Dancing in the Dark Read Free Page B

client.”
    Joel tossed the pen on top of the legal pad. “Of course, I’ll want
to tell them how valuable you are to KEY News, how important it is to
Hourglass ratings to have that great-looking face of yours on the
screen, to have you delivering our stories. I’ll want them to know one
of the reasons we have to keep you is that you are such a team player.”
    Diane leaned forward on the sofa. “Listen, Joel. Can’t you please
understand? You know my children and I have been through a lot these
past months. We all need to get away.”
    For a moment, she thought the executive producer was actually
considering her plea as he leaned back in his chair and stared at the
office ceiling. “I’ll tell you what,” he said. “If you want to bring
your kids along with you, that’s all right with me. In fact, I’ll even
find a way to pay for it from our budget.”
    “You’ve got to be kidding, Joel. Michelle and Anthony are counting
on this vacation. It’s the only thing they’ve shown any enthusiasm for
since everything happened. And going to Ocean Grove won’t be a
vacation, not for me anyway. I’ll be working and worrying about getting
back to the kids all the time.”
    Joel tilted his head downward and stared directly at her. “No. I’m
not kidding, Diane. This is my final offer. I can make it only because Hourglass did so well last season
and the finance department isn’t about to give me any flak about
booking some extra rooms. As for you, I’m sure the quality of your work
won’t suffer. You’re a pro. You can straddle both worlds. That is, if
you want to.”
    She knew Joel was fully aware of the fact that she didn’t want to,
and she also knew he didn’t care. He just wanted what he wanted… a
ratings winner. Another edition of Hourglass that attracted the
audience share that determined the advertising rates the network could
charge. That was what it was all about for him. His ego demanded that
his broadcast remain the nation’s premiere newsmagazine show. To feed
that ego, he was not beyond bullying when he felt the occasion called
for it.
    Diane rose from the sofa, knowing she’d lost. She pushed away the
thought of breaking the news to her children. They were just going to
have to accept the inevitable. She wished they didn’t have to learn the
hard facts of life so soon, but it was unavoidable, just as the other
rough lessons they’d learned lately were. Canceling their vacation out
west was another blow, but in the larger scheme of things, it was
nothing.
    She had read somewhere that children who had tumultuous childhoods
could just as easily grow into healthy adults, stronger for their
experiences, as develop into maladjusted misfits. Diane prayed every
night that was true. Prayed that Michelle and Anthony would benefit
from learning early that life goes on despite disappointments. Prayed
they’d be resilient and learn to make the best of things. Prayed they’d
get a valuable lesson from the example of a mother who was trying to
hold everything together and doing what she had to do to support the
family.
    She had no other choice. With their father in jail, she was all they
had.

CHAPTER 4
     
    Helen Richey stood on the front porch, sweeping away the sand from
the wooden planks. She found the swishing sound of the broom
comforting. It reminded her of the summers of her childhood, when her
parents would bring her and her three sisters to spend their vacation
here in Ocean Grove. From the weekend after school got out until Labor
Day, Helen and her family had lived in one of the tents on the grounds
of the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association.
    Each structure was made up of a wooden porch, an eleven-by-fourteen-foot
tent, and a roofed cottage at the rear. Each tent came with
electricity, running water, a tiny but complete kitchen, a toilet, and
a shower. It was up to the “tenters” to supply everything else:
furniture, carpeting, linens, dinnerware, wall hangings, even air
conditioners. Some