“Dave?” Simon Kent poked his head in the door and smiled. “You have a moment?”
David Turner hid the scowl on his face as best he could. “Sure. Sit down.”
Kent delicately shut the door behind him and sat down in the chair across from Turner. He folded his hands in his lap and made himself comfortable. He sighed, then smiled. “I understand.”
Turner looked up from his paperwork. “Understand what?”
“Our time has come.” Simon released his hands and put them on the chair arms. “I step aside.”
“You’re resigning?”
“All I ask is that I am allowed to stay for the remainder of my contract.” Kent looked down. “I dedicated my life to this network, to you, so please, let me leave with a little dignity.”
“That’s pretty much up to you, Kent, but personally you let the dignity ship sail away a long time ago.”
Simon nodded his head.
“Well, is that it?” Turner asked pointedly.
“Yes. I won’t waste any more of your time.” Kent stood up.
“You should have thought about that years ago, too.”
Simon Kent struggled to keep his anger in check. “May I say something to you, friend to friend?”
“Kent, we’ve never been friends.” Turner put his pen down and his glasses on the paperwork. “But if you have something to say, I have enough respect for your time to listen.”
The rotund little man nodded and stepped to the desk. He seemed to be thinking precisely about his words. “He’ll break your heart.”
“Excuse me?” Turner scoffed.
“You know what I’m talking about, Dave. We’ve all seen it before. Ian Justyn is just another is a much too long series of handsome young men you’ve attached yourself to, young men that you’ve mentored and staked your reputation, this company’s reputation on. Everyone has failed, Dave. This one will, too.”
Turner harumphed and picked his glasses back up.
“I won’t say I told you so when it happens, but I hope you’ll remember that I warned you in time and that once again you didn’t listen.”
“Oh, I’m listening Kent.” Dave peered over the top of his glasses. “I hear every word you’ve said.”
“And you will still let this boy railroad you, taking this network further down the drain. It can’t take much more, Dave. I dare say, this is the last hurrah.” Kent nodded his head and turned to go.
Turner let him get all the way to the door. “Wait a minute, Kent.”
David tossed his glasses back on the desk and waited for the man to turn around. He motioned for him to take his seat again.
“You’ve made sure I understand, Simon. Now I want to make sure you understand.” Turner stood up and went over to the bar. “Scotch?”
“Thank you.” Kent smiled, but didn’t dare move from his chair.
“You seem to be under the impression that I’m not aware of the state of my own company.” He poured two stiff ones, and handed one to Kent.
“Oh, I didn’t say that.” He said as he accepted the drink.
“You may not have come right out and said it, but you danced all around it and pointed at it with your twinkle toes.”
Kent scowled at him as they saluted each other with their glasses and took a drink. “Dave you are constantly misjudging…”
“Simon, I’m trying to be nice here, so do us both a favor and shut the hell up.”
Kent’s eyes popped and David Turner continued. “Just because I’ve out lived everyone in this town doesn’t mean I’m senile. Granted, I probably haven’t got that many good years ahead of me. If I’ve got a year at all.”
“Oh, don’t give me that, nonsense.” Simon said. “You’ll out live us all.”
“I’m 94 years old. One good sniffle and I’ll be hooked up to more wires than a Muppet, but I’ll be damned if I’ll out live this company. I’ve stood back and played the old man too long. Look what’s it’s gotten me.”
“You should be proud.”
“I would be, if the damn thing could survive without me. Ninety Four years, Kent and the only thing I’ve got to show for it is a case of tarnished foo foo and once great conglomerate I had absolutely no intention of building in the first place. That’s my legacy in this world Kent, feel good crap with my name on it and a barely breathing mistake.”
“If that’s how you truly feel, Dave. Then maybe it is time you do just sit back and let it die, or hand it over to people who still believe in it, people who deserve it.” Kent sat his empty glass down with just a little too much English.
“You?” Turner smirked.
Kent shrugged his shoulders.
“You don’t believe in this company, Kent. You’ve just been floating through contract cycles, thinking eventually you’ll be in control long enough to suck it dry.”
“How can you say that, Dave?” Simon looked hurt. “After all the years I’ve put in?”
“Oh, tuck your bottom lip back in. No one’s looking and no one sure as hell is buying.” Dave handed Simon his glass. “Pour us another.”
Kent poured them both another drink and bringing the bottle and put it on the desk. “You’re all put kicking my ass out the door, Dave. You can’t blame me for trying.”
“Simon, face it, you’re kicking your own ass out the door.”
Kent looked Turner in the eye. “Ian Justyn is a slick player, and he’s been using your crush on him to take this whole company for a ride.”
Turner laughed, out loud.
“I’ve seen you do this before, Dave.” Kent tried to say calmly and firmly.
“And I’ve seen you have the same knee jerk reaction to every kid that came along for over thirty years now. Any one, who has ever managed to take the focus off you for more than two seconds is automatically a threat.”
“They’ve all come after me, because they know I’m the one that has to go down for them to go up.”
“You are the only one who ever believed that.” Turner leaned in close. “Do you know why you are even still here?”
“Because I’ve been able to give this network product the audience wants for thirty years.” Kent said smugly.
“Simon, the product you’ve turned out as a whole has lower demographics than dead air. You are still here because quite frankly, I enjoy sitting behind my desk and watching you try and kill off your misguided perception of the competition. I kept thinking that one day you’d use that keen killer instinct and come up with something good or at least get smart enough to join forces with someone who had talent.”
“I’m insulted.”
“No you’re not.” Dave freshened up their glasses. “You really don’t give a shit what people say or think or you’d have crawled back under your rock years ago.”
“I managed to get rid of a lot of losers for you.”
“And you chased off a lot more that we needed. I should have just fired your butt years ago.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Frankly, I’ve been waiting.”
“For what?”
“For the right one. Simon you haven’t got the ability to make great television, but you do have an annoying capability to inadvertently create a great fighter. That’s what this company needs, a great fighter who can also create good television. We’re out of time. You are too much of a liability and my pre burial plan is all paid up.”
“You’re putting it all on Justyn?”
“Why not? He’s kicked your ass in every direction but out of the closet. You’ve squeezed that kid until I thought his head would pop off, and damn if it didn’t explode in all the right colors. You’ve got no one to blame but yourself.”
“You think I created that monster?”
Turner knocked back his drink. “Face it, you couldn’t create diarrhea with a dozen babies and a vial of black plague.” He sat back and smiled. “But you did force a young man to fight for his life, and instead of focusing it on you, he focused it on the company. He did what you could have done all along, but didn’t think you had to.”
“So you are just going to hand him the keys to the car and let him drive off into the sunset?”
“How stupid do you think I am, Kent? I’m going to give the kid a chance, but I’m not letting anyone drive my car again. Look what happened when I did.”
“I’ll admit, he’s made an impressive first impression, but I doubt you’ll see anything else. Too much luck involved, nobody’s can keep that streak going.”
Dave shook his head. “If you knew anything about that boy, Kent. You’d have an entirely different opinion.”
“I know he’s a hillbilly with a sob story, boo hoo. Unlike most people in the building, I don’t let little things like that color my vision.”
Turner stood. “And that’s exactly why you were allowed to hang around for thirty years instead of making us fight to keep you here.”
Kent matched his stance. “You are so wrong, Turner.”
“It really doesn’t matter. You are welcome to stay until you’re contract runs out, but you so much as belch without saying excuse me…”
Simon Kent put up his hands to interrupt. “I understand, I’ve been warned. Play nice and at least I get to leave the sandbox without a black eye.”
“I’m doing what I think I have to do.” David Turner reached out his hand.
Kent took it and shook. “Me, too.” He said and closed David Turner’s door behind him. He leaned against the closed door. “Me, too.” He smiled and went on his merry way.
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