Change of Business

Written by & copyright of Earl Bacon Foxonian@aol.com

Featuring Cassie, the Rock & Roll Vixen
http://members.aol.com/rufinoform/Cassie.htm


Please read the prequil, "Out of the Past", featuring Cassie and Rachel, Cassie's
keyboardist at
http://members.aol.com/CassieRockVixen5/out_of_the_past.txt
Please read the sequil, "Happy Birthday Foxonian", featuring Cassie, her band and her
mate, Foxonian, at
http://members.aol.com/CassieRockVixen5/happy_birthday_foxonian.txt

Cassie and all other characters are created by & copyright of Earl Bacon except for
Laretta, who is copyright Andre Cotton, Alex, who is copyright Donna Fritz and Vixina, who is copyright Cloudchaser Shaconage

"Hey guys, What’s going on?" Laretta remarked as she entered the main room of Cassie
and Foxonian’s lodge.  The wolfess had just driven in from NH, where she was enjoying
her break from the tour.  She had gotten a call on her cell phone from Foxonian.  The
human was calling all the other band members together for a special "band meeting" at His
and Cassie’s Berkshire mountan lodge.  Something was up, Laretta guessed, else why
would everyone get the summons?  "Hey, ya made it!  An’ rahght on tahme too!" Vixina, the
red fox fiddle player said as Laretta entered the room.  "You bet!  Did you think I would
miss all the mystery?" Laretta asked as she sat down  on the large sofa next to the vixen
in the white half-T shirt and cutoff denim shorts."

"Me nethah.  Though Ah will miss seein' th' end of thet Nascar Race.  Mah boy, Cloudchasah
and Ah were at th' races when mah dang cell phone went off," the vixen said as she put
her glasses back on her muzzle.  "Hey guys! Glad you could make it!" a taller red fox
vixen, dressed in a light blue blouse and a denim mini-skirt came out of the kitchen with
a plate of veggies, chips and some dips made out of sour cream and herbs.  The only thing
that the Rock vixen wore that was familiar was her neck choker with it's blue oval gem.
She wasn't wearing any nylon stockings on her legs, just some light blue open
toed-strapped sandles with low heels.  Cassie put the platter down on the long,
rectangular table in the middle of the room.

"Help yourselves.  There is some sodas in the little fridge over there," the tall
vixen pointed to the small 14. cu ft. dorm fridge that doubled as a lamp table at the
corner of the room.  As Laretta and Vixina got up and walked over to the snack platters,
the sound of a very loud motorcycle could be heard comming through the woods, up the road
that led to the lodge.  "Sounds like Cindy’s here.  I’ll go out front to meet her.  I’ll
be back in a bit," Cassie said as she started out toward the front door.  "Okay,Cass.
Any word on when Rachel and Alex are coming?" Laretta asked the departing Cassie.  "As far
as I know, there coming up from NYC together in Rachel's new car," Cassie replied.
"Rachel has a cah?  Ah din' know she could evin drahve!" Vixna remarked.  Rachel snickered
as she dipped a celery stalk into some of the dip.

Cassie walked out of the front door just in time to see a black Harley Sportser come
roaring up the driveway.  On the bike was a snowleopard dressed in black leather from head
to toe.  Cindy had on a black leather vest over a black Harley t-shirt and black
leather pants, whose inseam came just over her biker boots.  The vixen noticed that
Cindy’s long white hair flowed out from under her black skull cap helmet, like waves of
water.  With a loud *rumm* Cindy stopped her bike in front of Cassie’s front step.  Cindy
shut off the bike and kicked down the stand before removing her helmet and the black
oval suglasses she had on since the Harley didn’t have a windscreen.
                                                                                                                                                                               "Heya, Cass.  Long time no see, huh?" Cindy said.  Cassie then gave Cindy a hug before
asking, "How long have you been out of treatment?"  "4 months, and I feel Great!" the
snow lepoard smiled as she looked Cassie in the face.  "Thanks for all you did for me and
for giving me a second chance," Cindy said.  "No problem, Cind.  What are friends for,
anyway?  How long have you had the bike?" Cassie said as she turned to admire the Harley.
"I bought it about two months ago.  Riding it has been a big help for me.  Don't even
think about booze now," Cindy replied as she stroked the Harley's gas tank.

Just then, the sound of a car could be heard coming up the road.  "Who's that?" Cindy
asked.  "I think it's Rachel and Alex. Rachel just got a new vehicle herself."  The car
that pulled up may have been new to Rachel, but it was far from a "new" car. In fact, it
the car was a vintage 1958 Chrysler New Yorker convertible, painted dark blue with white
side moldings.  The Chrysler was obviously restored, since it looked like it came off
the showroom floor.  Cindy came over to look at the huge convertible and remarked
"Rachel, when you buy a car, you really go all out!"  "Of course" The deer femme, still
dressed in her gothic attire,although she had a black head scarf on.

"When you buy a car,you should get something that you like.  I have alawys loved these
vintage Chryslers with the big fins in back.  Now that I have money, who cares about
gas mileage?"  "Plus,this car looks sooo cool!" Alex said as she opened the passenger door
and came around the front of the huge vehicle. Alex had on her snowflake pendant, but she
had on a white flowered sundress and Nike sneakers on her human-like feet.  "You should
have seen all the looks we got coming up here!" Alex began to say excitedly.  "When we
stopped at a stoplight, some guy took our picture.  We had a lot of old humans come over
too us at a dairy Queen in CT marvelling the car.  They wanted to know if Rachel and I
could be in their Fourth of July parade next week!"

"I told them we would take a rain check," Rachel began dryly.  "What's all this about
Cass?  Why are we all here?"  "Come on in, everbody.  Laretta and Vixina are already
inside.  We just have to wait for Foxonian and Andy to come back from town and then you
will know what's going on," Cassie said as she turned to head back into the lodge.
Withtin the hour, Foxonian, Cassie's tall human lover and Andy, the wolf morph manager
of Cassie's band, entered the large open living space of the lodge, carring some
documents.  "Glad you guys could arrive on such short notice," Foxonian began, "But, I'm
afraid that we have a few problems.  Andy?"

"Our record company has been sold.  As such,the contract we had with our old label is
now being re-negotiated.  This new label I'm sure you have heard of : "Street-Jam"  "Oh,
not them!" Cindy began, in a loud voice.  "They are a hip-hop rap metal outfit!  They
don't like the kind of Metal we play!"  "We know,they have told us that they are not
interesed in Cassie's band," Foxonian replied.  "Once we found out about the
takeover, Foxonian and I began shopping the band around to other labels," Andy said.
"Unfortunetly, traditional Progessive Metal music isn't what's in right now, at least in
their thinking."  "But we sell out all our shows.  Our fanbase buys all our albums, that
must count for something with them" Rachell said.

Andy sighed as he replied " Not as much as it used to.You see,these mega corporations are
only interested in future sales.  If we had added more of the younger crowd to our fanbase,
we could have made a difference.  But, Rap Metal is all the rage now. Bands like
"Furrgotten" and "Power-Morph" bring in the mege-bucks.  That and pop singers like
Lisa Rhodes."  "Lisa Rhodes is only 14!" Laretta said.  "We have come up with three
choices" Foxonian began, "The first is to try to get one of the major European labels to
sign us.  Several have said they are interested, but they don't have the distribution
capacity that our old label did.  Also, our exposure in the US will be very low, since
these labels distribute mainly overseas.

The other choice is to start our own label.  This will take just about all the band's
profits to get going, plus we would have to "cut a deal" with some company that would
handle distrubution."  "What's the last chioce?"  Cindy asked.  "The last option is to
just tour and forget about making any more albums." Andy said.  Cassie then stood up
and walked over to where her human lover was standing, and faced the group.  "That's why I
had Andy and Foxonian contact all of you.  This isn't just my decision.  It concerns the
rest of you as well.  Now, I don't care what you ant to do, vote or just say what you
think, but I will abide by what the majority wants."
                                                                                                                                                                                                              After a few momemnts of silence, Cindy spoke.  "If it's all the same to you guys, I think
we should get that Euro album deal.  I have seen too many bands try to start their own
labels with lousy results and not having any thing, is suicide."  "I agree with Cindy.
We should try the Europe deal!" Rachel said.  "Same here," Alex said.  "Whay not?  Ah'm
for it!" Vixina chimmed in.  "Me too," Laretta replied.  Cassie smiled to the group
before saying "You guys amaze me! That's just how I voted."   Turning to Andy and
Foxonian, the tall furry-morph vixen said "Well, you heard the vote.  Guess we go for
another deal"  "I'll get on the phone with the German label "Zetag".  I heard that they
have also signed Metal Morph, so we should have luck with them.  Thanks for you time
guys!"  "No problem.  So we gonna have a party or what?"  Alex said with a smile.  "You
bet!" Cassie said with Laugh!

THE END