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THE
STARGAZERS III: Lesley and Adam
Synopsis
Emerald Brent and Lesley Hillerby were best friends, and had
written a novel together that was being published by The Gotham
Press. Emerald, eight years older than Lesley, was an advertising
copywriter in Northern California and married to Terry Brent.
Lesley, divorced from millionaire playboy Adam Hillerby, was
the author of one bestselling novel, published eight years before,
when Lesley was twenty.
Upon signing the contract for her novel with Emerald, Beyond
the Glass Rainbow, Lesley moved to New York to work on another
novel of her own and embark on a relationship with Charley Murphy,
a photographer. When Lesley and Adam begins, Emerald is worried
about Lesley because she hasn't heard from her in a month. When
she receives a letter from her, it seems somewhat vague about
what is actually going on in New York; but it does tell Emerald
that there are problems at The Gotham Press, and Lesley thinks
it could mean trouble for Beyond the Glass Rainbow.
Following her letter to Emerald, Lesley returns home one night
to discover that Charley has decamped, taking nearly everything
she owns (including her nearly-finished novel, The Playboy's
Bride). She has very little money left, so she calls Adam, who
comes and takes her to stay at his studio loft. Unknown to Lesley,
Adam has a need for her that only takes hold in his mind when
he realizes she is in desperate straits. He is planning to return
to San Francisco (where he and Lesley lived when they were married)
and run for the Board of Supervisors. In his campaign, he could
use a wife, and Lesley comes to mind.
When he tells Lesley of his plan, she thinks he is crazy, but
she agrees to accompany him back to San Francisco.
Halfway across the world, in Copenhagen, Denmark, rock singer
Johnny English is, like Emerald and Lesley, experiencing the
disintegration of his dreams. His band, White Noise, was very
successful with their first two albums, and at 25 Johnny felt
his life was assured. Engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Johnny
envisioned nothing but blue skies on his horizon. But when he
returns from a business trip, his fiancee, Indra, is waiting
with the news that she has met another man at the school where
she teaches, and fallen in love with him. She feels the kind
of life Johnny has chosen to live is not what she wants.
Lesley and Adam resume their married life, with one notable
exception. They only spend one night together, then Lesley makes
it clear to Adam that their arrangement is to be a platonic
one. The reason they divorced in the first place was Adam's
extremely promiscuous lifestyle -- he was not so much immoral
as amoral -- Lesley knew he loved her, but couldn't seem to
comprehend the meaning of the word fidelity, much less learn
to live with it. They become close friends, however; and since
Lesley has no interest in finding anyone else at the time, the
arrangement suits them both.
Lesley and Emerald begin the search for a new agent -- they
are in general agreement that the situation with Beyond the
Glass Rainbow had been handled very badly by Tara Engel, their
former agent. And they begin work on a new novel they hope will
be the first of a series of four -- a fantasy novel based loosely
on an idea originally formulated by Lesley's ex-lover, Charley.
It pleases Lesley to think she might be able to take something
from Charley, since he took so much from her.
Lesley, in her search for a male lead character for The Land
of the Wand, takes Johnny English from an MTV video, renames
him and invents her hero. Lesley, who is an avid wildlife lover,
spends a lot of her time volunteering for causes most people
shy away from, like bathing oil-soaked birds after an oil-tanker
springs a leak in San Francisco bay. Adam catches her enthusiasm
for 'causes' and decides to sponsor and finance a benefit rock
concert to aid the homeless of San Francisco.
It is not until July (six months after they start looking) that
Lesley and Emerald finally find an agent they feel they can
trust. They sign a year's contract with Eliza Goodfellow, and
go on waiting. In August Emerald announces she is pregnant;
she and Lesley name the baby Elizabeth and immediately begin
to plan a nursery to rival Princess Di's.
On a whim, Lesley writes to Johnny English and tells him about
The Land of the Wand, not seriously expecting a reply. It is
not until September that Johnny receives Lesley's letter, as
it sits in the offices of the band's management in London until
the band goes there for a meeting with their lawyer/manager,
Charles Baxter. Johnny is thrilled with the idea of being a
hero in a novel, and he decides to write to Lesley.
Emerald is amazed when Lesley receives a long letter from Johnny,
informing her that the band will be performing in San Francisco
in January and he is hoping to meet her, then. It is after Lesley
realizes that White Noise will be in San Francisco around the
same time that Adam's benefit will take place, that she thinks
to propose the band to him as a possible headliner. Emerald
loses baby Elizabeth, and discovers that, before she can carry
a baby to full-term she must have an operation to strengthen
the floor of her pelvis. Lesley and Emerald are offered a contract
for The Land of the Wand and fly to Arizona to meet with Eliza
Goodfellow. A sporadic mail and telephone communication continues
between Johnny (who has become infatuated with a photograph
Lesley sent him) and Lesley.
While Lesley and Emerald are trying to decipher their contract
with Eliza, Johnny and White Noise are performing in Sydney,
Australia. Charles tells Johnny that he has spoken to Adam Hillerby
by telephone, and Adam has invited the band to headline at his
benefit in January. Adam will be flying to Berlin to meet with
the band when they arrive there.
Lesley and Eliza fly to New York to meet with the editor of
Pageant Books, and Emerald returns to California, where she
is scheduled for her pelvic operation. When she arrives in New
York, Lesley decides to find Charley Murphy and attempt to retrieve
her novel manuscript. She hires a female private detective,
Annalisa Szalisky, and within a week's time (and some not-so-subtle
persuasion on Annalisa's part, plus a thousand dollars) Lesley
has The Playboy's Bride back in her possession.
Adam's first meeting with Johnny is anything but cordial, --
the singer decides immediately that he doesn't like the millionaire
philanthropist, and wonders why Lesley remains with him. He
decides it must be for the glamorous lifestyle and the money,
and he thinks less of her for it. Lesley's first advance check
for The Wand arrives, and she opens a bank account with it.
She is planning, once she sells The Playboy's Bride, to move
into a place of her own. Calliope decides she needs help in
prying Adam away from Lesley, and recruits his mother, Lavinia
Hillerby, into her camp.
On Christmas Eve Adam and Lesley hold a big party, and Lesley
is amazed by the arrival, sometime in the middle of the evening,
of Johnny English and the members of White Noise (who had been
playing dates in Southern California). The evening culminates
with a confrontation between Adam's ex-lover Calliope Sussex
and Johnny, Emerald and Terry -- but not with Johnny and Lesley
in the same bed, which had been his intention.
Adam's Benefit for the Homeless takes place on New Year's Eve,
at The Oakland Coliseum. There are three bands before White
Noise, and before Johnny goes onstage that night, he tells Lesley
that the band is moving to Southern California on the advice
of their record label; and Lesley tells Johnny that she is going
to be moving to her own place as soon as she sells The Playboy's
Bride. Johnny asks Lesley to come and live with him, but she
tells him she wants to live alone for awhile. At the after-benefit
party, Johnny and Adam get into an argument about which of them
will end up with Lesley. Adam seems to view the entire situation
as some kind of a contest between them, which annoys Johnny.
Lesley leaves the party with Johnny, which seems to signal he
has won the first skirmish. Johnny and Lesley become lovers
that night.
The White Noise tour continues on, and Lesley flies to New York
to spend some time with Johnny and meet with an editor about
The Playboy's Bride. That weekend Johnny and Lesley go to a
big publishing party at the new club, Mars. When Johnny continues
on, Lesley returns to San Francisco to discover that Adam has
hired an assistant, Miranda Dunn. His rock benefit generated
enough proceeds to buy a derelict hotel in the Tenderloin and
rebuild it into a homeless shelter; one far above the specifications
of any the city had been able to provide thusfar. Overjoyed
by his success, Adam decides to continue on, and sets his sights
on another benefit -- one that will, this time, tap into the
coffers of the rich and society-minded (people he knows only
too- well and is coming to despise). Miranda becomes a permanent
fixture in the house, and Lesley begins to notice a pronounced
difference in Adam. Though she first attributes this to Miranda's
influence, she soon realizes that Miranda is the result of this
change and not the cause. Finding a path for his life has made
Adam lose interest in the extremely dangerous, uncaring way
he had been living and approach adulthood. Lesley and Emerald
manipulate Adam and Miranda into becoming a couple, thinking
Adam needs a woman in his life who isn't grasping and self-centered
like Calliope. But Lesley is a little wistful that Adam couldn't
find himself while he was still married to her. When the White
Noise tour ends, Johnny and the band go home to Copenhagen to
arrange for their move to Southern California. After he has
been there several days, wondering whether to sell his house
or rent it, Johnny is stunned when Indra appears on his doorstep.
When Johnny realizes that Indra is unhappy with her life and
wants to come back to him, he is so taken aback that he allows
her to seduce him. During this time Lesley is so busy with Emerald,
finishing The Land of the Wand, that she doesn't realize Johnny
hasn't telephoned her until a week has passed. When she telephones
him, she gets Indra -- and their conversation reveals that Indra
is now living in Johnny's house (something that Johnny wouldn't
be able to explain even if he tried -- all he could remember
was that one day she was there, and never left).
When Johnny arrives home that night from a meeting with the
band, it is with the determination to explain to Indra that
he has a new life now, and she can't be a part of it. Before
he can begin, however, she tells him that Lesley called, and
he realizes that a part of his new life has just moved beyond
his grasp. This propels Indra and Johnny toward a messier breakup
than he had planned, but his frustration and desperation to
reach Lesley (which he cannot do, since it is 5:30 in the morning
in California) make him callous and cruel. During the week he
has remaining until his departure for California, Johnny is
unable to reach Lesley.
Moving quickly after her conversation with Indra, Lesley takes
her new-found riches and begins the search for a townhouse she
can buy, somewhere near Emerald and hidden enough in the country
so Johnny won't be able to stumble across her accidentally.
When Johnny arrives in California, Adam tells him that Lesley
has chosen not to have children -- news that shatters Johnny's
dreams of a family. He goes to Los Angeles, and doesn't attempt
to contact Lesley.
Emerald becomes pregnant again, and she and Lesley make a trip
to New York, and on the way back they make a side-trip to Los
Angeles. Charles, the White Noise manager, takes them to a party
at Phoenix Records, where Lesley sees Johnny. Though he asks
her to come and live with him in Santa Barbara, she realizes
they aren't meant for one another -- they aren't looking for
the same things in life.
Lesley and Emerald begin work on their second fantasy novel,
The Crystal Chalice, and Adam continues working on his second
benefit. A large group of international stars assemble in San
Francisco, and Lesley becomes friends with two of them, Cameron
and Diana Prince. Miranda plans her own abduction by an inept
group of urban terrorist/reformers, and Lesley is taken in her
place, accidently. The entire mess is straightened out within
24 hours, but it is Cameron Prince who realizes that Miranda
is behind the plot. Thus ends Adam's engagement.
After the abduction, Lesley never returns to the townhouse she
bought in Santa Rosa. She becomes involved in the benefit, and
Adam hires another assistant -- a married friend of Diana's
with a small baby and a very present husband. Johnny becomes
infatuated with another friend of Diana's who hosts a television
show, and spends most of his time following her around or attempting
to convince her to go out with him. After a fight and reconciliation
between Diana and Cameron over one of her ex-lovers, Lesley
feels the absence of Adam in her bed (she is surprised that
it's not Johnny she misses), and she becomes Adam's lover again,
on Thanksgiving morning. They have now become closer in every
way, and Adam wants Lesley to re-marry him. She realizes this
is what she wants, also, but can't bring herself to make the
commitment.
By the end of the book, Adam and Lesley have realized their
need for one another (he a little sooner than she) and reconciled.
Johnny makes some progress with Jamie Sullivan and comes to
the realization that he must base his happiness on himself before
he can be happy with anyone else, and Terry and Emerald are
so happy with their new baby they are thinking of having another
child, sometime in the future.
Sample Chapter
Chapter One: Emerald/Summer, 1988
At the age of 35, Emerald Brent was satisfied with her life.
After ten years of marriage she was still very much in love
with her husband, Terry, as he was with her. Thanks to Terry's
classified job as a technician for the government on Mare Island
Naval Base, and Emerald's own job as a copywriter for Santa
Rosa's only large advertising agency, they were able to remodel
their little house until it was no longer recognizable as the
delapidated bargain they had squeezed out a down payment for
ten years earlier. There were a couple of years at the beginning
when Emerald hadn't been certain the mortgage would be paid.
They'd made it, though; and now there were only two things Emerald
would have asked for. The baby she had already named Elizabeth,
and for Lesley to return from New York.
Emerald wasn't selfish; if Lesley were doing well she would
have been thrilled for her. But everything seemed to be falling
apart -- every letter or telephone call had been increasingly
vague, and now Emerald hadn't heard from her friend in nearly
a month. She was beginning to feel that perhaps she had been
wrong to allow Lesley to go to New York, but she still couldn't
figure out how she might have stopped her. Ever since the divorce,
Lesley just hadn't been the same. It was Adam's fault, of course.
Then again, they had been married very young...how could any
of them, Adam included, know that he would turn out to have
such strange and varied sexual tastes?
When Terry came home from work that evening, Emerald was sitting
at the desk in her office, trying to write Lesley a letter.
Terry leaned down and kissed her, sitting on a small, puffy
loveseat in the bow-window of the office. "Been home long?"
Emerald looked up and her brown eyes met his deep-blue ones.
She grinned. "No, I haven't started dinner."
"So I see. Would you like to help me do it?"
"Not particularly. Let's order a pizza." Terry looked
unconvinced. "Chinese food? Don' wanna cook, teddy bear."
Terry sighed and hauled his six-foot-two-inch frame out of the
loveseat. "OK, I'll go get a beer. You bring work home
again?"
Emerald abandoned the letter and followed him into the kitchen.
"No, I'm trying to write a letter to Lesley."
Terry let the refrigerator door close and popped the top on
a can of Coors. He frowned, sitting in one of the wooden basket
chairs at the antique pine table. "Haven't heard from her
yet?"
"No...do you think something's wrong?"
"Yes. I wonder what, though. Surely, if she was really
in trouble, she'd call us."
"Would she? When have you ever known Lesley to rely on
anyone? When has she ever had anyone she could rely on? She
never had any parents that she knew of, and then Adam let her
down."
Terry snorted. "Anyone could've told her he would. He was
nothing but an opportunist. Let's hope she doesn't run into
him in New York. I heard he went into Public Relations there."
Emerald nodded. "And now Charley -- why can't she find
a man who doesn't take advantage of her?"
"You don't have any proof that Charley has, yet."
"He's a creep, though. You said so yourself."
Terry nodded. "Let's go have hamburgers."
"OK. Anything not to cook."
The next day, Emerald received a letter from Lesley. Since she
had been working late, she arrived home at 7:30 to find Terry
making steaks and corn, and a green salad. She knew she should
feel guilty because she never started dinner when she was the
one to arrive first; but she didn't. She wasn't the domestic
type, and would be the first to admit it. But she was good at
home decorating -- no one could deny that; and she had done
the entire house herself. Well, mostly herself -- Terry had
done all the mechanical and heavy-labor parts. When it came
to the painting, and wallpapering, and actual furnishing of
the rooms, Emerald chose everything. And she thought she had
done a good job, too -- one a professional decorator could have
been proud of.
Emerald Brent would have been the last person in the world to
believe she was a beauty in any way, although people had been
known to say she was pretty (well, a lot of people, to tell
the truth). But she was hardly in the current style -- she was
too short and a little too round. Her chestnut-brown hair was
curly and luxuriant, however, and took to any style well. At
the moment she was wearing it shoulder length and cut short
and fluffy on the top and sides, but for years she had worn
it quite short all over. And she had a definite flair for fashion,
and knew it. Not for her dark colors and shapeless dresses,
or polyester elastic-waist slacks because she carried too many
pounds on her tiny frame. She was a firm believer that women
of any size could look good if they dressed with confidence
and taste, and she had proven the maxim. According to the popular
fashion magazines, it was difficult for overweight women to
"make it" in the business world, particularly in "glamour"
fields like advertising. Well, Emerald had proven them wrong
in that, too. Now...she was becoming restless. The next step
up the ladder in advertising from copywriter was account executive,
and that was something Emerald had no desire to tackle. The
only reason she liked being a copywriter was because it had
a modicum of creativity to it -- but she wasn't cut out for
the corporate world, and account executives were corporate,
even if they were part of advertising.
She had been hoping that the novel she and Lesley wrote together,
Beyond the Glass Rainbow, was going to be her ticket out of
advertising and Lesley's ticket out of her endless search for
the man who could most take advantage of her.
As she pulled her new 1989 Plymouth Sundance into the driveway,
Emerald knew she was being unfair to Lesley. She tended to forget
that her friend and collaborator was nearly eight years younger
than she was herself, and she expected the younger woman to
have her life in gear. Then again, Lesley did seem to come up
against a lot more brick walls than most people -- and then
try to butt them down with no weapon but her admittedly hard
head.
The letter was waiting for her. Emerald sat down at the kitchen
table and accepted the glass of Cabernet Blanc Terry set in
front of her. She unfolded the letter and began to read. She
had learned to read a lot more into Lesley's scant lines than
she ever wrote on the page, but it had taken awhile.
Dear Auntie Em:
I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore, and it seems I've lost
Toto somewhere. Tara is behaving very strangely and doesn't
return any of my telephone calls. I suspect something is wrong
with Rainbow, but have heard nothing. Gotham Press seems to
be going through some kind of shakeup, and last week they told
me that we would be assigned a new editor -- I cannot locate
Gregory, and the last time I telephoned they told me he was
no longer with the company.
What this means in terms of our beloved book I have no idea
-- if they have some strange notion that I (we, I should say)
are going to return the advance money, they have another think
coming. Besides, it's all gone. Yes, this little girl is broke
city. Charlie has disappeared somewhere into the Soho night
and I am wondering what happened to him, too, since he took
none of his clothes. If all this sounds very strange to you,
my staid/married/California friend, I have a feeling it will
get wierder before it gets normaler (does that have two lls,
I wonder?). Stay tuned to this station...Dorothy (Lesley in
Wonderland)
Emerald laid the sheet of lined notebook paper on the tablecloth,
and sipped her glass of wine. Terry looked over from where he
was slicing green onions for his salad. "So -- how's everything
in the Rotten Apple?"
"Not good, Batman. Our editor seems to have gotten himself
caught in a shake-up (or maybe it's a shakedown) at Gotham Press.
Lesley can't find him, and Tara won't talk to her."
Terry pushed the onions off the chopping board into a glass
salad bowl, and went to the sink to wash a bunch of radishes.
"What does that mean? You know this publishing stuff really
confuses my puny brain."
Emerald chuckled inwardly at her husband's "puny"
brain -- the one that could remember complex mathematical formulae
and adjust the callibration of a nuclear submarine gas-monitor
so it wouldn't blow up hundreds of marines. "I don't have
the slightest idea, myself -- and it's certain from this letter
that Lesley doesn't, either. And she's out of money."
"Then she'll have to come back to California, won't she?
Maybe you can get her a job at the agency."
Emerald frowned slightly. "I don't think Lesley is the
nine-to-five type."
"She'll just have to be."
"Terry, we're talking about Lesley here. It seems unlikely
she'll do what other people want her to, just because it's the
most sensible thing to do."
Terry grunted and crossed to the refrigerator to get out bottles
of salad dressing. Emerald assumed the discussion was over,
and went into the bedroom to change into her jeans and a sweatshirt.
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