Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road - Prologue. Prologue

Prologue

Six years earlier

Eighteen year old Andy Herrington sighed as he fidgeted in his canvas chair while waiting for the reporter from Entertainment Today to settle into the seat opposite him. In the distance, Andy could hear the sounds of the crew and most of the rest of the cast raised in merriment as they began the wrap party.

Even though, as befitted a wholesome show on a family oriented network, the wrap party was unlikely to be a rager, Andy still would have liked to be there to relax and enjoy spending non working time with the people with whom he had spent most of the waking moments of his adolescence. But that wasn’t to be; not yet.

As the star of A Little Help from Above, and a teen celebrity whose posters adorned the walls of a legion of female pre-teens in the U.S., Andy had a roster of media outlets who wanted to interview him at the last taping of his show.

After what seemed like hours, the blonde reporter was settled in, hair fluffed, face powdered, mic on. Andy plastered on a fake smile and answered the same questions he had been answering for the past week.

“Has it been hard leaving this show after seven seasons?”

“Of course,” Andy said. “It’s been a great experience, and these people, the cast and the crew, they’ve been like family. In fact, I’m planning to stay with my co-star, Louise Garson, while I get settled in L.A. But I'm excited about the future.”

“So you’re moving to L.A.?”

“Yes. I’ll miss North Carolina, but L.A. is where I’ll need to be to pursue the most career options.”

“Speaking of career options, do you have any plans to work with your brother? I know Kevin has no plans to return to acting, but according to rumor, he’s planning to start his own streaming network, based on..” the reporter glanced at her notes, and appeared to guote verbatim “...’conservative, traditional christian family values’ and is planning to produce original content.”

Andy winced briefly at the description before he caught himself. Kevin, his elder by 10 years was a good guy and had been his de facto parent (though a strict one) since their mom and dad had died in a car wreck a decade before, but in recent years, despite a wild streak during his own teens, Kevin had become increasingly religious and extremely right wing in his political views.

“I’d love to work with him, but we don’t have anything scheduled currently. First thing I have scheduled is a tour, opening for The Hudson Brothers. After that, I’m looking at couple of pilots.”

“That’s right, you’ve just released an album, “Can’t Come Down,” that is racing up the charts, and the video for the first single has over 20 million views on YouTube already. So, is music your new passion?”

“I love singing, but I wouldn’t say that. I love acting,too.”

“I take it you’re not planning to pursue higher education?”

“Maybe one day….I’m not sure… But right now, performing, acting…...it’s who I am, it’s all I know. It’s the only thing I can see doing for the rest of my life.”

“Well, I’m sure whatever your path, it will work out. After all…” the reporter paused, having fed Andy his cue for his signature line, the one he said in every episode.

Andy smiled his biggest smile. “I’ll have a little help from above.”