Chapter 7

School was a haven of normalcy after the busy week. At lunch, she told the other four about the payout of the others with Small Heath. That evening, she emailed Gina with that information as well as the pictures of her new home. The family was settling into a new way of life. Ashley and Wendy were finding the better ways of getting to work, and Sebastian seemed to know a different way with every new day, something that he told her was good security.

The operetta was moving along, with it becoming clearer with each week. It had developed into the first act with a song about the loneliness of being constantly watched, the duet between father and daughter, the contestants coming on as the daughter storms off. There were the four songs from the contestants, answering questions from the father, who ends the act alone on the stage, with the first version of ‘a man of the people’ theme.

Vivienne was the leading lady, with Garry as the father. Nancy was the female friend, Bryan was Cuthbert, Edward was one of the men, with another lad from the class, Martin, as the other. There were a couple of ‘walk-ons’, a servant and a security guard. The technical group were experimenting with ways to project from behind but make it look realistic, and Dianne had a small group writing out the score as they developed it. Willow was trying to steer them all to a successful result, and also keeping the songs within the boundaries of correctness without losing the comedy.

At home, she was relaxing in the new comfort and space that she had, thinking about songs for the operetta, as well as for another solo album. She was close to finishing the show songs, with the wistful opening song, the plaintive refrain in the park, and the duet between Vivienne and Bryan with the stutters. The ‘man of the people’ had already been written and expanded for when they worked on Act Four and the finale.

On the Saturday, she had a reply from Gina, with news from Florence and pictures of her own home. She was rehearsing with the Orchestra della Tuscana to play a series of piano concerts during the summer and finding it exciting. She asked Willow if she would visit Italy for a birthday party, seeing that hers fell on the Saturday this year. Over the next week, each of the others paid their share, putting nearly one point seven back into Willow’s company bank.

She also had one from Sarah, reporting on another successful week with the ENO. The intervening weeks were now being booked, with Midlands bands and solo singers with pre-recorded backing tracks. Willow replied to book the first week of June for the workshopping of the operetta.

Now some time of living on Rising Lane, things were settling nicely. On Sunday, the big syndicate had a Zoom meeting with the shopping centre management in Manchester. Only the five from the new syndicate attended, but they made firm plans on going forward with the upgrades, spread out over two years. The management wanted to make sure that funds were available and were happy that the syndicate had fifteen million on hand. It was agreed that there would be no lifting of lease rates until after the modifications were completed.

March was almost quiet, as far as Willow was concerned. The schooling was steady, the orchestra still learned more violin-based pieces and workshopped some of the operetta tunes. The operetta worked out the second act and the songs. Then it was revision time and exam week. Willow’s statement showed that the band earnings was dropping, but her solo album was holding up, with another six hundred thousand transferred into her company account.

It was in revision week that she had an email from Jill, asking her if she could attend a meeting at the label offices during her Easter break. She replied that she and her mother had committed to be in Cambridge over the Easter weekend and that she would investigate ways to get to London after that.

When she sat down with her parents, they discussed it, and the suggestion was made that she could now afford to use a limo service so that she could be independent. She looked them up on the computer and phoned one. The result was that she was signed on as a client, given a code number to use, and sent an information package with three cards to use, one in each one of their names. The costs would be charged to her company and paid by the accountant. She booked a car to take her from the hotel in Cambridge to the apartment on the Tuesday after Easter, so that Wendy could go home on the Monday, for work on the Tuesday.

She advised Jill of this, and the meeting was set for the first of April. She planned to spend the week in London, shopping for new clothes, as she was growing suddenly. She phoned her doctor, who explained that her body was now happy with the changes, and that she was developing normally. She booked a visit on the Friday before the third term started, just to check up.

When school finished on the Thursday, Wendy and Willow drove to Cambridge that evening. They were booked into the hotel that night, with Wendy through to the Monday morning, and Willow to Tuesday. The visit was not full of joy, as her grandfather was now in hospital, but they visited him and took her grandmother out for meals. Wendy broached the idea of her coming to Rising Lane to live in the future and was given a half-hearted agreement that it ‘may be nice’.

On Monday afternoon, Wendy left to go home, and, on Tuesday morning, Willow was collected to go to London, arriving before lunch, with just her small case. She opened up her apartment and opened a window to clear the air. She had lunch in the restaurant and spoke to Ted, and then took a taxi into the city.

Her first task was to buy some bed linen that was more her style. She bought four sets of sheets and pillowcases in pastel colours. She decided that it was enough for the day and got another taxi home. She stripped the two beds and made them both up with new sheets. The old, she put into a bag for the laundry, and the spares were taken into the other apartment for storage.

She had dinner in the restaurant and spent the evening trying on the outfits in her wardrobe, setting aside those that were too small or too short. On the Wednesday, she took a taxi to the offices, walking into a meeting where Vivienne was already talking to Jill. When they were joined by Clive, they sat around the table and Clive opened the meeting.

“Girls, you’re aware that sales of Summer Rose albums are dropping off. We’ve had a tremendous run with them and there’s nothing wrong with that. Willow, your solo album has passed the Platinum Record mark, and we’ll give you that award today. Vivienne, your DVD has passed the Gold and is so close to Platinum, we’ll give you both awards before you leave. What we want to put in place is a short season, at the end of May. It will be here, in London, and will be from the Saturday to the next Saturday, in one of the better nightclubs. We’ve been putting Zara into a number of places, and she’s building a solid following. We’ll have an album with her and her band before the end of this month. She is scheduled to be in your studio next week to record it.”

Both girls smiled, happy for their friend.

“I’ve got your holiday dates, and you can get here on the Saturday to play that night, and then every night to the next Saturday. You can go home on the Sunday. We’ve been able to negotiate a reasonable deal, with you both being paid twenty thousand each, for the week. What they want is a show with you singing your songs, with just you, Willow, playing piano. You can sort out how you want to work it before then, but work on six hours on stage, between eight and two in the morning, with breaks. You’ll be fed before you start.”

“Is it a place where they’re dancing?”

“Yes, but all very intimate and slow, so your material will be perfect.”

“Sounds good, Clive.”

“That’s not all, Willow. We will be sending the two of you on tour, during your summer break, with week-long seasons in each of six cities. Paris, Monaco, Florence, Zurich, Prague and Berlin. We expect that you can give us an album, each, before that, and one of the London evenings will be tastefully filmed for a DVD to be in those markets before you play. It’s not the millions that you got for big stadium shows, but you will both get a boost from album sales, as well as showing the world that you’re both professional entertainers, and we can build on that for next year, with you out front of a band, with them on a salary.”

“We’ll both be in fifth year after that, so will have to concentrate on our studies more.”

“Taken on board. Now, I’ll get a photographer in, and we’ll give you the awards, and then we can go for lunch.”

The photographer was summoned, and the CEO gave them their awards. Willow got her Platinum, with another for Sarah. Vivienne got both the Gold and Platinum, with one of each for Sarah, as well as another pair for Josh and Sydney for the DVD. Viv also got another as the writer and composer of all the songs. While they had lunch, the awards were bubble wrapped and put into big bags for them. Outside the office, bags in hand, Willow turned to Viv as they were waiting for a taxi to stop.

“Where are you staying, Viv?”

“I’m booked into a hotel. Mum brought me down. We’re going home tomorrow.”

“I’ve got an apartment with two bedrooms. Why don’t you let your mother go home, and you stay with me a few days. I’m going shopping for clothes that fit. I’ve got a limo booked to take me home next Thursday.”

“That sounds good. If you come to the hotel, you can talk to Mum. If she’s happy, I’ll pack, and we can go to your place. It will be nice to be independent for a week.”

By dinnertime, Vivienne was settled in the upstairs bedroom and the two of the went down to the restaurant. Carlo was happy to see them, and Julie was happy to see Vivienne, having just loved their album. Viv was introduced to Ted and Kevin, Alicia and Hazel, and the conversation that evening was about her university thoughts. Willow texted Gina, to tell her that the label had booked her in a nightclub on the day of Gina’s birthday, and that she was sorry she couldn’t be in Italy but would be playing in Florence in the summer.

Over the next week, the girls went to a lot of shops. Willow got a laundry bag from Carlo and put all of her unwanted clothes in it to go for charity. Then she filled all of the empty spaces with new outfits, suitable for an up-market girl in London and other capital cities. They both bought outfits for eight nights of performing. Vivienne would be staying in the apartment while they were here, so left quite a lot of her things.

In the evenings, they worked on some songs, with Willow on the keyboard, to get ahead of the shows and albums. On the Friday, they were picked up in a limo and went to Rising Lane first, where Vivienne was shown the upright piano and invited to come around on weekends to perfect their show. Willow’s cases were unloaded, and the driver took Vivienne home.

Willow looked up the emails, noting another statement that had come in while she was in London, with another three hundred thousand going into the business account. The next day, she had the limo service drive her to the clinic and wait for her, while she was checked and had samples taken. Her doctor was very happy that the new development was happening and told her to expect it to continue for another year or so, with her ending up at a normal size for a late-teen girl. She was told that if her B12 levels remained good, she might be able to stop having the injections.

On the first Monday back at school, Viv told Willow that she had signed on with the limo company, so would be able to visit on weekends without bothering her mother. On Wednesday, Wendy texted Willow with the news that her father had died in the early hours of that morning. and to say that she was going home to pack and would be in Cambridge until after the funeral.

On Thursday, they were notified that the funeral would be the following Tuesday. Willow and her father would take the trip to Cambridge and the three would be coming back on Thursday. With, hopefully, all of her mother’s things and her grandmother. Willow and Ashley made up the spare room bed, and Willow advised the school that she had to be in Cambridge for the next week to attend her grandfather’s funeral.

On Saturday, they went into Birmingham and stocked up with the things that they knew her grandmother liked, and they drove to Cambridge on the Sunday, checking in to the hotel where Wendy had been given a suite. When Willow saw her grandmother, she was shocked at how much she had suddenly aged. She had to be held up during the funeral, and on Wednesday, declared that she had been accepted at an aged-care home in Cambridge, where some of her old friends were already living. So, in the end, they settled her into the home and helped her sort out what she wanted to keep.

They paid for a house-cleaning service to clear the house and signed with an agent to sell it, Wendy already having the authority to make the decisions. When they did go home, on the Sunday, it was in the two cars, Wendy’s with boxes of things that had been hers and that she wanted to keep. She promised her mother that she would come and see her every month.

Over the next week, Willow was given the lesson notes for the ones she had missed and got back in touch with the way the operetta was going, now well into the third act. She advised the PE teacher that she had been booked to play a nightclub over the holiday, so wasn’t available for the netball carnival. The new statement was a lot leaner, and she was only prepared to transfer another three hundred thousand, leaving under four hundred thousand with Peter.

The next weekend had Vivienne at the house all weekend, sleeping in the spare room, and working with Willow playing the piano. This was repeated for the next three weekends. The operetta had been completed, and Willow told Mister Bamborough that she had booked the studio for the first week of next month, so that they could workshop it and get a saleable DVD. He had seen enough to get the Head to permit them all to be taken to the studio on the Monday, for the day.

On Willow’s sixteenth birthday, the family went to the Punchbowl for dinner, with the only indication that it was a special meal being them dressing a little better. After the loss of her grandfather, Willow wasn’t feeling up to throwing a party. On Friday evening, she emailed Gina with a birthday wish, telling her that she would be playing in Florence, in the first week of August.

That Saturday morning, Vivienne picked Willow up in her own limo, and they went into London. They got settled into the apartment and took a taxi to the night club. When they walked in, they were greeted warmly and shown the small stage area and the baby grand that Willow was to use. She sat and played as the manager sorted out the microphones, and then they did one of the duets that they had worked on.

Vivienne was singing and was looking around the brightly lit dance space and noticed a couple of odd neon signs on the wall. When they stopped, she asked, over the PA, something that she didn’t understand.

“This club. We were told that it was usually slow and intimate dancing, but it looks more like a rage club.”

“It is, on certain nights in the month. We have live bands at times, a DJ a lot of the time, but we’ve advertised that your week was smooth and easy. They’re keen to have you play for them.”

“What sort of people are your members?”

“Gay ones. The club is a gay club where the members can feel safe. There are more girls than boys, and you two have become somewhat like icons of female empowerment with the most recent albums. They loved the Summer Rose albums, and the DJ often plays the hard rock tracks, but this week is all sweetness and love. Be prepared to be hit on, but there’ll be no aggression if you say no.”

“Our people at the label said nothing about it being a gay club.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Just a bit of a surprise. They’ve booked us to other nightclubs in Europe as a summer tour. I think that we’ll have to ask if they’re similar. Just make sure that we only get water in unopened bottles, please, just to be sure.”

“That sort of thing doesn’t happen here, or, at least, while they’re inside. Most of our members are better than that, and our membership fee ensures that.”

When they left the club, with the advice to get back at seven for a meal, and a pair of lanyards to get them in, Willow laughed.

“I think that a lot in the crowd in Berlin were gay, it was the leather outfits that didn’t look like proper biker gear.”

“How do you know that?”

“I was a tomboy and spent some time looking at motorcycle magazines.”

Back at the apartment, they rang Jill.

“Hello Jill, it’s Willow. We’ve just been to that nightclub and found out that it’s members are all gay. Did you know about that?”

“That’s news to me. Let me look up the file and I’ll ring you back.”

They were having lunch in the restaurant when she called back.

“Willow. I’ve looked at the records, and there’s no mention that it’s gay. Is that a problem?”

“I’ll let you know tomorrow. What about the ones over summer?”

“Damn! I’ve just seen that all the venues were booked by the Rainbow Alliance, so I guess that they all are. They seemed keen to get you booked.”

“We were told that we’re ‘icons of female empowerment’. I expect that their money is as good as anyone else, but it is going to give us an interesting reputation. Next thing will be an invite to the Sydney Mardi gras. That wouldn’t go down with our fan club there.”

“You’ll just have to be seen around with guys. You already have plenty of pictures out there with Jacob, and Vivienne has several with Roy. OK, so those may be over, but it would pay for you to claim that you’re straight, just between boyfriends at the moment. Otherwise, some may think that the two of you are a couple.”

That evening, dressed to impress, they took a taxi to the club, being allowed in and bypassing a short queue. They were given a light meal, with drinks from bottles opened for them. When they stepped out on the stage, they got a welcome roar from the room. They started with some of the early songs, with the Carpenters and Journey albums. ‘Finding a Friend’ got calls to repeat and they hardly had to sing it, with the dancers singing it for them. They had breaks, when they were besieged by girls wanting to talk, and worked through the Summer Rose catalogue that could be sung as a duet, and were into their solo albums after midnight, as well as some of the new ones that they had written in the last month.

When they finally finished, a taxi was called for them and they went back to the apartment.

“That was different!”

“It was, wasn’t it? When you come down to it, they were just more people wanting to be entertained. What worries me is if it’s all the same crowd every night. They’re going to be bored with the set by Monday.”

“We’ll just have to wait and see. It was a happy crowd, though, and not as ‘in your face’ as I expected. They knew a lot of the words.”

“That’s the bit that gets to me. You write a song that you hope will be catchy, and it’s a surprise when it’s so catchy that they’re singing it for you. Some of that material was a couple of years old.”

Vivienne went up to her room and they got to bed. Willow laid for a while, telling City Shaun about some of the sights she had seen that evening. There had been a few who looked totally ‘butch’, but the majority wouldn’t look out of place in any shopping centre. She wondered if some who had seen her, and Gina, shopping may have thought that they were more than friends. Even with Vivienne when they were here in the Easter break.

They slept late, but the other two couples were still having breakfast when they went down to the restaurant.

“How was last night? A bit different to a big stadium.”

“It’s a gay club, Ted, and different doesn’t begin to describe it.”

Hazel laughed.

“Don’t tell me, they’re setting you up as the next Kylie, as ‘icons of female empowerment’.”

“Got it in one, Hazel. It was all right, and everyone was very friendly. We even didn’t have to be singing, as there were a lot of times when all I had to do was play the tune and they sung.”

“Why don’t you see if they know any of your drinking songs?”

“If they look bored, we might try that.”

By the end of the next Saturday night, they had repeated the set, added other things that had worked in Stoneleigh, mined their memories for other popular songs by Kylie and others, and generally had a good time. When they ended the last set, the manager gave each of them a bulging envelope, ‘from the tip jar’ and thanked them for a wonderful masterclass of entertaining.

They had lunch in the restaurant on the Sunday, and then the limo picked them up for the trip back home. When Willow got out and retrieved her bag, Vivienne stood, and they hugged.

“Willow, my friend, that had to be one of the best weeks of my life. It was one thing to be backing the Rose, but another to be on stage as a duo with you. I’ve learned a lot before we did this, working up the set, but I learned more about who I am in close proximity to our fans, and out front and singing some of my own songs. If I was gay, I’d kiss you!”

“Please don’t. My mother would get the wrong idea if I went in with smeared lipstick. I had fun as well, and I’m looking forward to the big tour. Gina’s going to have a surprise when she comes to see us in Florence. I’ll see you at school tomorrow. Sebastian’s taking me in, and Max will be there with a coach to take us to the studio. Don’t forget the awards for Sarah and the team.”

“I won’t. It will be odd being back at school after our week. How long do we have to get the operetta sorted out?”

“I told Mister Bamborough that it may take a couple of days, and that when the others go back to school, you and I will be recording a pair of albums before we’re back.”

“At least we know that they work, It didn’t take long for all the songs from them being sung in that club.”

“Call it a ‘focus group’ Viv. They were accepted so quickly, when the albums get issued, we’ll probably get a writeup in the Pink News.”

“Now that would be an interesting addition to my mother’s scrapbook.”

“Mine too!”

Marianne Gregory, © 2025