"A satellite tour is a series of radio interviews conducted over the phone via satellite," she said. "They're usually set up for the morning commute programs, which means getting up before dawn if you're on the west coast. At least Peej doesn't have any east coast ones scheduled."
"Yeah," Hank agreed. "It'd be a shame to add anything else to her burden. Between Wild Wind's insulting behavior and you playing watchdog, she's got pretty much all she can bear."
"Then maybe I should just go to bed and get out of everyone's hair."
"Well, you could do that," Hank agreed. "It'd be a damn shame, though, if you got all settled and we had to roust you out whenwe're ready to go to bed. Since you might pick one of the bunks we want."
Like there was anymight about it. Slumping down on his tailbone, he tipped the brim of his hat back down over his eyes, stretched out his legs and crossed his arms over his chest, willing himself to outwait P.J.'s band members without complaint-even if God alone knew when Eddie would return.But, shit.
Just:shit.
THE MAN WAS DRIVINGto his job as a security guard in Iowa City when he heard Priscilla Jayne's name mentioned on the radio. Keeping one eye on the truck tailgating him down Highway 38 as he slowed for the approach to I-80, he reached over and turned up the volume.
"-so stay tuned," the DJ said. "This is Dan the Man McVann and the morning crew. We'll be right back to talk a little smack with Priscilla Jayne after these brief messages from our sponsor."
The man didn't find them all that brief and he fidgeted in his seat as he waited for the interminable commercials to cease. He'd written three letters to Priscilla Jayne this spring but hadn't received so much as a single reply in return. They'd been wonderfully flattering notes, too-well, at least the first two. The one he'd written last Saturday had rightly taken her to task over her lack of respect for her mother.
"And we're back!" The DJ's voice broke into the man's growing agitation. "This morning's guest is Priscilla Jayne, whose new CDWatch Me Fly we've been watching fly off the shelves at an amazing rate since hitting the stores last week. Welcome!"
"Thank you, Dan," said the raspy voice the man remembered from the show he'd seen her on. "I'm happy to be here."
"As I just mentioned to our listeners, your new CD is burning up the charts."
"Yes, isn't it great?" Her laughter rolled out of the speakers. "It seems to be doing very well, and I'm so grateful to my fans for their support."
The man, who had found himself smiling at the rich sound of her laugh, scowled. "Then you might try responding when they go to the trouble of writing you."
"Your critically acclaimed debut albumOutside Looking In spent a record ten weeks atop the Country Albums Chart and has been certified double platinum for sales in excess of two million," Dan the Man said. "Do you find it daunting knowing how much your sophomore album has to live up to?"
"It scares the bejeebers out of me if I let myself think about it too long or too hard," she agreed. "But I try to just take everything day by day. I'm very proud ofWatch Me Fly and hope my audience will find the album as singable as I do. I love the entire project, but if listeners take away nothing else I have faith that they'll at least enjoy a song or two. I believe we've got some really great singles on this CD."
"I guess so!" the DJ heartily concurred. "'Let the Party Begin' debuted at number three on Billboard's Country Album Chart and 'Crying Myself to Sleep' at number seven."
"It's been an excellent week," she said in that easy, friendly voice. "Unfortunately, I spent most of it driving cross-country to get to Portland, where I played my first concert on the new tour last night. So I haven't had much time to savor it."
"Speaking of your cross-country drive, I wonder if you could put to rest a rumor that's going around," the DJ said.
The man went on alert but instead of asking about Priscilla Jayne's mother the way he should have, McVann said, "Some of the journals are claiming you were spotted playing all kinds of bars across the West last week. True or false?"
The DJ's "morning crew" chimed in with their guesses, but the man ignored them as he awaited Priscilla Jayne's response.
"That's actually true," she said. "I got my start playing honky-tonks and clubs. Plus, growing up I lived in-man, I can't even tell you how many wide-spot-in-the-road towns. I had a week to kill on my way to Portland, so I stopped along the way at some taverns in a few small towns and jammed with the local bands."
"That must have thrilled them."
"It thrilledme to play with so many gifted musicians. The truth is a good part of this business comes down to blind luck. There's so much talent out there, even if much of it never goes any further than playing gigs at local taverns."
Dan the Man didn't appear to have much interest in non-platinum-selling performers. "So are you driving yourself from concert to concert?"
"No, I'm traveling on the bus Wild Wind hired for us. Concerts are scheduled almost daily, so for the most part we'll finish one performance, get on the bus and sleep while Marvin, our driver, delivers us to the next destination."
"What did you do with your car, then-leave it in Portland?"
"No. It's being driven back to Aspen."
"That's where you live these days?"
"Yes. I'm a brand-new home owner-or at least it still feels brand-new. I bought a house last year."
"You mentioned earlier that you moved around a lot."
"I did and I hated it." Then she laughed. "And I know choosing a career that puts me on the road for a good part of the year when I've spent most of my life craving a home I didn't have to up and leave at the drop of a hat must sound like a-whatchamacallit-a paradox. But having a place I can call my own makes all the difference."
"Because it'll always be there for you to go back to when the touring is over?"
"Exactly!" Her raspy voice was full of warm approbation that he understood her feelings so well.
There was an infinitesimal pause, then the DJ said, "So if a stable home life is so important to you, why did you fire your mother?"
The man in the car let up on the gas pedal as he sat straighter in his seat. "Excellent question."
Dead air filled the airwaves for several long seconds. Then Priscilla Jayne said in a voice not exactly cold but definitely no longer warm, "Excuse me while I pull the knife out of my heart." She gave a theatrical grunt. "There-and only the minimum of blood, too, as long as I keep my finger in the hole."
Laughter came from the morning crew, but the man didn't understand what they found so amusing. He didn't find the singer's flippancy one bit appropriate.
"I gotta hand it to you, Dan the Man," she said. "You slid that blade in slicker than the devil."
"Yet still you didn't answer my question."
"Noticed that, did you? Well, let me see if I can put this in a way you'll understand. My personal life is exactly that. Personal. I don't mind putting it all out there in my songs. I do mind flopping my private business onto the table for wholesale consumption by a bunch of people who don't know the first thing about it." Her voice warmed. "Marina, you still there?"
"You bet," replied one of the sidekicks.
"Can I ask you a personal question?"
"Sure, I guess."
"What's your relationship with your mother?"
"Why, it's fi-that is, it's:nothing I care to talk about on the radio."
"I hear that, sister. And I rest my case."
"Yetyour mother has gone on record to state you broke her heart," the DJ insisted.
"Well, what can I tell you, Dan?" she said lightly. "There's just no pleasing some people."
The interview wound up a minute later but long after the radio crew signed off, long after the man clocked in at work and commenced his rounds, he continued to seethe.