Chapter 58

Marcy was sitting in her American History class, her eyes drooping, the teacher's voice seeping out of her brain as quickly as it had entered.  It was May, two weeks 'til school was out for the summer.  Taylor had been home since mid-January and the two had spent time together almost every day since.  Sometimes, it was a challenge, he would be distant or sad, but other times he was playful and full of energy.  It seemed to her that as more time passed, those sad times came about less and less, but she knew they'd never go away altogether and though quite often, he brightened when she came to him, she felt it wasn't right for him not to feel those and so, she tried to allow him his down times as well as the fun ones.

A tap on her shoulder startled her out of her thoughts of Taylor and made her turn, "Hey," a classmate whispered, "I saw Kim Jones at lunch and she told me to give this to you and tell you to look at page 109."

And she handed her a copy of the latest Seventeen Magazine. When she got to that page, the sight before her was breathtaking.

~~~~

"Taylor, it's geometry, not rocket science."

Isaac and Lee were sitting together on the couch, watching the younger Hansons. Isaac smiled as he listened to his mother trying again to get his brother through his schoolwork.  After falling behind, they were still playing catch up.  He would be a senior the next year, but only if he got through the tests and exams and essays that were required of home schooled students for the state.  Zac had been drafted to help him with his math, though Taylor excelled at History, English, and Literature of all kinds, he just didn't grasp math the way his brothers did.

When the doorbell rang, Jessica and Avery both looked up from their own school work, then at each other, and the race was on. "Don't open it! Don't open it! You don't know who it is!" Jessica exclaimed. Avery hesitated just long enough for Jessica to make her move.

The door was flung open and there stood a delivery boy.  "Fed X for a J. Taylor Hanson."  He said.

"Does it have to be him, or can I sign it?"  Jessica asked, her eyes flashing.

Lee smiled and Isaac shook his head.  "You guys are gonna have so much trouble in a couple of years."  Lee stated.

Jessica waved at the boy, then turned to face Avery.  "Well, what is it?"  Avery asked, disgruntled.

She looked down at the package, "It's from that lady at Calvin Klein!"  She said, getting excited.  "Taylor, Taylor!!"  She shouted.  Now, everyone was getting interested.

Diana met them all at the door of the living room.  "Unh-uh, he's not leaving the table 'til that paper's done."

Jessica was practically jumping up and down.  "But Mom!  It's the ad!  It's from that Calvin Klein lady!"

Now, Diana got the same look.  "Really!!  Open it!  No, wait," she paused, "Tay. come in the living room."  She then turned to Avery.  "Go get Mac and Dad, they're out in the garage."

Just then, Taylor walked in, a questioning look on his face, followed by Zac.

~~~~

Tom Harris lay on his bunk in the small cell that would be his home for the next twenty or thirty years.  The highlight of his day had been mail call.  He'd received a letter from his mother and the latest copy of Gentlemen's Quarterly Magazine.  As he turned the pages there were articles on the latest electronic gadgets, movie and music news and then, his eyes landed on an ad for cologne.  There, looking back at him from the page were the eyes of Taylor Hanson.  Dressed in a soft sweater and dark pants, his hands in his pockets, his face serene and the text "One," that was all there was to the ad.  After five months to think about what he'd done to his own and the boy's life, it brought on a flood of mixed emotions.  One part of him still hated the boy, and always would.  Another part though, rejoiced that the boy had been able to go on with his life.  Taking away his voice had not kept women from falling prey to his charms, he'd only kept him from singing.  Now, he elicited a shallower kind of devotion, one centered on the boy's looks rather than his talent.  But that was about to change.

~~~~

Later that afternoon, Marcy, Taylor, and Tim were all lounging in the Gutman's living room trying to decide what movie to see. The door opened and Zac, Kim and Greg walked in joining them. In the car, when Kim had torn the page from the magazine, Zac had exclaimed.  "You gonna hang that over your bed?"

"Yeah," she'd retorted, "in the same spot where you keep that one of Shelly."

Then they'd proceeded to make out as Greg shook his head and chuckled.

Now, he looked at Taylor, sitting on the couch, his legs flung over his sisters lap.  "Hey Taylor, saw your little fashion shot.  You know, I think you might be reaching puberty, you really could use a bra.  Has your Mom had that little talk with you yet?  You know, about, you know what?"

Taylor signed some things to him, but he only understood about half of it, enough to know he'd been insulted right back.  Marcy interrupted the both of them with a simple, "Hush, you two idiots."

Tim began reading off the names and showtimes of all the movies at the Tulsa Twelve theatre.  On the television, TRL was just coming on.  Suddenly Kim and Zac both began shouting, "Hey! Look!"

There on the screen over Carson Daly's shoulder was the image of a shirtless Taylor and the frightening visage of Sparky on his arm, glaring at the camera and teeth bared.  Towering above Times Square in dramatic black and white was the ad that had appeared in the magazines targeting a younger audience.

"Hey everybody, and welcome to TRL." Carson said, and then he turned towards the windows, "Well, once again, Taylor Hanson making an appearance on TRL, it's May 10th..."  There were whistles, hoots, and catcalls from the audience and he turned back to face the camera.  "Expect to see the guys here in the studio next month, plus one.  We hear there's been an addition to the band, some female back up for the deeper voiced Isaac and Zac to sort of fill the gap left when Taylor lost his voice.  But, never fear girls, the middle Hanson will still be playing keyboards for the band, who are demoing songs in their home studio in Tulsa, as we speak."

Zac clapped his hands and turned to the girl beside him, placing his lips over hers for a quick kiss.  "You do know the girls are gonna crucify you, right?"  He asked.

"I'm not afraid of a bunch of teenyboppers, besides, they won't care as long as they don't find out I'm dating the baby."  She said, smiling.

"Ha!"  Marcy added.  "Diana's the one you better watch out for.  If she catches you guys messing around on the bus, it is not going to be pretty."

Taylor looked over at his little brother.  He hadn't really been surprised when Kim and Zac had gotten close, after all, they were perfect for each other, but it still didn't change the fact that he was fourteen and she was eighteen, about to graduate high school.  He also knew he wasn't comfortable thinking of Zac doing the same things with her that he had and he always kept a watchful eye on the two even though Kim had appeared to have changed her ways, at least a bit.  She'd put up with a lot of unpleasant comments when her fellow seniors had learned her date for the prom was a freshman and a Hanson to boot.

Taylor grinned, thinking his little brother would be going to a prom a year earlier than himself.  If his life went according to plan, though, he would accompany Marcy at the same gathering the next year.  Though he missed singing more than anything, music was still his passion and Marcy understood that.  She'd even encouraged Taylor and his brothers to ask Kim to work with the band after hearing her and Zac sing together in the car numerous times when the couples had gone out together.  Isaac had been a little harder to convince, but once he heard her, he joined in persuading Kim that she could and should do it.  Since then, they'd practiced every day, sometimes four or five hours at a stretch.  When Kim graduated and summer break began for Zac and Taylor, it would increase to as much as eight.  Luckily, being a fan, she already knew all the lyrics and melodies of their old songs.  For the new ones though, she'd have to learn the weird, private language the three boys used to write and arrange their songs.  She'd also sat in as often as she could on Taylor and Shelly's tutoring sessions.  Taylor had been a fast talker and the same was true of his signing.  His parents had finally managed to hire her to teach Taylor to sign correctly.  The family had taught themselves and while that worked amazingly well for them, for his future, when he wouldn't be surrounded by people accustomed to his odd style, it would be necessary to sign the way everyone else in the world did.  And so, Kim was learning along with him.

~~~~

At the same time the Calvin Klein ad campaign was getting underway, so did the first issue of Rolling Stone Magazine in which Hanson would grace the cover.  The irony of that didn't go unnoticed by anyone, that the editors hadn't seen them fit for the cover until something scandalous had happened, the music hadn't been enough for them.  Still, Taylor felt he may as well get it out of the way, and it may as well be Rolling Stone.  He'd had one stipulation though, it had to be with the band, not just him and they had to cover the music as well as the personal and the outrageous aspects of their lives.  He understood though, that they were most interested in the details of his abduction, recovery, and the events leading up to Tom Harris's plea of "guilty." 

The photos used in the article captured the brothers interacting with one another and in the studio with their instruments.  One page was filled with just Taylor and his hands.  It could have been in a book about sign language and the photographer had captured the beauty of his hands as well as his face.

The cover photo was shot in an alley of Tulsa's downtown, with the boys leaning against a brick wall, it was reminiscent not only of the story that was on everyone's mind at the present, but also the picture of the three that had been in the artwork for one of their independent recordings and again on "Three Car Garage."  Looking at it, Diana felt it showed they'd come full circle, they'd been there, done that, and now they found themselves back at the beginning of their recording career.  They would always look back on their lives as two separate times, before the kidnapping and after the kidnapping.  And though this time was different, it was no less exciting.  Before had been just the family, and now Kim was involved as well and the boys had girlfriends and Taylor was no longer going to be center stage and have that "lead singer" label attached to him.  The dynamics of the band were different now, and they didn't know how the fans would react to that.  They would just have to wait and see.
 
 
 

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