Someone to Watch Over Me by Dan Bronson

Author:Dan Bronson [Bronson, Dan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-08T11:00:00+00:00

28

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

Get your tickets while they last! Step right up and join the fun! The big fun under the big top! Tonight, in the center ring, Titanic Pictures presents, for your entertainment and amazement, the death-defying skills of Abraham Adler!

Well, to be fair, Father Abraham was there on a platform in the center ring of the studio’s standing big top, waving to a crowd of thousands of his employees, employees who knew which side their bread was buttered on and who were applauding enthusiastically.

When the tumult died down, he addressed the throng, his homely, commonplace wife at his side, his executives arrayed behind him, his own superior Sy Rifkin melting in among them, all that Eastern money no more than just another expensive suit in the carefully composed background of the show.

“As I look out at this crowd, arrayed here under Titanic’s very own circus tent, I’m tempted to begin by shouting, ‘Ladeeeez and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth.’ Because in so many ways, it is. Much greater than any circus that ever came to any town. But that would be wrong because it would be impersonal. Because when I look out at you, I see familiar face after familiar face. Faces I know and love. So let me begin again, with my lovely wife Miriam standing beside me, and let me say, ‘My friends. My family. Welcome to our annual gathering.’”

Ah, Father Abraham blessing his children.

Extolling the virtues of home and family.

It would, I suppose, be cynical of me to bring up the secret luxury apartment Abe kept above his office and the even more private back door that led from the alley behind the building to the love-nest upstairs.

It would also, I’m sure, be indiscreet of me to mention the six-month option girls who mounted those stairs…

Oh, wait. That was an unfortunate choice of words wasn’t it?

Let me try again.

It would, I’m sure, be indiscreet of me to mention the six-month option girls who climbed those stairs on a regular basis, though in Abe’s defense, I should share the dubious but persistent rumor that he, unlike some of his fellow studio heads, had actually picked up the option on two of these girls’ contracts.

As for the other heads of the Titanic family—the married executives lined up on the stage behind Abe and his wife, many of them kept rooms at the elegant Hollywood Tower Apartments to entertain the young ladies.

One big, happy family.

I’d managed to track Ted down just before he was to join Abe and the others on the platform, and I’d given him the short version of my story. I think he was ready to fire me on the spot, but I also think he decided to reserve that pleasure for Abe and perhaps reinstate himself in his paternal graces.

I waited, as instructed, standing in the center aisle, listening to Adler drone on and watching dozens of clowns distributing helium-filled balloons to the crowd while others rode their comic cycles up and down each aisle.

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