You're Not Finished Yet Ch. 03

"Why," I asked, "Why would you want me to do that?"

"Look at it this way, Mark," he told me, "If it were you looking down from heaven on one of your friends, you wouldn't want him to be too upset to move on with his life would you?"

"God, no," I quickly replied, "Of course not."

"Alright then," Dr. Barnes smiled, "That's how I deal with my past; maybe you might give that a try and see how it works, okay?"

"Damn," I smiled, "I never thought about it that way, thank you Doctor Barnes. How much do I owe you for this session?"

"I'll tell you what," he chuckled, "If you'll get the whole band to autograph a copy of your first album for me, then we'll call it even, okay?"

"I'll do better than that," I smiled, "We're going to be playing back at the Hofheinz Pavilion in two weeks for the Saint Jude's Cancer Research for Children Benefit. I'll get you and your wife front row tickets. How would that be?"

"Are you kidding me?" he grinned, "That would be perfect."

~~~~~~

Two weeks later, there we were, playing for the benefit back at the Hofheinz Pavilion on the University of Houston campus. Dr. Brown and his wife, Jim and Elaine Brance, who'd I'd leased the house from, Dr. Barnes and his wife, Julie Hanover and her fiancée, Dr. Marsha Briggs, and her boyfriend, as well as Mom, Dad, Jennifer's parents, plus Nana and Poppy, were all there sitting on the front row cheering us on. When Lynn came onto the stage, this time wearing a long white, flowing gown, which made her look like a beautiful fairy princess, the crowd went berserk. However, what none of us knew, was that Ahmet Ertegun himself was there to watch the show from out front and was sitting in the audience this time.

"It's good to be home," she said, into the microphone, proudly smiling at the audience, "We're home for a while now and we're going to begin work on a new album," which of course made the crowd loudly applaud again.

"I'm going to sing you a song that Mark wrote, not only for his daughter, but for everyone he's ever known," Lynn smiled, "And the name of this song is, 'So Proud To Love You'."

The very first four lines were done accapella, with the band coming right in behind her; and as Lynn's pure angelic voice was heard by all of our closest friends and family, I could've sworn that there wasn't a dry eye among them.

And I could tell that she was singing this particular song with all of her beautiful heart, making not only my eyes, but also the rest of the band's fill with proud tears, as we played right along with her. We, the band, as well as Jennifer and I, were never more proud of her than we were that night. And it was because of her performance that night that she was nominated for a Grammy award, for best female vocal performance before a live audience, which, I might add, she later won.

However, the highlight of our performance that night, was when Ahmet came from out of the audience to award us our Multi-Platinum Album Awards, right there in front of our friends, peers, and families, not to mention the press, who hounded us for interviews after the show.

This time I chose to answer the questions that they asked me; and when a couple of smart assed reporters tried to bring up some kind of bullshit rumor that had been started by some rag sheet tabloid, and/or tried to ask questions about our personal lives, I simply nodded at the nearby security staff and had their asses ejected from the building.

All in all though, we, as a band, really enjoyed doing that show more than any we'd had the opportunity to do thus far; and when it was all over, we went our separate ways for a little over ninety days, until it came time to work on the next album.

~~~~~~

All of what I've just told you transpired over the two week period just after we came home from our first tour; and for the next three months; Jennifer, me, and Abbey, made sure that Lynn had everything she needed. Of course Abbey was there to love and cuddle with her "Mommy Lynn", which is what she eventually grew up calling her.

~~~~~~

Then came the time that Amy Elizabeth Haynes made her little way into the world; and like her sister, she, too, had my blue eyes. However, she looked like her mother in every way, and after only six hours of labor, I walked into the delivery suite a second time, to find Lynn looking more beautiful than the day I met her. And in her arms she held a tiny little bundle of love that was our daughter.

"Hi, baby," she smiled, "Come and meet your youngest daughter."

And just like I'd done with Abbey, I also wept the first time I laid eyes on our little Amy. She was so sweet, with her mother's dark hair, and like I've already said, my blue eyes.

"Hello, baby girl," I sniffled, looking into her sweet little face, "Daddy's so glad to meet you...yes I am," and then I held my youngest child in my arms, never wanting to let her go.

"Isn't she beautiful?" Lynn smiled, "She looks so much like you."

"No, my love," I smiled, leaning down and softly kissing her lips, "She looks like you, just like you."

"Do you really think so, Mark?"

"Yes," I smiled, "And like her sister, that's why she's so beautiful, because both of my daughters look like their mothers."

"Speaking of which," Lynn smiled, "Where's Jen? I want her I here, too."

"I'm right here, baby," Jennifer's voice rang out from behind me, just before she walked into Lynn's room and tenderly kissed her lips, "Hello there, beautiful. How do you feel?"

"Hi, sweetie," Lynn cooed, in Jen's arms, "Well, I'm not ready to run any races yet, but I'm okay, just a little sore, that's all."

"And you will be for a while," Jen smiled, kissing her lips again, "But I'll be right here to help you through it, baby."

"Oh, speaking of babies," Lynn giggled, "Would you like to meet the new addition to our family, if you can get her away from Mark, that is?"

"I sure would," Jen tenderly replied, looking at me, "Can I hold her, daddy?"

"Of course you can," I grinned, as I gently passed Amy to her "Mommy Jen", "Here."

"Hi, Amy," Jen tenderly cooed, her eyes also filling with tears, "How is Mommy Jen's little girl, hmm? I love you so much, yes I do, and when you're ready to leave here, you're going to get to meet your big sister Abbey, and she' going to love you, too, yes she is."

"Oh, my God, Lynn" Jennifer cried, gently holding Amy to her breast, "She's so pretty."

"I think so, too," Lynn proudly smiled.

Amy suddenly nuzzled Jennifer's breast with her nose, making her smile, and as she handed little Amy back to Lynn, she giggled, "Here, Mommy, I think Amy's getting hungry. She's acting like her Daddy does when you and I go topless around the house," which in turn made Lynn laugh her ass off.

"Come on, you two," I playfully groaned, "I'm not that bad."

"Oh, yes you are," Jen and Lynn giggled, in unison again.

~~~~~~

And just like it was when Abbey was born, Mom, Nana, Dad and Poppy, were all outside waiting for the chance to meet the new addition to our family. Of course, after I walked out of Lynn's room, I sent Mom and Nana in so that they could do what women do when there's a brand new baby in the family, leaving me, Dad, Poppy, and of course, Abbey, who simply giggled and clapped her little hands.

"You two want to go get some coffee?" I asked, "My treat."

"You're buying? Dad teased, "Well hell yes, and it's about damn time, too."

"I heard that," Poppy laughed, "And don't buy us any of that cheap shit out of the machine."

"Cheap shit, Poppy" giggled Abbey, who had been talking clearly since she was eleven months old.

"Thanks a lot," I said, while Dad and Poppy laughed like fools, "If Jennifer, or Lynn hear her talking like that it's going to be my ass so, watch your mouth, dammit."

"Dammit, Daddy" Abbey giggled again.

"Aw, man," I complained, "Do you see what you two started?"

All they did was laugh and shake their heads while we walked to the cafeteria, while I carried Abbey, who was almost fourteen months old by this time, on my shoulders.

~~~~~~

Chapter Six

Because Jennifer and Lynn had been talking to Abbey and working with her since she was eight months old, Abbey knew who her Daddy was, as well as her Mommy, and of course, Mommy Lynn. She also knew who her Momma Tessa was and her Daddy Mike, and also her granny and Papaw, Jennifer's parents. But most of all she knew who Nana and Poppy were before she knew who any of the rest of us were, Nana saw to that.

We really had to watch our mouths around her, because she was like a tape recorder, in that she repeated everything she heard, the little stinker. But when it came right down to it, she was definitely her Daddy's girl; because any time she was hurt or scared, it was my arms that she ran to, always snuggling her little face into my chest, making me wrap my arms around her, God love her little heart.

However, Amy was no different from her sister, and the older she got the more she, too, became a Daddy's girl, mimicking her big sister in almost every way. We taught Abbey from the very start that it was her responsibility to look out for her baby sister, and Abbey rose to the challenge like a champion, making all of us very proud of her.

Over the next three years, every album that we released went at least double platinum, or better; and Ahmet was very proud of all of the good things that we'd accomplished up to this point. Pegasus was now a two-time Grammy winning act, and it showed in every aspect of our music.

Both of the Mackey sisters were now married and starting families of their own, and sally Richardson had recently become engaged to her college sweetheart, and the date for their marriage was right around the corner. As far as having anymore children was concerned, Jennifer, Lynn, and I, had, in depth, discussed the idea, but decided that we were content, for the time being, with the family that we had, and therefore, both of the girls had their tubes tied. That way, in the event that we might perhaps want more kids, the option was there.

~~~~~~

We'd finished out third tour, which was a lot longer than any up to this point, ten months, and had just come back into the studio to start work on the fourth album. And being the appointed band leader, I decided to let the girls in the band try their hand at writing some of the material to go on the fourth album. Still though, by contract that we all agreed upon, I had the power of veto when it came time to decide what was, or was not going to be put on the album.

But wanting to be fair, I had asked every member of the band, myself included, to individually write three songs over a certain period of time, and then after the time had expired; we would get together in the new studio that I had designed and recently built there in Houston, and compare notes.

~~~~~~

When we met again, and I had the chance to listen to all of the material that the girls had written, I was very impressed to say the least. I also knew that I was going to have a hard time deciding which of the fifteen songs, eighteen counting mine that I was going to choose to put on the album. After closely listening to each one, as well as talking at length to Ahmet, I finally decided, "What the hell?" and put them all on the album. Granted, it was going to be our longest album to date, but I knew, as did Ahmet, that this album was going to the best yet; and therefore I was looking forward to putting it all together.

~~~~~~

Because of the fact that every single song had been so very well written, as opposed to having single cuts on the album, Ahmet and I decided to make each song blend into the next one, making this album a sort of rock opera. This was during the time that groups like Electric Light Orchestra, Yes, Rick Wakeman, and Emerson Lake and Palmer were all doing the same thing; and doing it well. So, it wasn't like we were doing anything new. Hell, the president had already been set; we were simply following in the same footsteps; only ours would be longer and more powerful musically, than anything that had, to date, ever been released.

~~~~~~

We named the album, "Raptured," because that's exactly how we felt once it was complete. And after Ahmet listened to it, he was more than ecstatic; telling us, "I'm so pleased with what you all have done; and I think that this album in particular will be the first of many pinnacles in the history of Atlantic records; well done, you guys. You've made me very proud."

"We're all very happy that you're pleased, Ahmet," Jennifer smiled, "And you don't know what it means to us to hear you tell us how proud of us that you are; thank you."

"You're very welcome, young lady," he grinned, hugging her, "Shall we discuss tour dates?"

"It's like this, Ahmet," I told him, "We've trusted you this far to schedule our tours; and as far as we're concerned, we still trust you."

"I'm happy to hear that," he politely replied, "But I'm talking about doing a world tour with this album. Your time has come, and in my personal opinion, you're way overdue for a world tour."

"A world tour," I excitedly asked, "Are you serious?"

"Yes, he chuckled, "I'm talking about touring fifteen countires over a period of eighteen months."

The excitement among us all was so thick you could've cut it with a knife. However, the first question that came to my mind was what I was going to do about our children. And when I expressed those concerns to Ahmet, he simply smiled in the kindly way that we all knew and adored him for and said, "If you want to bring someone along to watch over them while you're doing your jobs, go right ahead. I'll even pay them for their time."

"Oh, thank you, Ahmet," Lynn smiled, kissing him on the cheek, "Thank you so much."

"Yes," Jennifer giggled, kissing his other cheek as his face blushed, "Thank you from the bottom of our hearts."

"Then Jennifer looked at me and said, "Do you think your Mom would be willing to..."

"Are you kidding me?" I grinned, "She would love to go on tour with us, especially when it comes to anything that involves her grand babies."

So, that's how it began. Over the next two months, with Ahmet's help, we put a show together that turned out to be better than anything that was in our wildest dreams. Ahmet also had friends in Washington D.C. who hand walked our passports through the state department, and returned them to us a week before we left to go on tour.

~~~~~~

For the first leg of our tour, which was named, "Pegasus, The Raptured World Tour", we toured every major city in the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. That took us roughly seven and a half months to complete before we headed south, into Monterrey, and Mexico City. Then going further south, we did a short tour of South America, playing in Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aries.

After that we went to England, playing in London, who, I might add, gave us a very warm reception, and then in Manchester, where we were very pleasantly received by the press. From there went to Ireland to play in Dublin, Cork, and Limerick. I must say that the Irish people were some of the kindest, most sincere people that I'd ever had the pleasure of meeting; and when we left there, I made plans to bring my family back at the first opportunity.

From there we went to Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, which, I have to tell you, after growing up in the southern part of the United States, I froze my ass off, hell, we all did, because we weren't used to the temperatures up there.

One of my favorite gigs that we played was when we hit Amsterdam in The Netherlands, and you probably understand the obvious reasons why. Still though, it seemed like everywhere we went while we were there, people would stop us for autographs, pictures, or both.

However, when we hit Belgium, we played in Brussels first; and then when we went to play in Antwerp, I took the time, and could well afford by now, to have identical diamond rings made for Jennifer and Lynn. And when I placed them on their left ring fingers, together, they broke down, and with happy tears pouring down their beautiful faces, cried their eyes out, they were so happy.

~~~~~~

Germany was a great country, too. We played in five cities there, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, and Bonn. I was amazed that they knew every word to every song, and sang along with us as we played. Hell, they also knew every one of our names, as well, it was great.

I was thankful that we only played one gig in Paris, France, and that was because a couple of assholes made an attempt to cop a feel of Jennifer and Lynn, and in turn, got their asses kicked on the spot. Our road manager, Mike Hellmann, had to come down and get me out of jail, but it was damn well worth it in my book. Don't get me wrong, the French people as a whole, were very nice. But some of the few that I happen to come in contact with, and they were male, were extremely rude to us, and I was glad when we left there.

~~~~~~

We played in Sofia, Bulgaria to a crowd of sixty thousand people, and it was like being in Germany, as they all sang along with us, knowing every word to every song we played, and once again, it was very nice. However, nothing could've prepared us for the thrill of playing along the Mediterranean coast.

~~~~~~

When we played in Greece, I thought that I'd died and gone to heaven. We hit Athens, Tripoli, and the island of Ermoupolis. And I can't begin to tell you what it felt like having the Mediterranean Sea as a backdrop for the stage we played upon. I felt as if I'd been sent back in time during the time of such people as Socrates, and Plato. The girls al wore modernized versions of the ancient toga, making them even more beautiful than they already were, and the purity of my beautiful Lynn's voice did exactly what we'd named our current album, it raptured me.

From Greece we went to Italy, where we played first in Venice, then Rome, and then on down to Capri, and Italy was another place that I fell in love with. However, we had just as good a time in Palermo, Sicily. But when we went to Cagliari, the capitol city of Sardinia, we were welcomed as if we were family, the whole city turned out to greet us, giving us samples of food, wine, and most of all, friendship.

~~~~~~

We flew back to Rome, where we caught a flight into Monaco. And when we played in Monte Carlo, Princess Stephanie herself was there to meet us at the airport, insisting that we stay at the accommodations that she had personally lined up for us. These particular accommodations were more than regal, and of course the girls were ecstatic about them.

And because she was a very nice person, we graciously accepted her offer. It hadn't been planned, but the day before our show, being a musician of sorts herself, she showed us a video of some of her performances and hopefully asked if she and her band could open our show.

Being that I was not the one who had the final say, I put her in touch with Ahmet over the phone, who, after speaking with her, then me, and then at length with our road manager, told her that we would be honored if she opened for us, but that her performance could, in no way, last for more than an hour.

She was so happy that, as opposed to calling her, "Your Majesty", like everyone else in her country did, she firmly but kindly insisted that we call her just plain old "Stephanie", and we did just that. She was full of questions about the music industry, and I was the one, who, as the leader of our group, that she asked the most questions.

Even though I looked at it as her being a little Star Struck, Jennifer and Lynn gave me jealous glares when Stephanie would occasionally pat my hand, or lean in and hug me. Personally I thought it was funny watching the two of them, and I didn't hesitate to let it show either.

However, when the three of us retired for the evening, Jennifer and Lynn tried giving me the cold shoulder, before I set them straight, saying, "You two need to take a look at where I am, and who I'm with. I love the two of you more than anything in the world, and I don't want some wannabe rock star princess. I want the two of you so; you'd better stop acting all bitchy and cut me a little slack, okay?"