11. AHEM

[Tony, PA]:

“Mark, there’s an incoming for you. To do with the repository.”

 

[Mark McGuire]:

“Not interested Tony, I thought I’d made that clear. I’m busy for the rest of the day. Take the details and process them, like I said.”

 

[Tony, PA]:

“Sure will Mark. Only thing is, this guy offered two hundred thousand dollars to talk to you now for five minutes.”

10. CH-CHING

Mark McGuire hadn’t reached his chief executive’s office before the inundation began. He’d set his communicator to record messages. He could already see there was a build up of seventeen items. “That’ll be the big boys” Mark thought. Of course they were. These were the majors that he had given his personal ID to on numerous occasions with only the remotest hope of a call back. He would prostrate himself before someone’s assistant and end the conversation bowing and backing out with much recognition of their higher status in the transaction. It was usually such a struggle to gain direct access to decision makers! Don’t you love Layla?

9. LISTEN UP

8 am. Wednesday 21^th October 2048.

McGuire Management Corporation’s conference hall, 53rd at Third, Manhatton.

 

Mark McGuire comes to the podium. In front of him several hundred media personal. On the walls and on the ceiling, several thousand media companies are linked in virtually. This broadcast will immediately reach eight billion people.

8. TRUST ME COMMODITY

[Guest]:
You made the right decision coming to me Mike. Mark McGuire is the best damn negotiator on the planet. I’ve done ‘em all. The politicians, the mistresses, the sports guys, the disaster survivors. I sold Tommy Weyara’s animal affair story for 10 million dollars. That put Tommy back on the road to recovering his life. But you know all that. Else you wouldn’t be here asking me to help you.

7. DO THE TRAM, DO THE TRAM

[Mike, the machine technician]:

“Alright then, you’ve seen a nice introductory Melbourne Uni scene. What would you like next? Go on, give it a roll.”

 

[Guest]:

“Really? I know. Do the tram, do the tram.”

6. I’M LAYLA AND I’M A BAHAI

Mrs King walked into her 10am Religious Education class. The class stood up, desks and chairs grating. She routinely threw her handbag onto her table and addressed her pupils.

 

“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”.

5. ONE ON ONE

Despite a lot of awestruck males St Brigid’s acclimatized to Layla very quickly. Layla was attractive in many ways including socially. A bunch of girls happily surrounded her through school time though none of the year 9 boys had yet mustered up enough courage to say more than a passing ‘hello’.

4. POWERFUL FIRST IMPRESSION

Yes, I’m Joel from Horsham.

 

The first time I saw Layla was very memorable. Me and a few footy mates (Port all the way!) were hanging around inside the St. Brigid’s College main entrance. It was the start of a new school year and we were waiting to get acquainted with year 9 personnel and protocols.

3. EN ROUTE TO HORSHAM

Layla was born in Haifa, Israel in 1985. As far as anyone could tell there were no major astrological events on the 25^th of January (the night of the birth), a point that some would later bring up. However, it was around that time that Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie wrote “We are the World” which is kind of relevant and did feature many stars.

2. PRIVILEGE IN PARTS

From many perspectives, the fortunate find was a tremendous privilege for the technician.

 

Say you get a knock on your door. A solemn man with a hefty book. Do you know what God wants of you? Will you accept Jesus into your heart? Heart you say? Well the way he’s going through my coffee and biscuits my heart may well be next! Come on in. Sorry didn’t catch your name. Michael? Fine. Michael meet Jesus. Jesus, Michael.