Mistaken For A Girl Singer - Chapter 14

OTHER CHAPTERS | ALL STORY LIST

"Damn it all, Chris," Allan shouted in fake anger. "You can't keep doing this to me. I need a day off, for chrissake. Have you talked to John yet?" 

Terry answered while Chris organized the mess of paper and electronics on the coffee table. 

"He came by earlier, but ended up going out to lunch with Gina, Grace, and that techie from the studio, Rick. We haven't seen them since around noon." 

Allan glanced at his watch. It was nearly 6:30. 

"Well, that's a good sign, I guess. He didn't take the change of plan very well when I spoke to him." Margo joined the conversation. "No, he was upset when he got here, too. Funny, though, he didn't seem to think that Chris was a guy. We kind of thought he knew." 

"Yeah, I got that impression, too," said Allan with a sigh. "So, there's one bullet dodged, I guess." 

"That student union performance was a weird night," Terry pointed out.

"Just having Evan in the audience probably freaked him out to the point that he didn't realize what we'd said to him. Besides, how could anyone think that this pretty little thing is anything but 100% girll?" 

Chris blushed and had an off-color come back for her remark, but was too shy to say it in front of Mr. Bennett. "I'm glad you like the song, Mr. Bennett. We really struggled with it. It was the sixth attempt, and we rewrote it, like, fifteen times before we recorded it for you." 

"I do like the song, but I hate the title. Too long. 'Broken Promises Can't Break My Heart' is the kind of long-winded country music title that comedians love to make fun of. Maybe we'll go with 'Broken Promises' or use a subtitle. Who cares, the song kicks butt, and we're going to just keep getting richer and richer and richer." 

He pulled Chris into a hug, kissed him on the crown of his head, and said, "My golden goose." 

As he sat with his arm around Chris's shoulders, he said, "It's getting late. Can I buy you girls supper downstairs?" Margo and Terry glanced at each other and nodded, then answered, "Sure," simultaneously. "I can't," said Chris. "I have a date for supper." 

Everyone stared in silence for a moment. 

"A date!?" Margo spate with a bit more vehemence than she'd expected. "With who!?" Chris smiled and said, "Uncle Willy. He's picking me up at 7:15. We're going to a graduation party for his daughter." 

Allan laughed, "Whew! I thought that there was trouble in paradise already! Which daughter?" Chris shrugged. "I think her name is Jojo. I didn't know he had more than one daughter." 

"He has four daughters and one son, and God knows how many nephews and nieces he takes care of. Willie is quite a guy. He thrives on making order out of chaos. 

He pulled himself up from nothing and then helped everyone else around him. I wouldn't be where I am without Uncle Willy. Where's the party?" 

"His place, I think," Chris said as he zipped the guitar back into its case. Allan checked his watch again and said, "Ok, then. Why don't you all get cleaned up, and we'll all go downstairs together?" 

The girls put on fresh dresses and make-up, brushed out their hair, and checked their looks in the mirrors. Chris did the same, but his dress was a little prettier—a dark blue silk slip dress with small white flowers printed on the soft, smocked material that flowed daintily from the spaghetti straps and V-neck to the pretty hem that lingered on his upper thigh. 

His hair was, once again, done up like Terry's, but with a dark blue headband to match the dress. His shoes were pretty, white, strappy sandals with thin, little kitten heels that pushed his burgeoning rear-end and new breasts out just enough to enhance the relaxed hang of the dress. 

Terry looked at her twin brother and smiled. How could she not have seen this beautiful young woman who had been hiding inside her dorky little brother all these years? 

She came up behind him and hugged him around his waist, placing her head on his shoulder so she could see both of their faces in the mirror. "I have such a pretty sister." 

Chris grinned and said, "Not as pretty as mine." 

"This is a pretty dress. When did you get thiss?" 

"The other night, Margo and I went shopping." 

Terry rubbed her hands over the soft silk of the dress. "It's very soft. I bet it feels nice, doesn't it?" 

"It does. I like to feel pretty now. That's ok, isn't it?" 

"Well, of course it is, Sissy. Girls love to feel pretty." 

Chris smiled. 

"If I could suggest something, though," 

"Sure," said Chris. "You're making your eyes a little too dark. Sit on the bed for a moment." 

Chris did as instructed, tucking the silky, short dress under his rear end as he sat. 

"I don't need to wear stockings with this dress, do I? It's kind of hot out, and I don't want to be uncomfortable." 

Terry used pre-moistened makeup to gently wipe away the work that Chris had done. "You look lovely, just the way you are. Besides, that dress is so soft, you wouldn't want to put anything between your skin and that fabric. Now, I'm going to lighten up a little on your eyelids and get a little more curl on your lashes using an eyelash curler." 

It took about three minutes, and when Chris looked into the mirror, his eyes looked perfect. Much more subtle than before. 

"Wow," he whispered, "I didn't think I could look more like you than I did, but wow! Thanks, Sissy." 

"My pleasure, baby. Let's go." 

Chris had seen some nice houses as he had ridden through wealthy neighborhoods in New Jersey, but Willy's house was something very special. Not a mansion, by any means, but a grand, old, white farmhouse with four columns out in front and surrounding fields with horses meandering behind beautifully maintained fences. 

Chris could see at least three other houses that were obviously connected to the property, and the long, semi-circular driveway was filled with limousines and town cars. 

His driver this evening was Willy's son, Eli, who had Willy's sweet smile and laugh but was taller, broader, more slender, and somewhat muscular, and his dark skin and shaved head made him look like a movie star. He seemed to love music, too, although he did not have the encyclopedic knowledge of bands and singers that his father had. 

"Your house is gorgeous!" Chris gushed as Eli helped him from the'shot-gun' seat. Eli had tried mightily to get Chris to sit in the back, but the precocious little girl would not hear of it. 

She sat up front and talked nonstop all the way to the farm, mostly about music but also about the city and surrounding areas, which were still new to her, and, of course, Eli's father. Eli smiled as he gently shut the car door. 

"It is, isn't it? Actually, I just had a house built for my fiancée and me out there beyond the red barn." He pointed towards the red evening sky, and when he looked, Chris could see the outline of a moderately sized house. He congratulated Eli as they approached the door. 

Chris looked at the stately home and all the limousines and town cars and stopped before allowing Eli to open the door. 

"Umm, Eli, your dad said that this was just a nice family get-together to celebrate your sister's graduation, but this house is so pretty, and there are all these limos. Am I underdressed? 

Eli laughed, "Are you kidding? If anything, you're overdressed. Wait. I mean, no, you look beautiful. You know my dad owns several businesses—a car dealership, a couple of men's clothing stores, and a movie theater—but he also owns a limousine company. Hence the limousines." 

Chris rolled his eyes and said, "Duh. I should have known. Sorry, I'm just not used to being around rich people, you know?" 

Eli laughed, not just because of the 'rich people' remark, but because, just for a moment when she rolled her eyes and said 'duh,' this woman on his arm had revealed herself to really be an insecure little teenaged girl. 

Just a little girl in grown-up clothes—just like she was at dinner the other night. It seemed to make her more endearing, somehow. 

Chris, who'd grown up in a small family of quiet people, had a fairly large but quiet extended family of friends that had all disappeared after his dad had died. When they entered Willy's house, they entered a world of noise, food smells, and love that he'd never experienced before.

There were people of every imaginable age, body shape, and skin color all laughing, hugging, cooking, eating, pouring wine, kissing each other's cheeks, and back-slapping. It was amazing, joyous, and overwhelming. 

Eli stopped for a moment to let Chris take it all in. There she was again, that little girl in the grown-up clothes. He spotted his dad across the room and waved to him to come and introduce Chris to everyone. Willy approached with a huge grin. "There's my favorite little songbird! Come give your Uncle Willy a hug."

He pulled Chris into a huge, warm embrace, even more loving than his usual hugs. He gave Chris a soft kiss on the forehead and said, "Thank you for coming, baby girl. It means the world to me to have you meet my family." 

Chris's amazed smile turned into a laugh. "This is just your family!? There are hundreds of people here." 

"Yup, and they're all family, and so are you now, darling." 

"Thanks, Uncle Willy, and thank you for inviting me. I'm very happy to be here." 

"Everyone!" Willy shouted over the noise, and he waited for their attention. "I want to introduce you all to the newest member of our family. This is the amazing singer I've been telling you all about. Her name is Chrissie, and she's going to be a huge star in a few weeks, so get her autograph tonight while you can!" There was laughter all around. 

"I'm not kidding, and y'all will be sorry six weeks from now when she's a star." More laughter. 

"So, as I said, this is my newest little niece, and I want y'all to make her feel welcome." 

Immediately, Chris was overwhelmed with hugs and kisses and so many introductions that he couldn't possibly remember who was who. 

Everyone was gracious and smiling. Suddenly, out of the chaos of affection, a beautifully tall and dark woman grabbed Chris and drew him to her for a hug. 

"Are you Chrissy?" she mewed as she hugged him and swayed from side to side. "Oh, darling, my Willy has told me so much about you. Come join me in the kitchen and let me get to know you." 

Chris was whisked away into a huge kitchen, which, being an older house, was separated from the main rooms but was very spacious, and there were at least a dozen women in various colored and embroidered aprons working at three different stoves and all around the countertops. 

The woman who had kidnapped Chris grabbed an apron from the back of a chair, and as she started speaking, she deftly pulled the garment over her head and pulled the broad pieces of cloth behind her back to tie it around her waist. 

"It is Chrissie, isn't it?" 

"Yes, ma'am," Chris replied, looking around. "I'm Sophie," she said with the warmest smile. "I'm Willy's wife." Having said that, Sophie dug her hands into a huge mixing bowl filled with chicken parts and began mixing them into a batter. 

Chris, whose mom was at work till 6:00 every night, had never seen the kind of effort that was going on around him at the moment, and, stranger still, everyone seemed thrilled to be preparing the meal. 

Cooking was viewed as an inconvenient necessity at home and usually involved a microwave or a call to a restaurant that delivers. 

Chris shook his attention away from the food preparation and brought his eyes up to meet Sophie's. 

"Oh! Hi! Yes, I'm Chrissie. Oh, ma'am, thank you so much for having me tonight. You're home is just beautiful." 

Sophie laughed. 

"Why, thank you, sugar. Aren't you a polite little girl? No wonder Willy is so taken with you." 

Chris smiled. "Thank you, ma'am. I'm pretty taken with Uncle Willy, too." Sophie stopped mixing for a moment and placed a batter-covered hand on her aproned hip. 

"Uncle Willy!? 

Huh! I guess that makes me your aunt Sophie, then, doesn't it?" Some of the nearby women laughed along with Sophie. 

"Ladies, this is my new little niece, Chrissie." 

"Hi, Chrissie." "Hi, darling." 

"Hi, baby." 

Etc. came from all parts of the kitchen. The wonder at all of this activity was evident on Chris's face. One of the ladies asked, "Would you like to help, darling?" 

Chris shrugged. "I would love to, but I don't know how to cook." 

More remarks came from all corners, but each was said simultaneously and with laughter, so Chris could only make out what Sophie was saying. 

"What!? Your mama never taught you to cook!? Why on earth not!? You'll never get a good man without being able to cook!" 

"No, ma'am. She works late, so she doesn't cook much." "Well, would you like to learn a little about making some chicken right now?" 

"Oh, yes! I'd love that!" "Well, alright, then! Judy," she yelled across the kitchen, "open that closet and throw us an apron for this angel. Will you, please?" 

Before Chris had a chance to figure out who Judy was, a bidet apron was launched towards Sophie. She caught it, and before he knew it, he was wearing a pale yellow apron with small flowers embroidered all around the bib and skirt. 

"Come here now, baby, and watch how I do this. Now, I don't want you to get all covered in batter, so I'll take care of that tonight, but I'll show you how to fry it up, ok? We have to keep an eye on the temperature of the oil so it doesn't spoil. We use the tongs to place, never drop, the chicken into the pan and keep each piece separatedd." 

The lesson went on from there, and half an hour later, when Willy entered the kitchen with a young woman, who looked remarkably similar to Sophie, in tow, he was just in time to hear Chris call across the room, "Auntie Sophie, I'm ready for more chicken to be battered." 

Sophie came over to check the chicken that had already been through the frying pan. As she pursued the cooked pieces, she gently rubbed Chris's bare shoulders and smiled as she said, "Sugar, you have found your true talent. You need to come spend some time with your aunt Sophie and learn how to really cook, so when you have your babies, it'll be fun and easy, rather than a struggle." 

Chris smiled, genuinely happy to have done a good job. "Good God Almighty, woman! What are you doing!? I bring you the most talented child I have ever met, and you have her working at the stove! I brought her here as a guest, and you put her to work!" 

Sophie smiled at her husband's pretend shock. She did this with every girl who entered her kitchen, and Willy knew it. 

"Oh, hush, you old grouch. You brought her here as a member of the family, and this is what the women in our family do; we cook together." 

She hugged the young woman with Willy and said, "There's my graduate! Oh, my baby is all grown up and going to college in a couple of months. I can't believe it." 

She turned to Chris and said, "Christine, this is your new cousin, Josephine, but we just call her Jojo." 

The young woman smiled and extended her hand, saying, "Or Jo, or Joey. Whatever you want. I'm so happy to meet you. 

Daddy just goes on and on about you." Chris shook Jo's hand, saying, "Congratulations on your graduation, Jo. Your dad goes on and on about you, too. Oh, just a second." Chris ran to his purse, which he'd left on a nearby chair, opened it, and pulled out an envelope that obviously contained a card. He handed it to Jo, saying, "This is for you." 

"I told you that you shouldn't bring anything, remember?" 

Said Willy in his fake scolding voice. 

"Oh, my goodness!" Josephine, let's put. "This is a $500 Amazon gift card!" 

"I didn't know what you might need for college, so." Willy smiled and shook his head. 

"Sophie, I'm telling you, we need to teach this child to handle money. She just gives it away to people. She has no idea what the value of a dollar iss." 

"Huh," Sophie joked, "she must really be related to you, then." She untied Chris's apron and gave him a somewhat shocking, but obviously meant to be familial, pat on the bottom. 

"Now, you go get to know Josephine and come back to visit me, and I'll teach you to be a great cook, ok?" 

Chris kissed Sophie's cheek and smiled broadly. "Thank you, Auntie Sophie. I will, if I can. I loved cooking with you." Jo took Chris out to a back deck where there were twenty or more teenagers sitting and drinking Cokes and laughing. 

The sky had gone dark, and there were stars twinkling everywhere—something else he'd not seen a lot of growing up in New Jersey. Chris had never done well in crowds of his peers, but he'd been having a great time this evening, so he'd continue keeping a good attitude and see where things went. 

The evening breeze was picking up a bit, and Chris could feel it threatening to blow the lightweight silk dress up with each gentle gust. Jojo introduced Chris to their cousins, friends, and classmates. Everyone was smiling and laughing, and Chris felt relaxed for the first time in weeks, maybe months, or years. 

One group of kids was laughing at pictures in Josephine's yearbook.

"Joey, was that from the semi-formal last year? Oh, my God, Jake Reynolds looks wasted!" Jojo went to look over the shoulder of the girl who'd asked the question. 

"No, that's from homecoming, and he'd been out in the sun all day. He wasn't wasted, just sunburned and tired." 

They all laughed. Jojo invited Chris over to sit on the bench behind this group. He and Jojo looked over their shoulders at the pictures and the comments left by friends. It was a very new experience for Chris. 

The meal had been excellent. Allan had taken Terry and Margo to a little, three-star, hole-in-the-wall hotel a block away from the hotel. Neither of the girls had ever had food this good before. "She really just uses us to bounce ideas off of. 

Usually lyrics," Margo was explaining. Terry said, "I think that she's just developing a style, and she needs us to agree with her or shake our heads. It's just new to her, and he's unsure of herself."

"I think part of it is just fear of loneliness, too," Margo said as she sipped her coffee. "There's definitely that, too," Terry agreed. "I guess I'd feel that way, too, if I spent as much time alone in hospitals when I was young. I wish I'd been more thoughtful back then. 

Part of me just thought that he was being sick just to get attention. What an ass, huh!?" Allan squeezed her hand on the table and said, "You were a kid, too. You take good care of her now, though. I see how he idolizes you. And YOU," he said to Margo, "he's head over heels in love with you. 

That's going to be tricky later, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Margo looked at her coffee for a moment, deep in thought, then said, "Allan, what if we don't make it?" 

"What do you mean?" 

"Well, haven't you ever been wrong before? About a band, I mean?" Allan shifted in his seat and thought for a moment. 

"I guess I have, sure, but I see so much potential in you girls that it's going to happen. I'm sure of it." 

"Ok, I believe you," Margo said, putting down her glass, "but, just in case, will you make me a promise?" 

Allan sat up tall and leaned onto the table. 

"Sure. Why not? I have nothing but good feelings about you girls." 

Margo smiled, very happy that he liked the band. 

"If things go badly for the album, I'd like you to consider firing all of us except for Chris." 

Terry sat up straighter now. 

"What?" Allan asked. "We wouldn't even consider dropping a contract until a second album flopped, and, like I said," 

"I know, but..." Margo searched for the right words. 

"You said it yourself. Chris is miles ahead of us as a musician, so if we tank this, it's because we're holding him back. If that's the case, then fire us and keep Chris. It's the only way he'd ever go solo." 

"To tell you the truth," Allan said, "I think he'd quit if you and Terry weren't with him anyway. I know he likes Gina and Grace, but come on. 

You girls must see it. You two are his world!" He shook his head. "Her world, damn it. It's like there are two of her: the sad little boy willing to wear a dress just to be with his big sister and her friend, and the amazing female musician on the brink of stardom."

"Wow," Terry said, sinking back into her seat. "I'm not sure how I should feel about that. You don't need us tomorrow, do you, Allan?" 

"Just Gina for four or five hours. Why?" 

"I think my little sister and I need a girl's day out tomorrow." Margo finished her coffee. "After that, do you think I might be able to steal her for a date? A real, dinner-and-movie kind of date?" 

"I think that would be perfect," Terry said, and she thought about everything that they'd just discussed. Something was nagging at her.

Had she forced this on her brother, or was her brother really happier than her sister? She didn't know the answer.