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THE AMAZING STORY

As my wife and I drove home, we were discussing how Carol didn’t seem to fit our stereotype of a corporate executive. She was a smaller woman, soft spoken, and extremely polite; we were pleasantly surprised. The next morning Carol arrived right on time, as expected. We met her in the driveway and invited her in. After sharing some coffee and small talk, she said, “Well, let’s get down to brass tacks ― shall we? What’s this incredible story you have to tell?”

I showed her some pictures I had taken and began to tell and show her all about my amazing experience. I don’t think her mouth closed once during the entire three and a half hours.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “That is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. If you could please give me a few minutes, I have some phone calls to make.”

“Tina and I will be out on the gazebo,” I said. “Please come join us when you’re finished.”

After about twenty-five minutes, Carol came out. “I spoke with the folks at headquarters, and here’s what we’ve come up with. We want to do two specials, each two hours long. The first hour of the first show will deal with the Food Formula, and then we will introduce you as the person behind it all. We will begin the second hour with you telling ‘the rest of the story,’ as they say. Headquarters wants to send out one of the corporate jets to pick up you, Tina, and myself the day after tomorrow. We will fly directly to New York, and we will set you up at a nice hotel for a week,” she continued. “We are prepared to pay you two million dollars per two-hour show. Now all of this is tentative; it depends on scheduling, and so on. What do you guys think?”

“Sounds good to me,” I said. Turning toward my wife, I asked, “What do you think, honey?” We both agreed.

Carol then said, “Great, I’ll be in touch,” and with that she left.

My wife and I sat back down in the gazebo and began discussing the whole thing; we were both very excited.

Carol called the next day and said everything was a go. “We leave from Lakeview Airport at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. I will drive us all to the airport and leave my rental car there. My P.A. will meet us at JFK and take us to the hotel. Is all this okay with you guys?”

Tina and I nodded in agreement, said goodbye, and started packing.

“Do you believe all this?” I asked my wife. “In a week we are going to be millionaires?” The whole thing was hard to imagine, and neither of us got much sleep that night. We had never been on a corporate jet before; this was going to be exciting. The experience was totally different than flying commercial. We were both treated like royalty. Carol went over the revised contracts with us, and we had a small signing party right on the plane.

Meg, Carol’s personal assistant, met us at the airport. She was young, bubbly, and extremely efficient. She immediately filled Carol in on all the details as we walked toward a corporate limousine. We got in and Carol introduced us to Meg. While shaking hands, she said, “It’s a real pleasure to meet you both. If you need anything ― and I mean anything ― call me.”

She handed us a cell phone to use while in New York with all the pertinent phone numbers already programmed in. We soon arrived at one of the top hotels in New York. My wife and I looked at each other and couldn’t believe we would be staying there. A hotel concierge welcomed us, opened the door for us, and retrieved our luggage from the trunk as we followed him into the hotel.

“Would you like me to drop your luggage off at your condo?” Meg asked Carol.

“No thanks, Meg,” she replied. “I will be going with you shortly.”

As we entered the lobby, up stepped the hotel manager who said, “Hello, Miss Avery. It’s so wonderful to see you again.” He turned toward my wife and me, saying, “Please allow me to show you to your room.”

The hotel did a lot of business with Hard Facts, and they always provided very personal service. We soon arrived at our room, and as he opened the door, my wife and I locked eyes. “My goodness,” she said. “This place is awesome.” It was a very large suite with windows everywhere to take in the view of the city. We were looking around like two foreigners who had never been to the big city before.

“Why don’t you both get settled,” Carol suggested, “and I will come back in a couple of hours to take you out for drinks and dinner.”

“That would be great,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Please help yourselves to anything you want,” she offered. “The bar is over there; they have a pool, spa, gym, sauna ― you name it. And room service can get you anything you want. Make yourselves at home … please. Just sign everything off to the room, and we will take care of it.”

After Carol left, Tina and I looked around the many rooms and were amazed. Everything was first class ― right down to the gold-plated faucets in the two bathrooms. The place was huge!

Carol returned around 6:30 p.m. We all sat down, and she said, “Let me give you a quick rundown of the next few days. Tomorrow is Sunday so we will not be doing any taping. With your permission, I would like to pick you both up at 8:00 a.m., we’ll go out for breakfast, and then I’ll show you around New York. We have some amazing places to eat, as well as a number of places I think you will enjoy seeing. We will begin taping around 9:00 a.m. Monday and should finish sometime Thursday. Joyce Aims will be conducting the interview. Any questions?”

We both shook our heads no, so Carol said, “Well then, let’s go have some fun.”

We went down several floors to the Caribou Room. The restaurant was decorated in an African theme, and everything was done to perfection. We were escorted to a booth and ordered drinks. It seemed all we had been doing since yesterday was drinking, but we both were so excited that partying seemed very appropriate.

After an incredible dinner, Carol said, “I’ll pick you both up at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.” As promised, Carol was right on time. After an amazing breakfast, she chauffeured us around to many of the wonderful sights New York has to offer, and the meals we had were fantastic.

Tina and I got up early Monday morning, went downstairs for a quick breakfast, then walked out front to wait for Carol. The traffic on the street was something like we had never seen before. The limo arrived a couple of minutes later, and Carol and Meg opened both doors, each saying, “Good Morning.”

My wife and I entered and sat down; Carol pointed at me and said, “Well, it’s time for you to go to work.” Then pointing at Tina said, “It’s time for you to go out and have some fun. Meg has kindly offered to show you around the city.”

Meg leaned in toward my wife and whispered, “More like begged.” They giggled and smiled at each other, and I knew my wife was going to have a great time.

We arrived at the SBS (Star Broadcasting Systems) building a few minutes later. It was the newest of all the buildings in New York and took up an entire city block. Though not really a skyscraper, it was twenty-one stories and what it lacked in height was made up for by its appearance. It was all glass, particularly the bottom floor; you could see right through to the street on the other side. There were four lobbies, one on each of the four streets surrounding the building. The driver opened the door, and Carol and I exited. I leaned into the limo and kissed my wife goodbye; then she and Meg drove off for the day.

SBS has four main divisions and each had its own lobby. The one we entered was absolutely beautiful. The reception desk was extremely large with wooden and colored glass inlays; I had never seen anything like that before. The entire floor was a combination of marble, granite, and other natural stones all laid out in an intricate pattern to exactly copy an impressionist painting by the famous artist Rodolfo Panini that hung over the reception desk. It was magnificent! The exterior glass tinted automatically when hit by the sun; there were no window coverings at all.

The chairs in the lobby were leather recliners, with a built-in TV set and a phone. Carol and I went directly to the security office to get me a visitor badge. My picture and fingerprints were taken, along with a retinal scan. They were extremely efficient, and the entire process took only a couple minutes. We stepped into the elevator and went up to the twenty-first floor. When the elevator doors opened, there was a large TV screen that displayed “WELCOME TO HARD FACTS, SECURITY LEVEL PLATINUM.”

There was a male guard seated behind an ultra-modern desk who said, “Good morning, Miss Avery.”

“Good morning. How are you today, John?” she inquired.

“Just fine, ma’am. I see you have a guest today.”

We both signed in, and Carol looked directly into a camera and said, “Carol Avery,” followed by the time and date. I repeated everything she had done, and then she walked over to a section of the wall and placed her index finger on a small square piece of glass. She looked directly into some sort of scanner, and a voice said, “Carol Avery . . . welcome.” She stepped back, and I again followed her lead.

We approached two large metal doors with no visible handles or hinges. “HARD FACTS” in very large 3-D gold letters was displayed over them. The doors parted by retracting into the walls. As we entered and walked down the hallway toward her office, “Good morning, Miss Avery” or “Good morning, Carol” was uttered by a number of people. I could tell she was very well liked by her fellow workers.

We walked into her corner office. It was incredible! Two walls were all glass with a spectacular view of New York City. “Please sit down,” she said. “Can I get you anything ― coffee, pastry, water?”

“No, I’m fine,” I said. “Thank you.”

“It shouldn’t be long now before they’re ready for us,” she continued. “Just think, Ral, in a couple weeks you will be known around the world.”

She may as well have hit me with a ton of bricks. It all suddenly sunk in. I am about to be interviewed by Joyce Aims, quite possibly the most famous news anchor on the planet and nearly everyone in the world is going to see this. I suddenly began to feel ill. I was sweating and shaking, and I felt like I was going to throw up. “Ral!” she exclaimed. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I said. “I’m not sure I can do this; what if I look stupid or say something wrong.”

Carol walked around behind me, leaned over, placed her hands on my shoulders, and said, “You’re just having a panic attack. Take a few deep breaths and calm down.” She leaned in further and in a very soothing voice said, “This is not live TV, just a taping. We are all here to see that you come across as intelligent and well spoken. If you make a mistake, and we all do, you just say, ‘Can we do that again?’ Joyce very rarely gets through an entire interview without having to redo something. . . . No one is perfect.”

She then wrapped her arms around me, placed her cheek next to mine, and gave me a big hug.

“I feel better now,” I told her. “Thank you very much.”

Carol responded, “It’s me who should be thanking you.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

“Have you ever heard of Marty Talbert?”

“I love that guy,” I said. “I watched him for years on the six o’clock news.”

“Everybody loves Marty,” she said. “After many years as a successful anchor, he left to create Hard Facts. He held the position I have now,” she explained. “The show was number one in the ratings for that time slot and category, a whopping thirteen years in a row. Marty was amazing. He could get an interview with anyone: presidents, kings, movie stars. You name them and Marty could get them. He decided to retire a couple years ago, and I was promoted to the position. I worked my butt off seven days a week, called in every favor I could, but I just couldn’t measure up to my predecessor’s work. . . . Do you believe in God, Ral?”

“I’ve been a Christian since birth,” I answered.

“Me too,” she said. “And I believe you are the answer to my prayers. . . . I don’t know how to thank you.”

“The four million works for me,” I joked. We both laughed.