Ascension: Invocation (17 page)

He had been drunk for the majority of Riley's infancy. A very well paid drunk, mind you, but a drunk nonetheless. Graham had been a radio DJ since he was sixteen years old. The Program Director of a radio station in Detroit had overheard his voice while he was working as a busboy at a local restaurant. He was taken with the teenager's unusually deep voice and excellent diction. He offered him a part-time job during his dinner and Graham quit the restaurant job on the spot. The following Monday, he arrived at the radio station expecting to be given his own show. Instead, he spent the next several months cleaning the station vehicles and setting up remote broadcasts for the on-air talent.

Eventually, Graham was granted his own weekend shift on the station. It was four hours per week and he made the most of it, becoming quite a celebrity at his high school in the process. A short time later, the overnight DJ on the station quit and Graham was asked to fill in temporarily. He did and despite sleeping through many of his classes, he became a popular fixture on Detroit overnight radio. He somehow managed to get his diploma despite his low marks. Around this time, the evening show on the station became available and Graham was promoted to the seven to Midnight shift.

At eighteen, he was making more money than any of his friends, meeting rock stars, going to concerts and dating beautiful girls. His show continued to grow and by the time he was twenty, Graham was offered the three to seven afternoon shift at a Rock station in Dallas, a major market. It was a six-figure salary. He jumped at the chance and immediately increased the ratings with his own brand of shock-radio.

Graham became famous for pulling no punches on the air. It was the 90s. Grunge was at its peak, Rock radio was huge and every air talent in America was trying to one-up Howard Stern. Graham was one of the best. His show was smart but as raunchy as the rest. It was as if he knew exactly how far too push the envelope and stay under the FCC s radar. His tapes were traded amongst other radio DJs throughout America and he frequently made the cover of industry trade magazines as one of the medium's shining stars.

When he turned twenty-one, Graham had more money and access than anyone his age should really be afforded. He walked past the velvet rope at night clubs and was on everyone's guest list. The record companies made sure he was well taken care of and he was on a first name basis with Eddie Vedder, Chris Cornell and Kurt Cobain. It was around this time that he met Stephanie.

Stephanie was working as a marketing intern for Warner Brothers and part of her gig was to handle meet and greets for the label's roster when the bands came through Dallas. Graham would be on hand at the shows to introduce the bands on stage and he would regularly see Steph rounding up his winning listeners to meet the bands and shake hands with their favorite rock stars. Graham was immediately attracted to this gorgeous, blonde college student but never really had an opportunity to meet her. After all, his interns handled the listeners, and Stephanie, for that matter. He simply arrived at the show, enjoyed the complimentary beverages and then stepped on stage for a few moments to get the crowd revved up for the flavor of the month:

"Awwwww, hell yeah, Dallas!!! How we feelin’ tonight?! Ya all right?! Awwwww Riiiight!!" It was, pretty much, the same speech every time. "One Oh One Point Nine, The Edge welcomes you to the fuckin’ low dough show series!!! Are you ready to get fucked up and blow your goddamn ear drums to hell?!?! Who wants a free Edge t-shirt?!" Graham would then lift a potato gun to his shoulder and begin firing t-shirts into the audience while spraying them with beer and champagne; carefully avoiding the monitors, of course.

Stephanie, rightfully, thought that he was a bit of a buffoon. He was handsome but not exactly charming. At least, that's how she initially felt. Then, one night Graham arrived at a concert and was told by his interns that one of his winning listeners had not arrived to claim their spot in the meet and greet. He had two slots open if he wanted to use them. Generally, when this occurred, Graham would use it as an opportunity for self promotion.

He grabbed his two biggest interns as security and then walked outside, in front of the venue where the concert-goers were lined up down the street waiting to be let in to see the show. Graham's usual process was to make a bit of a scene while giving away station t-shirts, bumper stickers, Cds and such and then announce that the two people in line willing to do the most insane thing would be given the opportunity to meet the band. He had made two straight men kiss, women strip naked and once he even traded a guy three hits from a sledgehammer to his car in exchange for the opportunity to meet Alice in Chains. Graham broke out his headlights and his rear window. He needed the security that night.

On this particular evening, however, as Graham was making his way from the rear of the line, he noticed two young girls who couldn't have been any more than sixteen years old. They looked very out of place in this line of flannel wearing, pierced and tattooed freaks. They were well dressed (too well dressed for a Rock show, he thought) and they looked a bit nervous. Graham stopped and approached them. "Hey. You girls going to the show?" he asked. They sheepishly nodded. It was obvious that despite his apparel, emblazoned with the radio station’s logo, they did not know who he was. In fact, they appeared a bit concerned as to why this long haired, pierced guy might be talking to them. Yet, something struck him about them and he concluded that he didn’t need to look any further for his new contest winners. He simply asked them. "Would you like to meet the band?"

One of the girls finally managed a "What?"

"Meet the band," Graham said again. "I work for the radio station presenting the show and I have two slots open and..." Graham didn't get to finish his sentence when one of the girls began to cry. The second quickly said "Yes. Yes, we do want to meet them." and then hesitantly inquired, "We don't have to do anything once we get back there, do we?" Graham laughed and explained that he was not pimping for the band and that the girls would be perfectly safe.

Once they arrived backstage, Graham would usually hand his listeners over to the interns and, in this case, Stephanie, and then go about his regular business of glad handing the rock stars and drinking Tequila. However, as he explained to the girls how the process would work, the crying girl wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you so much. This means so much to me,” she said as her friend smiled and brushed away her own tears.

Apparently, this particular band had saved the young girl's life. She told Graham her story. She had been in an abusive home. Her father had molested her. She ran away and lived on the streets of Dallas for over a year. One of her prized possessions during these times were this band’s first and second albums which dealt with similar subject matter (the singer's life somewhat mirrored her own). She had contemplated suicide but the band's tortured lyrics had become a guiding light for her. Finally, she was placed in foster care. The girl with her tonight was her foster-sister.

With this, Graham asked the two girls to stay put and he excused himself to find the singer of the band. Stephanie was with him as Graham explained the young girl's story and asked if he would mind having a private meeting with the two teenagers. He graciously agreed and Graham and Stephanie went back to the two girls and explained that the vocalist would meet with them privately. The crying girl was now so nervous that she could barely walk but Graham helped her to the dressing room. When she met the man, it was as if she was meeting her long, lost brother and tears flowed from them both as they recounted their stories of abuse. They closed their talk with a long embrace and as they left, the two girls again held Graham and thanked him for this life changing moment. It had been just the closure the girl needed to begin her life anew. She called it fate and Graham thought that there might have been something to this. After all, what did cause him to notice them amongst the grungy mass in front of the club? Now, even he discreetly wiped away a tear. Stephanie noticed.

That night, they shared several drinks and Stephanie discovered that much of the machismo that Graham brought to his radio show was really more of a character than it was actually him. Beyond the facade, she found an intelligent, good-natured guy who just happened to have a weird job. It wasn’t love at first sight but, eventually, it was love.

Long story short, Graham and Stephanie became an item. They moved in together, Stephanie got pregnant, quit school and Riley was born. All the while, the money continued to flow and Graham rode a seemingly endless wave of success in Dallas. They bought a beautiful house in a gated community and moved in. Finally, though, his drinking began to take its toll. Late nights, partying with rock stars while Stephanie remained at home to take care of a colicky baby did not bode well for their marriage. Eventually, Graham began oversleeping for work. This was quite miraculous considering that he wasn't on the air until 3pm. Further, his reputation within the market and the industry itself began to plummet. He was warned repeatedly by management to change his behavior.

But, in fact, it got worse. Graham began a string of infidelity with local strippers that ended spectacularly with him bringing a girl home late one night and having sex with her in the guest room while his wife and child slept on the other side of the house. The stripper awoke the next morning and wandered into the dining room nude, much to the shock of Stephanie, Riley, and the girl herself, who was unaware that Graham was married.

Perhaps amazingly, through the divorce Graham and Stephanie were civil to each other. It wasn't the sort of angry separation one might expect given the circumstances. Stephanie simply wanted to remove herself and their daughter from Graham's self-destructive behavior and Graham agreed that this was for the best. The marriage ended amicably but Graham's career didn't enjoy the same luxury.

He arrived one day at the office and was instructed to meet with the Human Resources manager. When he arrived in her office, his boss and his boss's boss were already present. Though he had never been fired, he knew that this was the nightmare scenario that other DJs had explained to him in terrible detail. It was the end of the line for Dallas. Surprisingly, though, in this case it wasn't his alcoholism that caused the split. The radio station was changing formats. At 5pm that day, they would flip the station to Country. Graham's brand of radio wouldn't fit with the change, so his services were no longer required. By the end of the day, one by one, every jock on the station was fired.

It was the first time Graham had been out of work since that fateful day when he was sixteen. His fellow displaced air staff members immediately sprung into action: calling their agents and submitting tapes and resumes to markets throughout the U.S. Bidding wars even erupted for some of the talent as cross-town stations jumped at the opportunity to bring them on-board. None of this happened for Graham, however. He didn't have an agent and his reputation preceded him with all of the local stations. He was a loose cannon and no one wanted to take a chance with him. What was worse was that Graham had no idea where to begin looking for work. He was slow to react and began missing opportunities almost immediately.

Eventually, Graham landed a gig in Phoenix but was fired five months later following an embarrassing appearance at an industry convention in Los Angeles. He had arrived at a panel discussion drunk, as usual, and made a scene with one of waitresses. It was quite impressive. In a room full of over-the-top on-air personalities, Graham proved to make even the raunchiest shock jock cringe as he was escorted from the gala.

Thereafter, the only work he could find would prove to be small markets. He watched his six figure salary crumble to twenty seven thousand dollars a year. Along the way, he sobered up for the most part. He never entered rehab and never sought counseling. It was more of a gradual drying up based more on the fact that he couldn't afford the brands of alcohol he once loved. Rather than settle for five dollar vodka, Graham concluded that drinking was now beneath him. It took quite a while for his ego to subside.

Following stints in South Carolina and Georgia, Graham landed in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Approaching forty, he swore that this would be his final stop. He was getting too old for the vagabond radio lifestyle. During his last few stops, Graham had made an effort to be near his ex-wife and daughter in Florida. They remained as close as possible with Graham serving more as the friendly, drunken uncle at a family reunion more so than as Riley's father. Graham felt this was better than nothing and, besides, he actually liked Stephanie's new husband. He was a good guy and he respected Graham despite his flaws. He was good to Stephanie and Riley and provided a better life for them than he was able to muster and Graham was thankful for this.

He had been in Tuscumbia for less than a year when he met Kelly. She had won a prize on the air and Graham began flirting with her on the phone. When she arrived to claim her prize, Graham was immediately struck by her. She was beautiful despite her multicolored nursing scrubs that Graham would later comment made her look like the worst dressed clown at the circus. The southern lilt in her voice and beautiful blue eyes made Graham melt. He noticed the ring on her finger, however, and put the brakes on any attempt at her. She looked young, anyway, he thought. Too young and too pretty to be interested in a DJ approaching middle age. By Tuscumbia, his ego had finally been wrestled into submission.

Later, Graham was making an appearance at a local nightclub and he saw her again. She was out for after-work cocktails with her co-workers from the hospital. Conversation ensued and Graham learned that she was a widow. Dates were made and a short time later, following a dispute with his landlord, Graham moved in to Kelly and Haley's home. For the first time in his life, Graham became a Dad and a regular guy. He mowed the lawn. He took Haley to school in the morning and picked her up in the afternoon while Kelly worked in the emergency room. They went out for dinner at a local steakhouse every Friday night. They worried about their bills and Kelly insisted that they attend church every Sunday morning. Graham loved every minute of it. He was finally content.