Land Ho

Brian and Justin were seated on the floor of their own loft - looking at the fire in their own fake fireplace. It had been a while.

“Three weeks since we’ve been here, Brian,” Justin said. “The cruise was a lot of fun but I’m not sorry to be home. I’m way behind over at the Institute.”

“And Kinnetics is in shambles after three weeks without me, Baby,” Brian commented. “You can believe that.”

“Not if I can also believe Cynthia, Sweetheart,” Justin laughed. “She said things have never run so smoothly over there ….”

“Oh did she now?” Brian grinned at him, “So how come I had to be in contact with them for an hour or so every day – making sure things were running so damn smoothly?”

“I think maybe what she meant was that – like – one hour a day was all you needed to be there, Honey,” Justin explained his interpretation. “For things to run so smoothly, that is. A full day at the office could maybe be too much for really peak efficiency. Maybe you should stay here all day, Bri,” he added, “And just like – call over there for an hour or so every day – like you did on the cruise - and see how that works ….”

“Well it might just work all right for Kinnetics, Taylor,” Brian pointed out laughingly, “but it wouldn’t work for the Institute. If I were here all day every day, you’d never leave – so the Institute would never see any of you at all – and you being so important over there ….”

“So what did you think of the cruise, Brian?” Justin changed the subject instead of responding to Brian’s supposition. “What do you remember most?”

“The important thing is what you thought of the cruise, JT,” Brian reversed the question. “And what Mikey thought. The purpose of the cruise was to get the Rage project going. Did it do that?”

“Yep, it did,” Justin acknowledged. “It was a good idea for us to get to know Dave’s New York people who are working on it. We got a lot of important stuff ironed out. We maybe could have done it all in two weeks though ….”

“But if we had only been two weeks at sea, Baby,” Brian reminded him, “Gus wouldn’t have got to join us – and he really enjoyed himself. I knew he would ….”

“Yeah, he did,” Justin agreed, “and now he calls David ‘Uncle Dave’ too. He doesn’t even call Mikey ‘Uncle Mikey.’”

“Maybe you should speak to our son.” Brian suggested. “You don’t want Mikey to feel insulted – and you’re so much better than me on that social crap. You could tell him what he ought to do to please ‘Uncle Michael’ – or maybe lay off the ‘Uncle Dave’ …”

“Maybe so,” Justin acknowledged the possibility, “But it might be a hard sell. ‘Uncle Dave’ had Gus playing duets with ‘Uncle Wendell’ before dinner every night that last week on the ship – which pleased Gus no end….”

“Yeah he did, Sweetheart, and by the way,” Brian interrupted, “the violin and the cello sound awful enough by themselves - but together they ….”

“I thought you loved it, Kinney,” Justin laughed. “The way you were clapping and all. You faker ….”

”Well it was our kid playing. You didn’t hear me calling for any encores, did you?” Brian asked him.

“I thought you didn’t call for encores because you figured I might be hungry, Mr. Kinney,” Justin gibed. “Now I find you were not doing it on my behalf at all ….”

“Nope,” Brian replied. “If I’d have thought about you being hungry – and I guess I should have - I would have called for a couple of encores every night ….”

Now it should be no surprise at all in the Brian-Justin relationship that that particular repartee would lead to a prolonged stoppage of the conversation – and that is, of course, exactly what happened.

“Did Gus tell you that Wendell is going to compose a short five-minute violin piece especially for Gus?” Justin volunteered as the conversation resumed. “Gus can use it as a signature piece – or as an encore piece. You’ll be hearing that a lot. Wendell is a great composer ….”

“Geez, Taylor,” Brian complained jocularly. “You get me in so much trouble that I’m not surprised at anything. But nobody told me that – not even you ….”

“I guess I thought Gus wanted to tell you,” Justin defended himself. “Or I would have ….


“Well nobody ever tells me anything,” Brian continued to complain. “I bet there’s a lot that went on during that cruise that nobody ever told me ….”

“Well I don’t know how you missed all the stuff, Brian,” Justin seemed puzzled. “Everybody was talking about it. You do know Dave invited Malcolm to direct a couple of episodes of the Rage TV program when it finally hits the small screen – not that TVs are so small these days …?”

“No I didn’t know that either,” Brian informed him. “I didn’t even know they decided on TV and not a movie ….”

“Dave’s hoping for both, Bri,” Justin continued the revelation. “But the TV will come first - so that people will know more about Rage before the big blockbuster movie comes out ….”

“Does Malcolm have any experience directing TV, JT?” Brian tried to remember. “I don’t think so …..”

”Well he said he did,” Justin told him, “And he will by the time he directs any Rage episode because Dave asked him to direct a couple of episodes of Rickshaw’s soap opera. Why do you think he stayed in New York when we came back here?”

“So I guess Malcolm calls him ‘Uncle Dave’ too. I just thought he stayed there because he was such a good friend of Wendell,” Brian reasoned. “Geez, Baby, I may as well not have even gone on that cruise. I seemed to have missed everything ….”

“Now wait a darn minute, Mr. Kinney,” Justin stopped him. “I was on that cruise with you - so you didn’t miss everything – not the important stuff anyway. I should be insulted – and maybe I am too ….”

“Well we wouldn’t want you to be insulted, Baby, now would we?” Brian told him as the discourse hit another maybe unlikely - but not unexpected - pause.

“So you’re OK with Dave being our friend as well as our business associate, Baby,” Brian asked after the prolonged silence. “You had some qualms there for a while ….”

“I guess so, BK,” Justin told him. “If he’s gonna be Gus’ ‘Uncle Dave,’ I guess he should be a friend of ours too. I’m only kidding, Bri. Dave is a great friend. Yeah, I’m OK with him now that Wendell is in the picture – not that I don’t think they’re moving too fast ….”

“Well If Dave sends Gus a Stradivarius for his birthday, Sweetheart,” Brian declared, “I’m gonna make Gus send it back – even if Dave is our friend.”

“If you ever even find out about the Stradivarius, that is,” Justin laughed. “But you don’t have to worry, Brian Honey. I already warned Wendell - no great big gifts for Gus. Like – we want to be the ones to spoil Gus if he’s gonna get spoiled at all – and Wendell knows I mean business so there’s no worry there – none at all ….”

“I guess I’m lucky to have you around Baby,” Brian decided. “You always seem to take care of everything so I never have to worry about anything – or anybody – except maybe you ….”

“Well I better tell you one more thing I don’t think you know, Brian,” Justin moved in closer to the guy next to him – wondering how this news would be received. “Remember, you went straight to Kinnetics when we got back into town and I took Gus over to his place. Well Gus told the girls that him and ‘Uncle Dave’ were talking about the Mediterranean for the summer …..”

Brian did not respond as he ran his hand slowly through the kid’s blond locks.

“Did you hear what I just told you, Brian?” Justin asked him nervously - after the unexpected silence.

“Yeah, I heard you, Baby.” Brian assured him – continuing to do what he was doing. “So what!!! Kinnetics runs better when I’m not there anyhow. Your job is just to make sure that Gus forgets his violin.”
 

Return to Fireside Chats