Chapter Five

Michael sank down in to the couch, he felt particularly unhappy. He thought about the little comments Jody had made and wondered why it had stung him so much. He thought that maybe it hurt because he had invited her back as an act of kindness, and felt as though she had betrayed it. He gave a deep sigh of resignation wishing that he could just be thought of as normal.

People always conceived him to be conceited because of his status in the public, they saw him as being evil and no one outside his close circle of friends or fans were interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt. The only people who did were his fans, but they put him on an unrealistic pedestal, as though he was superhuman. It seemed to be a never-ending no-win situation for him.

He got up and headed up the staircase with heavy footsteps. The weather was quite sticky and he was beginning to feel it as the day progressed and the humidity grew. He opened his closet and pulled a white T-shirt off the coat hanger and dragged himself to the bathroom. He studied his reflection in the mirror and heaved yet another sigh. He pulled his jacket off and slipped in to his shirt, feeling cooler. He splashed some water over his face and slicked his hair back.

He looked down on to the bathroom vanity, looking for an elastic band to hold his hair back.  Finding one, he put his hair in a messy ponytail, and went to the window in his room to make sure the kids were okay. They were playing in the garden gleefully. He gave a small vacant smile as he sank down in to a chair that faced his bed.

“I still can’t believe that you ended up at Michael Jackson’s house. That must have been a major spin-out.” Julia said, following Jody in to her apartment.

“Yeah…” Jody replied absently. She walked in to the main living area and set her keys down. After picking Jody up, they called AAA, which had sent a tow truck to take the car to the shop.

“You know, your father isn’t going to do anything.” Julia remarked heading in to Jody’s kitchen to help herself to a drink, “He just went off on you because of what you said – chances are that he’ll take heed and leave you alone.”

Jody just nodded; she wasn’t about to contradict her. There was no way she could make anyone understand fully, what her father was truly like and it was impossible to explain. “You’re probably right.” She mumbled.

“So cheer up, you just met Michael Jackson!” Julia stated enviously. “Was he like, you know, moonwalking up and down his hallway?” She joked, motioning to do a fake moonwalk on Jody’s carpet.

For some reason she began to feel annoyed with Julia’s flippant response towards what had happened.  Jody had expected more empathy from her, but that wasn’t what she was getting. She gave a half-hearted chuckle, as obviously Julia was star struck.

“Today wasn’t the first time I met him,” She admitted in a quiet voice, anticipating Julia’s shriek.

“Whaaaat?” She shrieked, as if on cue, “Why wasn’t I told? Man, you always keep me in the dark about all this glamorous stuff!”

Jody explained in brief how she had spoken to Michael the night on the beach.

“Ooh you know what I hear? I hear he’s going to release another album soon; this will be even bigger than Thriller! Sooo….What’s he like?” She rambled excitedly.

She was too embarrassed to relay what she had stupidly said to Michael about the chef. She just gave a little shrug, “I don’t know, I hardly know him. You know what those rich people are like, looking down on to others because they can afford to live better.”

Julia shrugged, “Not all people are like that you know, just your father.”

Jody scoffed, “Untrue. Simon is like that.” She thought for a second, “And so were most of the people who worked for my father. The ones that seem nice are probably just bastards behind closed doors, like Michael Jackson.”

Julia was quiet after that response.  While relieved, Jody wasn’t sure how to take it. She knew that she was being snappy, but she was too upset to do anything about it. 

“You know, I should get going.” Julia piped up.

“Now?” Jody asked surprised, she really wanted someone to stay with her, just in case. “But…you just got here!”

“Yeah I know, but I’ve got things to do…” Julia excused herself.

“Well, what do you have to do? I’ve gotta pay some bills…” Her voice trailed off, really not wanting to be alone.

“Um… I kind of made plans with Riccardo.” Her friend replied, feeling bad, as she didn’t want to hurt her.

Jody slunk back in to her chair, “Oh…okay, have fun then.” She replied, somewhat embarrassed.

“I will.” Julia said flashing her best friend a smile, “And cheer up Charlie.” She joked as she grabbed her keys and headed out the front door.

The moment she was gone, Jody’s tears began to fall steadily down her face. The entire day she’d tried hard to keep it all bottled up, but now, they flowed without restraint and she wasn’t bothering to try to stop them.

She was scared of what her father may try next, scared of perhaps the kind of things that he would put Simon up to. She was scared of being alone and most of all she felt lonely, as though she had no one to turn to. Julia hadn’t turned given her the kind of moral support she had expected. Maybe I expect too much. Jody told herself.

“Mikeyyyyy…” Elyse called tiptoeing in to his bedroom. “Mikey are you thereeeee, Mikeeeeey?” She said in the loudest whisper.

“Yeah, I’m in here…” He called out. A few seconds later Elyse was in his line of vision. He had been sitting by the window the last hour watching his niece and nephews play. He was feeling a little depressed and nothing seemed to be able to uplift that mood, no matter how pleasant his thoughts were.

“Mikeyyy, what are you doing?” Elyse wanted to know, resting her little hands on Michael’s knee.

“Nothing, I’m just sitting.” He replied, “I was watching you and your brothers outside the window."”

Elyse seemed uninterested in the answer to her question. She glanced around the room as if deciding what she was going to do. She studied Michael who was still glancing out of the window. “Are you sad Mikeyyy? You look sad.” She observed.

At hearing this, Michael cracked a smile. He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a hug. “You’re so sweet, bubba.” He pulled her in to his lap.

“Can you sing me a song?” She asked, chewing on her finger.

“Aww…” Michael sighed, “I don’t feel like doing that right now, maybe later, okay?”

“Pleeeeease?” She looked up at him with wide begging eyes.

Michael gave a wry smile, “Okay…what am I singing?” He asked, sitting up a little straighter in his seat, rather than the despondent slouch he’d resumed.

Elyse shrugged.

“Hmm…I have a new song…”

Elyse smiled, seeming to be satisfied, hearing this. She laid her head upon Michael’s chest, encircling her arms around his chest, not making it easy for him to sing.

Hey pretty baby with the high heels on

You give me fever like I’ve never ever known!

You’re just a product of loveliness.

I like the groove of your walk, your talk, your dress!

I feel your fever from miles around,

I’ll pick you up in my car and we’ll pain the town.

I like this feeling you’re giving me

Just hold me baby and I’m in ecstasy.

Oh I’ll be workin’ from nine til five

to buy you things just to keep you by my side.

I swear I’m keeping you satisfied,

cause you’re the one for me

The way you make me feel…

He finished and took a breath

Elyse smiled, “That’s a good song.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it.” He replied. He glanced out the window again, noticing that the boys were not within his view. “Come on,” He said, lifting her gently off of his lap with ease, "Let’s go check on the boys, it’s getting a bit too dark.”

She slipped her hand in to his and they headed downstairs to look for Chris and Ryan.

After finally getting through dinner, which was always a task in itself, Michael let the kids watch TV for a little while, until he decided it was bedtime. Elyse had already fallen asleep in her mini foldout sofa lounge that resided by Michael’s feet and Chris and Ryan were not far behind, they sleepily protested until Michael agreed to read them a few pages of their bedtime story.

He lifted Elyse up, gently careful not to wake her, and put her to bed. He tucked her in and gave her a kiss on the forehead. She didn’t so much as stir.

He turned his heel and left the room, knowing that getting Chris and Ryan off to sleep was going to be much more difficult. Michael himself was tired and needed sleep.

****

After leafing through a few pages Michael gave a sigh, “Can’t I just make up a story?” He asked, not in the mood for reading anything. He was sitting on a chair between Chris and Ryan’s beds, his head rested against Ryan’s bed. He didn’t dare close his eyes, knowing that he would be out like a light if he did.

“Tell us a story about Jody.” Ryan giggled mischievously.

Chris joined in, “Yeahhhh Mikey that’s your giiiiirlfriend!”

Michael raised his eyebrow, “Excuse me?”

“Miiiikey and Jodyyyyy sitting in a treeeee” Ryan began.

He chuckled, “Come on, settle down…it’s time to sleep.”

“He’s in love!” Chris insisted.

“No!” Ryan protested, “Mikey has to be with a pretty girl!”

Michael was amused with the boys, “So, you don’t think Jody is pretty?” He asked Ryan.

Ryan shook his head, “But maybe she is nice.” He said raising his hands up as if to say he didn’t know. Michael rose up from the chair and swatted the air above Ryan’s head playfully. Ryan giggled and crept further down under his quilt. Michael pulled it up under his chin and tucked him in.

“Alright, enough about Jody, you should both go to sleep. I’m tired and need to sleep too, okay?”

“But we’re not tiiiiiiiired.” Chris sulked, waiting for Michael to come and tuck him in too.

“Close your eyes and maybe you’ll surprise yourself.” Michael replied, giving his nephew a patronizing smile, tucking the quilt under the matress.

“Make up a story…” Ryan instructed Michael, carefully placing his arms under his head. Michael was amused by how precocious Ryan was at times.

“Alright…” He sighed…He was stuck for ideas, for some reason his mind was blank, this normally creative man’s seemed to be on a, what he hoped was temporary, standstill. “Umm…there was a little boy called, Tommy.” Michael began, he had no idea where he was going to head with this one, “Tommy was around the same age as you both … He had a special friend, his friend was a talking duck…”

“No, a cow.” Chris interjected.

“Okay a cow.” Michael replied growing rapidly tired. He gave a yawn. “Okay so the cows name was um…” He stopped to think of a name and found himself yawning a second time.

“The cows name was Betty.” Ryan finished the line off, obviously having thought about it. “The cow was colored blue and white, too.”

Michael nodded. “Tell me more about the cow…”

***********

The boys began to discuss the story, and even began to continue it without Michael’s help. He had resumed his position, laying his head on Ryan’s bed. A few minutes later Ryan and Chris noticed the heavy breathing of Michael, indicating that he was asleep.

“Oh no…” Chris whispered, “He’s asleep! He didn’t finish the story.”

“Shhh!” Ryan hissed. The boys whispered back and forth for a little while, agreeing not to wake their uncle up, but rather, leaving him to sleep where he was.

Jody turned her air conditioner on and grabbed her bottle of water. She changed in to a pair of soccer shorts and a white tank top.

The day had been exhausting. She had so many thoughts and feelings drifting through her mind. So many things that had been building up inside her had finally escaped her mouth, though she wasn’t quite sure if she was relieved or worried about it. She was scared of the repercussions that could follow.

She crawled into bed and rolled over onto her back, replaying everything in her mind from the moment she had stormed in to her father’s office in an enraged tangent. She knew that she needed that money probably far more than she had ever realized but when she thought of all the ways he had treated her during her life, she was why she couldn’t take his guilt money.

She had realized after the death of her mother, that there was no one there for her. Her mother had been an amazing woman. The pain and torment of having to deal with the real Cameron Winters’ had obviously made them form a special bond.

Memories flooded her mind of the times where Cameron would come home from work and beat Joan for the most trivial things, such as the kitchen being untidy, or dinner not being ready – or in some way, imperfect. He would terrorize Jody about her schoolwork and her friends. He disallowed her to have any contact with boys up until she moved out. He arranged dates with boys who were the sons of other respected lawyers.

Jody recollected her first crush, Ricky. Ricky was Mexican, too, and gorgeous. Jody had known Ricky for many years as he attended her school. Her mother adored Ricky and got along well with his mother. He had been at the funeral when her mother died and had held her hand throughout the service. Her father had noticed and at first he wasn’t bothered by it, but when Jody started to spend more and more time with him – her father began to get mad. He hated the fact that Ricky was Mexican and that he didn’t come from a wealthy family.

He believed that he’d made the biggest mistake marrying someone like Joan, as she too was Mexican, and was brought up in a poor Mexican environment. He believed that her family had tried to milk him for his money, which was exactly why he had grown to resent her. He resented Jody at times too, because every time she showed her strength and courageousness, it reminded him of Joan all over again.

As Jody grew older her father forbade her from contacting Ricky. It upset her more than she could put in to words. He wasn’t just a gorgeous face, but he was a gorgeous person. Julia had been around too, but Ricky was the one that was there on the day of her mother’s funeral. She never forgot how he squeezed her hand tightly as her mothers coffin was being lowered in to the ground. She remembered glancing over at her father briefly, he was meters away making a joke with a business associate, then in the next instant, putting on a big show as he read her mothers eulogy, breaking down several times.

Jody wiped a lone tear that was trickling down her face. She swallowed hard, remembering the way that Ricky’s mother had held her hands firmly on her shoulders, rubbing her back soothingly as she cried. Jody at the time didn’t question why her father wasn’t with her to offer his support. As she thought about it later, though, she realized he was too busy keeping up his façade, pretending to be sad to win sympathy.

Jody sighed. She tossed and turned a few times but couldn’t escape these memories. She squinted at the clock on her dresser. It was after 3 a.m. She could feel her fatigue but no matter how hard she closed her eyes, she couldn’t seem to drift off.

Her thoughts wandered to Michael Jackson. She could feel herself blushing in the dark. She remembered the look of shock that filled his face when she asked about the chef. She hated nothing more than people making misconceptions, and couldn’t believe that she’d actually made the same mistake herself.

She couldn’t believe what an idiot she had been. The Winters’ mansion was one of the biggest in Beverly Hills, and the Winters’ family never had a chef, or even a maid. It wasn’t like they couldn’t afford one, either. Ha, why would you need a maid when you could just treat your wife as one? She thought bitterly.

Michael had seemed sweet to her and was very polite, but she also knew there had to be some kind of catch. He was rich, talented, sure of himself … everything her father was when he was putting on a show.

She had seen Michael on television dozens of times donating money to charities and starting charities of his own – that’s what made her so suspicious. Her father used to do things like that to win good publicity, using it as a forum to advertise his services. She knew Michael’s reasons were probably the same.

Why am I even thinking of him? I’ll never see him again…ugh, as if I’d want to. I’d never hear the end from Julia. She thought to herself, repulsed by the way her friend had reacted to the news about Michael, rather than the news about her own wellbeing that she was deeply afraid of. She hoped she wouldn’t hear from her father or Simon again.

Michael woke up around 4a.m.with an extremely stiff neck. He looked around feeling disorientated. He realized that he had fallen asleep in the boys’ room. Chris and Ryan were both sleeping soundly in their beds. He rose up from the hard wooden chair that he’d been twisted up in and headed out of there, tripping on a toy truck on the way out. It made a loud clatter, but luckily not loud enough to wake them.

He turned the light in the hallway on and gave a huge yawn. He rolled his neck around a few times, trying to crack it. He gave it a firm rub, since it was hurting so much. He headed down the hall towards his room and flopped on to his bed. The weather was still warm and muggy. He switched the air conditioner on in his room and lay on his bed for a little while, trying to relax his tense neck.

He anticipated one of the children to arrive in his bedroom asking for cups of water, crying from a bad dream, hiding from monsters. He had always had kids in and out of Neverland, spending time with him, but he had never taken on kids 24 hours a day seven days a week. He knew parenting was a big deal, but he didn’t realize that it could be so frustrating and trying.

The kids were generally well-behaved and they listened to him. They were able to tell when he meant business. He had a lot of fun with them, but noticed that it was the little things that were so hard to adjust to. For instance, in the two weeks that they had spent with him, he had hardly been able to get a full night sleep. His peaceful slumbers were often interrupted with midnight invasions.

“Michael, I want a drink.”

“I’m scared.”  

“I am too scared to walk to the toilet.”

“I had a nightmare.”

“There are monsters under my bed.”

The list went on and on.

He also found it hard sometimes dealing with other things such as when to put his foot down and be firm. He didn’t like to say no to the kids and they knew it. They had him wrapped around their little fingers. He of course, knew when to draw the line. Marlon had given him very strict instructions not to spoil them – but sometimes he just couldn’t help it. He also was sometimes unaware of how to handle fights and arguments. He was scared of being unfair and hated to see tears.

There were times that the kids did test his patience and he got a little irritated, but he always managed to keep his cool, after all, they were just kids. He hated to see kids being yelled at, he believed that if he kept his cool and asked them nicely to behave, then they usually would. He believed that yelling usually just created unwanted bad energy for both parties.

Kids needed to be respected, they needed to have someone they could trust and someone who would be attentive to their needs, Michael was aware of that after going through what he had, in his own family.

Elyse, was definitely the sweetest little girl that he’d ever met. She was a warm and charming little girl. She was adored by most of the family. She was so cute and so intelligent for her age. It often stunned him sometimes, the way she seemed to be so receptive to his moods. She was easily left out of much of the fun when it concerned her two bothers because she was younger and more fragile. For that reason, Elyse seemed to spend the most time clinging to Michael, he didn’t mind at all.

Suddenly his thoughts were put to a halt as he heard two little footsteps down the hall followed by sniffling. Sure enough, it was Elyse, dragging her teddy bear along on the floor. Her Teddy bear was almost out-sizing her. She was crying softly, with the balled up fist on her free arm, rubbing her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” He whispered, switching on the lamp.

“I’m scared…” She whimpered, through her tears. Michael nearly laughed out loud thinking of how coincidental that it was that he was just thinking about her.

“What are you afraid of?” Michael asked gently, sitting up.

Elyse didn’t answer; she kept looking at him, the lamp obviously hurting her eyes. She was still sleepy and had a hard enough time keeping them open, let alone waiting for them to adjust to the light.

“Come on, sweetheart, I’ll come in your room and sit with you, okay?”

She seemed satisfied with this. He scooped her up off of the carpet and carried her back to her bed; by the time that he had finished tucking her in, she had already started to drift back off.

He sat down for a few minutes on the end of the bed, waiting for it to be safe for him to tiptoe out.

Michael headed downstairs towards the studio. It was just after 5.a.m now and he had somehow slipped in to some kind of bad mood since he’d awoken. It was the same feeling he felt the day before.

He tinkered around on the piano for a little while, playing some pieces just for something to do. He eyed some fresh clean sheets of paper that sat on a bench over towards the left of the synthesizers and other equipment. He picked up the pen that was sitting on top of the piano and headed over towards it.

He took a sheet of paper and began to write something.

I don't care what you talkin' 'bout baby
I don't care what you say
Don't you come walkin' beggin' back mama
I don't care anyway
Time after time I gave you all of my money
No excuses to make
Ain't no mountain that I can't climb baby
All is going my way

Cause there's a time when you're right
And you know you must fight
Who's laughing baby, don't you know
And there's the choice that we make
And this choice you will take
Who's laughin' baby

So just leave me alone girl –

Leave me alone
Leave me alone - stop it!
Just stop doggin' me around


There was a time I used to say girl I need you
But who is sorry now
You really hurt, you used to take and deceive me
Now who is sorry now
You got a way of making me feel so sorry
I found out right away
Don't you come walkin' - beggin' I ain't lovin' you
Don't you get in my way

Everything just seemed to flow and make perfect sense to him. He wrote it with a number of things in his heart. He thought about yesterday, how Jody had perceived him to be and how much she had hurt him with her little comments. He also wrote it with Stewarts in mind and basically everyone else that tried to mooch off of him, and use his music against him.

After, he played around with some of his new songs before going back upstairs to make sure that the kids were okay, and begin fixing something for their breakfast.