“Cheee—” everyone started, laughing.
“No, not yet! Wait a minute.”
“Jason, don’t lick the cat. You’ll get rabies,” Rosanne said.
“I think not, dear,” Mrs. Goldblum said.
“Howard,” Amanda whispered, feeling a hand sneaking around in the vicinity of her derriere.
“Mom, you don’t have to bend,” Henry said. “I can see over you by a mile.”
Cassy straightened up, smoothing back her hair.
“Okay, listen up!” Althea said again. “When I get over there, then you say cheese. Wait! Listen! The camera’s going to take more than one picture—”
“I knew it, Sam.”
“Oh, boy,” Samantha said eagerly.
“All right, everybody. Ready?”
“READY!” they chorused.
Althea touched something and the camera started to hum and she ran around and pushed herself in next to Howard.
“Cheeeeeeeeeee,” the group laughed, terrifying the cat and making Jason’s job of holding her very difficult.
FLASH-CLICK went the camera.
WHIRL.
“eeeeeeezzzzzzzeeeeeeeee-”
FLASH CLICK.
Laughter.
WHIRL.
Laughter.
FLASH-CLICK.
“Althea?”
WHIRL.
“What, Dad?”
FLASH-CLICK.
“Pull that strap up!”
WHIRL.
“Oh, Sam, she’s not—”
FLASH-CLICK.
“Missy!”
WHIRL.
“Wait, sweetie...”
FLASH-CLICK.
“Till Star Wars is over.”
WHIRL.
“Henry—”
FLASH-CLICK.
“What, Mom?”
WHIRL.
“Stop with the devil’s horns.”
FLASH-CLICK.
Laughter.
WHIRL.
“Really, Althea.”
FLASH-CLICK.
“Wait a sec, Mom—”
WHIRL.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Silence.
“Do you suppose that’s it, dear?”
“Beats me, Mrs. G.”
44
CONCLUSION
The family life of the Goldblum-DiSantoses is not a particularly quiet one, nor should it be assumed that the household is without its minor disagreements and crossed wires of communication. And, too, there are always little ongoing problems, such as why it is the darn cat persists in only wanting to sleep with Rosanne, and where, exactly, it is that Mrs. Goldblum is getting off when she tells Jason that he doesn’t have to eat his spinach if he doesn’t want to. But, in all honesty, one would be hard pressed to find a happier family on Riverside Drive than that of the Goldblum-DiSantoses.
Mrs. Goldblum, incidentally, landed a job. Her appearance on “Social Security Is for You” prompted so many viewers to write and call in, the Social Security office hired her to co-host the program every other week. She has taken her new celebrity status with great lady-like aplomb, succumbing to vanity only in the form of having her hair done once a week and purchasing five new dresses from Bergdorf Goodman. She weighs eleven pounds more than when the DiSantoses moved in, and her arthritis is much better since Rosanne started giving her massages and applying hot packs on a regular basis.
Mrs. Goldblum’s grandchildren—Daniel’s two children—come to visit their grandmother for two weeks each summer. And since Mrs. Goldblum has not given her son a dime, she is both startled and elated that Daniel has at long last settled into a job selling real estate.
Jason is attending P.S. 75, the Emily Dickinson School on West End Avenue, where he is doing very well in his studies. He is also a star player in both the Pee-Wee Baseball and Football Leagues.
Rosanne is still working for the Cochrans, the Wyatts, Amanda Miller and, every other week, for Howard Stewart. She recently received her high school equivalency diploma and has been accepted into the School of Nursing at Hunter College. At this writing, Rosanne is dating Carl Rendoza, Jason’s baseball coach, who is a police officer with the 24th Precinct.
Sam Wyatt is still at Electronika International, only now as corporate vice-president, public affairs, which means he spends a great deal of time flying between New York and Washington, keeping an eye on domestic and international politics as they relate to Electronika’s operations. But his new job also means that Sam oversees all of Electronika’s corporate donations political, social and cultural responsibility that Sam is, quite frankly, reveling in. From the Urban League to the League of Women Voters, from college scholarships to public television, from Junior Achievement to the National Council on Alcoholism, Electronika’s dollars as spent by Sam Wyatt can be most readily and effectively seen. Sam himself can be seen many mornings jogging in Riverside Park; it can also be seen that Harriet is behind him, prodding him on with a small stick.
Walter Brennan and Chet Canley were found guilty of five violations of securities laws, paid fines in excess of one million dollars each, and served a six-month sentence in a county jail. They now run a consulting firm that maintains offices in both New York City and Albany.
Electronika International successfully negotiated a buy-back of their stock from ICL Industries, and Matthew Wellman has been officially named president. The ZT 5000 as everyone knows, is a resounding success.
Harriet’s corporate life took a dramatic turnaround when Gardiner & Grayson was sold to a communications conglomerate. Mack Sperry was fired and carried out with his gun collection, and a new publisher was brought in whom Harriet loves working with. The feeling is mutual and Harriet is now a division vice-president. Harrison Dreiden, Carol Roundtree, Tom West and Patricia MacMannis are all still there, and happily so. Patricia is soon to be married to a writer at Newsweek, a gentleman introduced to her by Howard Stewart. Layton Sinclair was kicked out of Gardiner & Grayson with great enthusiasm, and he has since risen to new dubious heights as the founder and publisher of Sinclair Dynamics, a vanity press for business executives.
Althea Wyatt’s major at Columbia University has changed from history to premed to English, but since she has begun talking nonstop about Oprah Winfrey, her parents are anticipating a change to journalism. She is currently living on II5th Street in an apartment she shares with two other girls (and John—a fact she has neglected to mention to her parents).
Samantha is currently enjoying good grades and immense popularity at the Findlay School.
Amanda Miller’s novel, I, Catherine, did indeed get finished and was recently published by Gardiner Grayson to a most agreeable critical and financial reception. It is a major book club selection here in the States, has been sold to publishers in four other countries, and has been optioned for a television mini-series. Rosanne’s ten percent interest in the book, as Amanda’s “agent,” has netted her something over thirty-three thousand dollars thus far. Amanda’s royalties are being donated to local and national literacy programs. She still teaches adult reading classes and, although she is hard at work on a new novel(about Isadora Duncan traveling back in time to lure Emily Dickinson on a trip to Europe), Amanda maintains a voluminous correspondence with many of her former students.
The Howard Stewart Literary Agency is flourishing and although its president still lives in his fifth-floor walk-up apartment, the company now shares office space with another agency in the Flatiron Building in downtown Manhattan. By the way, Howard did such a good job representing one of Gertrude Bristol’s proteges, the great lady herself is now one of his clients.
Although Amanda and Howard technically aren’t living together—they spend alternate nights at each other’s apartments (and yes, they do make love on Mondays—quite enthusiastically so—and yes, they always remember to close the curtains in Howard’s apartment)—there are strong hints of pending matrimony, though neither will confirm it. Amanda i
s wearing a lovely diamond ring from Cartier’s which Howard bought for her; plans have been seen concerning the restoration of the South Tower of Amanda’s apartment; and many happy trips and phone calls are jointly made to the cities of Columbus and Syracuse.
The marriage of Melissa Collins Stewart and Stephen Manischell ended in a very long, very messy divorce trial. Melissa sued on the grounds of embezzlement and adultery, and Stephen countersued on the grounds of severe mental cruelty and claims that the marriage was never consummated. Melissa now lives in Connecticut with Daddy Collins and makes a hundred and ninety thousand dollars a year at First Steel Citizen Bank.
Michael Cochran came home from the rehabilitation hospital and has not taken a drink since. He refuses, however, to attend the after-care group therapy sessions his doctors strongly advised, and Cassy has given up trying to get him to go. Michael is on the road most of the time now, successfully executing a variety of free-lance producing assignments. His health, energy, talent and good looks have been restored, and his reputation in the industry is slowly emerging as one of a “new man.”
Henry Cochran is at Yale in New Haven and comes home almost every weekend, as his romance with the fetching young Sarah Lawrence student, Jennifer, is still going strong. Skipper Marshall is at Middlebury College in Vermont and has a girl friend named Sadie who is doing much to brighten his life.
When her contract with WWKK expired in early 1987, Alexandra Waring moved to Washington, D.C., as a network correspondent, where her fame and popularity are expanding to national proportions. She was the first of Michael’s contacts to come through for him with free-lance work. Though Alexandra and Cassy have not seen each other since 1986, the women correspond regularly in newsy, cheerful letters that are read by the entire Cochran family.
In the beginning, when he first returned home, Cassy and Michael acted like two comrades at the end of a great war, beaten and dazed, instinctively taking their places at each other’s sides until the fatigue of battle left them—left Michael first. And it was not long after he was out on the road that Cassy came to suspect that there was someone out on the road with him. But she did not ignore it. She asked him about it. And he told her the truth. Yes, there was.
The Cochrans have decided to let some time pass, to go on as a family, to see where life is taking them—together or separately. They do make love on occasion, still, and they both call 162 Riverside Drive home, still, and they will always, always, share the joys of their son.
Cassy is in therapy with a psychiatrist she likes very much, sorting and sifting through the years of her life, trying to arrive at answers in the places where only questions have existed. She still runs WST (yes, they got their transmitter fixed, and yes, Cassy did take a film crew up to see Sister Mary at the Children’s Clinic, and yes, WST did win several awards (for the Caswell Zander story), but Cassy is delegating more and more responsibility to department heads, with her sights moving closer and closer toward news. But she is not sure yet, not sure at all, about how or when to try to make the transition. But just the fact that it seems possible her makes her realize just how much she has changed. With the first half of her life behind her, no one is more surprised than Cassy at the growing sense of freedom she feels about how she might wish to live the second.
Cassy can be seen most mornings walking to work along the promenade that borders Riverside Park. And she can be seen most evenings sitting by the living-room window, work papers in her lap, her eyes looking out to the river.
Riverside Drive Page 48
