El Rancho del Corazón
51 Producer
LITERARY CRITICISM was only a one semester course, so my new class schedule put Public Oral Communication in that time slot. I couldn’t believe I was going to be in yet another speech class, but it was a degree requirement. My record in giving speeches according to the rules of public speaking was uneven. Still, you would think I’d get some credit for doing a half-hour demonstration every week on television. But, no.
And I was missing my second class.
Instead, Hannah had a death grip on my hand as we entered the media center. Lonnie had invited her to talk to his Introduction to Media Design and Production class to start the semester off. We were a few minutes early and entered a classroom that would hold a hundred people.
“Uh-oh,” Hannah whispered. “I thought it was just a few people. Brian…”
“Hannah!” Lonnie called when he saw her enter. He didn’t give her time for any second thoughts. He swept her over to the podium and hooked a wireless microphone to her. We both knew how these worked. He was talking non-stop and either didn’t notice the way her clipboard was shaking in her hand or was intentionally ignoring her as he kept giving her instructions and talking about the kind of students who would be in the class. Gradually, she relaxed and I saw her taking deep breaths. She even laughed at something he said. He was doing a masterful job of calming her down. He motioned me to take a seat and I turned around to see the room filling. I quickly grabbed a seat off to the side in the front row where I could give her encouragement but wasn’t in her direct line of sight to make her nervous. At exactly 4:40, Lonnie turned from Hannah and stepped up to the podium.
“We have a guest speaker today and I am not going to take up any more of her time than I have to,” he said to the class. “Hannah Gordon is the producer of the television show, Young Cooking with Chef Brian. This is a weekly production syndicated through over forty television stations. Episode thirteen aired this past Friday. We have a great working relationship with Miss Gordon and her staff. She has graciously allowed us to use her studio as a training ground for our advanced production students. Four students will be training under her guidance starting this weekend. If you choose to proceed in telecommunications here at IU, chances are there will be an opportunity for you to work with Miss Gordon before you graduate. Believe me when I say that will be a great privilege. I am going to let her take over immediately to give you an overview of television production from her experience. Miss Gordon.” Lonnie stepped aside and Hannah immediately dropped her clipboard then picked it up and approached the podium. There was some light applause from the students, some of whom were whispering. I caught the words ‘young’ and ‘girl.’ To me, she looked perfectly professional in her green blouse and charcoal slacks. I noticed that she’d acquired black pumps to go with the outfit.
“You lied to me,” she said, pointing at Lonnie. Her voice was a little shaky. “You told me I needed this microphone to be heard by the class. I know what the light on that camera means. I’m not used to being on this side of it.” There was some laughter. She stepped out from behind the podium and did a little pirouette. “Everybody look at me and imagine me ten pounds lighter. We all know the camera adds ten pounds.” This time everyone was with her and laughed. I sat back to listen to my amazing girlfriend.
“Lonnie… er… Professor Phillips said not to try to cover everything today because if you like me he’ll invite me back. So feel free to boo anytime. I’ll start with the question that’s on everyone’s mind here. I’m eighteen. And six months. That means I’m probably younger than everyone here because I was told this class was mostly people who had already had a level 100 course that is a pre-req. Not only are you all older than me, you are all smarter, too. I’m not even in college. I barely managed to graduate from high school. Any dummy can be a television producer.” She looked around at the students and I saw some pretty wide eyes among them.
“If you don’t believe me, try watching a re-run of Murphy’s Law, if you can find one. Really, how can you make George Segal look that bad? Here’s all it takes to become a professional television producer. It takes one, wonderful, good person to believe in you. For me, that person is Brian Frost, Chef Brian of Young Cooking. He’s sitting right there, ready to catch me if I fall off the stage.” She pointed at me. “And it takes a whole squadron of great people who won’t let you fail. I’ll start by talking about my very short and intense apprenticeship with Harvey Grissom, the producer of The Homemakers’ Hour with Miss Polly.”
Hannah spun a story about becoming a television producer that had every student in that room on the edge of their seats. They laughed when they should laugh. They gasped when she told them about the fire that destroyed our intended studio. They applauded when they heard about the barn renovation. I saw a side of my beloved girl that I’d never witnessed before. I wanted her on camera. There was a huge round of applause when she finished.
“I think I can safely say that we will invite Miss Gordon back for a more in-depth look at some facets of her work as a television producer,” Lonnie said as the applause died down. “And you can see why I say that you will be a fortunate student if you get to work on one of her productions in the future. Hannah, I think I can safely say that you are the youngest professor here at IU.”
“Wow!” I said when we’d finally escaped and were in the car to drive home. Erudite. That’s me. “Hannah, I had no idea. I just come in on Saturday morning and do my thing and everything is in order and is perfect. It just never dawned on me how much work it was to make that happen. And how…” I couldn’t say how good she was without sounding like I didn’t think she was good before. But I’d just seen a whole new level of good. So had everyone else, including a half dozen guys who wanted to hang out after class and one who even asked her out. Right in front of me.
“I was scared shitless,” she said. “Maybe literally. I have to check my panties when we get home. Oh. Except I didn’t wear any. I hope I didn’t ruin these slacks.” I started laughing again.
“When did you turn into such a comedian?” I asked. “I thought those kids would never stop laughing when you told about getting so many orgasms you passed out before our dinner with Lonnie. Even Lonnie was shocked and then doubled over laughing.”
“I didn’t cover half of what was in my notes,” she said. “I completely forgot to tell them about my first estimates for lighting.” I just shook my head. It wasn’t just that she did great on the stage in front of the audience. It wasn’t just that she’d accomplished so much since she took over the job as my producer eight months ago. It was the other things. I guess a sigh escaped. “What?” she asked. “You are upset about something. Brian, what did I do wrong?” So quickly from elation to panic.
“No, honey. Nothing is wrong. You were wonderful. I’m trying not to be jealous!”
“You’ve never been jealous, Brian. What is it? What are you keeping back?” she asked.
“It’s really nothing. Just... When were you going to tell me about all the big plans for additional shows and our production company? I’m a student, Hannah. I can’t do all that stuff,” I complained. She’d painted a picture for the class of our future that had full time production going on with multiple types of cooking shows. To listen to her talk, I’d have at least two hours of programming a day within two years.
“Oh! Is that all? I mean, I know it sounds like a lot. I haven’t even brought it to the board yet. Harvey has been working with me on it. You don’t have to worry. I haven’t scheduled you for any more than you are currently doing,” she said.
“I don’t get it.”
“We’d better go home so I can talk to everyone at once. We’ll have to go through it again for those who are away from the casa, but I should have talked to people before. At the moment, it is all an exercise that Harvey wanted me to do. He said that shows like ours have a life expectancy. Miss Polly is an anomaly and only because hers is really a variety show. It’s different every day with different guests and celebrities. It was even enhanced with you and she’s looking at adding a different kind of segment to her Friday shows since we are airing after it on Friday and not during it. The life expectancy of a straight cooking show is unknown, but most weekly broadcasts don’t last more than five to seven years. And you aren’t exactly Julia Child.”
“Not by eight inches,” I laughed.
“Harvey wanted to know how we were going to plan for when you were no longer willing or able to do Young Cooking.”
“The big question is whether or not we want to be in the television production business long term,” Hannah said. “Fortunately, it isn’t a question that has to be answered today. We’re all in college… sort of. Everybody is studying something different. No one is suggesting that you have to put aside your dream and pursue this instead. And you don’t have to do it for me. By the time everyone is out of college, I’ll have enough television credit to get a job as a producer for a real television station. For me, putting together this plan is part of my education. Harvey and Lonnie are both working with me to make me a good producer.”
“This is so cool,” Whitney said. “I’d love to be a part of it. Maybe I can work my schedule to take some telecommunications courses. I hate to say it, but I’ve been drifting a little. I came to college to play basketball, but after college, there’s no more basketball. There’s no NBA chance for me like there is for Lamar and Lionel. I haven’t even declared a major.”
“It’s interesting. I didn’t know we had potential like that,” Jennifer said. “But it sounds like it would turn our whole home into a television studio. I mean, we sort of live on set as it is, but it feels like it would be less like a home. I wonder what Mom intends to do about rebuilding the farmhouse.”
“That brings us to something else that Hannah’s business plan exposes,” Rose said. She paused to think and then just blurted out, “How many of us are going to stay married together after college?”
That stopped us all. We were freshmen, eighteen and nineteen years old. I looked around at my household. There were only eight of us at dinner sitting with our dirty plates in front of us as we talked. Some of us were already getting antsy to do homework. I had chemistry reading before tomorrow’s lecture. Rose, Hannah, Samantha, Jennifer, Courtney, Whitney, and Liz. I couldn’t imagine being apart from any of them, but did I consider us married? Didn’t marriage imply that I was providing for them? That we had children? That we packed up the family and went on vacation? I was having bareback sex with six of the seven girls at the table now, but it was Liz who first raised her hand.
“Me,” she said simply. We all turned to look at her. “I know I’m the wild child in this group. I go visit Doug so I can get one more cock in my pussy. I have no problem going down on Josh when Cassie wants help. I’d probably fuck him if they changed their rules. But that’s not where I see my life in even two or three more years. I see my life as married to Brian and raising our children. I don’t mean married like a preacher and license and all that. And I don’t mean kicking all the rest of you out. I just mean that one day, I want to be with the love of my life and know that he’s everything I’ll ever want or need. Of course, I’ll have to convince him that he wants me like that, but it’s all I ever really wanted. I’m just too young for it right now.”
I was speechless. Of all the girls at the table, I considered Liz to be the least likely to want to settle down. But maybe she was right to be wild now and be ready to settle when the time came. Two or three years? Wow!
One by one, all the hands at the table went up, mine included.
“So,” Rose continued, “Liz is working toward a profession that she could do wherever the love of her life locates. Smart girl. We might not have sex together, Liz, but I love you and I love what you just said. I don’t even have a career idea. I love literature and I’ve always liked law. But what am I going to do for a living? I don’t know. Teach? Do I really want to be a lawyer? Write? I’m no Nat Hart.” We all giggled, still not completely sure who Nat Hart was at the moment. He seemed to change periodically.
“There are big companies that are getting bigger,” Courtney said. “I want to work in computers, but I don’t know what I want to do with them yet. Except do it better than that damned bastard in my class. I swear if he makes another pass at me, he’ll find out what we learned during forms. Anyway, with all that uncertain, I still can’t imagine my life without Brian and Jennifer. That’s more important to me than any career.”
We kept talking about our dreams and what we wanted to do with our lives. Hannah had already been pretty clear. Sam was majoring in business, but she didn’t have any great ambitions. Jennifer was thinking about marketing and advertising. Her dad put a lot of pressure on her to study law, but she didn’t have the interest in that. Rose, with as much as she loved literature, still had her options open for law school eventually.
What did I want to do? All my life, I just assumed chemistry would be my life’s work. Then my thirteen-year-old girlfriend in junior high gave me a cookbook and the world changed.
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