CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and NINETY-FOUR
(part three)

“I know people say that,” Sandy said. “And it’s true that it takes a while get the connection but… I can’t imagine getting more from anyone than Rachel gives me right now.”

“But…” Valerie looked at Sandy and then at Jill.

“You have to open your heart,” Jill said. “I think sometimes our babies live with us for nine months to get our hearts ready for them.”

“Some babies,” Sandy smiled. “I believe Noelle and Nash lived in my heart until I found them. But Rachel…”

Sandy looked down at her baby.

“She was new.”

“Try it,” Jill said. “Imagine Jackie in your heart.”

Valerie looked at Jill and Jill nodded. She closed her eyes for a moment.

“She’s there!” Valerie’s eyes popped open. “She’s already there! How did you know?”

“Been there,” Jill smiled.

“Done that,” Sandy said.

Valerie laughed. Her movement dislodged Jackie and the baby gave a hearty shout.

“Sorry,” Valerie tried to get her to latch on. “Will you guys help me?”

Jill got up to help.

“Now imagine your love going to Jackie and her love coming back to you,” Jill said.

“Like a giant circle,” Sandy said. “In and out.”

“I think it’s hard because we’re not great at receiving love,” Jill said. “Or at least I’m not.”

“Me neither,” Sandy said.

Valerie smiled. She closed her eyes and did what she was told. Out to Jackie. In from Jackie. Feeling movement, she looked up. Sandy and Jill were watching her. Rachel was done. She looked down at Jackie and she’d fallen asleep. Valerie smiled.

“Tomorrow night?” Sandy asked.

“It’s a date,” Valerie said.

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow…

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and NINETY-FOUR
(part one)

Thursday early morning — 2:15 A.M.

When Jackie cried, Valerie lifted her from the bed and slipped out of their bedroom. She was about to sit down on their couch when she remembered that Sandy was usually up at this time too. She held Jackie close and crept out of the apartment. She paused in the kitchen to listen. The house was absolutely still.

“This is stupid,” she said in a low voice.

She was turning to go back to the apartment when Jill came down the stairwell from the loft.

“There you are,” Jill said. “I was just going to look for you.”

“For me?” Valerie asked.

Jill smiled. She gave Valerie a light hug.

“Sandy and Rachel are waiting for us,” Jill said.

“Sandy?” Valerie tried to appear uninterested.

Jill smiled at Valerie’s pretense.

“Come on,” Jill said. “We’ll help.”

Jill turned away from Valerie to walk into the living room. Valerie stared in her direction.

“Help? What help do I need?” Valerie asked.

Sandy stood from the living room couch and smiled at Valerie. The warmth of Sandy’s smile was enough to draw Valerie into the room. Jill sat in an armchair and Sandy sat on the couch. A wood fire snapped and flickered in the fire place. Valerie came to the edge of the furniture grouping.

“We thought you might feel a little lonely,” Sandy said.

“Lonely?” Valerie blushed. She kept her voice breezy and added, “How can I be lonely? There’ve been people around all day and…”

Sandy smiled at her.

“Rachel will show Jackie how it’s done,” Sandy said. “Won’t you?”

Rachel grabbed Sandy’s right breast with her tiny hand and began to nurse. Valerie stood watching.

“Why don’t you sit next to Sandy?” Jill asked. “She’s right. Jackie will have an easier time if Rachel’s there.”

Valerie sat down. She fumbled with her night shirt. She held her precious Jackie near her breast. And nothing happened.

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow…

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and NINETY-THREE
(part five)

“You’re saying I’m broke,” Jeraine said.

Schmidty nodded.

“You have just enough to cover your child support contracts through the end of the year. You still own the rights to most of your songs. You’ll get royalties off that work,” Schmidty said.

“Royalties are nothing,” Jeraine said. “The record company takes…”

“Most of it,” Schmidty said.

“What do we need to do?” Tanesha asked.

“We’re going to have to negotiate your child support for next year. Why are you paying three hundred thousand a year?”

“I thought it was a percentage thing,” Jeraine said.

“No,” Schmidty said. “Twenty-five thousand dollars a month is not child support. It’s an executive salary.”

“They’re my kids!” Jeraine said.

“You can’t afford it now,” Schmidty said.

“But we can pay through the end of the year?” Tanesha asked.

“Right,” Schmidty said. “With your permission, we’ll mediate with the mothers. Do you have any custody time?”

“They won’t let me see my boys,” Jeraine said.

“Do you want to spend time with the boys?” Schmidty asked.

“Yes, absolutely,” Tanesha said. “Can you work that out?”

Jeraine looked at her and she smiled at him.

“We’ll add to the conversation,” Schmidty said. “See what we come up with.”

“How’m I gonna pay to sort that mess out?” Jeraine asked.

“I’ll take care of it. That’s what you pay me for,” Schmidty said. “We run a bill. You pay a percentage toward the debt off everything you make until it’s paid off. Easy. Takes a couple years.”

“We don’t want to owe you…” Tanesha said.

“It’s part of the deal. Don’t worry,” Schmidty said. “Listen, don’t be discouraged. You’d be surprised how many artists are in this position when we take them on. I’ve been an agent full time for three years and I’ve done it five or six times, at least, so far. My Dad has a whole system in place – lawyers, accountants, negotiators, stuff like that. I just make the calls and it all happens.”

“We appreciate your help, Jammy,” Tanesha said. “We’d be lost without it.”

“Of course. The one thing I didn’t see…” Schmidty rifled through some papers. “Did you pay for the new house yet?”

Jeraine shook his head.

“Who did?” Schmidty asked.

“Jake Marlowe.” Jeraine’s face was marked with panic. He pressed his hand against his forehead as if to try to make his words come out. “I’m I ‘sposed to pay him when he’s done. How’m I gonna do that, Miss T? How’m I gonna…”

“Listen Schmidty, we need to go,” Tanesha said. “Can you send me everything?”

“Sorry,” Schmidty said. “I know it’s rough. But trust me, in a few years, you won’t remember this ever happened. We’ll talk tomorrow?”

Tanesha nodded and hung up the video phone connection. Jeraine was rotating his head back and forth on the table.

“What is it?” she asked.

“I…” Somewhere between mad and sad, he shook his head and broke down. “Everything… everything’s fallin’ apart. Everything I worked all this time for. I…”

“Nothing’s falling apart,” Tanesha said.

“What do you mean?”

“We have each other,” Tanesha said. ”For the first time ever, we have each other.”

“Gonna be bad,” he shook his head.

“Why?”

“I was gonna be a doctor with you,” he said. “I was gonna take care of everything.”

Tanesha watched him struggle for words. He shook his head.

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow…

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and NINETY-THREE
(part three)

“And we’re never going to spend another night apart, right?”

“What?” Tanesha laughed.

“It’s just something I thought of,” Jeraine said. “You know, Paul McCartney only spent one night apart from Linda. That was the night he was in jail for possession of pot in Japan. I think it’s a good idea for us.”

“I’ll think about it,” Tanesha shook her head at his manipulations. “You could have just asked.”

“Oh yeah?” Jeraine’s eyes scanned. “How likely is it that you’d say ‘yes’?”

“Seventy percent,” she said.

“I like those odds,” Jeraine said. “How do I make it one hundred percent?”

“I’ll let you know.”

He leaned over to kiss her.

“I’m going to deliver babies as a doctor!” Tanesha beamed.

Tanesha’s bright smile made him laugh. She kissed him. His laptop pinged indicating that he was receiving a video call. He patted his lap for her to sit on it. She pulled her chair over and he laughed.

“Hey Schmidty,” Jeraine said. “How’s LA?”

“Good,” the young man’s face was red from too much sun. His round face held a bright smile.

“Sun burned?” Tanesha asked.

“I’ve been out with Lizzie every morning,” Schmidty smiled. “Walking on the beach. I forgot sunscreen this morning.”

“How is she?” Tanesha asked.

“Good,” Schmidty said. “Regaining herself. I saw on TMZ that Val had her baby today.”

“Couple hours ago,” Tanesha said. “Jacquote, that’s her name. They’re calling her Jackie. She’s gorgeous of course.”

“Of course,” Schmidty said. “Seth wanted to come back but there’s too much going on here. He’ll be back this weekend though.”

“You’re staying?” Tanesha asked.

“Lizzie’s getting the help she needs here,” Schmidty smiled.

“Therapy?” Jeraine asked.

“And peace and quiet. She hasn’t had much of that. Maybe ever. She sleeps twelve hours a night and takes naps. When her Dad’s here, they talk for hours at a time. She’s…” The young man flushed with feeling. He swallowed hard and nodded.

Tanesha and Jeraine smiled at him. He cleared his throat.

“Do you know how Connor is doing?” Schmidty asked. “Colin and Julie?”

“Jill said they’re happy,” Tanesha said. “Connor is doing really well, growing. I saw them… when was that…”

“Friday” Jeraine said.

“Right,” Tanesha said. “I went to pick up Paddie. They seem in that baby bliss – happy and tired. Paddie’s using it at an excuse to spend more time with Katy, so it’s all good.”

“I’ll tell Lizzie. She’ll be happy to hear it,” Schmidty said. “I saw your email about your brain. No work for a year?”

“At least,” Jeraine said. “No school. No stress. A bunch of therapy and stuff. What did you find out about my finances?”

“There’s no easy way to say this but I have some bad news, some worse news, and some sort of good news depending on how you look at things,” Schmidty smiled into the webcam. “You look surprised.”

“I thought…” Jeraine’s voice raised a pitch. “This was just a formality.”

“I thought so too,” Schmidty said. “Sorry.”

“I think you should just tell us,” Tanesha said. “Jer’s not supposed to have too much stress right now. He gets these headaches and…”

“Got it,” Schmidty said. “What do you want to hear first?”

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow…

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and NINETY-THREE
(part one)

Wednesday afternoon  — 2:15 P.M.

“And?” Jeraine opened the sliding door and Tanesha followed him out to the patio of the Penthouse.

“And whoosh Jackie was born,” Tanesha said. “It was unbelievable.”

He set their iced tea on the table and pulled a seat out for her at the table. His lap top was open next to his seat.

“Why? After all that madness, actually having the baby seems kind of predictable.”

Caught up in her excitement and story, she didn’t notice the chair until he touched her arm. She sat down.

“Because Val had effectively lost her mind,” Tanesha said. “I mean, she was so crazy her Dad was afraid she’d had a stroke or something. But Camila, the midwife… I guess she’s seen it all before. And Val’s so fit that once she settled down to business, the rest was pretty straight forward.”

Tanesha gave him a bright smile.

“Camila set Jackie on Val’s chest and Val had this beautiful smile,” Tanesha said. “I mean, she’s gorgeous, right. But she looked… heavenly. Mike took her picture for her website. You can see her glowing in the picture.”

“They’re going to post the baby’s picture?”

“You can only see Jackie’s hand touching Val’s face,” Tanesha said. “Jackie is gorgeous. She opened her eyes for Mike and he cried. He just broke down and cried.”

“Delivering babies makes you really happy,” Jeraine said.

Tanesha nodded.

“And Blane?” Jeraine asked. “Did he get his treatment?”

“Camila really took over the place,” Tanesha chuckled. “His doctor came in to take care of the cord blood. Camila insisted on learning how to do it. She thinks she can get her ladies, that’s what she calls pregnant women she works with, to donate their cord blood for Blane.”

“How did the doctor respond?”

“He didn’t have much of a choice,” Tanesha smiled at the memory. “Blane gave himself some acupuncture while the doctor taught Camila how to extract the cord blood, clean it, spin it, stuff like that. Anyway, Blane had his first treatment for his liver today.”

“And how is he?”

“He seems fine,” Tanesha said. “It’s hard to tell. Blane’s a con artist. He spent most of his early life either on the streets or in foster care. He can look just fine and be really sick.”

“I bet he doesn’t fool Jake,” Jeraine made a gesture to his head. “Jake’s always had this connection…”

“He doesn’t fool Heather either,” Tanesha nodded.

Jeraine smiled.

“This is really it for you,” he said.

“What is?”

“Delivering babies,” he said.

“It’s wonderful,” Tanesha said. “I feel so alive when I’m there. Camila said I was good too. She asked if I was a mid-wife and gave me a pitch to become one. She said I could come with her any time. I may do that just for experience.”

He smiled.

“Is that okay?” Tanesha asked. “It means I’ll always be on call and I’ll have a crazy schedule.”

“I’ve had a crazy schedule all of my life,” Jeraine shrugged.

“We’ll be crazy together,” Tanesha said. “What did the doctor say? Was your mom able to make it?”

Denver Cereal continues tomorrow…