Page 331 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

Charlie had shaken his head. "Forget it. This is television. We can't even hint at sex between a white woman and a black man."

"They could sing 'Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better.' That's comic."

"No. People will think it's a comment on civil rights."

Charlie Lacklow was smart, but Dave did not like him. Nobody did. He was a bad-tempered bully, and his occasional attempts to be ingratiatingly nice only made it worse.

Dave tried: "How about 'Mockingbird'?"

Charlie thought for a minute. "'If that mockingbird don't sing, he's gonna buy me a diamond ring,'" he sang. He reverted to speech. "I guess we can get away with that."

"Sure we can," Dave said. "The original recording was by a brother-and-sister duo, Inez and Charlie Foxx. No one thought it suggested incest."

"Okay."

Dave discussed the sensitivities of the American television audience with Evie, and explained the choice of song, and she agreed--except that she had a gleam in her eye that Dave knew too well. It meant trouble. It was how she had looked just before the school production of Hamlet, when she had played Ophelia in the nude.

They also discussed his breakup with Beep. "Everybody reacts as if it was just a typical teenage romance that didn't last," Dave complained. "But I stopped having teenage romances long before I stopped being a teenager, and I never much liked screwing around. I was serious about Beep. I wanted kids."

"You grew up faster than Beep," Evie said. "And I grew up faster than Hank Remington. Hank has settled down with Anna Murray--I hear he doesn't screw around anymore. Maybe Beep will do the same."

"And it will be too late for me, just as it was for you," Dave said bitterly.

Now the orchestra was tuning up, Evie was in makeup, and Percy was putting on his costume. Meanwhile the director, Tony Peterson, asked Dave to record his introduction.

The show was in color, and Dave was dressed in a burgundy velvet suit. He looked into the camera, imagined Beep walking back into his life with her arms reaching out to embrace him, and smiled warmly. "Now, fans, a special kick. We have both stars of the hit movie My Client and I: Percy Marquand, and my very own sister, Evie Williams!" He clapped his hands. The studio was quiet, but the sound of an audience applauding would be dubbed onto the soundtrack before the show was broadcast.

"I love the smile, Dave," said Tony. "Do it again."

Dave did it three times, and Tony pronounced himself satisfied.

At that point Charlie came in with a gray-suited man in his forties. Dave saw immediately that Charlie was in obsequious mode. "Dave, I want you to meet our sponsor," he said. "This is Albert Wharton, the top man at National Soap and one of the leading businessmen in America. He's flown here all the way from Cleveland, Ohio, to meet you, isn't that great of him?"

"It sure is," said Dave. People flew halfway around the world to see him every time he did a concert, but he always acted pleased.

Wharton said: "I have two teenage children, a boy and a girl. They're going to be envious that I met you."

Dave was trying to concentrate on making a great show, and the last thing he needed was to talk to a laundry detergent magnate; but he realized he had to be polite to this man. "I should sign a couple of autographs for your kids," he said.

"That would give them a thrill."

Charlie snapped his fingers at Miss Pritchard, his secretary, who was following behind him. "Jenny, sweetie," he said, even though she was a prim forty-year-old. "Get a couple of Dave's photos from the office."

Wharton looked like a typical conservative businessman with short hair and boring clothes. That prompted Dave to say: "What made you decide to sponsor my show, Mr. Wharton?"

"Our leading product is a detergent called Foam," Wharton began.

"I've seen the ads," Dave said with a smile. "'Foam washes cleaner than white!'"

Wharton nodded. Probably everyone he met quoted his advertising to him. "Foam is well known and trusted, and has been for many years," he said. "For that reason, it's also a bit fuddy-duddy. Young housewives tend to say: 'Foam, yes, my mother always used it.' Which is nice, but it has its dangers."

Dave was amused to hear him talk about the character of a box of detergent as if it were a person. But Wharton spoke with no hint of humor or irony, and Dave suppressed the impulse to take it lightly. He said: "So I'm here to let them know that Foam is young and groovy."

"Exactly," said Wharton. Then he smiled at last. "And, at the same time, to bring some popular music and wholesome humor into American homes."

Dave grinned. "It's a good thing I'm not in the Rolling Stones!"

"It certainly is," said Wharton in deadly earnest.

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