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Day 3 - Part 15

-How’s she? Greg asked from Be-Bob who just entered the room.
-She’s far asleep by now.
-Sleeping? I thought we’re gonna send her away, Nick said.
Be-Bob didn’t answer. Greg did.
-She’s tired. She’s... She’s a mess. You should see her.
-I don’t think we want to, Brian said. -Did you check up on her?
-We did, Be-Bob replied. -She’s clean.
-How could she be clean? Kevin asked with sarcastic voice.
-Her files are clean, Be-Bob defined. -Nothing unusual on those. Just few things, but nothing illegal or things like that. Samuel is going trough those.
-I guess that’s good? Howie sounded hopeful.
Suddenly AJ looked up. -What are we gonna do with her?
-What do you mean? Gonna do with her? Didn’t we already have a plan?
Brian’s voice was just a little bit terrified. -Can you really walk out on her?
Greg asked a question and knew at least his view on the subject.

Cara woke up few hours later. She was scared because she didn’t know where she was. While she’d been sleeping, darkness had fell and shadows on the walls made place unfamiliar to her. She sat up and hit her head. One metallic mug fell from the wall and made horrible noise when bouncing on the floor. Door opened.
-So you’re up? voice asked. Cara looked up but couldn’t see face because light came behind the person. -Would you like me to do something for you?
She tried to think about something.
-Shower? Could I wash up somewhere?
-Sure. Just follow me.
Lights hurt her eyes but seeing person’s back she could recognize him. It was Mark, the drummer. He wasn’t happy of his assignment. Band had to fled the room when Samuel came. Only Greg was allowed to stay. Mark didn’t really understand why they made such a big deal out of some little girl.
-There’s towels and everything what you need, he said. -I’m just gonna wait here outside. Try not to be there too long.
Without a word she went inside. Warm shower was like a dream come true. But in the end, when she was drying herself she got to think about her situation. She knew she was in the same house as the Boys. She could vaguely recall her conversation with Greg. But she was afraid of being send away. So she stayed under running water for a long time. And poor Mark had to sit there waiting for her, unable for doing anything else than drumming irrational rhythms to floor with his toes.

Samuel placed pile of papers on the table.
-So that’s what we know about her.
He had given Boys short brief of a person named Cara Christina Castillo. What he didn’t know was that everything he read was made up just few months earlier on one night after smoking perhaps too much pod.
-There’s nothing more? She’s just an orphan? Brian asked.
-Great, finally real one, AJ commented. Everyone turned to see him. -Well, you know, when Anna and I first met, I asked if she was an orphan. She wasn’t.
-We don’t need another Anna, Kevin said calmly.
-What does his ex-girlfriend have to do with this? Greg wanted to know.
-Nothing, AJ said. -Nothing. But I think Kevin’s right.
-So it’s OK for you to rescue someone but we can’t do that? Howie questioned.
AJ rolled his eyes. -What would you want to do?
Howie shrugged.
-She’s going to follow us anyhow, Greg said. -She’s been hanging there for six weeks. You didn’t see her from close, I did. She’s a mess. I don’t mean that she would cause any trouble. Just that she’s gonna come along where ever we go.
-It’s a free world, Kevin said.
-But it’s also a cruel world.
Samuel had watched guys talking without any comment.
-Nick? he asked. -What do you think?
Nick looked up, surprised. -I think we have to what’s best for her, he finally muttered. -I mean really best for her, not good for us.

Jeannie sat down and looked girl opposite her. She was pale, oh how pale was she really. And that black hair made it even worse. She was skinny. In a way that she shouldn’t have been.
-So... Cara, she checked her name from the file and then looked at her again. -What can you do?
-Excuse me?
Good, at least she was polite, Jeannie marked. Her accent sounded nice. Upper class. Good. Very good.
-What can you do? Do you type? What have you done earlier? All I know that you’ve done some kind of custom service related work. Would you like to tell me more about that?
Cara tried really hard to think what she had wanted to put down on her files.
-Oh yeah. I worked in this small office in my old hometown. Doing all kind of things, starting from making coffee.
-How long did you worked there?
-Little over a year.
-Why haven’t you gone to high school?
-I wanted to. But I never had a chance.
Cara lowered her voice just a bit. Jeannie nodded understandingly, this girl had definitely suffered. Though she didn’t understand why they wanted to hire her. But when orders came from Samuel, you did as told or you were out of the team.
-OK, Cara. You’re going to start tomorrow. Show up here at 8 am. We’ll sign your contract then. I’m going to need your bank account number. Do you have any specific wish for your salary?
Cara shook her head.
-So you’re happy with §3000 per month? I know it’s not a lot, while on tour, but it’s more you would make out there, right? And I’ve heard your fan of the Boys.
Cara was shocked. She had never had to think about money until during last five months. Then having §20 in her pocket made her happy. But §3000 per month?
-You don’t get to see them a lot, Jeannie said making some marks on her papers. -That’s just the way it goes. You work for them or with them, however you want to say it. But your just like air to them. At least as long as everything goes fine. But when things get messy, oh god, help us then!
She smiled encouraging.
-But something tells me you’re gonna do just fine.
Cara swallowed big lump down and nodded, returning Jeannie’s smile with a tiny grin. She would work for Backstreet Boys?

-It was pretty much what Jeannie said, she tells to me.
-Who was Jeannie anyway? I ask.
-She was their PR manager, or something. I was never good with titles. Anyway she managed almost everything they did. Samuel told her where they wanted to go and what to do, she organized it all. I’ve never seen anyone working so hard, not before and not after.
-But you got to be with them?
-No, I didn’t. I used to hang out with Greg, he was like a father to me. He taught me to play more. When we went out, that was occasional because of their tight schedule, band and others went to somewhere else as Boys, just in order to be left alone. I went with them.
-So guys stayed in private?
-Not all the time. I remember one time, must have been Copenhagen or some place near that, just before we went to Stockholm. We had had concert earlier that day but we were about to leave really early in the morning. So everyone tried to go to bed. It didn’t work at all. Before I even realized it I was knocking on Greg’s door. He opened and some other guys were already there, Mark and Stuart, the bassist. We sat down, took few beers and started to sing out loud. One after one almost every one of the staff came there. We were just singing funny version of ”I’ll never break your heart” when someone knocked on the door. Kim, costume designer, went to open the door. There were Nick and AJ, obviously bored and looking for some company. When they came in, we just stopped singing. Mood was really icy for a while. They had been so isolated from the rest of guys they felt they couldn’t hang out together. Nick was really uncomfortable but AJ kept telling funny stories, just trying to amuse us. It took at least thirty minutes until we got back to our partying. I remember being totally amazed because of that. I mean, I can understand I got all stiffy whenever they were around, but guys who they played with! Who they rehearsed with, performed with couldn’t sit down and drink beer.
-I thought you were one big family on the road, I say. She shakes her head, slowly, thinking.
-It wasn’t. I’d heard same things from Pie and other girls. But nothing was same.
-Did you see other fans when touring with them?
She smiles sadly. -I did. They hated me. I did everything I could to help them but there wasn’t much I could do. Be-Bob used to look at me with his friendly, brown eyes before saying no to me if I asked something.
-What was your status? What did you do?
-I did everything. Pretty much same things I did when touring with Peach, Pie and Ophelia. Just that then I got to wear different tags on my neck and got paid for trying to hunt bottle of cold Evian for Kevin.
-Sounds fun.
She wrinkles her face. -Wasn’t really that. I was a slave. I see it now. Then it was just... It’s all I could think about. More I spent time with them, more I started to forget that other worlds even existed.
-Other worlds full of pain? my voice is soft.
-Every world is full of pain, she says. -You just take it differently.

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