literature

Broadcast 41: a silent shock

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A small group of protestors had gathered outside PGNT as Jaimee and Lucy arrived out the front holding signs and chanting for Hayley to come out of hiding. “I guess they don’t know she is over in Hawaii” Lucy said to Jaimee as they waddled towards the crowd. As they approached the protestors, Jaimee noticed something. “there are a lot more men here than there should be. Hey, short stuff why are you all here?” 

The short man that Jaimee referred to looked up at her saying “3 weeks ago a large variety of us guys get blamed for pregnancies we never caused. Because of this Hayley lady, I’ve  had to flush hundreds of dollars down the drain because my lover thinks I gave her triplets!”

“I thought you would celebrate the miracle of life and be happy to have your own child” Lucy responded. 

“you’d think so, but my wife wouldn’t  be too happy with it.” The short guy chuckled. Seconds later Lucy’s  pale hand came rocketing through the air, slapping the man over the face. Jaimee turned in shock to see Lucy who was surprised with the action she made. 

“Sorry, the idea of men cheating just boils my blood” Lucy said as they waddled through the crowd.

“really? Cheating boils your blood...” Jaimee retorted.

Getting up to the news floor was easy, however PGNT was another matter all together. Wadsworth had to take a managerial role as Vivian anxiously kept talking to angry callers. There were women and couples arguing over their loyalty and their commitment to each other. Kirstie was no where to be seen as were Derek and Rose. 

As if on cue, Derek entered the bull pen and snuck over to Lucy. “Psst, Lucy!” he whispered. “The station hasn’t been like this before, what do I do?” 

Lucy sighed and slowly sat at a chair next to him. “Derek, you know you can do this. Remember the fire of ’08? The coverage of the Senator’s  forced retirement? And the raccoon situation last year? You handled all of those with grace and canter. YOU can do it again!” 

Scratching his dark brown beard he sat on the ground and thought for a second. “I’ve got it!” he said before clambering up. Walking into the centre of the bullpen Derek yelled “everyone, shut up!” 

Dead silence. 

For 4 fleeting seconds, the only thing that could be heard were exasperated breathing and phones ringing. Derek walked into the centre of the room and cleared his throat. “ladies and gentlemen, we are descending down the river of chaos and there’s a split up ahead.  We have two options, one we can give in to our primal urges and bicker like animals until our throats are dry and sore, or you can channel this rage and passion and show how PGNT will not only be number 1 at the news charts, but we STAY up there!” 

The silence continued. Derek needed more convincing. 

“have you guys met Patrick Guilwall and Nathan Thompson? These two men started PGNT, yes the letters mean something different today, but 30 years ago, they said they would not bow down to the mediocrity that the world threw at them, they took every challenge with vigour so they could provide  a quality service! That’ why we have never changed the initials of our station! When you go back to your computers , you  ask yourself ‘am I going to my primal urges and mediocrity?’”

Slowly the crew went back to work. Jaimee was amazed by the talk this stranger gave to everyone. “Okay two questions, does talk for a living? And two, is he single?” 

Lucy looked at Jaimee and laughed “you just saw the reason I’m still at PGNT, Derek has saved my butt as many times ass I have saved his. I just have a better way of keeping my cool”. Looking over to Derek, she noticed him talk to Rose who just entered the room. After a few glances in her direction and a second later Derek pointed at Lucy and then at his office. 

“I, should go” Lucy said as she left Jaimee to twiddle her thumbs. Seeing Vivian, Jaimee eagerly  waddled over to find out some dirt about Hayley. “Hey Vivian right? I remember you from the few times you dropped off work for Hayley. How’s things going?” 

Looking at Jaimee, Vivian could only think about Hayley and the putrid betrayal she just made, she felt horrible that she reported to Quincy Bay that her co worker was a ‘pregnant bomb’. “I um, feel alright? Like on one side I’ve become a big news star and on the other I feel like a thousand needles are stabbing me in the back”

“Oh I know that feeling, back when I was training for the boxing tournament, I would make sure I could maintain good back strength.” Stated Jaimee as she waddled around the desk, completely missing Vivian’s agonizing situation. “it’s  funny, the morning after my gym trips, I would wake up feeling like you just mentioned! It didn’t  help that Hayley would come in and slap me on the back to see what I would do. 

Vivian burst out crying at the name of her friend, knowing she had just ruined one of her best friends careers. Looking at her poor Asian friend, Jaimee came up behind her and started massaging her back. “Whoa you have a lot of tension up here, I didn’t know you worked out.” 

“I actually work out at your gym” Vivian sobbed, wiping away a tear or two. “There’s an Aikido class I go to on Thursdays.” 

“no way, a fellow fighter!” 

“Oh please. I fight, you just toss yourselves around like kids” 

“Is that so? I’d  like to see you go up against me!” Jaimee declared her dare against the new reporter. 

“okay, I get off at 5 today, lets meet at the gym around 6.” 

“Really? I, um sure. See you then.” Jaimee answered in an almost shock. “If you see Hayley before she gets back, don’t  tell her a out our little fight. I don’t want her to come back with any nasty surprises.” 

Jaimee walked back to the lift, not noticing the reporter burst into tears. 

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“Lucy, we need to talk.” Said Derek sadly, a look regret on his face. “We know this pregnancy dilemma has caused a lot of stress lately, but I’m  afraid you have been pushing things too-

“You have right and royally fucked up” Rose interjected with her southern twang and bustle of curls. “First we get word of you sleeping with a co-worker, now you stampede paparazzi in the alleyway?” 

Rose turned Derek’s laptop around to see a clip of Lucy angrily knocking cameramen to the ground, before yelling at them in front of Kirstie and Jaimee. 

“This was taken from the W.M.B’s gossip show ‘Bitz n’ Glitz’. We can’t have our reporters turning the media game into a knife fight. You know how many years you have worked here, why did you do this?” 

“I, I had to help a co worker...” Lucy apologised.

“I’m sorry Lucy, we have to suspend you...” Rose patronized her inferior. “we can give your work to-

“to who? that camera shy Vivian?” Lucy almost screamed at the woman. “suspend me? A pregnant woman who gave TWO DECADES of her life for this place! You cant disrespect me like that!” 

“I already have.” Rose said. 

Lucy stormed out in a pit of rage as Derek turned to Rose in disgust. “How stupid are you? Why would you suspend her?” 

“no just efficient. Having Lucy and our recently promoted Vivian will cost us way too much in the long haul, we need to fire Lucy, but this will help give us just cause.” 

“you don’t  understand” Derek told the southern gal “you went over my head and made a very stupid decision”

“Times have changed sweetie, if you want PGNT to stay on top you are going to need to let people go.” Rose implied as she got closer to him, almost sticking her cleavage in his face. 

Derek didn’t know what to say. His sexual instincts sere starting to take him again. “G-get out of my office...” he struggled to say.

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Lucy stormed to her office, furious with how she was treated. Slamming the door she collapsed on the floor and held her face. Wiping away her tears, the international reporter got a knock on the door. 

“Lucy, what’s  wrong?” Wadsworth asked his co-worker with great concern. 

As Lucy went into detail about what happened, Wadsworth’s face went from concern to anger. Storming out of the office, he came back with a load of law related books. 

“There it is! The audio designer said as he flipped through the pages. “Article 281. Suspensions cannot be made to people who have served more than ten years of work unless seen by the PGNT board.” Wadsworth may not have been a legal man, but he was wise enough to study up on PGNT’s practices.

“oh thank you!” Lucy hugged her co worker. “I need this place, with my belly the size of a moose I know I would be struggling to get by on 3 weeks pay. What can I do to repay you?” 

“well, remember your pal Ricky from your 45th birthday?” Wadsworth asked “ Do you know if he is single?” 

“you know, he is! But I think he is straight...” Lucy confessed to her co-worker.  Seeing her friend slump, the heavily pregnant co worker hugged Wadsworth. “hey, its alright. I’m sure something will come up, now lets show Rose who’s boss”

The two stormed into Rose’s office with a fiery energy. The door thrust open as Lucy threw down PGNT’S book of laws. “Listen here and listen well... you are unable to suspend me, under this clause! Lucy shouted at Rose almost menacingly. “ I thought a pregnant woman like you would have some respect for pregnant women!” 

“you don’t know how long I have had this burden...” Rose grumbled under her breath. “You are right. I shouldn’t  have jumped to such conclusions, my pregnant emotions got the better of me.” 

Adrenaline was really beating within Lucy now. “seriously? You think you can fix this with a sorry?” 

Rose looked down at her laptop trying to hide her true motives. She needed Lucy out of the picture so that no one would interfere when she took over PGNT. There might be another way to take the heavily pregnant woman down before she goes on maternity leave. 

“when are you supposed to go on maternity leave?” Rose asked. 

“I WA- *ahem* I was meant to go on last week, but I pushed it back to help Derek. I should be leaving next week” Lucy answered, shocked by the question that came out of no where. 

Rose murmured  before saying “you know what, you deserved better. I am sorry for all this... come, sit.”

Wadsworth stood by the door as Rose and Lucy sat at the south county woman’s  couch. He was going to stay when he heard a distinct cough from Derek. Wadsworth’s boss looked inside, saw Lucy and Rose talking it out and decided to close the door. “come on Wadsworth, its 4. Lets get some scotch and talk about women.” 

“right before the 6 O’clock news?” 

“oh right. After.” 

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It took 3 hours for Hayley and Thomas to return to the mainland. They said little between each other, as they had used a lot of energy getting to and from there. It was 1 o’clock now and the sun was baring down on the two reporters. Looking at the cafe right off the docks, Hayley licked her lips as she imagined herself drinking a nice iced tea.

Almost dragging her work partner in, Hayley entered the slightly worn and torn cafe. As the two entered the cool air conditioned location, Hayley was immediately introduced to a smell of coconuts and cinnamon. There were a few patrons there, either sitting in chairs or on the dancefloor, slow dancing to the music playing on the radio. 

The two sat at  the couch on the long side of dance floor, watching the love birds dancing to the beat. Tom gave a delighted sigh before taking a sip from his drink. He enjoyed seeing couples being all lovey dovey, it reminded him of the relationship he had with Jaimee and the relationship his parents had together.

Hayley on the other hand felt envious. How could these people feel such joy, so contempt? Dancing was difficult, awkward and some times painstaking! Amongst the dreadful moments she had in high school,  Hayley’s prom was worse. Between putting on weight and her braces not being ready to come out, the dance floor usually came with heartache.

Looking over, the dark haired reporter saw his nervous friend leering at the dances. Chuckling he decided to do something about it. Getting up, Thomas extended his hand out to Hayley’s, to which she shook her head nervously and slurped the rest of her drink, noisily. 

Thomas tried again, finishing his drink and trying to pull her up. He forgot how heavy Hayley was and when he went to pull her wet hand, his fingers slipped! 

CRASH! Thomas fell into the couple behind him. Hayley  burst out laughing as she saw her friend fumble on the ground. Looking at Tom writhing on the floor and trying to apologise, she felt a twinge of guilt in her large and heavy chest. Hayley slowly made her way up and extended her hand to Thomas. 

A new song came on and whilst Thomas got back up, he saw his opportunity. Before she could protest, Thomas had swung her into action! One hand on the hip and the other locked in with hers. They quickly spun around the ballroom almost making Hayley puke. 

As the tempo slowed down, so did the two reporters. Leaps became steps, their bodies came closer together and Hayley could feel Thomas’s breath on her neck. Goosebumps formed and she felt her heart flutter. Locking eyes, Hayley saw the beauty in Thomas’s  eyes through the thick rim of his glasses. Leaning in their lips lightly touched, until...

“YOU!” a large Hawaiian man angrily shouted through the Cafe’s entryway. “YOU IMPREGNATED MY SWEET LUNA!” 

“Sir, I have no idea what you are talking about” Thomas exclaimed, almost dropping Hayley. 

“you god damn liar!” the man yelled, pushing Thomas as people backed away. Luna’s dad was the man that would let his fists do the talking as his voice lacked the vocabulary to say what he felt. 

“is anyone going to stop him?” Hayley asked everyone

“do you know who that guy is?” one of the men said to the pregnant woman, “we would be out of a job!” 

Thomas took a punch to the nose before he decided to make an exit. With a quick look to Hayley he jumped out the window and ran for the beach.  


“honey! Wait!” a voice came from the entry, it was Luna and her mother. They were too late, Luna’s father was out the window too. They were about to leave when they saw the gravid form that Hayley gave. 

“oh, its you!” Hayley smirked, looking at Thomas “did you tell them that Thomas didn’t do that?” 


PGNT seems to be taking a turn, right? 

Let me know what you think of the story so far! I assure, this are about to get very hot!


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SuicideNinja's avatar
Wow.... Rose is a complete and utter manipulative bitch.