To Skate on Thin Ice

By Jack Terry

A pop star on the verge of superstardom. A scholar suddenly lost in his academic pursuits. Separated by half a generation of years and coming from two separate worlds of experience, Alexandria and Brian navigate the halting steps of a budding romance. To do so, and to come to a better understanding of the man she is improbably in love with. Alex must face her own fears about her future, the path she wants it to take versus the one that has been laid out for her, and the crushing reality of grief that is inevitable for us all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jack Terry
• Release date: Nov 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393130352

Book preview

Chapter One

Alexandria sat alone in her dressing room and laughed. She didn’t want to, and she hated herself for it, but realizing that only made her laugh that much harder. Her life had become not one but two clichés. The first was that if she didn’t laugh she would cry, and crying was what she wanted to do now for so many reasons. She didn’t want to explain them to anybody, and her time alone would come to an end. These things run like clockwork and had been for the last several months as she traveled across the country. She knew, without even looking at a clock that her assistant would appear in two minutes to tell her the back-up singers and dancers had all gathered, waiting for her emotional pep talk, the last words of wisdom before they all went on stage. Every night she said a various theme of the same speech, with the same participation required from everyone. Tonight, the expectation would be greater, because the tour ended tonight. It was up to her to speak because it was her name on the tickets, her face on the posters, and her lyrics on the t-shirts. She was the one they all came to see, and her singers and dancers all looked to her for guidance. To them she represented success and the achievement they all wanted. Some were sincere in their adulation of her while others were just well versed at hiding their ambitions to unseat her from the throne of success behind their smiling faces and hopeful eyes; regardless she couldn’t let them down. The musicians never joined the pre-show love-fest. They were older and been doing this longer than some of the dancers had been alive, and to them it was just another job. They may love getting paid to play music, but what they love more is not being bothered by a collection of kids while they did their job. Perhaps the only people more cynical than the musicians were the crew members. Few of them said more than three words to her after the first day they met, and none over the last half of the tour. She had a little something to do with that, but she still thought it strange; if not for her, they wouldn’t be working now, and although she wasn’t looking for genuflection, a little appreciation would be nice. There were other shows, other tours, other artists to work for, but none paid as well as hers because none was as big as hers. How unions actually worked was something her homeschooling parents hadn’t covered.

If her assistant Frieda came across her crying she wouldn’t have been the least bit surprised. Emotions ran high through everyone. The only way to make it more emotionally charged backstage was if they were all starting their periods today. It being the last night only accounted for a small portion of the tears. Even though the tour ending would relieve a lot of the pressure, at least the show tonight provided a distraction. New questions had risen in her life, and she wasn’t sure if she knew how to answer them, or even sure if she could.

She laughed because if she didn’t she would cry, and she would cry because of the second cliché: she had gotten everything she wanted, and she hadn’t been careful how she asked for it.

The clock still worked and the assistant, Frieda, poked her head in the room. We’re ready for you. Without speaking she stood, catching one last glimpse of the smile she forced up, and made the walk one last time. Almost immediately Frieda fell in step next to her with the nightly litany of all that her label expected of her after the show. An exhaustive list to begin with, ending the tour in New York made the list unbearable. In times before her the assistant would have several pages on a clip board to fumble through; now it was a stylus and a smart phone.

There are three different parties going on tonight that your managers want you to go to. They gave me the order, the amount of time to spend at each one and who you should be seen with when you are there. The driver already has the itinerary and will wait for you after the show. There will be a small meet-and-greet backstage when you finish, but we need to have you moving within fifteen minutes, because Danny will be at the first club. His show starts at midnight, and they don’t want you hanging out there too long after he starts performing.

Frieda continued but Alexandria stopped listening, smiling as she mentioned Danny’s name. Out of all the people she met on her roller-coaster career, Danny possessed the most self-awareness, including wanting nothing to do with her romantically. He had a singular focus on his career and was astute enough to know what he needed to do to make it happen. The occasional photo shoot kept the wheels greased, but he kept his romantic life a luxury for the future.

What will you do tomorrow, when the tour is over? She rarely spoke when Frieda was on her roll, except to agree with the agenda, so the simple and straight forward question hung in the air for a second. When Frieda switched her gears, she stammered out an answer. I don’t know. Sleep?

Sleep is good. For a while.

Frieda forgot about the list and looked at her boss. Her plans for after the tour were the same things as right now: work as her personal assistant. With all the questionable self-esteem that comes from being someone whose dream job is to be a professional sidekick - without the matching uniform even - and the pleasure of having a name best suited for a grandmother, she wondered if this was her exit interview. I figured you would still need me to help, you know, make the adjustments and, you know, everything.  She didn’t know herself, even what she was talking about, but she had to find something to make her seem necessary.

I’m sure I will, but not for several days at least. You should take some time for yourself, and just relax. They rounded the last corner., and the ambient light from the stage and set replaced the florescent lights of the hallway. In the vague shadows she identified each and every person, and recognized from the way they stood tonight, they carried the sad enormity of the night. Forgetting her own desire to cry moments ago, she raised her voice. No crying yet. We still have one more day on the job. Her step quickened almost imperceptibly, but it seemed as