Heaven’s Gate
28 Four More Years
“You’ve collected a lot of data, Brian,” Dr. Z said at our meeting on Wednesday. “But I’m not seeing your results. So far, this is a report on what your researcher has done. I’m impressed by that, by the way. She’s really very good.”
“Sarah is preparing her dissertation based on the methodology she used for this,” I said. “It’s unique and her advisors say she has broken new ground.”
“But what is your conclusion? Your thesis?” Dr. Z persisted.
“This might actually be the only place where trickle-down economics actually works,” I laughed. He nodded. “There is a hierarchy in the audience levels that makes it difficult for producers to fix a target. I’ll start with the initial premise. We chose guests that would appeal to our live audience of college level women. The college level women preferred successful young professionals over peers, especially if they were graduates of their school or members of their sorority. They were lukewarm when it came to older or unrelated professionals, even when that professional was presenting on a topic the audience said was highly interesting. The television audience for these shows fell into a completely different profile. It showed the viewers were largely seventeen to twenty-year-olds who were either in high school or recently graduated, but were not in college. Sarah’s surveys showed that these young women held the sorority girls up as role models. They were interested in this topic; therefore, the TV audience would be interested. On the other hand, surveys showed that college sororities who were the target live audience, weren’t interested in watching individual shows that featured members of other sororities or students of other universities.”
“You made a shift and started doing more shows for younger live audiences. What was the result?” Dr. Z asked.
“Not quite what we expected,” I chuckled. “When we started featuring younger audiences, we started drawing more young males to the viewership. It wasn’t that they were interested in the topics at all. They were interested in the young women in the audience. The women in the audience were interested in women who were in college and to some extent in women who had chosen not to go to college, but were making it in the real world.”
“So how does that affect the plan going forward?”
“We believe that we can get an effective blend of audiences through the new ticketed attendance model that we tested in Chicago. Our presales show mostly group sales, but the independent sales seem to be pretty mixed as far as age and sex go.”
“Write it.”
September eleventh was our launch date and it was going to be a huge blast for everyone, especially CEN and Lockhurst Media. But we had so much to prepare. We’d be a week earlier than most major networks launching their new seasons. We’d always started the season on Labor Day, but that meant both working on a holiday and trying to draw an audience on a holiday. Delaying a week should have us in the heart of things. We’d launch the new Young Cooking with Chef Reese, Chick Chat and XX/XY. The Sunday weekly shows were pre-recorded and did not have a live audience, so they were already in production. Maggie, Jess, Jessica, and Amy were on the road the last week of August. They’d be back briefly for the weekend festivities and then would be gone again.
We started rehearsing and taping the first episode of Fashion Week, too. The whole show was scripted and it was different for Amber to work without an audience. It took a few tries to make it all look like she was being spontaneous, but as soon as Amber connected with the camera, things came to life. Since we weren’t using the studio for Chick Chat, Carl and Doug worked to put together a new set for the fashion show. We had plenty of materials because the seating for the audience was removed and we repositioned things to have a raised platform for the models to enter on.
We’d have our bonfire and adoption on Saturday, but before that I had an important date on Friday night.
“Happy birthday, Angela,” I whispered. She’d just walked through the door and was still wearing her scrubs. Her mom had given me run of the house, but had to leave before Angela got home to start her own shift at the hospital. I’d baked a cake and lit the candle when I heard Angela’s car pull in the driveway.
“Oh! Brian! Is this a surprise party?” she squeaked.
“Just for us, dear.” I hugged her to me.
“I miss you,” she cried. “I miss everyone. I don’t even see my mother most of the time. This is so hard!”
I led her to the sofa and she dropped her books along the way. She collapsed in my arms and sobbed softly.
“I’m sorry. You came to celebrate and here I am a weepy mess. I’m so tired!”
“This isn’t about what I came to do, sweetheart. It’s all about you. What can I do to help make this a happy birthday for you?”
“Wash me, feed me, and put me to sleep?” she said hesitantly.
“Blow out your candles,” I said. She looked at the cake on the table. Only three candles were still burning, the other twenty-one having melted into the frosting. She blew out the remaining candles.
“You win! Your wish is my command.”
I led her to the bathroom and ran the tub while I helped her out of her scrubs. She was wearing a T-shirt, bra, white granny-panties, and white crew socks. I removed the socks as she sat on the stool and lifted the T-shirt over her head. Angela sighed. She just let me undress her and baby her. When I unfastened her bra she moaned.
“Oh! It feels so good to get out of that industrial strength armor. You can’t imagine!”
“I’ve never seen you in so many clothes,” I laughed. She stood so I could slide her panties down and held my hand as she stepped into the tub.
“It’s policy,” she said. “The young doctors are bad enough. The patients are even worse. Never dress in a way that could remotely be considered an invitation to inappropriate behavior.”
“You’ve been molested?”
“Not overtly. Always something that could be considered an accidental touch. I hardly notice it if it’s my boobs. That’s why the heavy armor. I refuse to wear a girdle, so I occasionally feel a pat on my butt or a little squeeze,” she said.
“Geez! It sounds as bad as television.”
“Don’t tell me. You’ve been molested on TV?”
“You wouldn’t believe it.”
“Those sorority sluts!”
“The high school girls are worse. Rose almost went ballistic in Fort Wayne. Cassie and Dani just hover beside me and gently remove wandering hands. I’m never alone with an audience member or guest.”
“Oh, God! What do you do?”
“I usually go back to the hotel room and make love to one or more of my cónyuge.”
“Aren’t you just frustrated that you can’t reach out and pinch the nipples of one of those cute high school girls? Maybe she’s a virgin and wants to remedy the situation. You could have a side business going,” Angela laughed.
“And what could possibly be better than what I’m doing now?” I asked as I soaped her breasts and squeezed her nipples.
“That’s nice. I feel so relaxed. Maybe I should go to sleep now.”
“Food first. It’s in the oven.”
“I love you, Brian.”
I spent the night holding Angela in my arms. That’s how her mom found us in the morning. I let Angela sleep and joined her mom for coffee.
“Twelve on, eight off, all weekend,” Dinita said. “I might need you to hold me like that so I can sleep.”
“Do you have difficulty with that?” I asked. I’d become so used to seeing Dinita with nothing on at the ranch that our nudity this morning was almost unnoticed. Almost. Dinita is a fine figure of a woman. Fine.
“No. As soon as I get the armor off and have my tea, I’m off to sleep. Which is right about now. I’m going to go curl up next to my daughter so when she wakes up she at least knows her mother was here.”
“Take care of her, Dinita. We miss her so much.”
“Just four more years,” Dinita sighed.
At the bonfire Saturday night, we welcomed our five new clan members. There were no other adoptions or really much in the way of announcements. We were all in our summer weight house gis and tied white belts around each of their waists.
Reese and Laurie were standing near me. They looked very nervous but I couldn’t really see any reason for it. Everyone else was relaxed and people were toasting marshmallows over the coals.
“Brian?” Reese whispered to me. “When are we supposed to get naked? The suspense is killing me.” I looked at her with my mouth open.
“Um… We don’t require that anyone get naked just because they are in the clan, Reese.
“But Pam said…”
“I think I’m going to spank Pam,” I growled. She heard her name and possibly the threat. She turned to focus on me. TK had come out to the ranch for the fire and Pam grabbed her hand as she stalked up to me.
“You better be prepared to do more if you spank me, Patrón. It makes me horny.” With that, she untied her belt and dropped her gi to the ground. The pants followed quickly. TK wasn’t a second behind her.
“Yes!” Reese whispered. In another second her gi was off and for the first time I saw my young protégé naked. Oh, fuck! The rest of the dorm residents were naked in no time. It didn’t take much to encourage Amber, April, or Nancy to join in and I think Monte, Ross, and Rich ran around naked upstairs just because they didn’t want to do laundry. It took a couple minutes before Bob, Eric, and Brett dropped their gis. All three of them were sporting serious wood. I heard Rose’s laughter and my casa all came toward me, stripping off their gis.
“Don’t be the last one to the party, Brian,” Rose admonished as she gave me a hug and untied my belt. “It was their request,” she whispered in my ear. “They’ve been listening to the stories all summer and won’t consider themselves a part of the clan unless everyone is naked.”
I shook my head. Well, if I could hold Rose’s naked body next to me and take a good look at Reese and Laurie, I was all for it.
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