Chapter Twenty Four:     POTUS?

A CONVERSATION, Saturday, August 15 --

ART: Hey, wait a minute: what IS this? Back in Chapter 20, in that list of performed concert venues, under Key West, Florida there is a reference to a "private concert for POTUS", qualified as "classified", followed by her name, Alejandra Ireña Coronada, popularly known as "AIC".

I mean really: POTUS? as in President Of The United States???

ADAM: Oh yeah, that. We're keeping it kinda low-key because it was supposed to be classified information, so no big media announcement, no propaganda. She just asked us to be discrete.

ART: So why did you mention it at all?

ADAM: Well, it's not really a state secret any more, now that it's already happened. It was just one of our concert stops along the way.

ART: Oh sure, I get that. Not. How about some details?

ADAM: It's no big thing. You know that Ally-- or AIC --and I became sort of ...friendly when I visited her in the White House Oval Offfice a couple of months ago. She told me she was a fan and how she'd escaped her Secret Service bodyguards to sneak into the Anthem Theater and see our show. So we sent her a copy of our itinerary in case she wanted to try that again. Which she did.

She already had plans to hold an official party meant to be a relaxed political meeting in Key West, and it just happened to correspond neatly with our already established tour schedule. So she invited Chrome Squatch to come and be the entertainment for the event. Which we did.

ART: Did you get paid for it?

ADAM: Oh yeah, standard rate, it was all perfectly above board. Just kept classified to avoid crazies from dropping in and assassinating anyone. Risky job, being President.

ART: So who was the audience? ADAM: There were maybe 200 people at the party, most of them rich and famous, I suppose. Not that I recognized anyone, so no movie stars or musicians like us. But everyone recognized me and the well-established rock stars of Chrome Pie. They were polite and attentive to our music, enthusiasticly dancing when the dance numbers were played, an ideal audience, slightly more mature than our usual crowd, no teenagers.

It was a success, maybe because most of the guests had political afiliations in Latin American countries and we had Miguel deSanto along for the ride, once that world-famous flamenco whiz-kid. Nor did it hurt that I-- the perhaps equally famous Singing Sasquatch-- also had several Spanish songs in my repertoir. And as usual, our furry dancing girls were extremely popular.

So we did a cool concert and spent a couple of all-expense paid vacation days in that beach town, renting bicycles and zipping around-- although both Magga and I were too heavy, so we just ran circles around everyone on a bike. I didn't get much buddy-time with Ally (POTUS), she was too busy being a politician, but I had my own supply of girls anyway.

MEL & LISS : (in chorus) Oh yeah, he did.