Chapter 46: In Which Katie Finds Herself On The Cusp Of Fame

"So!" Eoin leaned back and lay with his back against the roof, looking up at the sky. "Who's up for breakfast?"

"Me!" Rebecca crunched on the last of the Smarties. "I could really use some pancakes. On our way we could check on the fliers, make sure the posters got up in key spots."

"I don't know," Katie yawned again. It seemed wrong to go against the wishes of her client, but she was so tired her body was shaking. "I wouldn't mind getting to bed. After all, I have to work tomorrow. I mean, today."
                             
"Bed?" Rebecca wrinkled up her cute, pug nose. "That's no fair. You two have one another and I'm just a lonely single lady....." she slapped Katie on the thigh. "Breakfast it is!"

Katie sighed and gave Eoin a baleful look, but he just shrugged. "Don't look at me. I'm the one who suggested it."

"Don't worry, hon. I'll call in sick for ya," Rebecca told Katie. "I won't make someone with your genius work for 24 hours straight."

The three of them headed over to the Vesta Lunch, a 24 hour diner where old bearded men and hungover (and, to be fair, some still-drunk) youth sat hunched over plates of bacon and eggs along a narrow counter. The three of them slid onto stools and while Rebecca and Eoin ordered them all pancakes and coffee, Katie called Melissa.

"How's it going?" Katie asked. "We drove to the Vesta and saw some of your posters along Bathurst. This is so exciting!"

"I know," Melissa yawned. "You guys went for breakfast? Erica and I called it quits a couple of hours ago."

"Do you know what Paul and Mike are up to?"

"Last I heard they'd decided to put the little hotels around the CN Tower. And I think they went to some after-hours clubs along Church Street to put up the fliers."

"So they went dancing on the job?" Katie laughed.

"I think it was just a detour," Melissa said. "But they called me a few minutes ago to say they'd distributed everything, so I think they did a good job."

"I hope so." Katie glanced toward Rebecca and Eoin. "I'm actually pretty nervous. What if this fails?"

"It's a brilliant campaign, Katie," Melissa reassured her friend.

"Is it? I really hope it works."

"It will," Melissa said, then yawned again. "Listen, I have to go. I've got a meeting at 10 this morning and I need a few hours of sleep."

"Okay. Thanks so much for everything," Katie said.

"Sure, sure. Just get me a drink or something next week."

"Of course," Katie promised, and went back to Eoin and Rebecca as the pancakes appeared.

They were about half-way through their meals when the waitress appeared. "Do you guys mind if i put on the television? It's 6:30 and I'd like to catch the news."

"Sure!" Eoin said enthusiastically. He turned to Rebecca. "I don't have a television so this is a real treat."

"Some people are easily pleased," Rebecca raised an eyebrow.

The television came to life and a chipper young newswoman in a red jacket was standing in front of the CN Tower, holding something in the palm of her hand. "So the question on everyone's lips is, who is responsible for these little miniature buildings that have blanketed our city?"

Eoin gripped Katie's arm. "Those are yours! Your hotels!"

"So there is no hint about where they came from?" An anchorman asked the outdoor reporter from his comfortable, indoor set.

"Not that we can see," the newswoman said cheerfully.

"Turn it over," moaned Katie quietly. "Why won't she turn it over?"

The camera pulled back and showed dozens of little hotels scattered around the walkway leading up to the CN Tower.

"Well, thanks for this interesting story, Jackie." The anchorman said as the image cut out and focused on him in his studio. "Toronto, an artist seems to be on the loose! Keep your eyes open this morning as you head out for work. Someone has put little tiny houses all over our fair city!"

Little tiny houses? An artist on the loose? Katie's guts went all icy and she glanced at Rebecca. How would she react?

Luckily, Rebecca was smiling widely. "This is amazing! We did it!"

"But they don't know what the hotels are for...." Katie tried, tentatively.

"Oh, that's okay," Eoin said. "You wouldn't want them to know right away, anyway. This builds up the mystery."

"Check it out!" Rebecca held up her phone; it was on a news site. "People are talking about the spray paint already!"

Over the next few hours Katie forgot sleep entirely. She and Eoin went back to her house where they watched the local news and followed news sites, Twitter (#guerillahotel), and Facebook. By noon even the Huffington Post had an article! People were putting the posters, the fliers, the hotels and the graffiti together, and  the response was mostly positive, although one or two Twits seemed irritated when they discovered it was an ad campaign.

This isn't real art it's selling out #guerillahotel #lies, complained @hiptastic. My heart broke when I learned it's all propaganda #guerillahotelsux, said @torontoartist.

"Did you see these?" Katie showed her computer to Eoin. "They hate me."

He rolled his eyes. "All art is propaganda. And if it makes an impact and makes people think, it's not selling out. Selling out would have been a boring commercial or something. What you did is true," Eoin pulled her in for a hug and she felt such relief. She'd never tell him, but she really, really wanted Eoin, a real, honest artist, to respect her.

"Thanks, Eoin." She settled herself against his chest and heard his heart beat; her own heart began to quicken. She breathed in his scent, closed her eyes. She didn't have to go to work. She was tired, of course, but sleep could wait....She reached up and began to kiss him, climbing into his lap, his hands reaching up under her shirt --- RING! RING!

"You should get that," he murmured, but Katie just kept kissing.

"It's probably a telemarketer," she said, tugging on his t-shirt.

"You're an artist now, Kate." He held her wrists and look at her, serious. "This could be important."

Reluctantly Katie got her phone. "Hello?"

"Katie Christensen?"

"Speaking," she said, ready to tell whoever it was that she wasn't interested in a new cable package.

"This is Margaret Vogel," she heard instead. " I'm a producer for As It Happens, a national CBC radio show, and we're quite excited about the ad campaign you've come up with for the new line of boutique hotels in Toronto. We wonder if you'd be available for a radio interview? Tomorrow evening, around 8?"

Katie stood in her living room, her pants unbuttoned, shivering in her bra. She didn't say anything, just stared at Eoin, who was fully dressed again, smiling patiently from the couch.

"Katie?" Margaret said. "Are you there?"

"Just thinking," Katie said. She jammed her hand over the mouthpiece. "They want me on As It Happens!" Katie hissed to Eoin. "Tomorrow night!"

"That's great!" he whispered back. "Say you'll do it!"

"I can't." Katie's heart fell. "It's your art opening. It's at the exact same time as the opening."

You Decide! 

Katie skips Eoin's art opening to do the radio interview.

OR

Katie skips the radio interview to attend the art opening.

Chapter 45: In Which Katie's Advertising Campaign is Revealed!

Once Aunt Angela, Jonah, and her mother had been tucked into their cars and sent on their way, Eoin and Katie sat quietly in the front seat of the pick-up. Eoin started the engine, and the truck rumbled loudly to life. "Where to, Kate?" he asked.

Just as Katie was about to suggest they go to Lick's for a burger and some entertainment by sullen, singing teenaged employees, her cell phone rang. "It's Melissa," she said, and Eoin killed the noisy engine.

"Hey Melissa. What's up?"

"Katie!" Melissa's voice was loud. "I'm so glad I found you." Her voice was loud, urgent. "Listen, can you get to the office straight away?"

"What? It's nearly 8 o'clock! What's happened? Is everything okay?" Katie's mind raced.  She had had such an emotional day already; she couldn't take much more. Maybe Melissa was just calling to tell her that Glass Tiger was doing a reunion tour? She held her breath and hoped for good news.

"Yes, everything is fine. Amazing, actually! Your add campaign is all ready to go, and Rebecca wants us to implement the guerrilla marketing tonight!"

"Tonight? Really?"

"Yes! Paul and Mike and Erica and I are all down here, ready to help. Hurry up! Where are you, anyway?"

"I'm ..." Katie glanced toward her sister's temporary home. Where was she? She was in another world, a place where her sister was found and sober, where her family was reuniting, where emotions and expectations ran high and fast. She was somewhere exhausting. She could definitely use a break, and if that break involved running around in the dark, art-bombing the city? It sounded perfect to Katie. "I'm on my way."

Twenty minutes later Eoin pulled his big, rambling truck into the metered parking outside her building, taking up two spots.  "So what's the plan?" he asked, but Katie just took his hand and pulled him inside, eager to wow him with her art.

They met the group in the conference room. Melissa had been right -- everyone was waiting there, including Rebecca, dressed in black pants and a tight black turtleneck sweater. She clapped her hands when she saw Katie. "Excellent!" she said. "They won't show me the work. They said you needed to be here for the unveiling."

On the centre of the table was a lumpy cloth. "It's all under there," Erica whispered to Katie. "We worked so hard this weekend to get it done."

"Why didn't you call me in to help?" Katie asked, but Erica just shrugged.

"Melissa said you were busy with family stuff, and couldn't be disturbed," said Erica, and Katie glanced at her friend, who just smiled at her, her eyes warm with understanding.

"What's under here?" Asked Eoin, his hands reaching to yank the cloth off the table, but Paul gave his arm a smack.

"Not yet!" Paul admonished, and Rebecca whined, "But when?"

"After Katie gives her speech!" Melissa said, and suddenly Katie felt all their eyes on her. "Katie needs to explain her vision."

"Well..." Katie cleared her throat. "The assignment was to promote a new line of hotels in Southern Ontario. Comfortable, boutique hotels for the discerning but perhaps less-than-affluent guest. People who like unique, whimsical places, with comfort and charm. We wanted to promote these with a unique, whimsical ad campaign, so we came up with a few tools to convey this message around the city. Erica?" Katie raised an eyebrow at her colleague, who yanked the cloth off the table. "You'll see here a variety of tools to promote your hotels, Rebecca." Katie held up a couple of posters that said, Where will you sleep tonight? Under the writing was a picture of a cute, comfortable bed with a cocktail on the side table and pair of slippers on the floor beside it. The poster also had a QR code that would lead people to the hotel chain's website. "We'll put these up all over -- bathroom stalls, clubs, lounges, libraries, restaurants, community centres, museums, art galleries...all kinds of places. These," Katie held up a stenciled image of the same bed, "will be spray-painted on the sides of buildings, telephone poles, bridges ... anywhere we can get away with it!" The group laughed, and Katie felt the glow of their adoration. Eoin was smiling at her with pride. She blushed and reached for a set of smaller fliers on stiff cardstock.

"We'll hand these out at concerts and at bars and on the street --" They were handbill versions of the poster, only when they were folded along the dotted lines that were faintly drawn on them, they turned into paper airplanes, the QR code and slippers on the wings -- "And these..." Katie held up the final part of the marketing plan, and her heart swelled with pride. "These will go anywhere and everywhere." She passed them around -- they were miniature versions of the hotel, about three inches by three inches, tiny little buildings made of wood and paper. On their undersides it said, Where will you sleep tonight? with the same QR code. "We'll of course follow this up with a regular campaign in a month's time, with the same poster that gives the hotel's name." She took a deep breath. "So this is what we've come up with."  She looked at Rebecca, whose eyes were sparkling with delight.

"Oh, this is better than anything I had in mind!" She held one of the mini hotels up to the light. "This is genius! I can't wait to get started."

"We haven't told you the best part of all of this, Katie." Melissa smiled at her friend. "Rebecca has some really great news."

"Oh, that's right," Rebecca said, putting the tiny hotel back on the table. "We decided that we're going to add something to our promotion, something on our website, so when people follow the QR code they'll get taken to our site and learn that for every bed that's booked in the next year in our new hotels, we'll donate a portion of our revenue to homeless shelters in the area." She grinned at Katie. "It was Melissa's idea. I hope you like it."

"I do," Katie said, nearly speechless. Where will you sleep tonight? It was perfect. She gave her friend a grateful smile.

"Well, I have to say this is all really impressive," Eoin tossed one of the paper airplanes across the room. "It puts my work to shame, it truly does." Katie rolled her eyes at him, but she didn't correct him. This was her night, after all.

The entire group gathered up their supplies and headed out. Each took a part of the city to blanket with posters, flyers, and tiny hotels. Only Katie and Eoin were going to do the spray-painting, though Melissa had secured them a permit so they didn't have to worry about the police.

"I'm coming with you two!" Rebecca declared, and the three of them crammed into Eoin's truck and they drove around the city, leaving pink-and-green images of the cozy, comfy bed-with-slippers on nearly every bare surface in downtown Toronto.

At 5am Eoin drove the three of them out to the waterfront and they sat on the hood of the truck, sharing a box of Smarties, their hands covered in paint. Rebecca had insisted on climbing under a particularly difficult-to-access bridge, and she was nursing a sprained ankle. "That was so much fun," she said. "Where should we go tonight?"

"Tonight?" Katie could barely keep her eyes open. "Oh, I think we might be done with the spray paint."

"But surely the rest of the team didn't get all the posters or tiny hotels put out," Rebecca tipped a handful of Smarties into her mouth. "We should do those next!"

"I think we'll hire a team of minimum-wage teenagers to do that for us," Katie yawned. "Either that or I need at least a few days to recover. That was one long night."

"So!" Eoin leaned back and lay with his back against the roof, looking up at the sky. "Who's up for breakfast?"

"Me!" Rebecca crunched on the last of the Smarties. "I could really use some pancakes. On our way we could check on the fliers, make sure the posters got up in key spots."

"I don't know," Katie yawned again. It seemed wrong to go against the wishes of her client, but she was so tired her body was shaking. "I wouldn't mind getting to bed. After all, I have to work tomorrow. I mean, today."


You Decide!

The trio goes for breakfast, on the way checking up on the postering teams

OR

Eoin and Katie drop of Rebecca at a pancake place so they get go home and get some rest.

Chapter 44: The Story Resumes!

As soon as Anne looked up and caught her staring, all the peacefulness was gone. The pain, the fear, the panic, it could all be seen in her eyes and once more Katie was left at a complete loss. She had absolutely no idea of how to make things better, how to make them easier.   

 

She could side-step it all and just introduce Eion. She was aware of how cowardly an escape it was, but she just didn’t know what else to say. Katie was about to start talking when they were surprised by a loud knock on the door.  

 

"Who's that?" Katie jumped, and Anne's eyes went wide. The knocking continued, loud and insistent. Could it be the police? Katie wondered.

"I don't know," Anne murmured, and sort of pushed Jonah away from her. She looked scared, like she was wondering about the police, too. Angela stood up with a fierce determination.

"I'll go see about this," Angela's full, batiked skirts swirled around her as made her way to the door, wielding a packet of Oreos like a weapon.

The front door swung open and they heard Angela's loud, deep voice. "Yes? Can I help you?" Then there was a thunk, like the sound of a body falling to the floor.

"Oh my god!" Katie pushed away from Eoin and ran to the front of the house. There she found her aunt towered over a young woman, who was sprawled across the hallway, moaning.

"Aunt Angela!" Katie hissed, coming forward.  The bag of Oreos hung limply at her aunt's side."What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Angela hissed back. "Honestly! I just opened the door and this ... person just tumbled inside and collapsed."

"Well, is she okay?" Katie bent down to look at the woman, whom she recognized as the squatter she'd met the first time she'd come to this house looking for Anne. "Becky?" Katie shook her gently. "Are you okay?"

Becky rolled her eyes back and stared at Katie through shaggy bangs. "Oh, hello," she slurred. "I forgot my key."

"We don't have locks, Becks." Anne was there, using that tired, patient tone she'd used on Katie many, many times in her role as Big Sister. Anne came forward and knelt beside her roommate. (Does one call them roommates when one shares an unheated, waterless squat? Katie wondered but suspected this was probably the wrong time to ask). "Come on. I'll get you upstairs."

"Can I help?" Katie asked as Anne hauled Becky to her feet and the two women began to stumble toward the stairs.

"It's okay," Anne said, smiling somewhat sadly. "We've done this before." The two of them disappeared into the darkness of the stairwell and Katie looked at her aunt, who was now munching on an Oreo.

"What do we do now?" Katie asked, just as Eoin, her mother, and Jonah traipsed into the hallway. Eoin was holding Jonah's little hand in his giant one and Katie felt her insides squeeze.

"What's going on?" Katie's mother demanded in a rather tight, tense voice. "Where's your sister?"

"She's just dealing with something. Her friend -- roommate, I guess? -- is unwell so she's helping her out."

"Unwell?" Her mother said, crossing her arms across her chest. "I should think drunk's more like it." She glanced at Jonah. "I think we should get him out of here. This is no place for a little boy."

"You're right," Katie said, somewhat reluctantly. She'd loved seeing her sister and her nephew reunite, but the rolling, drunk eyes and the desperate, dirty smell coming off of Becky as she lay there on the floor had reminded her about the reality of Anne's situation. "Just let them say goodbye."

"Good bye?" Her mother frowned. "Why? Anne's coming home with me."

"You can't just decide that for her, mum." Katie said, her voice rising. "She's an adult."

"Look, I'm just going to take Jonah outside for a bit," Eoin said, then he leaned down til he was eye-to-eye with Jonah. "Hey, kiddo. Want to see a big pick up truck? I'll let you pick the flaky rust off the doors."

Katie watched them go, and then it was just her, her mother, and her Aunt, who continued to consume Oreos.

"Look, we can't force Anne to do anything," Katie began, but then her sister came down the stairs. "How's Becky?" Katie asked her.

"She's okay," Anne sighed. "She's been having a really hard time with sobriety."

Their mother snorted, and Katie jabbed an elbow into her side. Anne said nothing -- she either hadn't noticed or was pretending she hadn't. Instead she looked around, and asked, "Where's Jonah?", panic on the edge of her words.

"He's outside with Eoin, but he can come back in to say good-bye," said Katie.

"There's no need for good-byes," their mother said. "Anne, go get your things and we'll get out of here right away."

"I'm not...." Anne glanced at Katie, who smiled at her older sister, offering support. "I'm not going anywhere, mum. Becky needs me."

"Becky!" Her mother scoffed. "Who's she? Your son needs you, Annie. You know what Jason's trying to do, you know that you only have a few weeks here to get yourself organized, get a job--"

"--I have a job," Anne cut in.

"Walking dogs isn't going to cut it in court, Anne. You should know that. You're a lawyer."

"I was. I was a lawyer," Anne's eyes were filling with frustrated, angry tears. "Listen, you guys need to go, okay? I really appreciate you coming, and bringing Jonah. And I am going to get out of here soon, okay? But I need to get Becky to a meeting, I need to help her. I can't leave her behind."

When they were younger Anne took Katie to the mall one afternoon, and they'd run into some of Anne's friends. Older girls, with puffed-up bangs and flower-patterned jeans, high-top sneakers and cigarettes. They'd wanted to hit the food court, and Katie had trailed along behind them, for nearly an entire afternoon, watching her sister laughing, tossing french fries at cute grade 8 boys and trying on outfits at the Le Chateau. But when Katie started getting tired, when she'd started trailing further and further behind, and when she balked and refused to go inside the La Senza to try on bras that wouldn't fit any of them yet, that's when Anne stopped being a fourteen-year-old mall rat and remembered to be a big sister. She'd taken her little sister's hand and together they'd walked to the Baskin-Robbins for ice cream cones, which they'd eaten on the way home.

"I'll call you, mum." Anne raked her hands through her hair, a sure sign she was getting stressed. "I'll call you tomorrow, and we can talk about the next steps. But tonight, right now, I need to be here."

Their mother looked like she wanted to say something, wanted to protest, but Aunt Angela pressed an Oreo cookie into her hand and said, "Come on. It's been a long afternoon." The older women both came forward and hugged Anne, and she hugged them back, a bit stiff, almost like she'd forgotten how.

And then it was just the sisters, Anne and Katie standing together in the hallway. Anne was holding the nearly-empty bag of cookies. "Do you want to say goodbye to Jonah? Eoin could bring him back inside." They looked out the window where Eoin and Jonah were playing tag on the sidewalk.

"No, he looks so happy. I don't want to confuse him by saying goodbye again. I'll see him, soon, Katie."

"I know." Katie hugged her sister. "You're sure you'll be okay? I mean, with Becky....you won't..."

Anne shook her head. "No, I won't drink. At least, I'll try my very hardest not to. That's all I can promise."

"Of course." Katie didn't want to let her sister go, but she knew she had to get out before they started crying again.

"Listen, that Eoin guy seems really great," Anne said, and Katie smiled wide.

"I know! I wish you'd gotten to meet him properly."

"I will. Soon. That I can promise."

 Once Aunt Angela, Jonah, and her mother had been tucked into their cars and sent on their way, Eoin and Katie sat quietly in the front seat of the pick-up. Eoin started the engine, and the truck rumbled loudly to life. "Where to, Kate?" he asked.

Just as Katie was about to suggest they go to Lick's for a burger and some entertainment by sullen, singing teenaged employees, her cell phone rang. "It's Melissa," she said, and Eoin killed the noisy engine.

"Hey Melissa. What's up?"

"Katie!" Melissa's voice was loud. "I'm so glad I found you." Her voice was loud, urgent. "Listen, can you get to the office straight away?"

"What? It's nearly 8 o'clock! What's happened? Is everything okay?"

You Decide!

Melissa says, "Yes, everything is amazing! Your add campaign is all ready to go, and Rebecca wants us to implement the guerrilla marketing tonight!" 

OR

Melissa says, "No, it's awful. The office building burnt down and the art department lost all your prototypes for Rebecca's guerrilla-marketing add campaign."