Thursday March 30, 2006
Nextart 033006
The Central Florida Rural Planning Commission meeting was an hour away and still no answer from Hack. At 3:05, Anne's phone rang.
Anne didn’t have much time. She dialed her crew.
“Where are you guys? You’re late.”
“Anne, calm down. We’re six minutes late. We’re on our way.”
Per her instructions, they’d spent the night editing the Florida Springs piece in Daytona to get it ready for Hack's approval. They were just as nervous as she was. The SUV pulled into the Borders parking lot two minutes later. Anne was sitting outside. As they joined her at the table, the anticipated call came in.
The story was dead.
“I don’t even know what to do next,” Anne said. They hadn’t heard her say that in a long time.
“Well, I’ve been doing some work with WKMG…” started Perry. “Do you want to try calling them? Or do you want to…”
“Go,” she suggested. In an instant, the team was gone.
In the car ride over to the station, Anne and the crew made last minute preparations. Tracy applied Anne’s makeup. Catherine reviewed the bullet points. Patty worried.
This could be the best move the team had ever made. Or the worst.
The jubilant crew had little time to celebrate. They rushed out of the studio and into the car to get to the Orlando Science Center. With the successful broadcast behind her, Anne still had one big worry on her mind.
“Eddy still hasn’t called,” Anne mentioned. “I wonder when he’s going to show up.”
Across town, Jack Ingrassia was on the phone with Garner, making final preparations for the meeting.
“Do you have the documents?”
“Got ‘em, Jack,” Garner assured.
“Good, we’re going to need them.”
They agreed to meet early. When Garner hung up the phone, he was also wondering what surprises awaited at the Orlando Science Center. He would find out soon enough.
Arriving outside the Science Center, Garner bumped into Skye, who was still looking for a story—any story. He invited her inside.
Jack was rehearsing his speech with Zabrina when Garner and Skye sat down. Garner started to explain the intricacies of insider trading to Skye.
“You mean like Martha Stewart?”
“Exactly. Prison. Five months. And when she came out, all the glamour that she had was gone. It was not pretty.”
“The thing about insider trading is that it’s so hard to prove,” Zabrina snidely remarked.
Garner slid the incriminating documents across the table to Zabrina.
Zabrina stopped in her tracks to throw one last glance over her shoulder. Jack was smirking like a bastard. Less than one week after she’d waltzed into Garner’s and Jack’s lives, she was stomping out.
Stepping into the auditorium, Jack and Garner smiled smugly as they surveyed the empty seats.
The sight of all those empty seats struck Anne like a blow. All that hard work. The chasing. Hijacking the news. And nobody was here. The only voices this “public” commission would hear were Garner’s and Jack’s.
Jack launched into his presentation, speaking confidently into the almost empty hall. But it didn’t remain empty for long.
Anne recognized Keith from Sligh Studios. And the couple from the library. And more people. People she didn’t even know. The hall was filling up.
She turned to her crew. “They saw the story!”
Then, up on the stage, she recognized someone else. As Jack Ingrassia was wrapping up his pitch, a figure in a brown corduroy jacket and black knit cap stepped out onto the stage.
Garner commandeered Eddie off the stage into a seat, holding him in place with a firm hand. Anne called to him, but Eddie couldn’t escape the iron grip.
Eddie’s appearance, however, was causing Jack to lose his grip.
Anne’s impassioned words reminded the commission that there were more voices to be heard.
Jack glared at the standing crowd.
“This is a travesty.”
He marched off the stage and out of the hall. The loyal Garner followed. "You blew it, Jack."
Recognizing the need for more time to hear the many voices that Anne had marshaled to the meeting, the commission rescheduled for two weeks later. Her mission accomplished, Anne’s crew gathered around with congratulations and hugs.
Then a familiar voice broke up the celebration.
Anne turned to her crew with misty eyes. She had her first real story. She stepped onto the stage and faced the camera.
Posted on Friday, March 31, 2006 at 04:15AM
