Read Online Featherless Bipeds by Richard Scarsbrook - Free Book Online Page B

twenty-third floor of the building. We stumble from the elevator into the private foyer of his apartment, which is bigger than my parents’ bungalow in Faireville.
    â€œWill that be all, sir?” Serge asks Jimmy T, who meets us at the elevator in his bathrobe. Jimmy T lays a ten-dollar bill in Serge’s white-gloved hand. Serge retreats behind the closing elevator doors without another word.
    Lola is already there. She’s wearing a bathrobe, too.
    â€œHey guys,” she says, “nice place, huh? I could get used to this. Come on into the living room. Anyone want coffee?”
    â€œShe makes great coffee,” Jimmy T says.
    Lola disappears into what I suppose is the kitchen. Tristan, Akim and I just look at each other for a moment, then we follow Jimmy T into the living room, an enormous space with a sunken floor and a wall of two-storey windows that look out onto the skyscrapers of the business district and Lake Ontario beyond.
    â€œMake yourselves at home, dudes,” Jimmy says. “I’ll go help Lola with the coffee.”
    He leaves the room, and soon we can hear stifled giggles and dishes rattling.
    â€œYou could fit our whole apartment into his elevator, Dak,” Tristan whispers.
    Lola and Jimmy T reappear and settle down together in the love seat across from the three of us. Akim struggles to keep from rolling his eyes.
    â€œSo, gentlemen,” Jimmy T says, “I suppose you’re wondering why I’ve called you all here today. I have a proposition for you.”
    Jimmy T places his hands together like he’s about to pray, then touches his index fingers to his chin.
    â€œWe have got an excellent rock ‘n’ roll band in the making. We are good enough that I propose we get into it full time, start playing as many gigs as possible, record a demo CD, and work toward the ultimate end of landing a recording contract with a major label.”
    â€œWhy are you suddenly talking like a banker?” Akim says. “What happened to, ‘Yo! Akim! My Bro!’ and all that?”
    â€œEmulating my old man, I guess, “ Jimmy T says. “I heard him negotiate a lot of deals when I was a kid.”
    â€œAnd exactly what kind of deal are you trying to negotiate with us , Jimmy T?” Akim says darkly.
    â€œI’m just saying we should go professional,” Jimmy T says. “Devote ourselves to the band for a year; see if we can make the big time.”
    â€œYou mean quit school?’ I ask.
    â€œHey, it would only be for a year,” Lola says. “The band is good. We should go for it.”
    â€œYou mean you would leave university,” I say, “and let go of all your work with the Women’s Issues Commission and the Minority Rights Alliance, just to make noise in bars?”
    â€œWell, not exactly,” she says, shrinking a little. “Jimmy just made very large financial contributions to both organizations, so now would be a bad time for me to give up my presidencies. I’ll need to stay on the inside for at least another year, to make sure that Jimmy’s money gets put to proper use.”
    â€œBut she would come to as many gigs as possible,” Jimmy T interjects, “and she’ll certainly do the lead vocals when it comes time to record a CD. Dak and Tristan and I can handle the vocals when Lola isn’t available.”
    â€œYou?” Tristan, Akim and I chorus.
    Jimmy looks hurt. “Hey! I can sing!”
    Akim rises from the couch. “Well, you can sing without me. My parents haven’t got warehouses full of money like yours. They worked their butts off to send me to university, and I’m not going to throw it all away to help you live out some fantasy to be a rock star, Jimmy T .”
    Jimmy T also jumps to his feet. “But Akim!” he says, (and I sense that he’s doing all he can to resist adding the word ‘bro’) “Don’t you see? We can be rock