more as the day wore on. They had to wait for a long time to get into the Haunte
d Mansion
and once inside
they had to remove their sunglasses to be able to see anything.

It was a blast
pretending to be tourists, talking with real tourists with their wide eyes
about the sights and sounds of sunny
California.

“Hi.” A middle aged father sat down at their picnic table in the food court, “Care if
we join you? There doesn’t seem to be anywhere else.” The man scanned the
landscape to prove his point as his two boys came running up behind.

“Sure, plenty of room.” Lex smiled, extending a hand to the worried father. “I'm Al
ex
and this is my wife, Kelly.”  Int
roductions were made all around. T
he young boys gushed with excitement, comparing notes with ‘Al
ex
’ regarding the rides. Jessie watched him
converse easily with the kids, who a few years down the road
would give their right arms to be able to eat lunch with the famous Lex. It
was refreshing
to be able to min
gle and not be mobbed by photographers
and overzealous fans, to ju
st be plain
for a day. 

“Been to Universal Studios?  Kelly and I were there yesterday.” Lex drawled
in his fake southern accent
between bites
of his hamburger. “Awesome
, wasn’t it,
Babe
?
”

“Yeah.” Jess
ie ignored the revolting appellation of ‘
Babe
’ as she sipped her raspberry slushy. Surely he didn’t
expect her to elaborate further. She’d never been there.

“Do they have
monsters?” The boys chimed in.

“
Shore
do
.
” Lex grinned, pushing his hat back to itch his forehead. “King Kong,  Dracula, lots of cool st
uff,  all on the Tram ride
.” He turned to Jessie. “Well,
d
ear heart
, s’pose we
should
see if we can get into that Jungle ride now.”  Lex rose, picked up his cane as if h
e’d been using it all his life and
tipped his
cowboy hat to the family. Together, Alex and Kelly
shuffled across
the park to try their luck
at the only ride in Adventureland they hadn’t been able to get into. 

Lex wa
s a consummate actor. He’d taken to spitting on the ground
and wiping his nose on the back of his shirtsleeve in an attempt to look unsophisticat
ed. There was one place where
he couldn’t cover up his cul
tured, well-honed social skills
;
in th
e area of romance. He bought Jessie
a big bouquet of wildflowers
and won her a big blue teddy bear.
He
kissed her at every opportunity, particularly when they were in the dar
k corners of the Magic Kingdom. An
d
he
held her hand with growing fam
iliarity as they walked through the famous Main Street USA.

They ha
d one close call. A
photographer zeroed in on them with a zoom lens.
L
ex, ever cautious and alert to such situations, grabbed Jessie
and started kissing her, really kissing her
, tongue and all,
as he pulled her into the shadows of a nearby tree.
All it would take would be a word of recognition from the cameraman, and chaos would ensue as fans surrounded them. He watched their adversary out of the corner of his eye whi
le kissing her. W
hen the lens moved on the ever wandering Disney charact
ers, Lex and Jessie made their escape. Hand in hand, they slipped
into the
seat of a
slowly moving monorail as it pulle
d away from the Main Street pavilion, laughing and giggling.
 

One thing was
cert
ain;
t
his wa
s one date she would never
forget.

It
was almost dark by the time his
El Dorado pulled out of the parking l
ot of Disneyland in Anaheim.
Jessie yanked off the hot wig an
d scratched her head
.

“Did you have fun?” Lex asked in his normal tone.

“Y
es
.
That was sweet.
” Jess
ie laughed, “Next time, I’ll skip the wig, it’
s too hot
.
”

“Next time, you can wear
the
leg
brace and
wield the
cane.”

“Deal, if you wear the maternity pillow.
”

Chapter Seven

“
YES
.
”
  Jack Kelly jumpe
d out of his chair and pumped
his fists toward the ceiling in a victory dance.

Jessie just gave
him the news about the Fender deal. Their man
ager
finalized negotiat
ions
and their attorney gave them the thumbs up on the contract deal
. They were scheduled to begin the shoot in three weeks. They had only to sign
the contracts.
Jess
ie
set u
p an appointment for them at the lawyer’s
office in Santa Monica later today.

StarSign Records kept
pushing Jack and Jessie into the me
dia
spotlight
, citing that they wer
e
the biggest selling point.
They were unique:
red haired
guitar playing twins.
Or
so the music execs informed
them time and again.
Jack and Jess
ie were
being promoted to appear on
the cover of
Rolling Stone
,
Spin and Billboard
. T
hey were
the ones being wooed into
com
mercials like this Fender deal. They were the ones scheduled to appear
on
the late night talk show circuit instead of the rest of the band
.
It was the
record label making the marke
ting decisions. And yet
the
stirrings of discontent were beginning to tear at the tightly woven fabric of their
long
friends
hip.
Jessie struggled
to keep things low ke
y regarding their triumphs.
She wished Jack w
ould exercise equal caution.

“Whoa
.
” Jack shouted
, raising his fists to the ceiling. He was
dancing and laughing about t
he black and white contempo
rary kitchen in a rare display of animation
.
Ozzy
joined his master’s glee with his own woofs
of joy. “This is so cool, Jess. We made it, you and I.
”  He crossed the kitchen and hugged her, whirling her about in his arms.

“Yeah,” Jessie smiled into his laughin
g emerald
eyes. “It’s awesome. But the others
are
going to be jealous. Please, d
on’
t go on
and on
about it around them.”

“Why do we have to hide it, like we’re guilty of something?
We didn’t call Fender, they called us.
Steve plays keyboard
and synthesizer, and Darrell’s our drummer
. If a drum company called Darrell and wanted him to represent them, I doubt he’d be
skiving
’ around, apologizing to us for it, no--he’d be crowing about it. You know it and I know it
. I refuse to feel guilty because something good happen
ed to us!
”

Jessie rolled her eyes and hissed her exasperation
. Why did he have to be so touchy about it?
“
We
need to work
on including Kyra and
the
guys
in these promo gigs
. It would go a long way in soothing everyone’s egos.”

“
Jess
.
” Jack scolded as he released
her
from his loose embrace
. “Always business with you.
Always running security software
in the background
to gau
ge everyone’s feelings. F
or once,
could you
just
enjoy life? Celebrate-- don’t analy
ze every angle
and
worry ab
out what could go wrong. God, woman, take a chill pill.”

“How dare you say that to me.” Jessie ground out, barely able to contain her rage.
She stomped over to the sink and faced him with her arms crossed about her chest. 

Her brother’s face paled. He looked at her as
if
she’d just slapped him across the face.
“I didn’t mean it like that
. Seriously
, Jess--I’m not comparing you with
Mom.”

“Really?” She stood her ground, arms crossed
akimbo;
ready eit
her
to
cry or run, perhaps both. “’Cuz that’s what Dad said all the time
when Mom started raging, ‘
Marcie, take your pill’
.”

“You aren’t like her, not even close.” Jack w
hispered, advancing to her and cupping her shoulders with affection
. “I love how you’re so careful about
everything related
to the
band
. I love that. I just want you to have
a little fun
, that’s all.
If you’re not worrying
about somebody screwing us over
you’re worrying about everyone’
s feelings in this
motley
crew. Relax
, go next doo
r and jump Lex’s bones.
”

Jack reache
d for the coffee pot and filled
their
cups. “Let’s go sit on
t
he deck
. I’v
e missed you, Jess
.” He smiled, his eyes saying it all, she was spending all her free time with Lex lately.

“I thought you wanted to get rid of me.” Jessie
couldn’t help teasing
. “You did push awfully hard to get me to go out with him.”