*November 2016*
"This is going to be great, I can see it already!" TJ cheered with a big smile on his face, clapping his hands one time. "A day having the whole Jackson family under the same roof, sitting at the same table." As a present for Joseph and Katherine especially, TJ, Taj, and Taryll planned this year's reunion day down to the last detail, intending to bring every single member of the Jackson clan to the one place where it all began. Gary Indiana. All sons and daughters, each grandchild and great grandchild, shall be present. Not only it will be great, it will be awesome!
"Yo, TJ!" His brother, Taj called out coming inside the hotel room, grinning. "I just got off the phone, uncle Jackie and aunt Janet are coming too! They getting on a plane tomorrow morning, aunt Janet's bringing her husband too."
"That's too cool!" The two brothers beat up a high five. "Man, we almost got everyone! Do you realise what an amazing day will that be? I can't wait!" All three of them including their father were overly excited about this. Tito had a hard time though, and he broke out of contact for a while with his parents due his big mouth and the risk of accidentally spoiling the surprise.
"Hey, yo!" Taryll joined them too "Uncle Jermaine, uncle Randy, aunt LaToya, and aunt Rebbie are already in Gary. They staying at a hotel with their kids, and they are going to prepare all the food so when we bring Katherine and Joseph everything will be ready." Taking out a list they made together (they are so many it's hard to remember them all without forgiving about someone) he crossed many names off.
Taj walked over to his brother as they kept looking over the list to see who else was missing. "Oh, man! We have everyone coming except uncle Mike and his kids. Prince, Paris, and Blanket. Do they even know? Has anyone told them yet?" He asked them curious. If they want the surprise to be perfect, then they need to have all of them present. Not the whole family minus a son, minus three grandchildren.
"I talked to uncle Mike a few days ago." TJ said packing some clothes and other stuff into a traveling back. "He said he'll do everything that's in his power to come and asked me if I could go and pick up his kids. He wants to surprise them. Lord, I swear I can't wait to see everyone's reactions and I can't stop saying it either!"
"Ok. Give us a call when you reach them." Taj said, helping his brother take his luggage outside. "And don't worry about your kids, we'll help Frances out as much as we can."
"Yeah, and the last unsolved bits of our brilliant plan?" Taryll added. "Consider them done!" TJ smiled gratefully, remembering his wife's complains about leaving her alone with four energetic kids to handle while they were saying their goodbyes. Then he hugged his brothers goodbye, the three wishing each other good luck with their plans.
"Alright, TJ, thank you for letting me know." Michael said, speaking over the phone with his nephew who just told him everything about the reunion day surprise."I'll do anything that's in my power to make sure I'll be there on time." Currently the team was taking a break from rehearsing. And Michael was in his cabin enjoying some rare peaceful and quiet moments. And a sandwich too.
"Cool. Grandma is gonna be so happy when she sees you." His nephew replied. A muffled sound was heard and followed by an incoherent word. "Oy, daddy's not the target anymore! Now it's mommy's turn! Go bother her!"
Michael giggled. This moment of interruption brought back some old memories. "I was in your shoes once, you know, when my kids were little. They were so amazed at how tall I am and how short they are comparing to me that they created the contest 'climbing daddy', whoever reached first the top of my head could officially become the world's greatest hiker that ever existed."
TJ laughed openly, while picking up his youngest in his arm, his daughter climbing her way on his back with her arms tied around his neck. "Must've been a pleasure, I imagine."
"You don't even know. You walk normally to the kitchen one moment and the next you try to keep yourself steady so you won't fall and hurt the three children who try to climb you up... TJ? Have you spoken to any of my appleheads yet?"
The response that came was negative. "I wanted to, but then my kids busted in so... I didn't get around to make the call. If I don't give them 100% of my attention, my little monsters transform like werewolves during full moon."
"Good." Michael breathed out with the first real smile of the day spreading on his face. "I trust you'll go and pick them up yourself. Look, whatever you do, don't tell them I'm coming. I want to surprise them..."
"You miss them, don't'cha?" The youngest son of Tito asked, softening up.
"Oh, you have no idea how much." The King of Pop groaned, throwing his head backwards, taking the last bites of his sandwich. "Take my advice when you feel terminated by fatherhood. Kids can absorb all of your energy, nerves, patience, other things like that... but when the sun starts coming down, and you watch it together... you realise that if you were given a wish, you'd change nothing. They take a lot, but also they give you back just so much more. Even after all these years I can still say, it's all worth it and better than everything I ever imagined."
"Thanks uncle Mike. l'll keep that in mind." High pitched screams which were silenced by the sound of a breaking vase made TJ groan in frustration and caused Michael to laugh again. "Oh god, that's not even mine! I gotta go uncle Mike, either I pay for this, either I spend the following hours glueing it back together... right now it's option two until I find out exactly how expensive this ugly thing is."
"Alright..." he ended the call, still smiling. And he kept smiling while staring at the phone's screen. A picture with his three most favorite. His eyes glanced in the mirror for a short moment, and he spotted his manager leaning on the door way "Oh, hey Bill. I didn't see you there."
"I just wanted to let you know that break's over in ten." Bill explained. "Then I heard you talking about your kids, and I saw you happier than you've been in a while... I didn't want to ruin the moment."
"Thanks." Michael's smile got even brighter "Just so you know, the smiles, the happiness, the brightness? That's their magic working on me. When they were young I used to have a very hard time punishing them whenever they did something bad. Because they'd give me such a pitiful look, stare right into my eyes, and I'd melt all over them ending up hugging and kissing them."
"How come this doesn't surprise me?" Bill asked chuckling. He met the kids when they were toddlers, which made it easy for him to imagine and way funnier imaginning Michael's strict attitude going soft in a snap of fingers. He could even see the children giving their father the big teary and pleading eyes with the trembling lower lip over the upper one.
"And they knew, the little devils. They knew if they did that I won't be mad anymore and that's why they were doing it." The musician added on an accusing tone, the smile never leaving his face. He was glowing again for the first time in months. And it was wonderful. "My staff and I used to playfully call them in our discussions the troublesome threesome. When Prince, Paris, and Blanket work as a team, there's absolutely nothing in the world able to stop them."
They shared a laugh for one more moment, before the manager sighed deeply. He hated that he had to do this. This will only ruin the mood. This will hurt Michael, and there is no other way, but to say it straight away. "MJ, can I be honest with you?"
"Go ahead." And just then, Bill had to press the freeze button.
"I don't think you'll be able to make it to that party."
"No."
"No?" The manager asked incredulously, raising his eye brows, taken back by the sudden reaction. Usually he'd look down and accept it with his mouth shut. It's a much to small word 'surprise' to name his astonishment of seeing his client fight back.
"No." Michael repeated firmly, the seriousness on his face reflecting in the mirror "I want to see my kids. You can't keep me away from the forever." With his tone leaving no more room for other arguments, he stood up abruptly and turned to look at Bill in the eye daring him to fight back "I am sick and tired of being here. I haven't seen my babies in months, and the last time I did it was for no longer than a week before I had to come back here!"
Bill sighed and looked down, the wheels in his mind working quickly, carefully choosing the next words to say. He hated that he had to be the one to do this. "You can't go home, and you know that... at least not yet..." he added the last part as if it was supposed to be some kind of soothing or something. The statement only made Michael angrier.
"And when will be the time?!" Michael snapped, slamming his fist against the table, raising from the make up table and turning to face his manager with a murderous look. "It's been years since This Is It ended, and I'm still on the road away from my family! At least be a man and tell me the truth to my face. There will never be free time for me before I get a call that I need to come back! I'll never get out of this hell hole unless I'm dead or no longer popular!"
Silence falls over them as if the angry and sudden outburst didn't happen outside the megastar's mind. As it was only a sweet dream. "And have you ever told your family or your children that you are completely broke?" He tried to show his client that he wasn't entirely faultless in this situation. But at the moment, being blocked in a pit with a starving lion and begging it not to eat you seemed to be more succesful. "In 2009 if I remember correctly your net worth wasn't bigger than 2500 dollars."
"You just had to throw the money card in my face. Didn't you?" Michael said to him in disgust. "I can't believe the people I've been working with my entire life." He sighed turning his back to his manager resting his hands on the make up table.
"Mike... I am not doing this because I want to. I am doing this because I have to." Bill wanted to be very clear about this. "It was your choice, it could be another five good years before you have a reasonable amount of money to go back to your kids and take care of them properly." This is the card he hated to throw in the other's face "After all if all of your concerts would've been without all the pyrotechnics and all the show. If you were simply sitting on a chair and singing for the last eight years, perhaps your son wouldn't hate you so much now!"
"You know what to say to bring my spirits lower than I thought it was possible." Tears burned in his eyes like holy water on the devil. "My son hates me... shouldn't that be enough torture for me? Why do you want to keep hurting me after you already brought me down. What more satisfaction can it give you? I will never understand how one's pain and sorrow can bring so much joy to some people."
"You might find this hard to believe, but the last thing I want to do is hurt you."
"You've been fucking me around the way you pleased all my life!" Michael yelled in Bill's face. "Everyone has been fucking with me for the past eight years. I am only a puppet to you!" he took a step closer and spilled out his feelings he held back for a large amount of time "People come to see me from different countries spending money they don't have. Just to see me. I owe them in return a good show worth of the money and time spent. But you never cared about that, you never cared about me or working my ass to exhaustion. You who hold the power against us, you who think you're way above us, you don't really care about us."
Bill stood like a statue, always kept a straight face, and let his client pour it all out while he listened. After what felt like hours, when he thought it was safe to say anything, he responded the outburst by choosing not to respond to it. "The contract you signed with us will be over soon. Then you're free to go back to your kids and live the rest of your life in poverty for all we care. But as long as that contract is still in function, you'll honor it and you'll do as we say. I'll let you calm down... when you're ready to come out you know where to find the stage."
Michael stood frozen in his spot after Bill walked out, betraying as well no facial expression, no feelings. He never knew when he reached the door, but he knew he locked when he heard the familiar sound. Walking back to the mirror he looked at his reflection for God knows how long. And he kept looking until he unexpectedly punch the mirror as hard as he could. And he screamed in pain. But it was not the pain caused by the pieces which ripped his skin apart, it was another type of pain. One which brought him down to his knees on the carpet, made him press a bloodied hand to his mouth muffling his screams, and another to his heart, while he cried his eyes out. Emotional heart pain. The worst kind of all.
When TJ finally reached out to the house Prince, Paris and Blanket were currently living in (Prince stayed in his grandmother's house until Paris turned 18 and both moved out in April taking Blanket with them) he was surprised at how quiet it was around. You'd think two legal teenagers and a growing one would make so much noise everyone would be able to tell when they are home from miles away. It's not like he hasn't been there before. Actually he was one of the first people to come and see their new home. Two floored house with garden and a pool in the backyard. Not too big, not too small either.
He knocked at the door for over five minutes, but nobody answered him. This made TJ frown because one of the kids was always home from what he heard through his uncle Mike. Then he thought he heard something inside, a muffled noise. Nothing was giving him the impression that someone's coming down any time soon, and he had a terrible feeling about this.
So he tried going into the backyard. "Hello?" He called out "Is anyone hearing me right now?" The back doors were made of glass, and did not have a handle, sliding them open or close being required. Just like the Japanese people style. He saw from outside Paris running in what seemed to be the living room, and then she stopped dead in tracks when she noticed him there.
Sliding the door open she rushed over to her cousin. "TJ, what are you doing here?! This is not a good time!" She exclaimed wiping her face. He saw how red her eyes were, how hard she was trembling, and the tears that wouldn't stop falling.
"Paris, sweetie, are you alright?" He immediately worried about her, gently grabbing her shoulders, looking over for any signs of harm. "What happened? What's going on?"
"Please, TJ." Paris said crying and shaking even harder, begging him, locking her hands together in prayer. "You really need to leave. Please, go! Just go!"
"Are you crazy? I ain't leaving you like this!"
A breaking glass sound made them both turn their heads. The balcony upstairs also had glass sliding doors. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion and TJ couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Blanket being thrown through the glass doors, being the one to break them in pieces, stumbling and falling over the rail, and straight into the pool.
Without noticing or caring about TJ being present, bleeding from the numerous cuts created by the glass pieces, he raised from the pool (his sister ran over and helped him up) and looked up at Prince, whose face was bleeding also, who stood behind the balcony rail resting his hands on it looking down at his siblings. Whatever the reason for their fight was, just like the fear in their sister's blue eyes, between the two brothers, the hate in their eyes was more real and more honest than anything TJ has ever seen before.
TJ really wished he would've gone home after seeing no one is answering him at the door.
