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Chapter 62
Blake was waiting as Jenny walked down the boarding ramp into the arrival lounge at L.A. International. She was smiling, and he thought that was a good sign. "Welcome back," he told her. "You have a good trip?"
"Wonderful," she said. "Best time I've had in years. How did yours go?"
"Not so well," Blake admitted, "But, I'll tell you about it later." He took Jenny's carryon, and they started down to the luggage pickup area.
As they walked along, Blake slowly became aware that Jenny was singing to herself, just low enough for him to hear. He couldn't make out the words, but Jenny singing to herself was just about unprecedented, and Blake was surprised to hear it. "You do sound like
you're in a good mood," he couldn't help but commenting.
"I had a good time," Jenny said. "Got a couple things worked out. I've been thinking, Blake. Let's shake around, come up with a little new material, something I can work on to take a break from shooting the next couple of months."
"I don't know what it is about the air back there," Blake said, "But it sure sounds like it made you a demon for work."
"It'd be fun to do some new things," Jenny replied. "What's the schedule look like? I know this movie is going to keep me going through the middle of September, and there's that Australia - New Zealand tour the end of the month and the first part of October, but am I
going to be clear enough to go back home for a week or two toward the end of October?"
"I think so," Blake said, still wondering what had happened to her. "It is now, anyway. Knox called, oh, Thursday or Friday, and he's interested in you doing a couple weekend dates in Vegas in October."
"The hell with Vegas. I want to go home in October. I've got some business to take care of there, and this time, I want you to come with me."
They arrived in the luggage pickup area, and didn't have a chance to talk for a minute. They found Jenny's luggage quickly, and headed out for the short-term parking before Blake could comment, "If you want me to go to Spearfish Lake, then you had some trouble."
"There was a little, but nothing my friends couldn't handle," Jenny admitted.
"It wouldn't have something to do with a crew from Inside Hollywood, would it?"
"How'd you hear about that?" Jenny said, getting in the car.
"I had a call from a guy who heard from a guy who heard from a guy that an Inside Hollywood crew got worked over by some cops and dumped in a swamp, and barely escaped with their lives."
"I didn't have anything to do with it," Jenny said. "Well, not much, anyway. That's what I like about Spearfish Lake. I've got friends there, friends that will take care of me and stick by me. Blake, no criticism, but you couldn't have handled it that well."
"I'm not sure I want to hear the whole story," Blake said. "I think this falls in the category of `what I know won't hurt me'. Well, anyway, this guy said the crew told Inside Hollywood to take their job and shove it."
"Hey?" Jenny said, realizing something. "How'd you hear about that? You said you had a call a couple of days ago, and that Knox called you last week. I thought you were up in the Bay area, cruising the bars."
"Like I said, my trip didn't go as well as yours. I got up there, and you know what? I guess I've been hanging around you too long. I found that I just wasn't interested. After a couple of nights, I realized that I was bored with it. Of course, AIDS has got everybody
running scared up there, too, and that doesn't help much. So finally, I said the heck with it, went back to Malibu, laid around the house, and did a little surfing. Kind of relaxing, but not what I intended."
Jenny put her hand on his shoulder as he pulled out onto the freeway. "Don't let it get you down. Maybe it all worked out for the best. You look pretty good, yourself."
"All the laying around on the beach, and the surfing, even though the beach scene isn't what it used to be, either."
"Do you know how long I've been in California, and I've never yet been on a surfboard? Would you take me surfing sometime, Blake?"
"Sure," he said. "It's just you never asked."
"I always wanted to," Jenny said. "But there never was any time. I was always too busy. That's got to change."
Something was definitely wrong, Blake realized. Well, not wrong, but different. With the schedule she faced the next couple of months, he would have expected Jenny to be pretty morose. Yet, here she was chipper, about as up as he'd ever seen her. "What's got into
you?" he asked. "You're sure not the Jenny I saw when you left."
"Well, I hope I'm not. "I spent a lot of time laying around and thinking," she reported. "Mike and I had a long talk, two or three times, and I guess he made me realize that I've been working too hard. The more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. Blake,
you're going to have to help me with Knox, but over the next few months, I'm going to tail off doing this penny-ante stuff, like that show at Vegas. I don't need that kind of exposure, any more. Then, when we go back to Spearfish Lake in October, I'm either going to buy a house,
or look for the right piece of land and have Uncle Brent build me a house. By next summer, I intend to be living in Spearfish Lake, not here in L.A. I'll come out here when I have to, but go home when I don't."
"I've heard that for years," Blake said, his eyes on the idiot ahead of them.
"I mean it, this time," Jenny said. "Jenny Easton is going to go back to Spearfish Lake."
"This Mike? Is he married? Have you got something going?"
"Mike isn't married," Jenny teased, "And he's kind of cute."
"I knew there was something there."
"We do have something special," Jenny went on. "I held the hand of the girl he's been living with for the last twelve years, while she had their third kid. They're married in everything but the name, but they're both old friends. Mike is the first person that told me I could
sing professionally, and he's the guy that organized running those Inside Hollywood guys out of town."
"Not the first unmarried pulp logger that called you `Jennifer Evachevski', huh?" Blake smiled. It was strange to have Jenny pulling his leg. Nice, but strange.
"He's a nice guy, Blake. You'll like him."
"Me? I thought you were the one that was going to move back to Spearfish Lake?"
Jenny turned in her seat to face him. "Blake, some things are going to change, but I'm going to need you doing what you're doing, just as bad as ever. My friends were nice and helped me out this time, but I can't ask them to run off everybody with a camera that
comes to town. There's going to be a lot of things that won't change."
"But, Jenny . . ."
"Don't `But Jenny' me," she said. "I know you think you're not going to fit in there, and you may have to keep it in the closet while you're there, for a while, anyway. But, it's not like we're married, or anything. What you do on your vacation is your own business, like
it is now."
"I don't know, Jenny. We'll see."
