More Gervais

I woke up stiff and cold from the bathroom tiles and took myself back to bed and though the day was bright with sunshine there was nothing for me out there. Maritka was making noises downstairs, no doubt hoping to rouse me to come down but I left her to the household management as I had no motivation to go or do anything. The rage at Gervais that fueled me last night had withered away into apathy and a disassociation from the world. This was how Zizi found me, curled up in a ball removed from everything and everyone in life.

She had not done this often, in fact this was the second time she had been my house and I was surprised to see her there. I suppose Maritka had left her to come upstairs and find me as Maritka was one to make decisions about what she felt was best and generally ignoring my pleas. I gave Zizi a pathetic look and told her I was not up to receiving visitors which made her snort in her usual no nonsense fashion asking me if it felt good feeling sorry for myself. Before I could throw back an angry retort Maritka stomped into the room holding a tray with coffee and sandwiches and a pleased Zizi wasted no time helping herself to food. I glared at Maritka but was getting no help there, as she stomped back out muttering to herself about the idiocy of starvation.

Zizi her mouth full asked how long did I plan to hide out or was this some new social scene she was not part of but I was not about to allow her to torment me just because she had the hide of a rhino. I was allowed to be heartbroken and she had no right to come charging in and insult me and I told her that she had no idea what it was like to lose her dreams and have them snatched away because of one man or to have that man hound you until he destroyed everything you cared for. Zizi instead of showing any sympathy lifted a brow and said “Don’t I?” I glared at her and said that no, she did not have a clue and that was when Zizi told me of her news.

After her little stint with exhaustion Zizi went back into the studio to start laying the tracks for the rest of her album and it was there that she had encountered Gervais of all people. She discovered soon enough that he was not some sort of freak fan of singers but had actually owned half the studio she was signed to. This did not alarm her too much as Osric owned the other half and ran the actual dynamics of the business, scouting and managing the talent. So when Gervais went all smarmy charming on her she just brushed him aside like the toad he is and ignored everything he said to her. That was when Zizi discovered just how much power Gervais had over Osric for that night Gervais arranged for Osric to have Zizi delivered up for dinner and then disappeared moments later.

Zizi still was not fazed as she thought Gervais was just going to have a little rant about her getting Jago to rescue Tiah and she knew damn well that he probably had been bored of her by then and had only kept her to annoy her family. Instead Gervais shocked her with his expectations. Since he no longer had Tiah to torment he felt that Zizi should fill the void, after all he could do so much for her career and raise her social status considerably in the town, she would be noticed and envied by all. This was where she made her fatal mistake, Zizi laughed out loud, at Gervais, to his face. She said looking at him was like looking at a snake for he never balked, not for a second instead he continued in his silky urbane voice as if she had made no comment, expecting her to acquiesce to all his demands. Zizi told him to forget it, if he wanted a whore he should have signed Nadia Voss as she was not interested in anything he had to offer. Again Gervais seemed unperturbed by her reaction, in fact quite the opposite, he was quite relaxed as if her rejection was the planned outcome. He got his driver to take her back to town and Zizi then spend the night shouting at Osric on the phone.

It was not until the next morning when she went to lay down another track did Zizi feel the brunt of the Dubois anger as Gervais had banned her from the studio. She finally tracked down Osric at Millie’s and asked him what the hell was going on and instead of telling her the coward Osric waves his secretary, Shona over and departed. Shona with barely contained glee was only too happy to break the news to Zizi that her contract was terminated on the basis that her work was not commercially viable. She sat there stunned knowing that if she said anything this was the information they would leak all over the place leaving her virtually without work anywhere so she returned to home wondering what her next move should be.

I sat in silence until the end of her story knowing that there were no bounds to the evil of Gervais then I told her that it was all my fault, if I had not called, if she had not Jago up there—Zizi irritably stopped me. I was not the big martyr of Bishop Vale, in case I hadn’t noticed there had been Dubois on the hill for a hundred years and they had been stinging people for a hundred years and it was time for me to accept the world did not revolve around my woes with Gervais. He was bound to seduce Tiah sooner or later as she was a disaster waiting to happen and as for her contract that was also bound to happen the minute Gervais got into his mind he could dally with her.

Zizi curled her knees under her with a serious look on her face said the issue was not how evil Gervais was, but what we are going to do about him which made me sit up and stare at her carefully. I realised that she was serious about stopping him and I told her I didn’t think we could do it alone, we needed help and perhaps we should have a girl’s night out. She unfurled herself like some elegant fan, nodding her head in agreement and so it was set, we were going to get everyone together to work out a way to stop Gervais Dubois once and for all.

Previous Next