A Real Man in My Life Ch. 05

"No it isn't!" I hissed back at him.

"IT FUCKING IS!" he shouted loudly and so close to my face that I could feel the faint spittle from his exertion, in a second he'd taken a grip of my hair and pulled my face to his and tried to kiss me but I slapped him. "Bitch!" he snarled and pushed me away, raising his hand as if to respond.

Suddenly we were surrounded by friends.

"Oh and now the fucking lynch mob is here for me!" he dropped his raised arms to his sides with a slap.

"Parker," said the deep voice of Gray.

"Fuck of Woods, this is fuck all to do with you."

"I beg to differ," said Gray.

"I've got pictures of you and the slapper Diane!" he said triumphantly taking one and waving it in the air spinning to show everyone what he had.

"I know that it's not Deedee and Gray Parker, so why don't you just accept that you've lost and fuck off and leave us alone."

"Look!" he stabbed at the picture with his short stubby finger.

"Yeah," I said, "and let's take a look. I reckon that once you got some friends to stand in, it must have taken you a while to Photoshop them." He looked at me with narrowed eyes. The person you are suggesting is Gray has a shaved head not a bald one, look you can see that Gray has hair at the sides. The brunette you cast as best supporting actress is too tall to be Deedee and the Harrington she is wearing has a Burberry lining, while the one that Deedee wears, if you look just across there, you'll see is a red tartan." We all turned and there she was waving to him with a cheesy grin, "Oh and look at Gray's Discovery, his has a number plate with four figures, the one you found, or hired, or stole has seven however much you tied to blur them; nine out of ten for style but none for effort or authenticity."

"Thanks for trying to create shit between us Parks," said Gray, "But you know what, you're so keen to be an actor you forgot your propensity to be a drama queen."

"I have evidence..."

"You don't have anything Mr Almost Bankrupt businessman. A quick check with Companies House said that PJW Holdings Ltd has been suspended with significant debts. Five minutes with your former staff says that there's half a dozen angry businessmen and women that want their money back or they'll take it kind out of your face." Gray steeled himself for the final blast, "Natalie? The real reason he wants to move in with you is he's already tried to put your house on the Market. Haven't you Parks?"

Parker looked at the ground,

"Tom was there, and listening to his Dad and an agent from Crickland, Moss and Janway's in Kings Street. Seems that he got a key from somewhere, guessing he copied young Bradley's. Tom ran down and put on the deadlock and rang me. I spoke with Steve Moss who's an old mate of mine and it seems that you and you husband made it up, and were looking to downsize now the kids have grown. You were very excited by the six hundred thousand he mentioned Parker."

"It was just a valuation, because... because I still have a right to money from that house!" Parker must have seen my shocked face, "I just spun him some bull, just to get him to play ball..."

"And Tom very wisely kept you and him out." Said Gray with a sigh. "You've made lots of mistakes over the years, the worst of which was driving this beautiful woman away from you in your fight to be the best. But most of all you made one big mistake - you blabbed to your best mate;" Gray turned slightly and there was Stu, "Can I introduce a friend of mine Stu Knowles, or as he is more affectionately known Detective Sergeant Knowles of the City of London Police."

"Hi Parker," said Stu.

Parker's lips moved but no sound came out.

"Detective Sergeant Knowles and I have worked on a few cases together over the years, it was me that tracked him down for Caroline's gig, and two weeks ago when you were walking around trying to dig up shit about me? Well, you told my friend Stuart almost all that you intended and of course he came straight across and told me. And I mean actually the second you stopped telling him about how you were going to bring me down. I was intrigued of course."

Stuart stepped forward and took his hands from his jacket pocket and nearly thirty years of hate poured out.

"Trouble with you Wallace is you honestly think that everyone else is stupid and that nothing ever changes, most of all people. As far as you're concerned Gray here is still a just bouncer and I'm just the sad son of a single parent Dad without two shekels to rub together that were the only people your family could look down on when actually after 15 years in the police, a master's degree in criminal justice psychology and lots of world travel, me and my police inspector wife and our two children spread our time between here and our house in France." He grinned, "You still think just because someone has let you talk down to since your ninth birthday they are straight off of the breadline and that they must be hard up and grateful to you for sharing your bountiful wisdom. Oh, and out of interest I'd sooner starve than take you up on your offer of 'a few bits and pieces' to help make a few extra quid and take the wife and kids somewhere nice."

Parker was famous for dangling the offer of things over people to get their support or approval just like his father had done to him when he was a child with his promises of gifts when he 'pulled off the big one'. Parker had inherited his father's 'here you go, have a good night down the pub on Saturday with the family' with a fiver palmed to the person to hide it's small denomination. Strangely enough hardly anyone he dealt with ever did pubs and nights out, but of course in Parker's fantasy world it meant he could mentally lord it over people and treat them as lower down the chain than him.

Stuart continued, "You sat there and told me what an idiot Graham is; trouble is the only idiot around here is you mate. But the real trouble is you really don't get that do you? And the tragedy is they you never will."

Parker was getting really cross now and I just knew he wanted to blow his top but of the two people pissing him off the most, one was a huge former bouncer that could break both his legs and then sue him and the other was a police officer and he knew it would end badly for him.

I watched as Parker's face almost rolled up.

"Cunts" hissed Parker, "Sing your own fucking songs to your dead wife Woods." He raised is lip waiting for Gray to lose his temper.

But Gray didn't; instead he just smiled.

"Thanks Parks, Caz is dead mate as you say; but you know what, I'll sing to your wife instead..."

Parker went to move forward but Gray did as well,

"Come on then Wallace, time for you to finally show us what a big tough man you are in front of all these witnesses that reeeeeeally like you mate."

Parker knew he was beaten and with all the dignity he could still muster he stalked away to his car.

Now was the time it chose not to start of course, so he took his mobile phone and without turning back put his hands in his pockets and walked away.

Tom and Mark appeared,

"So how are you with Duran Duran songs Stu?"

"Dunno, let's have a go shall we?"

The hours of rehearsals, the moving of the gear, tuning of instruments, arguments over songs, arranging of songs, the sorting of costumes, the T-shirts, the late entry of the videos was all leading up to this moment. The hall lights went down and the first applause of the night happened. We looked around in real excitement, the butterflies buzzing away in earnest now.

The high screen at the back of the stage came to life and the logo we'd seen on the souvenir programmes appeared. 'The Koncert for Karoline' logo popped up in white letters as the first humming of the guitars as the equipment was switched on. There was some unmistakeable feedback from Tom's Telecaster.

A single spotlight hit the stage and there slowly walking onstage was Gray and Caroline's son Sam walking hand in hand WITH MY GEMMA! Bloody Ray!

Gem walked slowly across the stage holding Sam's tiny hand and holding between them was Caroline's original guitar. It was an old Epiphone Les Paul that she used to make sing. They walked to the back of the stage in almost complete silence bar a few hushed awwww's. They put Caroline's guitar into a stand and the spotlight remained on the guitar as they walked away. There was a slight patter of applause which tripled as little Sam beamed a grin and waved out to the audience he couldn't see.

Within seconds the screen came to life and there was some of the original video that the local BBC station had supplied and it was a tremendous shot of Caroline doing the opening riff to 'her song' with a beaming smile on her face. Those of us in the wings caught the wonderful, happy, heart-breaking sight of tiny Sam pointing up at the video of his Mum, still hanging on to my Gemma's hand and jumping up and down on legs not really strong enough for that kind of thing. I pointed him out to Deedee and Elaine and with seconds we were all three weeping and picking tissues from pockets and trying not to wreck our makeup.

When it was time for the second guitar to join in and Mark's guitar appeared in the spot light, followed by Tom's and they joined in with the recorded Caroline, somehow isolated from the video soundtrack. Finally the unmistakable shiny silver scratchplate of Gray's Precision appeared and perfectly in time the lights came up and the show went off with a bang. 'The Boyz' had done it again, and the crowd rose to their feet and stayed there, even although twenty years had passed since the last time this had happened.

Tom started to sing,

'If you want to, turn me onto, anything you really want to, turn me on to your love, sweet love

Come on, sweet Caroline, your my sweet Caroline...'

The stage lights meant that Gemma and Sam were now visible to most of the audience and many more people saw her with him in her arms both bopping to the music and Sam now beaming a huge smile to his beloved Daddy who was only a few feet away from him. The programme said that Sam was bringing his Mummy's guitar on stage and that Caroline had been married to the hunky bass player Graham.

The first song reached a crescendo and from the background we heard Ray's powerful amplified voice,

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to... THE CONCERT FOR CAROLINE!"

This was the prompt for the Boyz to go straight into 'the boys are back in town' and didn't they just, with the crowd joining in with the chorus as they had in the old days.

As that song finished Ray's lofty position by the drum risers was lit next and he started to play and sing Robbie Williams 'let me entertain you' and the pace didn't lessen as that went straight into 'Sergeant Pepper's lonely Hearts Club band' which saw the brass come on.

We three girls had started to sing with 'let me entertain you' but hadn't come on. Then it was 'sex on fire', which saw us come on in our sexy little black dresses to roars of approval and wolf-whistles, followed by 'all the small things' - wagging our little fingers suggestively.

Then we stepped back into our favoured spot and our microphones, and Stu came on and it was Madness's turn. We did 'driving in my car', 'night boat to Cairo' which had Mark's wife Kate in her Ray Bann's playing her sax and 'baggy trousers' which of course had her on a wire flying across the stage. Stu would return in the second half for his Duran Duran spot.

Once Stu had finished the gang looked across to me and I tried to saunter across to centre stage coolly. Gemma was stood in the wings stage left and looking at me excitedly, young Sam still in her arms and picking up on the buzz, on the other side of the stage in a black 'K4K Krew' T-shirt was my Tom assisting with the instruments and microphones. Shit but I was nervous.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, give it up... for the gorgeous NATALIE!" shouted Ray.

The place erupted and I giggled almost dropping my microphone. I stepped up centre stage,

As the Boyz waited for the wolf whistles and general banter to subside and then there was a simple 'one two three four' tapped out by Marty's drumsticks, the twangly guitar started quietly, I closed my eyes and away we went,

I sang those words I knew so well,

"Listen to the wind blow..." and we were away.

I sang well, only marginally conscious of the my own voice coming back to me through the monitors, but hearing Deedee, Elaine, Tom, Ray, Mark, even Gray coming in on the choruses and harmonies.

Halfway through, we hit the bit everyone was waiting for and the crowd new it. The cheers started as Marty just tapped out the rhythm on the high-hat cymbals. Once they had settled, Gray looked at me and grinned, and he started probably the most famous bassline in British classic rock music, especially for those rockers that loved Formula one motorsport. All through that pause the shouts and whoops just got louder.

Just as we had on that first rehearsal we went face to face, and as his speed of playing speeded up, Tom joined in with his Telecaster making it scream. Gray and I danced across the stage, face to face, until it was time for me to turn and face the audience and shout, "Runnin' in the shadows!" and we all went back to our microphones and the final chorus.

"Chains - keep us together."

As I belted out the final line, I was more alive than I had been in years and as the crowd roared I wondered how I would ever match this physical and emotional high.

"The gorgeous Natalie Delaney!" shouted Ray using my maiden name, "and on bass guitar Mr Graham Woods!"

The crowd roared and Gray took my hand and we bowed together to more cheers. We straightened up and I leaned across and kissed his cheek. More cheers; Gray smiled that huge smile to me, and I kissed his lips, with a kiss that took too long to be just friendly. The noise was twice as loud and I could even hear our friends shouting through their microphones.

We took a last bow and went back to our chosen spots on stage; what a night this was shaping up to be!

Another ten songs and we were slowing up for the end of the first half, when Gray walked up to his mike,

"OK, we have a surprise guest joining us for the end of the first half; ladies and gentlemen, especially the ladies, please welcome direct from Philadelphia and courtesy of the United States Navy, Lieutenant Commander... STEVIE... MAC... WILLIAMS!"

The screams didn't stop, and that included me, Deedee and Elaine. Steve was the really hot, exotic and amazingly cool American student that played in the band in the last six months. His Dad was an officer in the US Navy working as a defence attaché between London, Portsmouth, Faslane, Portland, Plymouth and anywhere else in the UK he would head for - at speed.

Stevie Mac never said what he did or where he went but we all knew that by the way he spoke he would join the US Navy like his Dad.

Stevie walked on stage playing the opening bars of 'Dixie' like he used to in the old days and looking even hotter than he did to us all those years ago. Lieutenant Commander Stephen Macwilliams United States Navy, stepped up to Tom's Microphone, and struck the Cherry Red Fender Stratocaster with US Navy pilots wings attached to the stop that he'd obviously brought with him.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," he purred looking outrageously cool in doing so and the screaming got louder and quite rightly, he looked fucking gorgeous and perhaps new it. He had a close cropped hair, a Mediterranean tan, Ray Banns (real ones!) and a tight fitting Baby Gap T-shirt that clung to a body leaner but as hot looking as Gray... well nearly!

Taking us all back years he leaned back and yelled, "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaw!!"

We hadn't rehearsed it but we knew what it would be. He played the opening bars to Sweet Home Alabama and off we went, regressing back to those kids we had been twenty two years back; we had rehearsed it for Gray to sing so knew what to dance, when to come in on the backing vocals, it was a joy; the audience only let us go when the stage manager closed the curtains (something we hadn't rehearsed for!) and turning up the house lights.

I walked across to Gemma who was sitting down with a rather sleepy looking Sam on her lap and looking really pleased into the bargain, and despite Gray asking didn't seem inclined to pass him into anyone else's care. We of course headed for Stevie Mac who was shaking hands with everyone.

It turned out that he was stationed on an aircraft carrier that was on patrol in the Mediterranean and was a jet pilot. I thought Elaine would melt; she had carried a crush on him all through the last year of school.

Gray had tracked him down, and it had taken them a month to arrange his two day stay in England. Barrister Graham, who worked for the Ministry of Defence on occasions, pulled every string he knew of telling his lords and masters, various defence attaché's about his late wife's (Former Royal Navy and Surrey Police) early passing and this need to raise money for her cancer charity. The US Navy were shown some of the photos of the young good looking American in England, one Stevie Mac, playing in his school band, and some of the video of the coolest boy in school with his host of adoring fans for him to be given special permission to fly his FA18 Hornet from just south of Cyprus to RAF Northolt to play this one gig.

His good looks had improved and the fact he flew fast fighter jets off of aircraft carriers and had been to Top Gun school like in the films had all the women huddling around him like they were all-star struck teenagers again. I kissed him on the cheek and thanked him for coming, but headed straight for the hunk I was most interested in.

Gray, Tom, Mark, Ray and Marty were talking through the first half, happy that things had gone even better than they'd guessed they would. It was of course the inclusion of the audience that lifted a gig from the good to the sublime.

Tom then had us all off the stage and drinking isotonic drinks, water, before changing into our new 'K4K' T-shirts and blue jeans for the final blast.

For the second half the curtains pulled back to show the orchestra in black Hats and sunglasses playing 'Everybody needs somebody' and then Gray's deep voice called,

"Ladies and Gentlemen please welcome from Calumet City, Illinois, after an extensive tour of Greater London, Kent, East Sussex and some of the nicer parts of Surrey please welcome THE BLUES BROTHERS!"

Three songs finishing with Jailhouse Rock and there was no left sitting down. The strings came on and we did Electric Light Orchestra's 'Sweet Talking Woman' and 'Mr Blue Sky'. There was almost no room on the stage now.

I stepped up with the gorgeous blonde Elaine, who during the interval had dragged straighteners through her hair and we stood next to each other, front centre stage. Elaine had always been a bit of a comedian,

"Hello," in an accented voice as close to Swedish as she could get, "My friend and I would like to sing a few songs for you." There was some initial confusion, then some giggles then the 'dum de dum de dum de dum' intro started and the screaming followed.

"That history book on the shelf - is always repeating itse-eelf!

Waterloo! I was defeated you won the war..."

Thanks to the success of Mama Mia, everyone was into the brand and the entire ground floor of the Guildhall was on its feet and soon as the intro to Dancing Queen started we could barely hear ourselves even with the monitors over the cheers which got worse as we went into the chorus,

"You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life,

Oooh, see that girl, watch that scene, digging the dancing queen!" and we dipped and pointed down at the girls dancing in the aisles just and Agnetha and Frida did in the famous video.