“The other five will be here tomorrow; I thought ten at once would be too many. Also, I could charge a one-dollar premium to be in the first group.”
“Okay, you have to match their donations out of your funds, and I will also give a matching amount.”
She pouted a little but agreed she had overstepped, next time she would ask me.
Maybe I could make another trip around the country, as it might be safer and less tiring.
We rejoined her suckers, I mean her friends. I spent a few minutes talking to each of the girls, asking such brilliant questions as to the colors they liked, and favorite subjects in school. Mary got her 1940s camera out and took pictures. Denny quoted a price to develop them, and after some haggling, Mary got a ten percent sister discount.
After that, the little girls all went up to the tower. I knew where I would not be going.
Mum, Dad, and I grabbed a cup of coffee and adjourned to Mum’s conservatory. First, they told me they were happy with the way I had handled Mary, she needed to be taken down a peg or two, but not embarrassed in front of her friends.
The latest addition to the house was very nice; all the plants came in nicely and it was very relaxing. They asked about my trip. When it got to the elephant part I found out about some family history I had never heard. One of my great, great Uncles had been in the British Army.
He enlisted as a drummer boy. He ended up as a Colonel. This was normally as high as an enlisted man was allowed to advance. He got married when his regiment was stationed in India. The entire regiment lined the streets while he and his bride rode in a howdah. I finally found out what the name of that little hut on the elephant was called.
I asked what happened to him, no one knew, he and a lot of his men disappeared in trench warfare in World War I. They knew his body was somewhere in no man’s land but it had never been retrieved. What a grim ending.
I told my parents that I felt worn out. They completely understood and suggested I take a week and only do what I felt like. I bought into that, so much that an agreement was made to intercept all phone calls and have me call back if I felt like it.
The news of my return was in the daily paper. Thanks, Dad. He said it was his duty and the public’s right to know. He laughed and said it sold papers and that was his job. Totally unrepentant and unfeeling, yep that’s my Dad.
Actually, I understood, a fine line between your job and your family, and besides what harm did it do?
It did none to me because I didn’t have to answer the eighty-some phone calls that came through before lunch. Poor Mrs. Hernandez did most of the answering. She only wrote down the ones that she thought I might return, both of them.
One call was from my publicist, and now my movie agent, Sharon Wallace. She had been working with Mr. Baxter and I gathered it was working out. I did call her back.
She wanted to know if I was ready to talk about any new movies. I told her to call me back in a week. I was making no decision for a while. Actually, I had but didn’t have the energy to argue with her at the moment. Lord, that woman could argue. That was great if she was on your side, but she would go at you until she wore you down if you had something she wanted.
In this case, she wanted a ten percent commission on my next movie. Maybe I could offer her that much to leave me alone while I went back to school. I know, stupid thinking, and that’s why there would be no decisions until I get some rest. It was quickly becoming obvious that Sharon had to be my publicist or my agent, one or the other, not both.
I really had to figure out how to approach this. She was a good person and I didn’t want to destroy our relationship.
To clear my mind I took a long ride on George. He seemed happy to see me. Ben had been keeping him exercised, so he wasn’t jumpy, but he sure wanted to get out of the barn. Three hours later and he was ready to go back to his stall to eat and I felt a little more relaxed.
Rubbing him down and putting the saddle and gear away left me sweaty and dirty so I cleaned up and had dinner with the family for the first time in a long time.
After a good night’s sleep, I was ready to face a new day. Exercise, run, and shower made it even better. I called John Jacobs to see if he was available to caddy today. He was so we agreed to meet at Riveria Country Club. It was kind of presumptuous of me to assume I could get on, but as the winner of the US Open, I thought they would work me in.
I was correct in my thinking. The Golf Pro asked if I would do him a favor, he had a threesome coming up of some high profile politicians and it would look good for him if I would play with them.
They were Richard Kleindienst, H.R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman. All I will say is that was the last time I would agree to play with a group like that. What an arrogant group of people! Of course, when I was done with them on the course they weren’t arrogant about their golf.
When they saw how bad I was beating them, they tried
