SPARKS 15

“Your house is gorgeous” Daniel is showing Julie around the mansion followed by Dawn and me. She is ecstatic. “This place is amazing, and I like the works of art you bought. You are an expert”
“No, not me, that is Gary” and Dawn smiles.
“Cut the tour! Gaz I’m starving!” Mark yells downstairs, looks around and counts the number of sittings at the table “Jay’s not coming?”
“No” he answers “he had a meeting with a business associate” and winks at him.
“Jason Orange, a mystery man with a mystery lady. I hope one day we’ll be able to take a sightseeing tour of his mind” Emma adds and laughs.
We sit down and Julie starts telling everyone about her days as a TT fan back in the days “One day, I skipped school and I took a train all the way to your mom’s house. I knew you were staying there, so I camped outside your door and sang ‘Million Love Songs’ for 4 hours straight. Even the dogs run away from me!”
“Oh God ….was it… November? I don’t remember what year… but … it was you?” Gary says surprised “Even Jay sings better than you do! I thought they were skinning a cat down the street! Didn’t I come out and begged you to stop?”
“Indeed! You said, and I’m quoting here ‘if you feel any love for me stop it please. My ears hurt. Why don’t you go home now? It’s cold outside’. That was the sweetest thing anyone ever said to me! And we took a picture together”
“But you didn’t leave”
“Of course not! I kept praying that you would come out and ask me to marry me”
“Believe it or not, after 3 hours of that insane lamentation I took it into consideration, just to have you shut up”
“Yeah me! I was almost married to you”
“Ignore her, as long as she takes her medication she is not dangerous” I tell them.
“Fans were really crazy at the time. We would find girls everywhere. We were told what hotel we were going to stay 10 minutes before getting there and we would find hundreds of fans waiting for us already. How did you know?”
“Well” Julie says “we had an under-cover groupie inside your organization. You have no idea about the intelligence behind our logistics. We were able to track you down anywhere in the world. Boy we were good, I figure some of the hard core ones are working for the MI5 now”
“Hard core is the right description. Oh …” and we can all see his mind wonder back to those days, there’s a satisfied smile on his lips “They were pretty straightforward. Good times!” He then realizes Emma is giving him the killer look so he adds “but there’s no comparison with what we have today, right Gaz? Nothing is better than go back to a home full of love”
“Of course Markie!”
“You are the most pathetic liar ever my love” Emma tells him.
“Me need to come out of this uncomfortable mess, now.” Looks at me “Bea, were you a fan too? Don’t tell me we slept together and I don’t remember it. If that is the case I’ll blame it on Jason, he was supposed to keep scores and write names down”
“No, I’m sorry but I was not allowed to go to concerts or follow pop-stars around. The Nazi principal of the Switzerland boarding school I was serving time in was not too keen in leisure activities”
“Switzerland?” Dawn asks “I though you were Italian”
*shit, why don’t I keep my big mouth shout? From the lying for dummies book, chapter one, page one if you have to tell a lie, make it big*
“I am, but my father had to emigrate. He found a job near Zurich so we moved. He could not take care of me and work at the same time so he decided a boarding school would be the perfect solution”
“I’m sorry, it must have been harsh” she says while Julie is about to choke on her salad.
“It was I hated every minute of it” *and this is not a lie* “so after two years of boot camp I packed my suitcase and basically hitchhiked my way to London to be with my uncle”
“You have family here?”
*What are you, retarded?* “yes I do” *can only take a lie at the time, short attention span I guess*
“It’s dessert time” Dawn sighs and goes into the kitchen. Julie gets closer and whispers into my ear ‘poor little girl, an authoritarian father, a horrible boarding school and a perilous journey across Europe to find happiness. Victor Hugo might sue you for plagiarism. Shame on you!” and laughs.
“Shut up, I fell guilty enough already. I did go to school there and my father is severe and I did leave the school to move in my uncle …”
She looks down on me “double shame on you, he sent his secretary to get you”
“Details” I whisper.
Dawn comes back with a fantastic chocolate and pear tart when the bell rings.
Mark shouts out “That is Jay! Dinner with friends and Dawn’s tart trump hot lady! I knew it! I’ll get it!” turns to Gaz “Don’t even think about getting your dirty hands close to the cake before I am back” He stands up, takes a few steps, the bell keeps on ringing, comes back to the table “I don’t trust you. This baby is coming with me” and takes the plate away and yells “Jay I’m coming, and I’m bringing my tarty friend to greet youuuuuuuuu!”
“Mark, come back here! Have I ever let you down? The cake belongs to the table! I mean it” and runs behind him.
“Julie, I hope you will not tell anyone what you’re witnessing here tonight”
Gaz comes back carrying the cake and smiling, Mark walks behind him “Dawn, I know about your pet policy but he followed me all the way here, can we keep him? I promise I’ll walk him every day before school” and Howard appears on the door, wearing jeans, a leather jacket and holding his bag.
Julie looks at him, spits all her wine on the beautiful linen tablecloth and yells “HOLY FUCK!”
I cover my eyes and whisper “excuse her French”.