Severe Clear

29

Stone heard the front door slam upstairs. They had arrived. There were bumping sounds as Peter put his luggage into the elevator, then footsteps on the stairs, and then Peter came into Stone’s office, followed by his girlfriend, Hattie Patrick, and Dino’s son, Ben Bacchetti.

Stone embraced Peter and kissed him on the cheek, then Hattie, then had a manly handshake with Ben. “How are you all?”

“Everybody’s fine,” Peter said. “I’ve got to run Hattie and Ben home, then I’ll be back for lunch, all right?”

“All right. Helene’s in there cooking Greek food right now. You sure you won’t all stay for lunch?”

They looked at each other.

“Okay, I’ll put my car in the garage,” Peter said.

They sat at the kitchen table and chattered as Helene served them moussaka.

“I’ve got an appointment with Marla Rocker tomorrow to see some of her casting choices,” Peter said. “Is Marla coming to L.A. with us?”

“No, she’s staying here to work on your play,” Stone replied. “She’s going to be very busy for a while, so I won’t be seeing much of her.”

“So, she dumped you, huh?” Peter asked.

Stone twitched. The kid was getting too smart. “We agreed to let it go.”

“So you’re going alone?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll have friends at the hotel. You’re meeting one of them in a couple of days.”

“Who’s that?”

“Her name is Felicity Devonshire. She’s British.”

“Who is she? What does she do?”

“She’s a civil servant in London.”

“A civil servant?” Ben asked. “Does that mean she’s in intelligence?”

“Don’t ask,” Stone said. “And when you meet her, don’t start asking probing questions.”

“Yeah,” Peter said, “we’d only get lied to. You said a couple of friends. Who else?”

“Holly Barker will be there.”

“The one at the CIA? Great! I finally get to meet her!”

“Holly has recently been promoted. She’s now assistant director. In fact, she’ll be traveling with the president and Mrs. Lee, who, you will remember, is her boss.”

“Who will Felicity be traveling with?” Peter asked.

“With us, aboard the Strategic Services airplane.”

“What kind of plane?” Ben asked.

“A Gulfstream 550.”

“Wow! I guess there’ll be room for us all-Dad, too.”

“And Viv. Plenty of room for all.”

“And where is Felicity sleeping?” Peter asked.

Stone looked at him sharply.

“Well, Dad, if Marla’s dumped you… you need female companionship.”

“It runs in the family,” Hattie said.

“Felicity will have her own quarters. She’ll be there to meet with the president and Mrs. Lee.”

“So, she’s a pretty high-up civil servant?” Peter asked.

“Pretty high up.”

“This is going to be interesting,” Peter said. “The three of us have made some L.A. arrangements of our own.”

“Oh?” Stone asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Leo Goldman is going to give us all a tour of Centurion Studios.”

“That sounds like a great idea.”

“And I’m going to get to play with the studio orchestra, when they record a film score,” Hattie said. Hattie was a brilliant young pianist, who was studying musical composition at Yale, while Peter and Ben were at the School of Drama.

“Good, then you can watch the movie on television for years to come.”

“And we’re going to get to meet some movie stars,” Ben said.

“You’ll meet lots of them at the hotel’s opening festivities. Centurion has taken twenty-five suites for their people.”

“Then there’s the Immi Gotham concert,” Peter said. Immi Gotham was Centurion’s greatest star and a wonderful singer; critics had called her a combination of Meryl Streep and Barbra Streisand.

“Along with the Beverly Hills Philharmonic,” Hattie said. “It’s really going to be something!”

“The whole event is going to be something,” Stone said. “Every suite and room is booked.”

“If there are two hundred suites and rooms,” Peter asked, “how are they going to fill up the fifteen hundred seats in the Arrington Bowl?”

“There’s an invited audience,” Stone said. “The Bowl has its own entrance and parking, separate from the hotel’s. People have been fighting over the tickets for months. The Times says scalpers have been offering ten thousand dollars a ticket and getting no takers.”

“There’s never been anything like this, has there, Dad?”

“Not in my memory. Centurion is making a documentary film about it, and it’ll be shown on TV at Christmas.”

“Dad, can we rent a car while we’re there?”

“You have to be twenty-five to rent a car these days. I’ll arrange for you to go to Centurion in a hotel car, and Leo can send you back in one of his.”

“Sounds good.”

“You’re going to have to get used to a lot of security at the hotel,” Stone said, “what with two presidents and a lot of other VIPs. You’ll be issued ID cards, and you can’t get in or out of the hotel grounds without them.”

“All the time, or just for this event?” Peter asked.

“Just for this event,” Stone replied. “After the opening, it’ll be just like any other hotel.”

“Has there ever been another hotel like this one?” Ben asked.

“Well, there are some very fine hotels scattered around the world,” Stone said. “But The Arrington will be unique, I think.”

“You know, I think Mom would have liked all this,” Peter said. “I mean, she had already given her permission to build the hotel on the property, but I really think she would have loved the way it’s turning out.”

“I think she would have, too,” Stone said.

Then they all ate quietly for a while.

Finally, Peter asked, “When is Felicity arriving from London?”

“She arrived yesterday,” Stone said, “but she’s been resting.”

“Is she staying with us?”

“No, she’s staying at the residence of the British ambassador to the U.N. He has quite a nice house.”

“Dad,” Peter said gravely, “I want you to know that it’s all right for you to have sleepovers when I’m here.”

Stone didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Thank you, Peter, that’s very kind of you.” And he meant it.