NanoSteps Brainstorming 2 - Stepping Out

[Bob Schroeck]

"There's just one thing I want to know," I said conversationally,
holding the flat steady as Jim nailed it in place..

"Mm?" he said around the nails he held in his teeth. Putting
down the hammer, he opened his mouth to let them fall into his
hand, then looked up at me. "What's that?" He stood, and a pair
of stagehands rushed in to dress and decorate this part of the
red, white and blue set. Slipping the nails into a pocket and
the hammer into his belt, he took out his pipe and lit it as I
tried to compose a response that didn't include the kind of
profanity that just wasn't used in polite company during this
era.

I nodded in the general direction of the two men sitting on the
porch of the former farmhouse which housed the Inn's facilities.
They were chatting animatedly between themselves as the preparations
for the next day's show swirled around them. "Why do you put up
with those two? Danny's show business scum of the lowest order.
I'm all too familiar with the type -- I grew up around them. And
you *know* Ted's trying to steal Linda from you, just like he
stole Lila." Getting Jim and Linda to formalize their
engagement was the accomplishment I was most proud of during this
stopover, and I'd be damned if I let a balding horsefaced beanpole
of a dancer ruin that because he couldn't find a girl of his own.
Again. With or without the help of his slimy agent buddy.

"Well, now," Jim said thoughtfully as he puffed on his pipe.
"There's one thing you need to know about Ted and me, Doug. We
go back a long ways together. And honestly I owe my success
in show business to him. I'd've been just another two-bit
crooner looking for work if we hadn't teamed up all those years
ago." He puffed some more, and I waited. "I guess I'm saying
that now that Linda's wearing my ring, I'm willing to cut him a
little more slack, for friendship's sake." He gestured with the
pipe, pointing at me with the stem. "Not a lot, mind you, I did
learn my lesson with Lila. But if it makes him happy to try to
take Linda from me, who am I to deny him?" He gave me a lopsided
grin. "Long as it's me she's standing next to at the altar in six
months, that is."

I shook my head. "You're a far more forgiving man than I am,
Jim. If it were *my* fiancée he was sniffing around, I'd break
both his kneecaps and dump him in an alley in the Bowery." I
looked around at the Connecticut countryside that surrounded us.
"I'd make the trip special, just for him," I added as Jim raised
an eyebrow.

He laughed, replaced his pipe, and slapped me on the back. "I
guess I should be glad Linda and I have you as a guardian angel,
then. Ted's not going to get anywhere, but it's good to know
that if he goes over the line we've got you there."

"You'd better believe it," I muttered, then added, "C'mon, we've
got to finish rigging the stage for Ted and Linda's fireworks
dance."

Spoiler

Holiday Inn (1942)

(Edit:  Corrected spelling of "Lila".)

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.