Marc awoke before the alarm went off to find an arm draped over his chest.  Justin had snuggled up to him during the night.  Smiling at Justin, Marc slowly slipped out of bed.  Justin stirred, raising his head. “What time is it?  Where you going?”

“It’s early. Go back to sleep.  I’m heading out for my morning run.  I’ll see you at breakfast.”

“Ok, have a good run,” mumbled Justin, pulling the covers up to his nose, and going back to sleep.

Grabbing a pair of running shorts and running shoes, Marc headed to the bathroom to change.   Entering the kitchen, Marc was surprised to see Joey sitting at the table.  “Morning, Joe, you’re up early.  Can’t sleep?”

“No, slept fine.  Want some company on your run?”

“You up to a 5 mile run through the woods?”

“I’ll try to keep up.  What are we going to do, take deer trails?”

“No, I run on firebreaks, they’re wide, fairly smooth, and there is no traffic to worry about.  They’re set up on a grid system.  Two sections out, one over, and two back is about 5 miles.”

They went out onto the patio and started stretching, preparing for their run. 

“Ready?” asked Marc.

“Yeah, let’s do it.”

They headed out, down the drive and across the road, on to the firebreak.  Keeping a brisk pace, they ran side by side, enjoying the morning.  Marc had neglected to mention the fact that although the path was straight, it was hilly.  After four miles, Joey began to loose steam and started to fall back.  Seeing his friend’s pace slow, Marc pulled back and matched his new pace.  Crossing the road and back up the drive, they headed to the back of the house slowing to a walk.  Joey was taking deep breaths as he followed Marc toward the dock. 

“Joe, I’m impressed. You kept up pretty well.  Do you get to run much while on tour?  Other than running from fans,” Marc said with a slight smile.

“No, when we’re on tour they keep us on a tight leash,” said Joey still taking deep breaths.  Noticing Marc was not even breathing hard he asked, “This wasn’t your normal run was it?  You are not even breathing hard.  How far do you normally run?”

“Fifteen miles,  three times a week when the weather is good.  It’s hard to run through snow drifts.”  Seeing how sweaty Joe was, he got a nasty idea.

Kicking off his running shoes, he said to Joey, “Come on let’s cool off.” He turned and ran down the dock and dove into the lake. 

Joey stepped out of his shoes and followed right behind. 

Marc surfaced in time to see Joey jump in to the lake.  When he surfaced, Marc could only laugh at Joey’s reaction to the cold water.  “Damn, Marc, this water is freezing.”

“Yes, refreshing, isn’t it.”

Back in the house, the guys were waiting for Marc and Joey’s return from their run when Lance saw them out the patio door.  “They’re back.”

Everyone watched as the two runners walked toward the lake cooling down.  They both kicked off their shoes, ran down the dock and jumped into the lake.

“Yeah, I could go for that,” said Josh.

“Let’s join them then,” said Chris.

“HOW IS THE WATER?” yelled Chris as he and the others came out the door.

“GREAT, WHY DON’T YOU JOIN US,” Marc called back.  Looking at Joe with a grin, he asked, “Do you think we can get them all to jump in?”

“You know, you’re evil, and if they don’t have heart attacks, they are going to kill us,” Joe answered.  “COME ON IN, THE WATER IS GREAT!” he yelled with a wicked smile.

Without any other prodding, the four unsuspecting victims stepped out of their shoes and removing  their shirts,  came running to the end of the dock.

“Joe, let’s head back to shore. I want to be out of their reach after they hit the water.”

“At least if we’re on land they can’t drown us, when they get a hold of us,”  Joe said with a grin.

The four guys came running down the dock and flew off the end, fanning out in mid air.  Joe and Marc reached the shore just as the four hit the water.  All four broke the surface yelling.  It was so funny seeing them trying to walk on top of the water.   They all made a quick dash for the dock and climbed out to find Joey and Marc on the beach rolling with laughter.  As hard as they tried to be mad at the two jokesters, they knew it was as much their own fault for believing them.

“Let’s give them something to laugh about while they’re down,”  said Chris.  “Lance you and I get Marc, you two take Joe.  Tickle attack!”

In seconds, they were upon their laughing victims.  Marc and Joey put up a good fight but were soon screaming uncle. Rolling off the piles, they just laid on the beach enjoying the warmth of the sun. 

“Shit, Marc, that water is freezing.  My nuts have pulled so far up into me it’s going to take a week for them to work their way back down,” Josh complained. 

“We still had snow on the ground, two weeks ago.  This is Wisconsin after all,”  said Marc.

“What are we going to do today?”  asked Chris.

“I thought you guys might like to spend the day here at the lake,” Marc said as he got up.  After everyone got to their feet, he led them over to the boathouse saying, “Hank picked up fishing licenses for you all, so if you want to fish you will find everything you will need in here.”  Marc opened the door to the boathouse, revealing a dozen fishing polls with tackle boxes.  “Oh, if you’re interested, I do have these two jet  skis.”

“Oh! Man that’s great!”  yelled Lance.

“Yeah, that’s what I’ll be doing,” said a smiling Joey.

“Ok, they’re yours to use.  But first some rules. One, you must wear a life vest,” said Marc walking over to the vest on the jet ski.  Picking it up, he held a plastic card attached to the vest by a cord.  “This is a safety key. It must be inserted into the slot on the dash of the jet ski in order for it to start and run.  If you fall off, the key comes out and it kills the engine. 
Two, you must also wear helmets. 
Three, the speed limit within 100 feet of the shore is no wake.  Once you are out far enough you can open them up.   If you stay on this side of the lake, you will keep out of the way of the sailboats. 
Four, you go out only as a pair.  No solo jetting. And five, you have one hour running time, so watch your time.  Be sure someone on shore knows what time you are to return.  Other than that, just have fun.”

“I call first dibs!” shouted Joey.

“Me too!” yelled Lance.

“How about first we get some breakfast?” asked Marc.

“Do we have to?” whined Joey.

“Yes!” Marc said with a small laugh.

After breakfast, Marc went out to the van and got the fishing licenses, taking them back to the kitchen.  “Here, fill out the top part and I will drop them off at the bait shop when I go into town a little later.”

“Why are you going into town?” asked Justin.

“My dad wanted me to check in with him today, to make sure everything was alright.  You want to come along?”

“No, I got dibs on the second round of jet skiing.  What do you have planned for tonight?”

“Are you guys up to going to a dance club tonight?”

“Clubbing! We’re always up for clubbing.” said an enthusiastic Chris

“Ok,  we’ll head out after supper,” Marc said as he grabbed his car keys.  “I’ll be back in a hour or two.  Try not to kill yourselves on the jet  skis.”

“Hey, Dad. You got a minute to check out my head?” asked Marc.

“You don’t have to, it’s empty,” quipped Sara coming up behind Marc and poking him in the back.

“Good morning to you, too, Sara,” Marc said giving her his best death ray look.

Grinning at the antics of his kids, he pointed to exam one. “In there, let me look at that head of yours and change that bandage.”  The three of them entered the exam room and Marc hopped up on the exam table swinging his legs like a little boy.

“How are your guests?” Sara inquired. 

“They’re spending the day on the lake, fishing, jet skiing and absorbing some rays.”

“Marc, your bandage is all wet. What have you been doing?”

“Joey joined me for my morning run and we jumped into the lake to cool off.”

“You got him to jump into the lake?” smiled  Sara.

“I got all of them to jump into the lake,”  grinned Marc.

“You’re so bad,” said Sara.

Marc just grinned at her.

“There, your injury looks good.  Just try to keep it dry,” admonished Dr. Morgan

“Thanks, Dad.”

“You going to show up tonight?” asked Sara.

“Yeah, the guys want to go ‘Clubbing,’ so we're going ‘Clubbing’.”

Sara gave Marc a questioning look.  “What are you up to now?”

Marc gave his best innocent little boy look.  "Do you want us to pick you up, or are you going to meet us?”  Marc said, changing the subject.

“I’ll meet you there. What time?”

“How about 7:30,”  Marc said jumping down from the table.

Marc turned to his dad and asked, “You look tired, didn’t you get much sleep?”

“No, Linda and Jim Lindstrum had twin girls last night.  She went into labor about 
5 p.m. and didn’t deliver until 2 this morning.”

“Well, you look like you need a hug,” said Marc, as he wrapped his arms around his dad and pulled him into a big hug.

“Well, Dr. Marc, you always know what I need,” his dad said as they broke the hug.

“That’s my job.  Giving hugs to my dad is what I do best.”

Sara just smiled and shook her head.  “Marc, you’re so full of it.”

“Yes, I know. And I like to spread it around,” Marc laughed, grabbing her into a hug as he was leaving.

Walking into the den with the day’s mail, Marc found Lance at the desk with pencil and paper working on something.  “Hi, Lance, what are you working on?” 

“Hi, Marc. I’ve had this tune running around in my head all morning, and I wanted to get it down before I loose it.  This would be easier if I had my keyboard with me.”

“No problem, let me boot my computer and I’ll show you.”

Lance got up from the chair to let give Marc access to the computer.

The computer said., “Please identify.”

“This is my tree, don’t pee on it.”

“Identity confirmed.”

Reaching down to the drawer, in the center of the desk, dropping the drawer front and pulling out a keyboard. 

“Computer, load music room.”

“Music room running.”

“Here, just play it on the keyboard.  The computer will write it down as you play.”
Marc stepped back so Lance could have access to the keyboard, and sat down in a side chair.

As Lance started playing the melody, a smile came across Marc's face.  Marc contemplated his hands, as Lance continued to play to the end.  “That’s an interesting melody.   Want to hear it played back?” asked Marc

“Yeah, sure.”

“Computer, play back, full orchestral arrangement.”

Lance was astonished at what he heard, the song he just played coming back played by a orchestra.  And even more astonished that it didn’t stop it, but continued for another four minutes.

Seeing Lance’s expression, all Marc could do was laugh. 

“Boy, Marc, that’s some program you have there.”

“Computer, identify the composition.”

“Winter’s Night,  by Marc Newman.”

“I’m sorry, Marc, I don’t know how it got into my head.,” Lance said a little upset.

Choking back a laugh, Marc asked.  “Lance, by chance did you sleep here in the den last night?” 

“Yes, Chris and I slept in here.”

“Computer, access white noise generator.  Scan for any part of Winter’s Night hidden in system.” 

“The first twenty-two bars are found.”

“Computer, restore default setting to noise generator.”

“Setting confirmed.”

“When I work here, I found my mind wanders because it is so peaceful.  So I installed a white noise generator, it helps me concentrate when I’m working.  I was having a problem with that piece, so I loaded it into the generator as a background noise and forgot it until now.”

“Do you do all your composing here?”

“No, when I’m at school I use the music labs.  I just record it and bring it home to the computer, to transcribe it.”

“What other things have you done?”

Marc got up, took a notebook from the shelf and handed it to Lance.  “Here, these are six songs I wrote in your musical style.  Look them over, if you see anything you like, you can use it.”

“Thanks, I’ll look them over.”

“Now, changing the subject, what were your plans for this week before our little accident?”

“We were heading to the Dells. Going to hit one of the water parks, and just do tourist stuff.”

“I’m sorry to spoil your vacation,” Marc softly said.

“Marc, don’t feel bad.  We’re having a blast here with you.  You’re great to be around, and anyways we voted last night that we wanted to stick  around and get to know you.”

“You did?” Marc asked surprised.

“Yeah, we did.”

“Well then, let me make some calls.  I’ve got a road trip to plan.  We can still do the tourist stuff,” Marc said with a grin.

Lance  got up, taking the folder of music with him, leaving Marc to his calls.

Lance went out to the patio,sat down at the table and started looking at the music Marc had just given him. 

Fifteen minutes later, Josh came up from the beach. “ Hey, Lance.   What’re you looking at?”

“Josh, have a seat.  Here, take a look at this.  Marc gave me this to look at.   They’re six songs Marc wrote.  Tell me what you think.”

Josh took the  notebook and started reading the music.  After he finished, he looked up at Lance and said,  “Marc wrote all this?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d like to try all of them.  They’re fantastic.  Do you think he’d let us record them?”

“He’s given them to us.  Said if we found any we liked, we could use it.”

“Wow, doesn’t he realize what could happen if we record these, and they take off?”

“I don’t think so.  I think we should get Justin's mom into this.  She’ll know how to protect Marc’s interest.”

“Who will?” asked Justin,  toweling off from his jet ski ride.  Chris and Joe  were with him. “About what?”

“About this,” Lance handed the notebook to Justin.  Chris and Joey looked over his shoulder as Justin looked through the music. 

“These songs are great. Who wrote them?” asked Justin.

“Look at the top of the page, dummy,”  said Chris.

“Marc, wrote these?” asked Joey.  “Wow,  they’re great.  Do you think he will let us record any of them?”

“He said we could have them all, if we wanted them,” said Lance.

“Just like that?” questioned  Chris.

“Yeah, just like that.  That’s why I think Lynn should be contacted.  You all know what the record company will do to Marc if we record any of these,” said Lance.

“Yeah, they will screw him royally,” said Chris.

“And Justin’s mom is the only one I truly trust, that won’t give him the shaft,” said Josh.

“Justin, could you give your mom a call and see if she would be interested in representing Marc?”  asked Lance.

“Yeah. Where is Marc now?”

“He’s in the den making some phone calls.”

“Great.   I’ll call on my cell,” said Justin going to the bedroom to get his cell phone.

In Orlando Lynn Harless was at her desk looking over contracts.  Her direct line rang.  Glancing at the caller ID, she smiled.  “Hi, Justin.  Enjoying your vacation?”

“Hi, mom.  Vacation isn’t going exactly as planned.  We’ve met someone new, and we’re having a blast hanging with him.”

TBC